"If you like," returned the other.
"If I thought that it was that," said the German, looking at him
thoughtfully, "I would throw you out of the window. If it is any thing
else, I will only throw you down stairs."
De Chauxville bit his thumb-nail anxiously. He frowned across the table
into Steinmetz's face. In all their intercourse he had never heard that
tone of voice; he had never seen quite that look on the heavy face. Was
Steinmetz aroused at last? Steinmetz aroused was an unknown quantity to
Claude de Chauxville.
"I have known you now for twenty-five years," went on Karl Steinmetz,
"and I cannot say that I know any good of you. But let that pass; it is
not, I suppose, my business. The world is as the good God made it. I can
do nothing toward bettering it. I have always known you to be a
scoundrel--a fact to be deplored--and that is all. But so soon as your
villany affects my own life, then, my friend, a more active recognition
of it is necessary."
"Indeed!" sneered the Frenchman.
"Your villany has touched Paul's life, and at that point it touches
mine," continued Karl Steinmetz, with slow anger. "You followed us to
Petersburg--thence you dogged us to the Government of Tver. You twisted
that foolish woman, the Countess Lanovitch, round your finger, and
obtained from her an invitation to Thors.
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