"I differ from you, and demand an explanation at once—or I shall draw my own conclusions."
"That is at your discretion. You have taken a course throughout this which makes you largely responsible for the result."
"Do you insinuate that we are in any way responsible for spiriting away the countess?" he asked hotly.
"I must decline to discuss this with you in your present frame of mind and temper. Your manner to me is an insinuation and an insult."
"You will have to discuss it all the same, or I will publicly insult you here, in the presence of the whole room."
The hot-headed fool was likely to spoil everything.
"That must also be as your indiscretion prompts you," I returned sharply. "If you think you will serve the interests of my family by wrangling here, and causing me to run you through the body afterward, take your own course. But you will do far better to keep a sharp watch on the man who has apparently been duping you—I mean Baron Heckscher—and try to thwart the deep scheme he has laid."
"I believe you to be a traitor; to have worked openly for the Countess Minna, and secretly to have intrigued against her; and that you have kept her out of the way purposely in the interests of the Ostenburg family. You are a spy; nothing better."
"And you are a foolish little man, whose sight is as short as your temper, and whose wits are as dull as your silly suspicions are keen. You are the dupe of the Baron Heckscher."
"You shall answer to me for this—or at least you should, if you were worthy of consideration."