I perceived that I was dealing with a man of no ordinary penetration and shrewdness. With such men it is always best to come straight to the point and to be frank.
‘And now, sir, for the real object of my visit. I need not tell your Highness that I did not come to Geneva to oblige Colonel Masileff.’
‘That is already quite clear,’ the Prince commented drily.
A remark from which I inferred that it was in the power of Masileff to have given me credentials which would have secured me a very different reception.
‘I have come here, then, to beg for the life of a woman.’
Karageorgevitch started slightly, and began for the first time to look uneasy.
‘I thought you said you had no important message,’ he reminded me.
‘I have none. The woman I speak of is totally ignorant of the step I take in coming here.’
‘Then your interest in the matter is——?’
‘Is personal merely. I make it my private prayer to your Highness that, in a certain event which no longer seems improbable, the life of this woman shall be spared.’