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Such minds as that of Miss Delafield were quite outside the field of De Chauxville's influence, while that Frenchman had considerable power over highly strung and imaginative natures. Catrina Lanovitch had begun by tolerating him had proceeded to make the serious blunder of permitting him to be impertinently familiar, and was now exaggerating in her own mind the hold that he had over her.
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.
He gave a little laugh. "If none of us had worse than that upon our consciences," he answered, "there would be little harm in the world, De Chauxville's schemes have only hurried on a crisis which was foreordained. The progress of humanity cannot be stayed. They have tried to stay it in this country. They will go on trying until the crash comes. What is the favor you have to ask?"
He opened the breech and looked into the barrels. They were clean; the rifle had not been fired off. He gave a little laugh of contempt, and, throwing the rifle at De Chauxville's feet, turned abruptly away. It was Catrina who spoke. "If you had killed him," she said, "I would have killed you!" Steinmetz picked up the rifle, closed the breech, and handed it to De Chauxville with a queer smile.
For the moment Paul had forgotten Claude de Chauxville's existence. "I have news for you," he said; and he gently pushed the chattering countess aside. "Stépan Lanovitch is at Osterno. He arrived to-night." "Ah, they have set him free, poor man! Does he wear chains on his ankles is his hair long? My poor Stépan! Ah, but what a stupid man!" The countess collapsed into a soft chair.
It was an odd little smile, which fell over his features like a mask and completely hid his thoughts. It was apparent that Claude de Chauxville's tricks of speech and manner fell here on barren ground. The Frenchman's epigrams, his method of conveying his meaning in a non-committing and impersonal generality, failed to impress this hearer.
Moreover, his knowledge of the countess led him to fear that she would soon tire of his society. This lady had a lamentable facility for getting to the bottom of her friends' powers of entertainment within a few days. It was De Chauxville's intention to make secure his invitation to Thors, and then to absent himself from the countess.
You understand the side door to be opened at seven o'clock. Ah! who is this?" They both turned. Steinmetz was standing behind them, but he could not have heard De Chauxville's words. He closed the door carefully, and came forward with his grim smile. "À nous trois!" he said, and the subsequent conversation was in the language in which these three understood each other best.
She was kneeling in De Chauxville's blood, which stained the stone floor of the passage. Paul leaned forward and laid his fingers on the bare arm, just below a bracelet which gleamed in the lamplight. She was quite dead. He held a lamp close to her. There was no mark or scratch upon her arm or shoulder. The blow which had torn her hair down had killed her without any disfigurement.
"I came back," he said, "to ask what evening next week you are free. I have a box for the 'Huguenots." Paul did not stay. The thing was arranged in a few moments, and as he left the drawing-room he heard the wheels of De Chauxville's carriage.
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