She laughed her soft, sweet laugh. “Oh, no, he didn’t tell me—he has no idea that I know he has it; I saw it by accident——”
“How could you recognize the Book?” he interrupted; “only three people in the Kingdom have ever seen it.”
“By intuition, mainly; and by the secrecy with which the Duke handles it—let me describe it:—a very old book; leather-covered, brass-bound and brass-hinged; the pages, of parchment—those in front illumined in colors with queer letters, and, further on, more modern writing—it is the Book, isn’t it, Armand?”
“Or Lotzen has described it to you,” he answered.
She made a gesture of discouragement.
“You are hard to convince,” she said—“you will have to be shown—will you take the trouble?”
The Archduke smiled. “Now we come to the kernel,” he remarked; “the rest was only the shell. Quite candidly, madame, I’m not inclined to play the spy in Ferida Palace; there are easier deaths to die, though doubtless none that would be more sure.”
“You didn’t used to be so timid or careful, Armand,” she mocked; “there are no dangers other than those of my boudoir—and if you fear them you may send a substitute—even one of your friend Courtney’s secret agents.—For the last few nights the Duke has been going over this Book page by page; his apartments are across a small court from mine, and his private cabinet is directly in view from my boudoir. Send some one there this evening at eleven, and with my field glass he can see everything the Duke does, and every article on his desk. Surely, that should be enough to satisfy the most suspicious.”
“Rather too much,” said he; “it brings us back to the question of motive:—why should you, who have had so much of my dear cousin’s money, and have enjoyed his kind and courteous hospitality for so long, suddenly turn against him, and betray him?—for believe me, madame, I take no stock in your pretty story of requiting injury, and coming all the way from Paris to help me find the Book.”
“But, my dear Archduke, what matters my motive, if you recover the Book—besides, now you can send the police this instant and search the Palace and seize the Book, if it’s there, and they can find it—doesn’t that in itself attest my honesty?”