"It couldn't shake much more if you had done the thing yourself."
The cigarette dropped from his fingers. "I don't know what the devil you mean. If it's a joke it's a devilish poor one."
"I was only wondering if you could have been more upset if you had done it," I replied, fixing him again with a steady stare.
Whether he had any suspicion of what lay behind the words I do not know, or whether some sense of danger nerved him to make an effort; but his manner underwent a sudden change, and he became callous and cynical. "I suppose you writing fellows affect that sort of experiment. If you can bring yourself down to plain facts perhaps you will give me some account of the affair."
"I should have thought you would be anxious to get to Fräulein Ziegler at once in such a case."
He laughed very unpleasantly. "Not if you knew how that girl bores me."
"You don't mean that you won't go to her?"
"What has it got to do with you?" He was fast recovering his self-composure. Voice and manner were steadier, as the belief strengthened that no suspicion would attach to him.
For a moment I hesitated whether to strike the blow which would bring him to my feet, and my fingers went to the ring in my pocket. But I resolved to wait. "It has nothing to do with me," I answered; "but as you are going to marry her to-morrow, and this blow has come at such a moment, you can understand how she needs the strength of your support."
"You don't suppose there can be any marriage to-morrow, surely! Of course the old man's death has altered everything--made that impossible, I mean."