But Mrs. Rushmore saw it too, and as she considered him a lion, and therefore entitled to have his own way, she made it easy for him.
'My dear Count,' she said blandly, after passing Lady Maud twice, 'I have really had enough now, and if you will promise to finish your walk alone, I think I will go and sit with the others.'
He left her with Margaret and Van Torp and went back to Lady Maud, who moved as he came up to her, made two steps beside him, and then suddenly slipped into the recess where the fan-house joined the engine skylight. She stood still, and he instantly ranged himself beside her. They were quite out of sight of the others, and of the bridge, and even if it had been daylight they could not have been seen except by some one coming from aft.
'I want to speak to you,' she said, in a low, steady voice. 'Please listen quite quietly, for some of them may begin to walk again.'
Kralinsky bent his head twice, and then inclined it towards her, to hear better what she was going to say.
'It has pleased you to keep up this comedy for twenty-four hours,' she began.
He made a slight movement, which was natural under the circumstances.
'I do not understand,' he said, in his oily voice. 'What comedy? I really have no——'
'Don't go on,' she answered, interrupting him sharply. [{370}] 'Listen to what I am going to tell you, and then decide what you will do. I don't think your decision will make very much difference to me, but it will make a difference to the world and to yourself. I saw you from a window when you brought Mr. Van Torp to the hotel in Bayreuth, and I recognised you at once. Since this afternoon I have no doubt left.'
'I never saw you till last night,' said Kralinsky, with some little surprise in his tone, and with perfect assurance.