He whirled about. “Countess Baronova!” he breathed.
She lightly crossed to him. “You are trying to find out about Borodin?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Then you were in earnest in what you said this morning—about being with us?”
“Yes.”
“I am proud—proud! To have won you to us—and so quickly!” she said softly, glowing upon him. And this marvellously clever actress told in her manner that the great infatuation for her which had led him to this action was returned.
He did not disillusion her; to have done so would have taken time and would have exposed Sonya. “I must hurry,” he said, turning to his work. “I may be interrupted any second.”
“And I will help you!” The next moment she, too, was fluttering through the records—and again she felt that peculiar tang of excitement, an excitement not quite like any she had experienced before in all her professional career.
She wondered if he had discovered what office the prince held. “Is there anything,” she asked, “that makes you think Prince Berloff especially may possess the evidence we seek?”
He remembered Sonya’s statement that their knowledge of Berloff’s position was a close secret.