“On the contrary it is everything to me,” I returned firmly. “You know that as well as I.”
“I will not know it; I will not have it so.”
“We shall see. What are you proposing to do?”
She looked as if about to make some sharp reply, but with one of her swift changes, she smiled.
“Do you really wish to render me a service, monsieur?”
“I hope to render you many.”
“Then go back to the Palace—to those who sent you to me—and tell them you have failed in your honourable and secret mission. Tell them of me.”
“Thank you, but that is not the kind of service I was expecting you to ask, and I shall not do it.”
“There is no other that I care to ask, then.”
“Why do you wish me to go?”