“Have a care,” he shouted, “what names you call me here. I do not wish to be compelled to make you feel your position. But if necessary I shall——”
Kathleen did not take her scornful eyes from his face, and Melun at last looked shiftily away.
As he apparently did not intend to speak again, Kathleen put to him another question:
“Who is the woman,” she asked, “you employed to get me here?”
“That is no business of yours,” snarled Melun, “though you can, if you wish to speak to or allude to her, call her Mme. Estelle.”
“I merely asked,” said Kathleen, “because I was curious to know how she came to make use of the name of Russia.”
“It was simple, perfectly simple. It was largely a matter of guesswork. It was only natural to suppose that you would be doing what you could to smooth matters over with the Czar.”
Kathleen nodded a little to herself. There were apparently few details of her father's secret with which Melun was not acquainted.
“Now,” said the captain, changing his tone and attempting to be brisk and businesslike, “let us for a moment consider the essential points of the case. Of the ransom, of course, there can be no question. I shall increase the sum because of the obstinate way in which your father has refused my overtures. That, however, will be all the better for us.”
He said this with an insinuating air for which Kathleen loathed him.