Ah, the long minutes!
Then a voice at her side said, almost harshly:
“You wish to speak to me, madame!”
She looked up and straight into his eyes; their blackness was so cool and hard that some women’s courage would have been daunted; but the courage of Rosina was a mighty one that rose with all opposing difficulties.
“Why are you not en route to Leipsic?” she asked.
“Why are you not in Constance?” he retorted.
“Sit down,” she said, “and I will tell you.”
“I do not wish to take the place of your friend,” he answered, with a stab of sharpest contempt.
“I think that he will not return for a little.”
Von Ibn remained standing, in the attitude of one detained against his inclination. She could not but resent the attitude, but she felt that her need of the moment required the swallowing of all resentment, and she did so. She was not able to raise her eyes to his a second time, but fixed them instead upon her card, and began in a low tone: