"That is Mr. Norgate, is it not?"
"Yes," he replied. "I rang up to wish you good-by."
"Good-by! But you are going away, then?"
"I am sent away—dismissed!"
He heard her little exclamation of grief. Its complete genuineness broke down a little the wall of his anger.
"And it is my fault!" she exclaimed. "If only I could do anything! Will you wait—please wait? I will go to the Palace myself."
His expostulation was almost a shock to her.
"Baroness," he replied, "if I permitted your intervention, I could never hold my head up in Berlin again! In any case, I could not stay here. The first thing I should do would be to quarrel with that insufferable young cad who insulted us last night. I am afraid, at the first opportunity, I should tell—"
"Hush!" she interrupted. "Oh, please hush! You must not talk like this, even over the telephone. Cannot you understand that you are not in England?"
"I am beginning to realise," he answered gruffly, "what it means not to be in a free country. I am leaving by the three o'clock train, Baroness. Farewell!"