“The fight cannot come too soon,” he said, between his set teeth. “You have cast a black slander on an innocent lady, and by Heaven! you die for it.”
“Innocent! Am I to take the kisses and embraces of to-night as proofs of innocence?”
“Why should not the lady kiss me if she choose?”
The other drew a breath as of amazement, and for a few moments stared, as if he doubted whether there were not something wrong with Wilfrid’s mental calibre.
“You speak thus, knowing who the lady is?”
“Your pardon, I do not know who the lady is. I am under no obligation to offer explanations to you, sir, but thus much may be tendered, that I know the lady only by the name of Princess Marie—a name that conveys no meaning to me.”
Wilfrid did not ask the other to enlighten him in any way respecting the Princess; in his present haughty mood he would take no favours from him.
The Crusader looked at Wilfrid as if doubting his statement.
“Can this be true?” he muttered.
“It might not be, were I a Russian prince.”