“You have been very kind to me,” said Kate, gratefully, as she leaned back on the sofa and realized how much more comfortable the reporter’s skill had made her feel. “I owe you a great debt of gratitude5.” How much she was indebted to Benedict she did not fully4 realize, for he had been under a strong temptation to follow Rudolph at any cost when he had learned that the lodge-keeper was the very Rexanian he had come up into Westchester to find.
“Your man, there,” said Benedict, questioningly, glancing at his watch, “has he been long in your service?”
“Several years,” answered Kate. “I believe he was exiled from Rexania after the revolution of ten years ago.”
Her remark tended to increase the reporter’s interest in the lodge-keeper.
“They are a curious people, those Rexanians,” he remarked, drawing a chair toward the sofa and seating himself where he could watch Kate’s face. “I have seen something of them on the East Side.”
Kate felt an almost irresistible7 desire to[101] confess to the youth that they were a race in which she took at that moment an interest that was founded on a most unhappy incident.
“You see,” Benedict went on, noting the animated8 expression on her face, “I am a newspaper reporter, Miss Strong, and in my work I come into contact with many curious phases of life and queer kinds of people in New York. Of course you have never met a Rexanian, excepting your lodge-keeper, Rudolph?”
“Oh, but I have,” cried Kate, who did not fully realize that her accident had rendered her slightly feverish9 and therefore somewhat more loquacious10 than usual. “A Rexanian dined at our house in the city a few nights ago. He had come over on the steamer with my father and mother. He was a very charming man.”
“One of the Rexanian nobility, of course?” he asked, diplomatically.
“Yes,” she answered, with some hesitation12. “He was a count—Count Szalaki.” Her face flushed as the thought flashed through her mind that her frankness in the presence of a newspaper reporter was, to say the least of it, indiscreet. But there were many influences at work to render Kate Strong less reticent13 than she ordinarily was by habit and temperament14. The sudden disappearance15 of their Rexanian guest and the shadow that had been cast upon his memory by her family had made her impatient to clear up the mystery that surrounded the only man who had ever fully satisfied the romantic longings[102] that pertained17 to her youth and her self-centred nature.
That Ned Strong was fitted neither by temperament nor by experience to solve a problem that grew more and more inexplicable18 as time passed, his sister well knew. Already he had lost interest in a mystery that grew more important to Kate the longer it remained unsolved. She herself was powerless to prosecute19 a line of inquiry20 that, she felt sure, would, if carried forward to the end, exonerate21 the Rexanian whose melancholy22 and fascinating face had impressed her as that of a man whose soul was too lofty for subterfuge23 and fraud.
Fate had thrown her into the enforced companionship of a man whose journalistic training had thoroughly24 fitted him for solving mysteries of the kind that now weighed upon her overwrought mind. Conflicting emotions warred within her. She possessed25 many of the prejudices and all the self-control that pertain16 to the real patrician26; added to these was a maidenly27 fear that somebody might discover the secret that agitated28 her heart—a secret that she hardly dared to whisper to herself. On the other hand, she had grown almost desperate in her anxiety to learn something more of Count Szalaki, to receive an explanation of his seemingly churlish silence that would vindicate29 her innermost conviction that he was what her fancy painted him. Perhaps under other circumstances her natural disinclination to grow too confidential31 with a man about whom she knew almost nothing would have prevailed, but the reaction following her accident had rendered her will-power less active than[103] usual and her inclination30 to give way to an impulse stronger.
“Count Szalaki!” exclaimed Norman Benedict, musingly32. Suddenly an expression of eagerness crossed his face. “His name was on the passenger list of one of the incoming steamers recently. I noticed it at the time. And so he is a Rexanian! That is very interesting. You were kind enough to say a moment ago, Miss Strong, that you owe me a debt of gratitude. That is hardly true, for what I have done for you has been a pleasure to me. But, frankly33, you can do me a kindness. I should very much like to meet Count Szalaki.”
A mournful expression rested on Kate Strong’s face.
“I am sorry,” she said regretfully, “but I cannot gratify your wish. We—we—don’t know where Count Szalaki is.”
Norman Benedict sprang up in excitement. There was something in the girl’s face and voice that revived the nervous tremor34 that had affected35 him when the tremendous possibilities of the hints thrown out by Ludovics had first seriously impressed him.
“Do you mean to tell me,” he asked, eagerly, “that Count Szalaki has disappeared?”
“We have seen and heard nothing of him since the night he dined with us,” answered Kate.
The reporter paced up and down the room impatiently.
“What do you know about him?” he cried, at length. “Are you sure, Miss Strong, that—that his title was genuine?”
Kate had found the reporter’s excitement contagious36, and she did not notice the bald[104] discourtesy of his question. Her desire to gain Benedict as an ally in her efforts to re-establish the reputation of her father’s guest had become irresistible.
“We know,” she admitted, “that there is no such title as that of Count Szalaki in Rexania.”
Norman Benedict stood still and looked down at her with an expression of eager interest on his face for which she could not satisfactorily account.
At that moment the carriage in which Rudolph had gone on his futile37 mission in search of a physician rattled38 up to the gate, and before the reporter could put further questions to Kate the lodge-keeper had entered the room.
“The doctor will be here directly, Miss Strong,” said Rudolph, nervously39. “Shall I dismiss the carriage?”
“Let the carriage wait,” answered Norman Benedict, harshly. Striding up to the pale-faced Rexanian, he said, in a stern voice:
“Did you ever hear in Rexania, man, of a certain Count Szalaki?”
It was, in a sense, a random40 shot, but it struck home. Rudolph’s face looked like a mask of bluish-white paste in the twilight41 gloom of the darkening chamber42. He put up his hand, as if to ward6 off a blow. Kate Strong strained her eyes to catch the changing expression on the Rexanian’s countenance43. A deep silence fell upon the trio. Suddenly the answer came to the reporter’s question, but not from Rudolph Smolenski.
Muffled44 by distance, but unmistakable in its horrid45 import, there echoed from the manor-house the ugly crash of a pistol-shot.
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1
sprained
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| v.&n. 扭伤 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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massage
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| n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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loquacious
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| adj.多嘴的，饶舌的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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16
pertain
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| v.(to)附属，从属；关于；有关；适合，相称 | |
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pertained
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| 关于( pertain的过去式和过去分词 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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prosecute
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| vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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exonerate
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| v.免除责任，确定无罪 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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subterfuge
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| n.诡计；藉口 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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maidenly
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| adj. 像处女的, 谨慎的, 稳静的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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vindicate
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| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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30
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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31
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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37
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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38
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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40
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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41
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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42
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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43
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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44
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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45
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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