"I have heard something, but would rather hear it all from you. It was good news, I believe—but it was sure to be, you are so zealous in my cause," she said. "Tell me everything."
I told her and she listened, deeply interested, her eyes watching my face as I spoke. At the close she smiled and said:
"One would think from your telling, Count, that you had been merely a bystander instead of the prime mover in it all."
"Captain Zoiloff did more than I, for it was he who detected the miscreant. The rest was simple enough."
"Then should I keep my feelings and words of thanks for him, and think of you as one who serves me, as it were, by routine."
"We are all devoted to your service, Princess," I said.
"No one more faithful than the others?"
"None less faithful than myself, I hope."
"I like that standard. Pray Heaven that you are right, for then I am a lucky woman indeed;" and her eyes shone with a light that was like to dazzle me.
"You will be on your guard this afternoon with the Countess Bokara," said I, after a pause I found embarrassing.
"I am always on my guard—except, I think, with you," she added, musingly.
"I mean, you will not let her approach too close to you. I know her to be a dangerous woman, capable of any madness."
"You will be there," she said, with an accent of trust in me which I read with delight.
"But still she must not come too near you. Infinite mischief might be wrought in a single unguarded moment."
