He looked at me and smiled grimly.
“Good. A little open antagonism to me is your shrewdest course. I understand you. You are what I thought—a very clever young man. And you can assure everyone that you are not pledged to me—openly. I understand you, I say.”
“As a well-known judge of men your opinion is flattering, General,” I answered ambiguously.
His smile broadened.
“Very non-committal, as usual. And yet——” And here his smile vanished, and his eyes took an expression of deep penetration. “Be careful that your cleverness and ambition don’t carry you too far. If that time should come and I have to act, remember that I warned you. I know what you are doing, and am watching you carefully.” Then in a lighter tone he added: “I am glad to hear such good accounts of your military work, and glad, too, that I have not to compel you to leave a country that has such sore need of the valuable services which a man like you can render it.”
And with a salute he passed on, leaving me to digest the irony and hidden meaning of his last words. I rode on thoughtfully to my house. The impression he left on my mind was perhaps just such as he had designed—that the attempt to trick him was indeed like playing with fire on the top of a powder magazine. And I was profoundly uneasy as I thought of what that might mean to the woman whose safety and success were now infinitely more to me than my own.
At my house a surprise was in store for me. A carriage was at the door, and the servants told me that a lady was awaiting me.
I went to the room at once and found the Countess Bokara. She rose with a smile as she held out her hand.
“You look magnificent in your regimentals, Count. And I suppose you have been too busy with your new duties and new friends to think it worth while to see me. And you don’t seem over-pleased that I am here now,” she added, for my face clouded at the sight of her. She was a bird of ill-omen, as I knew.
“What is your object in honouring me with this informal visit?”