She heard his breath come fast between his teeth, and she realized his state of excitement.
“Mademoiselle Louise,” he said, “my love for you has made me a laughing-stock in the clubs of Vienna. I—the poverty-stricken, who have nothing but a noble name, nothing to offer you—have dared to show others what I think, have dared to place you in my heart above all the women on earth.”
“It is very nice of you,” she murmured. “Why do you tell me this now?”
“Why, indeed?” he answered. “What have I to hope for?”
She looked along the deck. Not a dozen yards away, two cigar ends burned red through the gloom. She knew very well that those cigar ends belonged to Streuss and his friend. She laughed softly and once more she bent her head.
“How they watch you, those men!” she said. “Listen, my friend Rudolph. Supposing their fears were true, supposing I were really a spy, supposing I offered you wealth and with it whatever else you might claim from me, for the secret which you carry to England!”
“How do you know that I am carrying a secret?” he asked hoarsely.
She laughed.
“My friend,” she said, “with your two absurd companions shadowing you all the time and glowering at me, how could one possibly doubt it? The Baron Streuss is, I believe, the Chief of your Secret Service Department, is he not? To me he seems the most obvious policeman I ever saw dressed as a gentleman.”
“You don’t mean it!” he muttered. “You can’t mean what you said just now!”