“And now,” said Steinmetz, when they were alone with closed doors, “and now, De Chauxville, let us understand each other.”
De Chauxville shrugged his shoulders. He was not thinking of Steinmetz yet. He was still thinking of Etta and how he could get speech with her. With the assurance which had carried him through many a difficulty before this, the Frenchman looked round him, taking in the details of the room. They were in the apartment beyond the large smoking room—the anteroom, as it were, to the little chamber where Paul kept his medicine-chest, his disguise, all the compromising details of his work among the peasants. The broad writing-table in the middle of the room stood between the two men.
“Do you imagine yourself in love with the princess?” asked Steinmetz suddenly, with characteristic bluntness.
“If you like,” returned the other.
“If I thought that it was that,” said the German, looking at him thoughtfully, “I would throw you out of the window. If it is anything else, I will only throw you downstairs.”
De Chauxville bit his thumbnail anxiously. He frowned across the table into Steinmetz’s face. In all their intercourse he had never heard that tone of voice; he had never seen quite that look on the heavy face. Was Steinmetz aroused at last? Steinmetz aroused was an unknown quantity to Claude de Chauxville.
“I have known you now for twenty-five years,” went on Karl Steinmetz, “and I cannot say that I know any good of you. But let that pass; it is not, I suppose, my business. The world is as the good God made it. I can do nothing toward bettering it. I have always known you to be a scoundrel—a fact to be deplored—and that is all. But so soon as your villany affects my own life, then, my friend, a more active recognition of it is necessary.”
“Indeed!” sneered the Frenchman.
“Your villany has touched Paul’s life, and at that point it touches mine,” continued Karl Steinmetz, with slow anger. “You followed us to Petersburg—thence you dogged us to the Government of Tver. You twisted that foolish woman, the Countess Lanovitch, round your finger, and obtained from her an invitation to Thors. All this in order to be near one of us. Ach! I have been watching you. Is it only after twenty-five years that I at last convince you that I am not such a fool as you are pleased to consider me?”
“You have not convinced me yet,” put in De Chauxville, with his easy laugh.
“No, but I shall do so before I have finished with you. Now, you have not come here for nothing. It is to be near one of us. It is not Miss Delafield; she knows you. Some women—good women—have an instinct given to them by God for a defence against such men—such things as you. Is it I?”
He touched his broad chest with his two hands, and stood defying his lifelong foe.
“Is it me that you follow? If so, I am here. Let us have done with it now.”
De Chauxville laughed. There was an uneasy look in his eyes. He did not quite understand Steinmetz. He made no answer. But he turned and looked at the window. It is possible that he suddenly remembered the threat concerning it.
“Is it Paul?” continued Steinmetz. “I think not. I think you are afraid of Paul. Remains the princess. Unless you can convince me to the contrary, I must conclude that you are trying to get a helpless woman into your power.”
“You always were a champion of helpless ladies,” sneered De Chauxville.
“Ah! You remember that, do you? I also—I remember it. It is long ago, and I have forgiven you; but I have not forgotten. What you were then you will be now. Your record is against you.”
Steinmetz was standing with his back to what appeared to be the only exit from the room. There were two other doors concealed in the oaken panels, but De Chauxville did not know that. He could not take his eyes from the broad face of his companion, upon which there were singular blotches of color.
“I am waiting,” said the German, “for you to explain your conduct.”
“Indeed!” replied De Chauxville. “Then, my friend, you will have to continue waiting. I fail to recognize your right to make enquiry into my movements. I am not responsible to any man for my actions, least of all to you. The man who manages his neighbor’s affairs mismanages his own. I would recommend you to mind your own business. Kindly let me pass.”
De Chauxville’s words were brave enough, but his lips were unsteady. A weak mouth is apt to betray its possessor at inconvenient moments. He waved Steinmetz aside, but he made no movement toward the door. He kept the table between him and his companion.
Steinmetz was getting calmer. There was an uncanny hush about him.
“Then I am to conclude,” he said, “that you came to Russia in order to persecute a helpless woman. Her innocence or her guilt is, for the moment, beside the question. Neither is any business of yours. Both, on the contrary, are my affair. Innocent or guilty, the Princess Howard Alexis must from this moment be freed from your persecution.”
De Chauxville shrugged his shoulders. He tapped on the floor impatiently with the toe of his neat riding-boot.
“Allons!” he said. “Let me pass!”
“Your story of Sydney Bamborough,” went on Steinmetz coldly, “was a good one wherewith to frighten a panic-stricken woman. But you brought it to the wrong person when you brought it to me. Do you suppose that I would have allowed the marriage to take place unless I knew that Bamborough was dead?”
“You may be telling the truth about that incident or you may not,” said De Chauxville. “But my knowledge of the betrayal of the Charity League is sufficient for my purpose.”
“Yes,” admitted Steinmetz grimly, “you have information there with
