"I should have broken that and asked the first gendarme in the Ringstrasse to take me home. You admit that the plan would have been feasible?"
He shrugged.
"The Countess Strahni's word of honor——"
"Honor is as honor does and I am here, Captain Goritz."
"I trust that you will have no reason to regret your decision."
"That sounds like another threat."
"It isn't. I actually mean what I say. A secret agent doesn't permit himself such a luxury very often," he laughed.
"Then you're not going to murder me offhand——"
"Countess, I protest——"
"You wish my last moments to be graced with courtesy. I shall at least die like a rose—in aromatic pain."