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But with Count Godensky forced upon me as a companion, I would not for any consideration have parted with Marianne. Three or four minutes after starting I was giving instructions to my chauffeur where to stop, and almost immediately afterwards Godensky appeared. He got in and took the place at my left, Marianne, silent, but doubtless astonished, facing us on the little front seat.
I believed that he, too, was a spy, just as I was; and far worse, because if he were one he betrayed his own country, while I never had done that, never would. All these thoughts rushed through my head in a second; and I think that Raoul could hardly have noticed the pause before I began to speak again. "He Godensky would do anything to part you and me," I said.
"You don't mean to say you haven't yet opened the little bag I gave you at the theatre?" I exclaimed. Raoul looked half ashamed. "Dearest, don't think me ungrateful," he said, "but before I had a chance to open it I met Godensky, and he told me that lie. It lit a fire in my brain. I forgot all about the bag, and haven't thought of it again till this minute." At last I laughed with sincerity.
Come and tell me what you think of the news, and what you think of me," I said. And while I spoke, smiling, I prayed within that he might continue to think of me all things good far better than I deserved, yet not better than I would try to deserve in the future, if I were permitted to spend that future with him. The next thing I did was to send my letter to Count Godensky.
"'Are you not Mademoiselle de Renzie's lover? was the next enquiry. 'I admire her, as do thousands of others, who also respect her as I do, your friend returned very prettily. At last, dearest lady, you begin to see what there is in this string of questions and answers to bring me straight to you?" "No, Count Godensky, I do not," I answered steadily.
I stammered, before I could keep back the rushing words. "You mean, thank God he wasn't sooner, don't you, darling?" amended Raoul. "Yes, of course. How stupid I am!" I murmured. All along, then, Godensky had meant to get my promise and deceive me, for I had not even sent my note of defiance when this trick was played.
Count Godensky is not more Mephistophelian in type than any other dark, thin man with a hook nose, keen eyes, heavy browed; a prominent chin and a sharply waxed, military moustache trained to point upward slightly at the ends. But to my fancy he looked absolutely devilish at that moment. Still, I was less afraid of him than I had been since the day I stole the treaty.
Godensky would guess that, too: and he would have perhaps informed the police, very cautiously, very unofficially and confidentially, that he suspected Maxine de Renzie of being a political spy in the pay of England. He would have advised that my movements be watched for the next few days: that English agents of the French police be warned to watch also, on their side of the Channel.
That done, I flew out of the drawing-room into the little entrance hall, and opened the front door. There stood Raoul, his face dead white, and very stern in the light of the hall lamp. I had never seen him like that before. "I know why you're here," I began quickly, before he could speak. "Count Godensky told me what he said to you. I hoped you would come."
"I want to punish myself for asking an explanation about Godensky, by not allowing you to explain this other thing," insisted poor, loyal, repentant Raoul. "Then at the time it made all the rest seem worse, a thousand times worse. But I saw through black spectacles. Now I see through rose-coloured ones." "I'd rather you saw through your own dear eyes, without any spectacles.
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