The woman flung up her hands and bolted, and I went in as if making an ordinary call.
Nessa had rushed into the conservatory to escape from von Erstein and came back as I entered, her face flushed and her eyes ablaze with furious indignation, while he, dumbfounded and looking as black as thunder, scowled at me viciously.
"This man has grossly insulted me, Herr Lassen!" she cried. "Taking advantage of the Countess's absence, he got me here on the pretence of a message to be given to her, and then—— Ugh! I can't speak it;" and she dropped into a chair and hid her face in her hands.
"I only took your advice, Lassen, and asked Miss Caldicott to marry me," he said sullenly. "And then she——"
"Did you advise that?" broke in Nessa, starting up excitedly.
That wasn't the moment to explain things, of course. Something had to be attended to first. I walked up to von Erstein with intentional deliberation, feeling a little thrill of joy at the fright in his eyes, put my hand on the collar of his coat, and led him towards the door. He was too abjectly scared to make more than the merest show of resistance.
"Have you anything more to say to him?" I asked Nessa, halting when we reached the door.
"No, no. Only send him away. Send him away," she exclaimed.
I took him out into the hall and then released him. "I'm going to thrash you, von Erstein. Two reasons. You made your spy here lock this door so that you could have that girl to yourself; and yesterday you said things which made me itch to thrash you then."
"I didn't mean——"