Curious that she could not remember the right number; looked as if she had only just gone there for this special business. "Shall we go there?" I asked.
She found the question unnecessarily embarrassing, hesitated and glanced at the child with a frown of perplexity. "I can't go home yet. I was just taking my little darling to some friends."
She was certainly not a good actress, or she would never have implied that it was more important to take the child to some friends than to have an explanation with the false lover discovered after long years. "When then?" I asked, concluding that the child had been borrowed for the show and was to be returned with thanks at once.
"Come there in an hour," she said after thinking. "You won't escape me again, for I know where to find you now," she added with a toss of the head.
"I shall not try. Here's my address;" and I scribbled it on a card. "I'll turn up all right. I'm only too interested in what you've said and wish to know all you can tell me about it. I'll do the right thing by you, Anna;" and I held out my hand.
She hesitated a second and then shook hands, her look showing that my words had impressed her favourably and also perplexed her.
I spent the interval in the Thiergarten thinking over the whole unpleasant incident: the probable effect upon those who had witnessed it, and the line to take in the coming interview.
It would serve one good turn at any rate. Von Gratzen would hear all about it from his wife and it ought to put an end to his suspicions. If the woman I had ruined could identify me as the result of a chance meeting, he could scarcely fail to regard it as a mighty strong corroboration of the Lassen theory.
Both Rosa and Nessa would of course know that the story, even if it were true, had nothing to do with me, and what the Countess herself thought didn't amount to anything. The main point was what would happen if the woman stuck to it and how far she was prepared to go. That would probably depend upon the inducements or pressure brought to bear by von Erstein; and judging the man, pressure was the more likely.
It would be easy enough to knock the bottom out of the scheme by bringing the police into it; her nervousness at the mention of them had shown that plainly. But that wouldn't suit me. The less the police had to meddle with my affairs, the better. No doubt an inquiry agent could soon get at the truth so far as the woman herself was concerned; and if she proved obdurate, that might be the best course. But obviously the quickest and best solution would be to get the woman herself to own up; and that must be the first line of attack.