“I hold out to you the prospect of an amour with a beautiful and charming woman, to be followed by a free gift of three hundred thousand roubles, and you refuse!”
“Repeat your infamous offer, and I’ll—yes, by heaven! I’ll fling you over the rails of this balcony!”
Unconsciously Baranoff backed a little from the table, for Wilfrid looked quite capable of putting his threat into execution.
There was a brief silence. Then Baranoff spoke.
“So you will visit St. Petersburg and put the lady on her guard,” sneered he, mightily pleased that he had withheld her name. “I fear that if you seek to enter Russia at this present juncture you will be taken for a spy of Pitt’s. As minister of the Czar it would be my duty to order your arrest.”
“Oh, indeed! Do you really entertain the hope of returning to Russia?”
“What is to prevent me?”
“Myself.”
“You!” exclaimed Baranoff disdainfully.
Wilfrid laughed pleasantly.