"She is not here and has not been here," she interrupted. "And if they find you----"
Not a thought for Althea. Everything for herself. "Listen, please, and then do what I tell you. I want to tell her that her father is lying ill in a farm-house, and that she must go at once to see to him and bring him back to the city. As she has been taken away, you must go and care for him;" and I told her where and how to find the Baron.
But she burst into vehement protests. "Why should I go? It is Althea's matter. He is not my father. He has never done anything for me. Why then should I run this risk? Where could I take him?"
In disgust at this incessant note of self, I resumed my seat and said curtly: "I will wait here while you settle that."
"You wish to ruin me!" she cried again.
"No. I am only warning you. If some one does not go to him and take care that he is placed in safety, he will do some mad thing and then you will be ruined."
"But what can I do? He would not come with me. Oh, you are cruel. You know how helpless I am. No one thinks of me. Althea should be here."
"You can go out and stay with him, paying the people there to look after him until I can arrange something else."
"Stay with him! Are you mad? My concert! My practising! Herr Grumpel!"
"There will be no concert for you if he breaks loose. There will be a prison instead for you as well as for the rest of us."