She remained in her room until she heard the unwelcome sounds which told of the general's return. Then she came into the outer room, her eyes glittering, a red spot on either cheek, all pretence at an end. Her glance withered Fraulein Max, who sat blinking in a corner with a very evil conscience. And to Marie Wort, when the girl came near her on the pretence of adjusting her lace sleeves, she had only one word to say.
'You slut!' she hissed, her breath hot on the girl's cheek. 'If you fail me I will kill you. Begone out of my sight!'
The child, excited before, broke down at that, and, bursting into a fit of weeping, ran out. Her sobs were still in the air when General Tzerclas entered.
The Countess's face was flushed, and her bearing, full of passion and defiance, must have warned him what to expect, if he felt any doubt before. The sun was just setting, the room growing dusk. He stood awhile, after saluting her, in doubt how he should come to the point, or in admiration; for her scorn and anger only increased her beauty and his feeling for her. At length he pointed lightly to the women, who kept their places by the door.
'Is it your wish, fair cousin,' he said slowly, 'that I should speak before these, or will you see me alone?'
'Your spy, that cat there,' my lady answered, carried away by her temper, 'may go! The women will stay.'
Fraulein Max, singled out by that merciless finger, sprang forward, her face mottled with surprise and terror. For a second she hesitated. Then she rushed towards her friend, as if she would embrace her.
'Countess!' she cried. 'Rotha! Surely you are mad! You cannot think that I would----'
My lady turned, and in a flash struck her fiercely on the cheek with her open hand. 'Liar!' she cried; 'go to your master, you whipped hound!'
The Dutch woman recoiled with a cry of pain, and sobbing wildly went back to her place. The general laughed harshly.
'You hold with me, sweetheart,' he said. 'Discipline before everything. But you have not my patience.'
She looked at him--angry with him, angry with herself, her hand to her bosom--but she did not answer.
'For you must allow,' he continued--his tone and his eyes still bantered her--'that I have been patient. I have been like a man athirst in the desert; but I have waited day after day, until now I can wait no longer, sweetheart.'