'Which Lady Maud?' asked the foreigner in his rather oily voice. 'There are several.'
'Countess Leven, who was Lady Maud Foxwell,' explained Mrs. Rushmore.
Kralinsky turned quietly to her, his single eyeglass fixed and glittering.
'No,' he answered. 'I knew poor Leven well, but I was never introduced to his wife. I have heard that she is very beautiful.' [{349}]
'You say you knew the late Count Leven?' observed Mrs. Rushmore, with an encouraging and interrogatory smile.
'Intimately,' answered Kralinsky with perfect self-possession. 'We were in the same regiment in the Caucasus. I daresay you remember that he began life as a cavalry officer and then entered the diplomacy. Gifted man, very,' the Russian added in a thoughtful tone, 'but no balance! It seems to me that I have heard he did not treat his wife very well.'
"Their eyes met."
Mr. Van Torp had met several very cool characters in his interesting and profitable career, but he thought that if the man before him was Leven himself, as he seemed to be, he beat them all for calm effrontery.