Part 19

“You were well disguised,” she said, “but I could not believe that here in Munich there would be two such quaint little monkeys on a cherry-tree, conjured so cleverly by a Chinese jewel-cutter out of an amethyst. When I first saw the ring, flanked on each side by stupid diamonds on stupid fingers, I noticed it with pleasure.”

Wenk looked at her, awaiting something more. Who could she be?

“At any rate, it struck me as curious that there could be two men, even in such circles as ours”--here she glanced round the table--“who had some amount of taste....”

“Your sarcasm,” said Wenk, entering into her vein, “does not require either Yes or No, for the fact that you noticed my ring and so correctly guessed its origin proves that you belong to a very different circle from the one you find yourself in here.”

“Oh, I was a stewardess on a steamer bound for Asiatic ports, but the war has taken both our ships and our calling from us!”

“May I then hazard the suggestion that you have withdrawn from your former calling at some advantage to yourself?”

“Oh, I am not stupid!” she smiled back.

“There is nothing which it is more unnecessary to assure me of, Countess.”

There was a momentary flutter in the beautiful woman’s eye, and an imperceptible something within her seemed to come to a standstill. Had he known who she was and wanted to play with her a little, and would he now blazon abroad the fact that she frequented such places secretly?

Wenk laughed aloud.

“Or can it be that the coroneted handkerchief comes from the trunk of some countess travelling to Asiatic ports, as Sherlock Holmes would argue? No, dear lady, we are quits. We shall both comport ourselves more circumspectly in future when we are among our fellow-mortals. I shall put a stupid diamond on my finger, and you will use a monogram without a coronet on your handkerchiefs, Countess....”

“Hush!” she said, in agitation.

“But even such precautions would serve no turn!”

“I do not understand you.”

“You force me to pay you compliments. I am seeking vainly for a suitable way of expressing myself so that I may convey to you my conviction that the ‘countess’ in you cannot anyhow be suppressed.”

“He will be asking me to sup with him directly,” she said to herself. “He evidently wants to start a romance,” and the idea amused her. From sheer exuberance of energy she had come hither, seeking nothing in her masquerade but relief from boredom, and lo! she had landed a prize like this!

“At any rate, I need not have taken a circuitous route to Schramm’s!” she said laughingly.

At the gaming-table nothing sensational was going on. She decided to feint with him, and said sarcastically:

“You try to disguise your compliments as well as you do yourself, Herr von Wenk. I am obliged to accept them, since they take me unawares.”

“I merely mean,” persisted Wenk, “that the removal of the coronet from your monogram cannot remove the stamp of nobility from your brow.”

“I hope you are still masquerading!”

“As an enraptured reader of sentimental romances, you mean? In any case, dear lady.... But is this quite the place to carry on a conversation which aims at a more serious turn?”

She answered, looking him up and down haughtily and deliberately: “Does that mean that you are inviting me to sup with you?”

“I would certainly not venture to do that,” said Wenk hastily, recognizing her meaning. He saw that she suspected him of desiring to establish an intrigue, and that he would begin it in the ordinary way of a champagne supper. “Now,” said he to himself, “if I am to win her over, I must act in such a way as not to deceive her and yet not fulfil her expectations, and since she thinks she has guessed me aright, I must not allow her a feeling of superiority over me. I do not want her to think me a blockhead. The coronet on the handkerchief seems genuine enough, and she does not come here for money, for she never plays. Therefore someone present, or an adventure of some sort, must account for her being here, and if I am to win her to my side I must prove myself stronger than the unknown attraction here,” he argued.

“What have you to offer me?” she asked in a frivolous tone; but Wenk seemed to find something real behind the thoughtless manner, and he answered intuitively, fearing defeat as soon as the words had left his lips:

“I can offer you a great adventure, a really great adventure!”

“With you?” she rejoined, equally without pausing for reflection. “As a lover or as an agent of the State?”

“With me--as a detective!”