“I wish you could realize that I am indeed grieved for you. Your violence now shows——”
“To hell with your sympathy,” I said brutally. “It is all a lie, like the rest of you. Do what you please with me.”
He took the insult, as he did everything from me, unmoved, save for a shrug of the shoulders, and for a minute was silent.
“You cannot save this woman. Will you leave Russia?”
“Will you spare her if I do?”
He pretended to think for a space.
“No, I will not,” he said implacably. “She has sown the seed and must reap the crop. That is the law of intrigue such as hers. Moreover,” he added as he glanced at his watch, “it is probably already too late for me or you either to save her.”
“Have you no jot of humanity in you? Are you utterly cold, calculating and brutal? You could send her warning.”
“It is possible nothing may be done until to-night. But it is no part of my duty to warn a Nihilist who betrays her comrades.”
“Russian chivalry is a noble thing,” I sneered. “But, by God, remember this,” I added fiercely, leaning forward, “if harm comes to her, you shall pay for it with your life, if I come from the other side of the earth to take it.”