Romaine?'
'If you are sure you will not want it,' answered Romaine.
'I am far from sure of that,' cried I. 'In the first place, as a
philosopher. This is the first time I have been at the head of a
large sum, and it is conceivable--who knows himself?--that I may
make it fly. In the second place, as a fugitive. Who knows what I
may need? The whole of it may be inadequate. But I can always
write for more.'
'You do not understand,' he replied. 'I break off all
communication with you here and now. You must give me a power of
attorney ere you start to-night, and then be done with me
trenchantly until better days.'
I believe I offered some objection.
'Think a little for once of me!' said Romaine. 'I must not have
seen you before to-night. To-night we are to have had our only
interview, and you are to have given me the power; and to-night I
am to have lost sight of you again--I know not whither, you were
upon business, it was none of my affairs to question you! And
this, you are to remark, in the interests of your own safety much
more than mine.'
'I am not even to write to you?' I said, a little bewildered.
'I believe I am cutting the last strand that connects you with
common sense,' he replied. 'But that is the plain English of it.
You are not even to write; and if you did, I would not answer.
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