“Let him come out,—let him come here,” cried he, in a loud voice.
A low murmur of persons speaking was heard within, and suddenly the rustling sound of a female dress was followed by the bang of a door; and then Norwood entered, and, closing the door, locked it behind him.
The grating sound of the key made the Russian turn his head suddenly around, and his eyes met Norwood's.
“What! my Lord Norwood!” cried he, in amazement. “They never told me—”
“If they had, in all likelihood I should not have been admitted,” was the stern reply.
“I must own it is an honor for which I was scarcely prepared, my Lord,” said the other.
“You never spoke more truly, sir,” said Norwood. “Men like yourself fancy that their solvency in matters of money implies as much in all the various relations of life, and that, as they know not what a dun means, they are to enjoy an equal immunity from every demand of honor.”
“As you are evidently speaking under some strange misapprehension, my Lord, I hesitate about accepting your words in any offensive sense.”
“You said you were unprepared for my visit, sir, and I believe you, as you will be, doubtless, unprepared for the object of it Prince Midchekoff, I have come here to request your company across the Tuscan frontier; the matter is of sufficient importance to warrant the inconvenience. You will take any or as many of your household as you please, but you shall accompany me from this spot Come, sir, your air of easy indifference is for once mistimed. You see before you a man whose utmost effort can scarcely repress the passion that stirs within him. Neither your coolness nor your cowardice—for the quality goes by either name—can avail you here. I must and I will have reparation.”
“Until I am aware of the injury,—until you tell me how or in what I have wronged you—”