He told himself that he was right to have taken her by surprise, for she looked at him with a start of obvious discomposure.
“How, Count?” she asked.
“From the tusks of one of the most formidable wild boars I have come across for many a day.”
“Ah, you know?” she said with a smile, having recovered command of herself.
“Yes,” he returned almost viciously, “I know. Know enough to be sure that I might easily at this moment be condoling with the General rather than congratulating you.”
She was puzzled to know how he had found it out, and he intended that she should be in the dark till he was master of the facts. He turned to Harlberg.
“Fancy, General. A monstrous brute, with fangs as long as that”—he indicated a length on his riding whip. “No unarmed man would have had a chance against him. It was a providential escape, Fräulein, and one which might hardly happen twice.”
“You told me nothing of this, Philippa,” Harlberg said, in a tone of aggrieved reproach.
“I had not seen you, father,” she replied. “My dress was torn and I had to change it. Of course I was going to tell you.”
Zarka laid his hat and whip on the table. “Pray let us hear the full account of it now,” he said.