“How?”
“Never mind how, I’m going to do it. What you have to do is to go and get some sleep. You can have three hours, and then you must be ready to start, and Madame Korvata must be ready too.”
“But I——”
“I’m not going to let you talk any more,” and I got up and opened the door.
She rose and laughed with a shrug of the shoulders.
“It’s a new sensation to be ordered in this way.”
“In three hours we shall start,” was my reply.
“My nerves are tingling with desire to rebel,” she said, as she came across the room slowly, and when she reached the door she stood and looked at me, smiling. “Do all you Americans make—make love in this way?”
“I’m the business man at present; the lover will come afterwards. You won’t mistake him when his turn comes.”
“Good-night, Monsieur—l’Empereur,” she cried, her look a challenge and her whole expression radiant.