"I have only done my duty--my duty, Countess--a sweeter duty than that which urged me to Vienna--to undo the wrong that I have done you, to bring again the roses into your cheeks."
She waved her hand in deprecation. "For your courtesy, for the kindness of your servants, I thank you. But for what you are yourself--only the God that made you can understand--can forgive--that."
He straightened a moment and then slowly leaned against the wall beside her, his chin cupped in his hand.
"I am truthful. Anything else from me to you would be beneath my womanhood. I would kill you if I had the strength or if I dared." She gave a bitter laugh. "It is at least something, that we understand each other."
And then, "_Do_ we understand each other? I hope that you will permit me to speak a few words in extenuation of a person you have never known--of Leo Goritz, the man."
"A man who makes war upon a woman--who uses violence to compel obedience----"
"A woman--but an enemy to my country. Between my duty to Germany and my own inclinations, I had no choice. I was an instrument of the State, pitiless, exact and exacting. You have spoken the truth. So shall I. Had my duty to Germany required it of me, I should have killed you with my own hand--even if you had been my sister."
"It is monstrous! I would to God you had."
"That is merely my official conception of my obligation to the Fatherland," he said quietly.
She still gazed at him unbelieving, but he met her glance squarely.
"You need not believe me unless you choose, but I speak the truth. My orders were to bring you safely into Germany, or to--to eliminate you. Perhaps you will understand now my difficulties in keeping you unscathed."
"My death would have relieved you of that responsibility. It would have been so easy to have let me die----"
"I could not!" He bent his head over his folded arms. "I could not," he repeated. And then, after a silence, "Countess Strahni, I beg that you will consider that I have succeeded so far in saving you from personal danger."
"And yet you used me as a shield to save yourself from the bullets of the man you killed----" She broke off, laughing bitterly.
"He would not fire. I knew it. He was a fool to give me the chance. I took it. There was nothing else----"