“I trust you,” she went on with the same vehemence, intensified by the restraint she put upon her voice, “for I know you can be staunch and true; you are as far above all the tricks and treachery in which we live here as heaven from hell—I trust you, Englishman, with my life. Yes. For if it were known that I had spoken to you like this I should share the fate of Asta von Winterstein.”
I started. “Asta von Winterstein?” Of course I remembered the girl, the favourite Maid of Honour to the Princess, and my fascinating partner at the State ball. She, naturally, had been in the secret, and when I recalled that lovely animated face, the girl’s merry laugh and overflowing spirits, I shuddered. “Has anything happened to her?” I scarcely dared put the question.
The Baroness looked at me in surprise. She was quite herself now, and spoke with her usual calm. “Have you not heard? It was in the papers. Fräulein von Winterstein was returning after dark from an excursion to Salenberg. The coachman missed his way, and overturned the carriage in the narrow pass above the river. It fell down the steep side into the water. The driver threw himself off the box and escaped by a miracle, but poor Asta went to her death.”
Her tone was quite impassive, as she would have related the occurrence at a dinner party. I felt a sensation almost of horror at the deliberate methods of this man-tiger, Rallenstein.
“Horrible! Horrible!”
“I believe the poor girl’s body has not yet been recovered,” she continued with the same repression of all feeling which I could well understand and sympathize with. “The river is deep and swift in that gorge, and she may have been carried down for miles. Her mother is almost distracted, her father, General von Winterstein, is abroad, and the news will hardly have reached him. Poor man! He can do nothing.”
As she spoke the last words she looked at me significantly. We understood each other. No more was needed.
“You may trust me,” I said in a low voice.
Her hand touched mine. I was about to raise it to my lips when she snatched it away. “Hush!” she murmured warningly.
The door opened, and the other lady came in.