“You must not be absurd,” she said, and stood up also, a faint trace of color in her cheeks. “Why should you remain here?”
“Because I care for your safety, that’s why! I promised your father that I would protect you and——”
She tossed her head back, and regarded him through half-closed lids.
“You may consider yourself released from that promise,” she said. “You owe no debt—do not trouble yourself on that score, because——”
“Katerin!” he cried, holding out his hands to her imploringly. “You know what I mean—you know that your father desired your safety! Then let us forget my promise, but——”
“You do not make your promises to keep them, is that it? Then you are not bound by anything, Peter——” She shrugged her shoulders and turned her face from him.
“Go on!” he commanded. “You were going to say ‘Peter Petrovitch.’ Why have you turned against me? Katerin, I love you, and even if you will let what has happened stand between us, I want to see that you escape——”
“You but want to keep your promise to my father, and you think only of what he may have desired about me!” she retorted with a show of anger, her face aflame. “You have no debt to a Kirsakoff, living or dead, in any way! Do I owe you anything? Perhaps I do, but I can pay you! What price, I ask? What price, Peter Petrovitch Gorekin?”
He stood dumfounded and gazed at her. She turned abruptly, and opened the top of a trunk which he had not seen before.
“What price?” she demanded.