There was a slight pause during which she glanced at me twice nervously and said hesitatingly: "There is another way if you will take it."
"Not the last resource, yet. It has not come to that by a long way."
"No. I--I mean--you ought to think of Bessie. I wish that. You must."
"Do you mean she should go away? I am afraid she would not care to go. I wish she would."
"Althea!" The Christian name slipped from me unwittingly in my quick protest against the suggestion that I should desert her. I stopped in confusion, and the colour rushed to her face. We were both embarrassed by the blunder.
Presently she raised her eyes to mine. "Please do it. I wish it," she urged in a low, intensely earnest tone.
"If you care at all for what I say or wish, you will do it."
"Then I am afraid we must take it that I do not," I answered, smiling.
"But if Bessie were only safely away, I should not mind so much."
"She is not in any serious danger. They would not do anything to her."
"You know what I mean," she cried quickly. "Why force me to say it? I cannot bear the thought of bringing you into this danger. The fear of what may happen haunts me every moment, day and night. You must go."
"You are letting your fears exaggerate the danger. I cannot go."
"You must. I insist." Quite vehemently uttered, this.
"Don’t force me to the discourtesy of a flat refusal."
Her earnestness was only magnified. "You shall go. I am quite determined. You shall go or----" Her eyes were flashing and her features set with resolve.
She paused and then said very deliberately, but with lips that quivered: "If you do not, I shall go to Herr von Felsen and accept his terms. I will not accept the sacrifice which you are intent on making for me."
There was a pause while we looked one at the other, every line of her lovely face eloquent of her purpose; and before I could reply, we were face to face with another crisis that drove everything else out of our thoughts for the moment.
Believing that I was alone, Ellen opened the door and announced Herr Dormund.
I had just time to whisper to Althea, "You had better be Bessie, remember," when he came in bristling with importance. He paused on seeing that I was not alone, and I went forward and offered him my hand. "Come in, Herr Dormund. It is only my sister. Then you’ll see to that for me, Bessie; and don’t let me have to bother again about it."