In the hotel, she bore herself with the quiet dignity and reserve
suitable to her assumed position. With the guests, particularly
Americans, she was frankly gracious and friendly; but, it was evident,
she sought no sympathy and wanted no confidants.
All these details came to me in the reports of the Secret Police. I
saw her very frequently on the street; passing her both on the sidewalk
and on horseback. And if she were pining for the newly wedded husband,
who had forsaken and denied her, she most assuredly did not show it.
Nor did her impudence diminish. Whenever she saw me she tried to catch
my eye. Several times it happened she was watching me when I first
observed her; then, like a flash, she would bow and smile with the air
of the most intimate camaraderie.
Of course, I pointedly ignored her, but it had no effect; for the next
time her greeting was only the more effusively intimate. Naturally,
the people stared. I felt sure they winked at one another knowingly,
when my back was turned. The whole situation was intensely irritating
and growing more so every day; and my patience, never long at best,
must have been a trifle uncertain for those around me.
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