Demetrius stared, and gazed at her with unaffected amazement. "You mock me," he said faintly.
"No, I am in earnest. It is true that I am not free now. But," she looked at him steadily, "you can make me so."
"Murder," whispered Demetrius, looking up and down the long, empty, chill gallery, and not at the Eve who was tempting him.
Leah blazed out into genuine rage. "What do you mean?" she cried, stamping her foot. "Not a hair of Jim's head shall be harmed."
"Then how--how----?"
"Sit down and listen," she said, pointing to a chair. "I have a deeper feeling for you than you think. No; leave my hand alone. We are now talking business."
"Business," echoed Demetrius, blankly.
Lady Jim nodded composedly. "The pleasure can come later. You have no money, no title, no position----"
"I can make money," he explained rapidly; "and I can take up again my title of Prince, which I dropped when I became a doctor. As the wife of a Russian noble----"
"You will have to make your peace with the Czar to get these things."