“I am sure of one thing—you will not keep me here. Let me give you my reasons.” There was again a sudden but complete change in her manner, as she spoke in a calm, collected tone. I distrusted her every mood, this calmness as much as any.
“I can’t stay to listen. I wish you merely to understand that it will avail you nothing to beat against the bars of your cage.” As I spoke I turned to leave, and with a quick rush, while my eyes were off her, she was at the door as soon as I. I put my hand to it to prevent her opening it, and to my chagrin she locked the door herself and put the key in her pocket.
“I have that to say to you which cannot wait even to suit the woman you love. If I must stay here, so shall you;” and she walked to the other side of the room and threw herself into a low chair, from which she looked at me defiantly.
This manœuvre perplexed me vastly. I was all unwilling to remain, and yet I could not leave now without either a struggle to get possession of the key or by summoning assistance to have the door broken in. I cursed myself for my folly in having allowed the key to remain on the inside, although I could not have foreseen this dilemma.
What was her object? Had she any beyond the desire to keep me in the room while she loaded me with her invective and reproaches? What had been the thought which had struck her, and which had seemed to lead to her sudden assumption of calmness?
“Do you think it strange that I should wish for your company, Count?” she asked in a voice soft and gentle enough to have been the medium of a love message. “For all your ungentle treatment of me and for what I deem your faithlessness, I can find it in me to admire you. I have said some bitter things to you, I know. Forget them. Take them for the ravings only of a violent woman—or better, the revilings of a disappointed one. It is no light disappointment to lose such a man as you.” Her tone was one of subtle witchery, tinctured with a sadness that might have sprung from a genuine regret. But I knew her; and all the time she was speaking with this cat-like softness I was racking my brains for the reason of her action.
“If you don’t give me that key, I shall summon help and have the door beaten in,” I answered. “I am in no mood for any theatrical display.”
“I will make a bargain with you. To summon your servants and have to admit to them that you have been locked in by your own prisoner will make you very ridiculous. The strong, clever leader of this great movement caged by a woman! But I will not banter you, and will not make you even ridiculous. Listen to my reasons and you shall have the key. Refuse to listen, and do what you please. You shall not have it from me if I die in defending it. It will be quicker to listen.”
“State them quickly. I will give you three minutes,” I said, reflecting that what she said was true, and as blind as a fool of a bat to her real intent.
“I will put them very shortly,” she answered, speaking in a slow, deliberate tone, altogether foreign to her usual habit. “You love the Princess and she loves you. You are angry with me because I have discovered your secret; but do you suppose that the Princess could endure that Bulgaria should think she decoyed me here that she might imprison me? That is what they would think first. But when the truth is known, as it must be some day, will her woman’s heart bear the reproach that she imprisoned me because I surprised her and your secret and told you of it? Is your love so guilty a thing that the bare mention of it is a reason for consigning me to a prison unheard and untried? Is that how a pure Princess can start her reign? Is the avowal of such a love so base an act that anyone a witness of it must be hurried to a gaol to silence her? Think you these are means by which she will conciliate her new people? Or, taking another reading, can you believe that the Bulgarian people will love a ruler whose ruthless instincts of tyranny are manifested even before she touches the steps of the throne, by dragging away a rival for a man’s love and thrusting her into an impromptu gaol because the regular prisons of the country are not available? No, I tell you; you dare not do this thing, and your Princess dare not lend herself to it.”