“What is that business, as you call it?”
“My own concern,” I retorted as sharply as I could rap out the words. It was as clear as daylight that I had touched him with my threat, or he would never continue to question me. I was winning.
“What does your Government want?” he asked, after a pause to recover from his chagrin at my former replies.
“How should I know—except to have their subjects left unmolested?” I was determined to rub this in, and I could see he relished this last rub no better than the first.
“If you refuse to answer my questions you leave me but one alternative,” he threatened.
“Take it,” I answered lightly. “You take it, of course, with your eyes open.”
“You have been engaged in a conspiracy against the Russian influence?”
“I have been engaged in that conspiracy carried on In the Name of a Woman, if that’s what you mean. And, as you are perfectly aware, with not only your consent, but approval and encouragement.”
“You have been working secretly for another object,” he cried angrily.
“Are you accusing the Princess Christina of treachery?”