"Why do you not ask me outright _why_ I am here ?" "Well, then, I do! I do ask you that.

I ask you how you got access to that meeting to-night--for I doubt not you were there ?" She gazed at me deliberately again, parting her red lips, again smiling at me.

"What would you have given to have been there yourself ?" "All the treasures those vaults ever held." "So much?
What will you give me, then, to tell you what I know ?" "More than all that treasure, Madam.

A place--" "Ah! a 'place in the heart of a people!' I prefer a locality more restricted." "In my own heart, then; yes, of course!" She helped herself daintily to a portion of the white meat of the fowl.
"Yes," she went on, as though speaking to herself, "on the whole, I rather like him.

Yet what a fool! Ah, such a droll idiot!" "How so, Madam ?" I expostulated.