The Cup of Fury Part 34

"Abbie darling, would you forgive me if I saw this--person alone?

Besides, you'll be wanting to get settled in your room, if Mr.--Ja--your husband doesn't mind taking your things up."

Abbie had not been used to taking dismissals graciously. She had never been to court and been permitted to retire. Besides, people who know how to take an eviction gracefully usually know enough to get out before they are put out. But Abbie had to be pushed, and she went, heartbroken, disgraced, resentful. Jake sulked after her. They moved like a couple of old flea-bitten mongrels spoken to sharply.

And of course they stole back to the head of the stairs and listened.

Nicky had his face made up for a butler, or at least a maid. When he saw Marie Louise he had to undo his features, change his opening oration, and begin all over again.

"It is zhoo yourself, then," he said.

"Yes. Come in, do. I have no servants yet."

"Ah!" he cooed, encouraged at once.

She squelched his hopes. "My sister and her husband are here, however."

This astounded him so that he spoke in two languages at once: "Your schwister! Since how long do you have a sester? And where did you get?"

"I have always had her, but we haven't seen each other for years."

He gasped, "_Was Sie nicht sagen_!"

"And if you wouldn't mind not talking German--"

"_Recht so_. Excuse. Do I come in--no?"

She stepped back, and he went into the drawing-room. He smiled at what he saw, and was polite, if cynical.

"You rent foornished?"

"Yes."

He waved her to a chair so that he might sit down.

"_Was giebt's neues_--er--what is the noose?"

"I have none. What is yours?"

"You mean you do not wish to tell. If I should commence once, I should never stop. But we are both alife yet. That is always somethink. I was never so nearly not."

Marie Louise could not withhold the protest:

"You saved yourself by betraying your friends."

"Well, I telled--I told only what the English knew already. If they let me go for it, it was no use to kill everybody, should I?"

He was rather miserable about it, for he could see that she despised him more for being an informer than for having something to inform. He pleaded in extenuation:

"But I shall show how usefool I can be to my country. Those English shall be sorry to let me go, and my people glad. And so shall you."

She studied him, and dreaded him, loathing his claim on her, longing to order him never to speak again to her, yet strangely interested in his future power for evil. The thought occurred to her that if she could learn his new schemes she might thwart them. That would be some atonement for what she had not prevented before. This inspiration brightened her so suddenly and gave such an eagerness to her manner that he saw the light and grew suspicious--a spy has to be, for he carries a weapon that has only one cartridge in it.

Marie Louise waited for him to explain his purpose till the suspense began to show; then she said, bluntly:

"What mischief are you up to now?"

"Mitschief--me?" he asked, all innocently.

"You said you wanted to see me."

"I always want to see you. You interest--my eyes--my heart--"

"Please don't." She said it with the effect of slamming a door.

She looked him full in the eyes angrily, then remembered her curiosity. He saw her gaze waver with a double motive.

It is strange how people can fence with their glances, as if they were emanations from the eyes instead of mere reflections of light back and forth. But however it is managed, this man and this woman played their stares like two foils feeling for an opening. At length he surrendered and resolved to appeal:

"How do you feel about--about us?"

"Who are us?"

"We Germans."

"We are not Germans. I'm American."

"Then England is your greater enemy than Germany."

She wanted to smile at that, but she said:

"Perhaps."

He pleaded for his cause. "America ought not to have joined the war against the _Vaterland_. It is only a few Americans--bankers who lended money to England--who wish to fight us."

Up-stairs Jake's heart bounded. Here was a fellow-spirit. He listened for Marie Louise's response; he caught the doubt in her tone. She could not stomach such an absurdity:

"Bos.h.!.+" she said.

It sounded like "Boche!" And Nicky flushed.

"You have been in this Was.h.i.+ngton town too long. I think I shall go now."

Marie Louise made no objection. She had not found out what he was up to, but she was sick of duplicity, sick of the sight of him and all he stood for. She did not even ask him to come again. She went to the door with him and stood there a moment, long enough for the man who was shadowing Nicky to identify her. She watched Nicky go and hoped that she had seen the last of him. But up-stairs the great heart of Jake Nuddle was seething with excitement. He ran to the front window, caught a glimpse of Nicky, and hurried back down the stairs.

Abbie called out, "Where you goin'?"

Jake did not answer such a meddlesome question, but he said to Marie Louise, as he brushed past her on the stairs: