I had looked for any treatment rather than that; and felt more than a little riled and aggrieved. It was no harmless picnic, this jaunt of mine to Berlin; and I thought she might have taken that into consideration.
But there was more than mere pique involved. If she meant to keep up this attitude, how was I to come to any understanding with her?
I might as well go back to my flying—if that were possible. Itself a pretty stiff proposition, as Jimmy would have said.
CHAPTER V
ABOUT SPIES
Nessa's treatment of me both offended and distressed the Countess, and Rosa tried to draw her attention away from it by engaging her in a discussion about the afternoon's arrangements. It appeared that the Countess always spent an hour or two on that particular day with a very old friend, an invalid; Rosa herself had an engagement; Hans had to attend some lecture or other in connection with his military studies; and Nessa generally took Lottchen for a drive.
I would not hear of the arrangements being altered on my account, declaring that I should be glad of the opportunity to get some decent clothes.
"Then there will be an empty house," declared Rosa as we rose from the table.
There were two servants—an elderly woman, named Gretchen, and Marie, a younger one—in the room during the discussion; an important fact in the light of after events.