"Perhaps something may happen to prevent the execution of my plan," he said.
He searched her face eagerly for a moment.
"You may be sure, Countess Strahni," he said in a half-whisper, "that it is very painful to me that you should think of me as an enemy. Enemy I am not. It is my duty to take you to Germany, but it is very painful to me to do anything which makes you unhappy. Here, safe from detection, I am still doing my duty. And in remaining here you, too, are safe. Will you not try to be contented--to endure my society just for a little while? I want to show you that I can be as other men----"
"All men are alike where a woman is concerned--"
"Will you try? I will be your slave--your servant. Within the castle you may come and go as you please. No one shall approach you without your permission. You see, I am not an exacting jailer. All I ask is the hope of your friendship, a glimpse of your returning smile, and such companionship as you care to give me. It is not much. Do I not deserve it? _Bitte_, think a little."
Marishka gasped and fought the impulse to run from him, for his face was very near her shoulder, his voice very close to her ear.
"I--I think that--we may be friends," she murmured.
"Will you give me your hand, Countess Strahni?"
She extended it slowly and he bowed over it, pressing it to his lips.
She found her excuse in a cough, a vestige of her illness which she summoned to her rescue.
"It--it is getting late, Herr Hauptmann," she said. "I must be going in. The night air----"
"By all means." He accompanied her to the portal of the hall and then she left him.
That night Marishka did not sleep, and the next day, pleading fatigue, remained in her bedroom, trying to muster up the courage to go forth and meet Goritz at this tragic game of his own choosing. That she had stirred some sort of an emotion in the man was not to be doubted. She read it in his eyes, in the touch of his fingers, and in the resonant tones of his voice, but she read too, the sense of his power, the confidence of his egotism to which all things were possible. And much as she wished to believe the testimony of his flashes of tenderness, the hazard of her position stared her in the face. But she knew that with such a man she must play a game of subtlety and courage. And so she resolved to meet him frequently, testing every feminine device to win him to her service which would obliterate all things but her own wishes, and present at last an opportunity for her escape.