"I wouldn't have believed it possible," she exclaimed.
"He told me yesterday about things and I asked him if he had asked you. If that's advising, I advised."
"And yet you know the kind of man he is and that he has been persecuting me in this fashion?"
"But anyhow I didn't advise you to accept him."
"Herr Lassen's safer, and in German too."
"It's almost enough to make me say I'll never speak to you again."
"Worse than he is, eh?" It was really a curious thing, but we never seemed able to resist a chance of misunderstanding one another; and when she took this line, it was impossible for me to resist chipping her.
"Did you thrash him?" she asked after a pause.
"You've developed a wise discretion," she said with a smile which wasn't exactly soothing.
"He's a fellow with a lot of influence, you see."
There was one feature about our tiffs; they generally ended all right; and this time she seemed to realize that we were off the lines. She thought a while and her manner changed. "Do you want me to believe that after what happened here and what I said, you just thanked him and shook hands? Because I don't believe it. I heard you hit him. That's why I asked if you'd thrashed him."
"I smacked his face, as a sort of preface, but he lay down and wouldn't get up, so I had to cart him out to the front door. A poor show; but I fancy he'll give me a wide berth in the future. Would you care to tell me what passed?"
"He sent up that woman, Gretchen, to say that he was leaving Berlin and that the Countess had given him a message for me about something she had of his. I was only too thankful to hear he was going away, and when I got down, she locked the door. It was all planned, of course; and he asked me to marry him, and when I gave him his answer, he grabbed hold of me and kissed me. I broke from him and rushed into the conservatory, intending to get out that way into the garden; but he had fastened the window, and when I was trying to get it open, you came, thank Heaven."
"I guessed that was about the size of it."
"Yes, even though it was only you." This with a smile, however, which quite belied her indifferent tone.
"Well, it's all right now. As a matter of fact he has found it wise to leave in consequence of a hint I gave him yesterday."