Part 28 (2/2)
”--Recover Mr. Peters' scarab?”
”I did.”
”Then it's true?”
”It is.”
Ashe sc.r.a.ped the ground with a meditative toe.
”This,” he said, ”seems to me to complicate matters somewhat.”
”It complicates them abominably!”
”I suppose you were surprised when you found that I was on the same game as yourself.”
”Not in the least.”
”You weren't!”
”I knew it directly I saw the advertis.e.m.e.nt in the Morning Post.
And I hunted up the Morning Post directly you had told me that you had become Mr. Peters' valet.”
”You have known all along!”
”I have.”
Ashe regarded her admiringly.
”You're wonderful!”
”Because I saw through you?”
”Partly that; but chiefly because you had the pluck to undertake a thing like this.”
”You undertook it.”
”But I'm a man.”
”And I'm a woman. And my theory, Mr. Marson, is that a woman can do nearly everything better than a man. What a splendid test case this would make to settle the Votes-for-Women question once and for all! Here we are--you and I--a man and a woman, each trying for the same thing and each starting with equal chances. Suppose I beat you? How about the inferiority of women then?”
”I never said women were inferior.”
”You did with your eyes.”
”Besides, you're an exceptional woman.”
<script>