At that she straightened up, staring at the man out of coldly insolent eyes.
"That is enough," she said. "Take our luggage to a motor cab."
"_To the Consulate of the United States!_ Do you hear? Move, then!" she said crisply.
It was raining torrents; Guild held the sullen porter's umbrella while Karen entered the cab; the luggage was stowed, the vehicle wheeled out into rain-shot obscurity.
Karen turned impulsively to the man beside her: "Forgive my rudeness; I am ashamed to have insulted your Consulate."
He flushed, but his lips twitched humorously; "I am sure that the United States very freely forgives Fräulein Girard."
"Yes. Are my amends acceptable to _you_?"
"You are--amiable. It was very common of me."
"It might have been rather common in anybody else. You couldn't be _that_. Somehow," he added, smiling, "as we say in America, you seem to get away with it, Karen."
"You are very--amiable," she repeated stiffly.
And constraint fell between them once more, leaving him, however, faintly amused. She _could_ be such a _little_ girl at times. And she was adorable in the rôle, though she scarcely suspected it.
At the American Consulate the cab stopped and Guild turned up his coat collar and sprang out.
While he was absent the girl lay back in her corner, her eyes fixed on the rain-smeared pane. She had remained so motionless for some time when a tapping at the cabin window attracted her attention. A beggar had come to the street side of the cab and was standing there, the rain beating on his upturned face. And the girl hastily drew out her purse and let down the window.
Suddenly she became rigid; the beggar had said something to her under his breath. The English shilling fell from her fingers to the floor of the cab.
His hand still extended in supplication, the man went on in German:
"Your steamer swarmed with English spies. One of them was your stewardess."
The girl's lips parted, stiffly: "I don't understand," she said with an effort.
"The stewardess spied on the deck steward, Ridder. They were all watching each other on that ship. And everybody watched you and the American. Ridder told me to follow you to the American Consulate."
"I served as one of the waiters in the saloon. Grätz knows me. If you are carrying any papers of value be careful."
