At this brutal speech Katinka's hand shot into her pocket, but Leah did not move.
"A weapon?" she asked sneeringly; "that would be quite in keeping with your blatant nationality. Foreigners are so fond of the melodramatic."
The girl withdrew her hand quietly. "You are too poor a creature to kill, Lady James."
Leah smiled at the old title, and passed the remark with a contemptuous shrug.
"Later on, perhaps--who knows?"
"Who indeed? It is impossible to foresee what an hysterical lunatic will do. Do you propose to shoot or stab me, or to blow me up? I understand that bombs are favoured in your happy country."
The crude hostility of the speech was plainly intended to infuriate the Slav-woman, but it missed the mark aimed at. Katinka looked at the mocker gravely.
"How afraid you are!"
Leah shrugged again; the remark was too futile to be commented upon.
"Yes, you are," went on the other, a trifle roused; "else you would have me turned out by your servants."