'
'You should have let me finish,' she returned, smiling. 'Do you
suppose I did not mention her on purpose? You know you had lost
your head. Well, so had I. Come now, do not be abashed by words,'
she added somewhat sharply. 'It is the one thing I despise. If you
are not a fool, you will see that I am building fortresses about
your virtue. And at any rate, I choose that you shall understand
that I am not dying of love for you. It is a very smiling business;
no tragedy for me! And now here is what I have to say about your
wife; she is not and she never has been Gondremark's mistress. Be
sure he would have boasted if she had. Good-night!'
And in a moment she was gone down the alley, and Otto was alone with
the bag of money and the flying god.
CHAPTER X - GOTTHOLD'S REVISED OPINION; AND THE FALL COMPLETED
THE Countess left poor Otto with a caress and buffet simultaneously
administered. The welcome word about his wife and the virtuous
ending of his interview should doubtless have delighted him. But
for all that, as he shouldered the bag of money and set forward to
rejoin his groom, he was conscious of many aching sensibilities. To
have gone wrong and to have been set right makes but a double trial
for man's vanity. The discovery of his own weakness and possible
unfaith had staggered him to the heart; and to hear, in the same
hour, of his wife's fidelity from one who loved her not, increased
the bitterness of the surprise.
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