"My dear friend," she murmured, and tears came into her fascinating eyes.
Prilukoff guessed how her affairs stood, and came to the rescue, but she could not forget her antipathy to the lawyer. A new passion had arisen in her, however, a passion for money, and henceforth she meant never to feel the want of it again, even if she had to pretend to love Prilukoff.
They became inseparable, the Moscow lawyer and the beautiful adventuress who had broken so many hearts and her own life.
"What has become of Dr. Stahl?" Marie asked shortly after their reunion.
Prilukoff laughed carelessly.
"He shot himself through the heart the other day," he said, in a callous tone. "They sent for me, and he died with your name on his lips, Marie."
She was "Marie" now to the man she had christened "The Scorpion" when she was rich and at the height of her popularity.
Prilukoff, middle-aged and unromantic-looking, was fiercely in love with the countess. At all their previous meetings he had been thrust into the background by the clever, handsome young men who had worshipped at Marie Tarnowska's shrine, but now he had her to himself. Every day she accepted money from him. Her creditors having discovered her address, presented their bills with unveiled threats.
Prilukoff saved the situation each time. He paid out thousands of pounds, and Marie Tarnowska hated him the more she was indebted to him. Had he ill-treated her she might have showered kisses on his feet, but he was recklessly generous, and she despised and hated him. She was that sort of woman.
It was necessary, of course, that they should move about, for it would have damaged Prilukoff's reputation as a sound family lawyer whom elderly ladies could trust with their investments if it was known that he was supplying a notorious woman with funds.