“I suppose it was in this way. You see you and I were together for some considerable time last night at the Palace; and as people had heard rumours of the reason for your presence in Belgrade—rumours connecting us, I mean; I suppose they put two and two together—at least they put us together, that is to say.”
“Captain Nikolitch puts the origin of the rumour down to you, Baroness.”
“I don’t think I object. American millionaires are very rare in Belgrade, and if people chose to think that I was engaged to one, was it likely that I should have so little of feminine vanity as to be displeased?”
I understood now the reason for Gatrina’s coldness, her marked estrangement during her visit, and the undermeaning of some of her words. She had heard this infernal story. Elma enjoyed my dismay; and I believe understood the cause of it.
“Do you mean that you actually gave countenance to such a thing?”
“Pray don’t look so painfully shocked, Mr. Bergwyn,” she mocked.
“You will place me in the extremely invidious position of having to deny the report, Baroness.”
Her laugh at this had all the ring of genuineness. “How will you do it, Mr. Bergwyn?” she asked, in renewed mockery of my earnestness. “Think. How can you do it? You and I know that it has no sort of foundation in fact; but how can we stop the tongue of gossip? Let us be sensible and just live it down. Other people’s names have been coupled together in the same way in mistake before now; but they have not been married in consequence. Nor shall we be, I suppose. But it is a delightful situation none the less, and just what I desired.”
“I remembered what you said last night,” I exclaimed, angrily.
“You had better laugh at it all than be angry.”