- pared for it. I drew my arm away and answered
coldly:
"I think, Madam, this interview has lasted long enough."
She started as if I had insulted her, and I looked for another passionate outbreak. But it did not come. Instead of that her expression underwent a complete change and she laughed.
"Poor fool!" she cried in a bantering tone. "Do you know where I shall go straight from here if you turn me away? Wait a moment and I will tell you." She paused, paying no heed to my gesture of anger. "In the name of a Woman, eh? This excellent house, this sumptuous display of wealth, this clever, shrewd Englishman, with his hatred of plots, this attractive idea of a gymnasium club—what does it all mean?" And she leered at me with a look infinitely cunning.
I kept my face quite impassive as I met her eyes.
"Would you like to tell me the inner secret, or shall I tell you? I know—I know everything." She paused again, but I gave no sign; and then the rage began to return to her face, and her tone grew vehement again. "It is a lie—and a lie against the man whose eyes I can open with a word. You are working and plotting for the Princess, In the name of a Woman, are you not? And these Russian fools and dolts think you are working for them at the same time. But I know your real intent. To fool them up to the moment when you can throw off the disguise—to put this precious Princess on the throne, and then to snap your fingers in the face of the old dotard, Kolfort, and obey only the Princess. This marriage, on which he counts so much, is never to take place; but
