“Then it’s double dummy—­with a blind deck on the side.”

“Whose side?” she flashed back.

“Yours!” he returned pleasantly.

“What am I concealing?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.  If I did—­it would be easier for me.”

“The one thing I haven’t told you, I can’t tell you:  the precise character of the business that brings me here.  I’ve told you all I know—­and broken my oath to do it.  I can’t well do more, Guy.”

“No, you can’t well do more,” Harleston conceded.  “And I can’t well do less under all the—­admitted circumstances; inferentially and directly admitted.”

“Why did you—­butt in?” she asked.  “Why didn’t you let the cab, and the letter, and well enough alone?”

“It was so mysterious; and so full of possibilities,” he smiled.  “And when I did it, I didn’t know that you were interested.”

“And it would have made you all the more prying if you had known,” she retorted.

“Possibly!  I’ve never yet heard that personal feelings entered into the diplomatic secret service—­and no more have you, my lady.”

“Personal feelings!” she smiled, and shrugged his answer aside.  “When did you first know that I was concerned in this affair?”

“When I saw you in the Chateau,” he replied—­there was no obligation on him to mention the photograph.

“Which was?” she asked.

“The evening I met you in Peacock Alley.  How long then had you been here?”

“Two days!”

“And not a word to me?”

“‘Personal feelings do not enter into the diplomatic secret service,’” she quoted mockingly.

“Precisely,” he agreed, “We understand each other and the game.”

It served his purpose not to notice the mock in her tones.  He very well understood what it imported and what prompted it.  For the first time the tigress had disclosed her claws.  Hitherto it was always the soft caress and the soothing purr—­and when she wished, her caress could be very soft and her purr very soothing.  He had assumed that there were claws, but she had hidden them from him; and what is ever hidden one after a time forgets.  And she had some justification for her resentment.  He admitted to himself that his attitude and manner had been such as might cause her to believe that she was more to him than an opponent in a game, that he was about to forgive her past, and to ask her to warrant only for the future.  And he had a notion that she was prepared to warrant and to keep the warrant—­even as she had done with the Duke of Lotzen.  Now it was ended.  He knew it.