'I am very cold,' returned the girl with a smile. 'I am quite willing to bring—Captain Rallywood. But where is he?'
'He is on guard in the Duke's ante-room.' She turned her head away.
'Then, Isolde, you know it is impossible! He cannot come!'
'Even if it costs my life?' said the Countess bitterly. 'Oh, how cheap you hold other people's lives, Valerie! You are a true Maäsaun!'
Valerie thought a moment. The request of Madame de Sagan fell in with her own plan. It would enable her to solve the doubt that was agonising her; yet if she found him safe, how could she lend herself to tempt him to his own dishonour? A cruel question rose within her. Should she put him to the supreme test of life and love—would she not rather know him dead in the cold river, than living and false to her dim ideal of him?
'There is no time to spare.' Isolde's voice broke in upon her. 'If you could make him know the danger I stand in, he must come! Remind him of his promise to me.'
'But if he will not come?' Valerie forced the words.
'Then ask him to give you the cigarette case of Maäsaun leather-work. That will remind him of many things. But he will come,' she ended more confidently.
Valerie rose.
'I am ready. I know the passages are watched. I saw no one, yet I felt the shadows were full of eyes. Lend me your sable cloak, Isolde; everyone will recognize that, and with this lace about my head, I shall be free to go where I please as the Countess Sagan.'