"
"And it would have made you all the more prying if you had known," she
retorted.
"Possibly! I've never yet heard that personal feelings entered into the
diplomatic secret service--and no more have you, my lady."
"Personal feelings!" she smiled, and shrugged his answer aside. "When
did you first know that I was concerned in this affair?"
"When I saw you in the Chateau," he replied--there was no obligation on
him to mention the photograph.
"Which was?" she asked.
"The evening I met you in Peacock Alley. How long then had you been
here?"
"Two days!"
"And not a word to me?"
"'Personal feelings do not enter into the diplomatic secret service,'"
she quoted mockingly.
"Precisely," he agreed, "We understand each other and the game."
It served his purpose not to notice the mock in her tones. He very well
understood what it imported and what prompted it. For the first time
the tigress had disclosed her claws. Hitherto it was always the soft
caress and the soothing purr--and when she wished, her caress could be
very soft and her purr very soothing. He had assumed that there were
claws, but she had hidden them from him; and what is ever hidden one
after a time forgets. And she had some justification for her resentment.
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