"Threlka!" I heard her call, half chokingly. The old servant came hurriedly.
"Wine, tea, anything, Threlka!" She dropped down again opposite me, panting, and looking at me with wide eyes.
"Tell me, do you know what you have said?" she began.
"No, Madam. I grieve if I have caused you any pain."
"Well, then, you are noble; when look, what pain I have caused you! Yet not more than myself. No, not so much. I hope not so much!"
Truly there is thought which passes from mind to mind. Suddenly the thing in her mind sped across to mine. I looked at her suddenly, in my eyes also, perhaps, the horror which I felt.
"It was you!" I exclaimed. "It was you! Ah, now I begin to understand! How could you? You parted us! You parted me from Elisabeth!"
"Yes," she said regretfully, "I did it It was my fault."
I rose and drew apart from her, unable to speak. She went on.
"But I was not then as I am now. See, I was embittered, reckless, desperate. I was only beginning to think—I only wanted time. I did not really mean to do all this. I only thought—Why, I had not yet known you a day nor her an hour. 'Twas all no more than half a jest"