Chapter Seven
Ilsevel suffered a stab of mild remorse about deceiving poor Phineas. He meant well, and his determination to help her could not but touch her heart, even if she struggled to account for it. But he could have little idea how incapable he was of protecting her from anything that she might genuinely consider a threat. He was much more likely to fall into trouble himself, than to shield her from it, and she was beginning to like him. It would not do to get him cursed, or killed, or — worst of all — turned into something small and slimy, like a frog.
So she let him believe she was going back to the boarding house, and thence to sleep. But as soon as his dark, shabby figure had trodden away into the night and disappeared from sight, she altered her course and went somewhere else
