“Then what are you going to do, Baroness?”
“You shall know when it is to my interest to tell you.”
“You have no confidence in me?”
“Under what pretext should I have confidence in you? I know you only too well. You will serve me until the time comes when you find it more to your advantage to throw me over.”
“I!”
“You, Elias Lichtenbach; but that is all the same to me—I hold you now.”
“Do you hope to succeed?”
“I always hope to succeed. Look at me now, please.”
She threw back her head with a movement of voluptuous grace, which seemed to intensify her beauty a hundred-fold. She smiled, and her eyes and lips assumed an expression of passionate ardour, which sent a thrill through the veins of Lichtenbach. Who could resist this creature’s imperious power? She well knew the extent of her charm. At a sign from her men became changed into slaves. She was the magician who loosened human passions and appetites, and led lost creatures to folly, shame, and crime.
“Yes; you will succeed in whatever you undertake,” murmured Lichtenbach, fascinated by her charm.