"You have told that to Madame?"
"No. She is nothing to me."
"You are very bitter."
"Again, no. You have only made me indifferent;" and as if I could bear no more, I hurried out of the room. I knew as well as if he had told me that the effect of my words would be to drive him to use the time of grace I had left him.
I did not wait to see Madame d'Artelle, but had my trunks placed in a fly and, taking Ernestine with me, drove to the depôt. She took my ticket for Paris, saw to the labelling of my luggage, settled me in my compartment, and waited me with until the train started. I wished the proof of my departure to be quite clear.
But on the Hungarian railways the trains do not run long distances without stopping; and at the first station I got out and returned to Pesth. I was back in my house with Gareth before one o'clock, and had already seen James Perry, who had returned, and arranged one of my next moves.
A wire was sent to Paris to a friend of his requesting that a telegram be despatched as from M. Constans, saying that he would be in Pesth that evening at nine o'clock, and would come straight to Madame d'Artelle's house.
That telegram was the weapon with which I intended to frighten Madame away from Pesth in order that I might take her place.
I had one more preparation to make. I wrote out orders dismissing the men servants at the house, "Unter den Linden," and signed them "Karl von Ostelen," taking great care over the signatures. These I gave to Perry together with money for any wages they might claim, and instructed him to drive with his son to the house after dusk.
I told him I should arrive there later in the evening in a carriage; and that if the men in charge of it attempted to stable the horses there, he was to say that the Count's orders were that they should not remain. After that he and his son were to be in the house: to say nothing about me to any women servants, and to act just as I directed.