uncertain whether to escape or to wait for his say. He looked at the
ring that encircled the window at a little distance, and his face, which
had betrayed a half-apparent shame, hardened at sight of the cynical
masks of the cosmopolitan conspirators. They were amused by the scene.
The Holsteiner gained confidence, shrugged his shoulders.

"You have had the fever very badly since you came back," he said,
showing a level row of white teeth. "You did not talk like that out
there."

"No--_pas si bête_--you would have hanged me, perhaps, as you did that
poor devil of a Swiss. What was his name? Now you offer me the cross.
Because I had the fever, _hein_?"

I had been watching the Duc's face; a first red flush had come creeping
from under the roots of his beard, and had spread over the low forehead
and the sides of the neck. The eye-glass fell from the eye, a signal for
the colour to retreat. The full lips grew pallid, and began to mutter
unspoken words. His eyes wandered appealingly from the woman beside him
to me. _I_ didn't want to look him in the face. The man was a trafficker
in human blood, an evil liver, and I hated him. He had to pay his price;
would have to pay--but I didn't want to see him pay it. There was a
limit.

I began to excuse myself, and slid out between the groups of excellent
plotters. As I was going, she said to me:

"You may come to me to-morrow in the morning."