CHAPTER XIX
VON FELSEN GAINS HIS END
I entered the room just when matters had reached the crisis. Althea, very pale and troubled, was sitting near the window and von Felsen stood over her dictating his terms. He had wrought upon her fears until she was on the point of yielding.
He resented my interference, therefore, fearing lest I should cause her to change her mind, and he turned on me angrily. "There is no need for you to come here, Herr Bastable. You can do no good."
"I could not keep away. So much depends upon Fräulein Althea's decision that I must know it at once." I spoke like one distracted with doubt.
A gloating, boastful, confident smile, for which I could have kicked him, was his reply.
Althea shuddered at it and then turned to me. "What else can I do, Mr. Bastable?"
I flung up my hands and sighed distractedly. "This cannot be necessary. Herr von Felsen must give us a little time in which to think. I have still influence, and I must go and see what I can do."
"If you leave the house it will be to go straight to prison," he declared with a sneer.
Althea winced again at this. "You see, I must do it."