Yet to induce you to break
your rule and cross the Atlantic, the moving consideration must be of
the utmost weight, or else it's purely a personal matter. H-u-m! Under
all the circumstances, I should say the latter is the more likely. In
which event, I may not be concerned further than to return these--" with
a wave of his hand toward the exhibits.
For a while longer he sat in silence, eyes half closed, lips a bit
compressed; a certain sternness, that was always in his countenance,
showing plainest when in reflective thought. At last, he smiled. Then he
lit another cigarette, took up the letter and the photograph, and put
them in the small safe standing behind an ornate screen in the
corner--not, however, without another look at the calmly beautiful face.
The roses he left lie on the table; the steel safe would not preserve
them in _statu quo_; moreover, he knew, or thought he knew, all that
they could convey. He swung the door shut; then swung it open, and
looked again at the picture--and for sometime--before he put it up and
gave the knob a twirl.
"I'm sure bewitched!" he remarked, going on to his bedroom. "It's not
difficult for me to understand the Duke of Lotzen. He was simply a
man--and men, at the best, are queer beggars.
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