“‘Registered parcel wings mailed Nice this morning okrim,’” he read. “What does that mean?”
“It is from Mirko, Jeneski’s minister,” she said, her whole body quivering, “and it means that Jeneski started for Nice this morning by airplane.” Then, looking past him, she saw the open door. “You fool!” she began....
But Selden was safely around the turn in the corridor before the door slammed.
CHAPTER XVII
A PROMISE
SELDEN left the hotel and made his way down to the terrace. He felt that he had need to collect his thoughts, to arrange his ideas. He walked up and down for a minute or two until the blood stopped pounding in his temples, then sat down on a bench and started to reason it out.
So the countess was in a plot against Jeneski—well, that was nothing new; she had been on Lappo’s side avowedly from the first. And that one of Jeneski’s ministers should have been corrupted was easy enough to understand. But the bearing of the countess as she read that telegram—her emotion, her fierceness, her passion—had torn a veil from Selden’s eyes. She was not in this because of friendship for Lappo, nor because she loved her country—she herself had said it, “For a woman, that is not enough!”—but for some personal reason, deep, compelling, malignant. She hated Jeneski.
But where did Halsey come in? What did he mean when he said, “I agree”? Agree to what? Something he had held out against—something the countess had driven him to. Perhaps it was only to what Selden himself had suggested—to forego the chance for a sensation. His air had been tragic—but that would be a tragedy for Halsey—like cutting off his right hand.
And his reward? Selden shrugged his shoulders. It was nothing to him what reward the countess might choose to bestow. He cared not at all how many men entered her rooms, nor how long they remained.
Poor old Halsey! He was surely running his head into a noose! She was sure of him now—she had left her door open, knowing that he would follow! She had even made him swear! Heavens, what a fool!
And then a sudden thought stung Selden to his feet. Was Halsey the only fool?