[Simon Dale by Anthony Hope]@TWC D-Link bookSimon Dale CHAPTER XIV 9/31
You will call her your sister, if need arise to speak of her.
Go to the hostelry of the Merry Mariners in Deal, and there await a gentleman, who will come in the morning and hand you fifty guineas in gold.
Deliver the lady to this gentleman, return immediately to London, and lie in safe hiding till word reaches you from me." I read and turned to him in amazement. "Well," he asked, "isn't it plain enough ?" "The lady I can guess," I answered, "but I pray your Grace to tell me who is the gentleman." "What need is there for you to know? Do you think that more than one will seek you at the Merry Mariners Tavern and pray your acceptance of fifty guineas ?" "But I should like to know who this one is." "You'll know when you see him." "With respect to your Grace, this is not enough to tell me." "You can't be told more, sir." "Then I won't go." He frowned and beat his gloves on his thigh impatiently. "A gentleman, your Grace," said I, "must be trusted, or he cannot serve." He looked round the little cell and asked significantly, "Is your state such as to entitle you to make conditions ?" "Only if your Grace has need of services which I can give or refuse," I answered, bowing. His irritation suddenly vanished, or seemed to vanish.
He leant back in his chair and laughed. "Yet all the time," said he, "you've guessed the gentleman! Isn't it so? Come, Mr Dale, we understand one another.
This service, if all goes well, is simple.
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