The other gave a shiver of repugnance.
“Disgusting, I should call it, now—I did it in the frenzy to be free. I shall never forget the horrible thing.”
“Nor will he—you’ve marked him for life—the pity is it wasn’t his face.—Go on; what happened then?”...
“The nasty brute,” said Dehra, when she had heard the last detail—“and save for the punishment you yourself administered, he, for the time, must go scatheless; you cannot permit such a story to go through the Court and the Clubs; and you may be quite sure he won’t tell it.” She struck her hands together vehemently. “Lotzen! oh Lotzen!—Some day, Elise, your lover or mine is going to be granted the blessed privilege of putting a sword through his vile heart.” She sprang up. “Come, dear, you need diversion—we will ride; and if I can get the Archduke, we’ll take your Colonel, too.” She went to the telephone.... “Is that you, Armand?”—when the recall bell rang.... “This is Dehra—Elise and I are off for a ride; if you can go with us, I’ll have Moore go, too.... Bother your important appointment; break it.... You can’t?... We can be back by four o’clock.... Have matters to see to; will they occupy all the afternoon?... They will?... And you need Moore, also?—all right, take him—what is your appointment?... Can’t tell me over telephone?... Tell me to-night—well, I suppose I can wait—come for dinner.... Yes, stupid.... Good-bye, dear.”
She hung up the receiver. “You heard, Elise; neither of them can go. I should hate to be a man and always busy. Come, we will go ourselves, and make an afternoon of it—and stop at the Twisted Pines for tea.”
XIV
AN ENTICING RENDEZVOUS
The failure of Colonel Moore to keep promptly his appointment with Mlle. d’Essoldé to meet her that morning in the japonica walk was due to a letter that had come to him in the early post, and which had sent him, without a moment’s delay, straight to Dornlitz and Headquarters; nor did he even stop to telephone the Archduke, but left it for one of the young officers in the outer office to do.
The Military Governor received him at once, and with a look of questioning concern.
“Anything wrong at the Palace?” he asked.
“Nothing, Your Highness,” said Moore, with his graceful salute—so unlike Bernheim’s stiff motion—“nothing; I brought this letter; it is for you, though sent to me.”