He made no immediate reply, and suddenly his eyes again narrowed as they had done before, and their piercing glance rested upon Rosemary until she felt that through those heavy lids something inimical and poisonous had touched her. She felt a little shiver running down her spine, an unaccountable sense of apprehension caused her to glance rapidly toward the door, where she hoped to perceive Jasper's comforting presence. She was not afraid, of course, nor did she regret her enthusiasm, or her advocacy of the children's cause; but she had the sudden, vague feeling that she had come to the brink of an abyss and that she was staring down into unknown depths, into which unseen forces were urging her to leap.
Slowly Naniescu's eyes reopened and the mellow expression crept back into them; he gave a sigh of satisfaction, and settled himself down once more comfortably on the cushions of the chair.
"I am happy indeed, dear lady," he began, "that you yourself should have made an offer, which I hardly dared to place before you."
"An offer? What do you mean?"
"Surely that was your intention, was it not, to do something in return for the heavy sacrifice you are asking of me?"
"Sacrifice?" Rosemary queried, frowning. "What sacrifice?"
"Sacrifice of my convictions. Duty calls to me very insistently in the matter of those young traitors whom you, dear lady, are pleased to refer to as children. I know that I should be doing wrong in giving them the chance of doing more mischief. I know it," he reiterated emphatically, "with as much certainty as I do the fact that they will not give up trying to do mischief. But——"
He paused and fell to studying with obvious satisfaction Rosemary's beautiful, eager eyes fixed intently upon him.
"But what, Monsieur le Général?" she asked.
"But I am prepared to make the sacrifice of my convictions at your bidding, if you, on the other hand, will do the same at mine."