'Can I take you anywhere?' he asked. 'The car will be outside.'
'Don't bother about me,' she said. 'I am going up to my room to write some letters.'
Suzanne turned the handle of number seventy-four, closed the door behind her and entered the sitting-room. Mr. Kessner turned around in his chair from before a mass of papers. He looked at Suzanne for an instant in surprise, an expression which, as he recognized her, changed quickly into one of satisfaction. He rose to his feet and came towards her.
'This is a great pleasure, my dear young lady,' he said. 'I scarcely dared to hope----'
He took her hands, but she evaded him with a little smile.
'You see, we are neighbours almost,' she explained. 'I have an apartment here when I am in London. I thought I would call in and see you on the way to my room. But, please--do you mind?'
She pushed him gently away from her. For a moment his face darkened. Then, with a shrug of the shoulders, he threw himself into the easy-chair opposite, a shapeless, ill-dressed little morsel of humanity, with a queer intelligence shining out of his narrowed eyes, suggested, too, in the square forehead and puckered brows.
'Listen, young lady,' he said. 'Do you know why I asked you to come and see me?'
She raised her eyebrows and laughed at him.
'Because you like me, I hope,' she replied. 'For myself, I love making fresh acquaintances amongst clever men.'
'I am not one of those,' she said, 'who can gather the whole world in without a pause. I like to make acquaintances. Sometimes an acquaintance may become a friend. Sometimes--but that takes time.'
She felt the steely light of his eyes upon her and looked modestly down upon the carpet.
'Well,' he went on, 'there were two reasons why I sent for you. One I think you have surmised, and you keep it there at the back of your pretty little head. The other--well, you are a young person of intelligence and mixed nationality. I thought it possible that you might be of use to me.'
'I was frank with you at luncheon-time,' he said. 'You know where my sympathies lie. Yours, I gathered, are divided. Would it be possible, I wonder, to induce you to look my way?'
'But you yourself admitted,' she reminded him, 'that the cause of Germany in America is lost. What more is there to be done?'