"Stay, if you please," I interposed, "before you tell me any more of your news. Understand, I am not, and will not, be a party to any of your schemes. I have no wish to be in any degree in your confidence."
I guessed that the purport of his news was that some sort of interference from Berlin was threatened, and I had the strongest reasons for keeping clear of any complications whatever in that direction.
"I don't think I quite understand you," he said sharply.
"I mean that up to this point you have been working against the Countess Minna and myself and I against you. So far I have outwitted you, and you are taking the present step of freeing the countess because you can't help yourself, not in any spirit of co-operation with me, but under pressure from me, and because, if you don't do it, you know that your whole plan will be spoiled. We are still opponents, and I decline to be associated with you and your colleagues, and I retain complete freedom of action and entire liberty to explain exactly the circumstances under which this new development has taken place."
"You mean that you have threatened to murder the rightful heir to the Bavarian throne," he said, harshly and angrily.
"That I have taken less shameful steps in regard to one of the heirs than you took in regard to the other. Precisely," I retorted.
"If you will not act with us, there must be an end of things, then."
"Yes, if you mean that I must act with you, I will have no hand in your plot."
"You make needless difficulties."
"On the contrary, I make no difficulties. I refuse only to be drawn into your plot, or to be considered as one of you."