"Then you are really going to leave us to-night?" said she; "I am very sorry."
So was I. Indeed, the thought of leaving her—probably for ever—would have been bitter enough in any case, but to leave her alone with Tiel was maddening. It had troubled me greatly last night, yet the thought of remaining was one I did not really care to face.
"I fear I must," I replied, in a voice which must have revealed something of what I felt.
"Tiel told me you absolutely refused to listen to him when he wished you to remain."
"Oh no!" I cried. "That is putting it far too strongly. I offered to put the case to Commander Wiedermann, and then Tiel at once assumed I was going to leave him, and told me to say no more about it."
"Really! That is somewhat extraordinary!" she exclaimed in rather a low voice, as though she were much struck with this. She had been standing, and she sat as she spoke. I felt that she wished to go further into this matter, and I sat down again too.
"What is extraordinary about it?" I asked.
"Do you mean to say that Tiel didn't press you?"
"No," I said.
"Mr Belke," she said earnestly, "I know enough of the orders under which we are acting and the plans that Tiel has got to further, to be quite certain that you were intended to stay and assist him. It is most important."