"The General was very kind, and is so still."
Miss Krieff paused, and looked at him with keen and vigilant scrutiny.
"Would you be shocked," she asked at length, "if you were to hear that the General had an enemy?"
"That would altogether depend upon who the enemy might be."
"An enemy," continued Miss Krieff, with intense bitterness of tone--"in his own family?"
"That would be strange," said Gualtier; "but I can imagine an enemy with whom I would not be offended."
"What would you think," asked Miss Krieff, after another pause, during which her keen scrutinizing gaze was fixed on Gualtier, "if that enemy had for years been on the watch, and under a thin veil of good-nature had concealed the most vengeful feelings? What would you say if that enemy had grown so malignant that only one desire remained, and that was--to do some injury in some way to General Pomeroy?"
"You must tell me more," said Gualtier, "before I answer. I am fully capable of understanding all that hate may desire or accomplish. But has this enemy of whom you speak _done_ any thing? Has she found out any thing? Has she ever discovered any way in which her hate may be gratified?"
"You seem to take it for granted that his enemy is a woman!"
"Of course."