"You heard?"
"Yes, princess, I heard."
She was silent, and minutes passed before she spoke again, so that I
began to wonder if she had decided to say no more.
"Mr. Dubravnik," she said, and in English, "will you do me one favor in
regard to this conversation you have overheard? Will you keep my
confidence till to-morrow?"
I wondered again at the princess' coolness. Realizing the peril she was
in, as she must unquestionably have done, it was strange that she could
command herself so well as to remain perfectly in possession of all her
faculties, in the face of such dire peril.
For a moment I hesitated. It was a very great favor that she asked of
me so calmly; just how great a favor it was, she could not know; and
yet there was no reason why I should not grant her request, being what
I was and who I was. In that interval I wondered what this beautiful
creature before me would think, or say, if she could have guessed that
it was the chief of the most remarkable secret service bureau in the
world whom she was addressing; if she could have guessed that the very
man among all other men, whom she would least have thought of taking
into her confidence, was the one before her who had listened to the
conversation.
"Yes. I will do that," I replied, as deliberately as she had asked the
question; and I watched her closely as I did so, holding myself well in
hand, the while, in order that I might not instantly fall again under
the spell of her fascinations.
"And come to me then? I will expect you at noon."
"Yes, princess."
"I thank you, sir. And now, if you will give me your arm, we will
return to the drawing room."
I could not help marveling at the wonderful self possession of the
woman whose life, liberty, honor, happiness, and whose all, had been by
means of the conversation I had overheard, placed utterly at my mercy.
Even though I were really what she supposed me to be, an ordinary
citizen, the danger was no less, for I had but to repeat what I had
heard, to bring about an investigation which could result in only one
way. Her composure was absolute as we walked side by side towards the
house, nor did she once refer to the subject upon which we were both
thinking so deeply. She was a shade paler than usual, but beyond that
there was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had occurred; nor
did she manifest any evidence of the nervous fear which would have
prostrated most women in such a predicament.
Neither of us recurred to the subject that was uppermost in our minds.
Indeed we were silent during the moment that was required to traverse
the length of the garden, and to pass from it into the house where the
company was assembled.