And you can."
"I see," muttered Banneker thoughtfully.
"Where does Miss Van Arsdale live?" asked the reporter without the
smallest change of tone.
"What do you want to see Miss Van Arsdale for?" returned the other, his
instantly defensive manner betraying him to the newspaper man.
"You know as well as I do," smiled Gardner.
"Miss Van Arsdale has been ill. She's a good deal of a recluse. She
doesn't like to see people."
"Does her visitor share that eccentricity?"
Banneker made no reply.
"See here, Banneker," said the reporter earnestly; "I'd like to know why
you're against me in this thing."
"What thing?" fenced the agent.
"My search for Io Welland."
"Who is Io Welland, and what are you after her for?" asked Banneker
steadily.
"Apart from being the young lady that you've been escorting around the
local scenery," returned the imperturbable journalist, "she's the most
brilliant and interesting figure in the younger set of the Four Hundred.
She's a newspaper beauty. She's copy. She's news. And when she gets into
a railroad wreck and disappears from the world for weeks, and her
supposed fiance, the heir to a dukedom, makes an infernal ass of himself
over it all and practically gives himself away to the papers, she's big
news.
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