“You know his name, Excellency,” she stammered.
“I ask you.”
She looked at him, but the crumpled parchment of his face told her nothing. Still, in her woeful plight chance was in her favour, since she had nothing to lose. “I—I cannot tell you,” she replied, “for I do not know.”
The cruel eyes shot forth a light which had struck despair in many a stouter heart than this girl’s; yet she was resolute to play her game through.
“If you are going to trifle with me, Countess, I shall hesitate no longer in signing the order for your arrest.”
“Excellency!” she cried, trembling with a terror that was not all simulated. “I cannot tell you that. It is impossible. I will help you in every way to find out, I will do all I can to atone for my fault, but I cannot tell you this man’s name.”
“You will not?”
“I cannot. It is easy for you to find out.”
“Quite,” he assented dryly. “Go on with your story.”
“Someone came into the chapel. Fearing I had done wrong to let him remain, even to blow the organ, I opened the door and made him get in. The Princess and I went out into the Park for a few minutes and when I ran back to release him I found the chapel locked up for the night.”