"Tell me exactly what it is that you require?" she demanded.
"Take me to Portel," he answered swiftly. "Inform him that you cannot any longer permit him the shelter of your roof."
She sat down and began to laugh, softly but in unnatural fashion.
Falkenberg watched her with grim curiosity.
"And then?" she inquired.
He hesitated.
"I have made some plans," he said slowly. "If he passes outside your doors to-night, he will write no more articles!"
"But the whole of the English Press is clamoring for his return to power! There will be no need for his pen—he will take up his old position."
"Precisely!" Falkenberg assented. "It is not my intention that he shall return to that position!"
Madame Christophor sat with her eyes fixed upon the wall. Then she began to laugh once more in the same strange manner. Falkenberg was curious.
"You find my intentions amusing?" he asked.