"That Maurice and I should first go with you to Kernsberg and afterwards to Plassenburg."
"Let me think—let me think—give me time!" said Joan, sinking into a chair and looking straight before her. The world was suddenly filled with whirling vapour and her brain turned with it.
"I am in the midst of troubles. I know not what to do!" she murmured.
"Ah, it was quieter at Isle Rugen, was it not?" suggested Margaret, who had not forgiven the project of kidnapping her and carrying her off from her husband.
But Joan was thinking too deeply to answer or even to notice any taunt.
"I cannot go," she murmured, thinking aloud. "I cannot ride to Kernsberg and leave him in the front of danger!"
"A woman's place is at home!" said Margaret in a low tone, maliciously quoting Joan's words.
"He must not fight this battle alone. Perhaps I shall never see him again!"
"A man must not be hampered by affection in the hour of danger!"
At this point Joan looked down upon Margaret as she might have done at a puppy that worried a stick to attract her attention.