Slowly she lowered her hands and gazed at him with eyes that though they looked, seemed to see not.
"You—you—! You care for me!" She dropped her hands to her sides, and then with a voice that sought steadiness in its contempt, "What object has the Fatherland to gain by this new hypocrisy, Herr Goritz?"
He stood stock still, making no effort to approach her.
"I think you do me some injustice," he said.
"Injustice!" she said coldly. "I do you injustice? I think you forget."
"If you will permit—it is only fair at least that you should listen. Even if what I say does not interest you."
She waved a hand in a gesture of deprecation—but he went on rapidly in spite of her protest, with an air of pride, which somehow robbed the confession of its sincerity.
"Your words have been cruel, Countess, but the cruelest were those in which you attribute the highest motive of my life to the baseness of hypocrisy. I have done many wrongs, broken many oaths, sinned many sins—in the interests of my country—the service of which has been the only aim of my existence. I have been entrusted by the Emperor himself with missions which would have tested the courage of any man, and I have not failed. That is my pride—the glory of my manhood, for the means of accomplishment no matter how unworthy, are unimportant compared with the great mission of the Germanic race in the betterment of humanity."
"I fail to see, Herr Hauptmann, how——"
He commanded her silence with an abrupt gesture.