When I learned the truth--how I had been cheated out of being
something else--how I was the exact opposite of what you had wanted me
to be and believed me to be--I felt about it almost exactly as you
feel about it. I--I made up my mind to clear up at once all the wrong
I was responsible for--and then disappear in such a way that you'd
never have your dream of me spoiled. And so--and so this afternoon,
after I left Cedar Crest, I confessed the whole truth to Dick
Sherwood--about our plan to cheat him. And like the really splendid
fellow he is, Dick Sherwood offered to help me set straight the things
I wanted to set straight. Particularly to clear Larry Brainard. And so
my being here as you find me is part of a plan between Dick Sherwood
and myself. It's really a frame-up. A frame-up to catch Barney Palmer
and Jimmie Carlisle."
"A frame-up!" ejaculated these two in startled unison.
"How a frame-up?" demanded her father, no bit of the accusing
harshness gone out of his voice.
"Our plan against Dick Sherwood was to have him propose to me, then
for me to confess that I was really married to a mean sort of man I
didn't love--the idea being that Dick would be infatuated enough to
pay a big sum to a dummy husband, and the three of us would disappear
as soon as we got Dick's money.
Pages:
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397