“That judgment was not far wrong.”
“I heard, too,” he continued, “that you were cold and proud; I could easily account for that, and I told myself that, as snow can keep warm a living body hidden beneath it, it did not follow that you had not a warm woman’s heart, and that if it were there I might find it.”
“You had no little confidence in yourself,” she protested, with a little pouting smile.
“You see,” he explained, “I expected help in my siege from a traitor in the garrison.”
“A traitor?”
“A rebel, who would rather fall into Lieutenant von Bertheim’s hands than into Prince Ludwig’s.”
“Ah! yes.”
“And then chance, the most valuable of allies, came to my help.”
“Luckily. Chance has played us some fine tricks.”
“The best is the last, which has given you to me. Ah, how I dreaded the moment when you would find me out. It might have turned your love to hate.”