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Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley), 1865-1948

"Clementina"

I
must know."
"Why?"
Gaydon stood quite unmoved, and with a remarkable sternness of
expression. Wogan understood that only the truth would unlock his lips,
and he cried,--
"Because unless I do, in a fortnight her Highness will refuse to marry
the King." And he recounted to him the walk he had taken and the
conversation he had held with Clementina that morning. Gaydon listened
with an unfeigned surprise. The story put Wogan in quite a different
light, and moreover it was told with so much sincerity of voice and so
clear a simplicity of language, Gaydon could not doubt one syllable.
"I am afraid, my friend," said he, "my thoughts have done you some
wrong--"
"Leave me out of them," cried Wogan, impatiently. He had no notion and
no desire to hear what Gaydon meant. "Tell me from first to last what
you saw in Rome."
Gaydon told him thereupon of that secret passage from the Chevalier's
house into the back street, and of that promenade to the Princess's
house which he had spied upon. Wogan listened without any remark, and
yet without any attempt to quicken his informant.


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