All the same I had not come empty away. She had admitted the lie about "our child," and he couldn"t talk that away. Moreover, it was still possible to set inquiries on foot and get the truth that way. It was all to the good that her impression of me was so favourable. There was no acting or humbug about that, and it remained to see the result. It was fairly certain that she would have little desire to carry the scheme any farther.
In the meantime what were the others thinking? Nessa had laughed at the business in the Thiergarten; but there was more than a joke in it, even when one knew the truth. Both she and Rosa would be very curious to learn what had followed, so I went to see them at once and found them all talking about it.
The Countess was shocked and very distressed. "It was such a scandal, Johann; and to happen in such a spot and with the von Gratzens there,"
she said.
"I need not tell you how sorry I am, aunt."
"That wasn"t Johann"s fault, mother," said Rosa. "He couldn"t prevent the woman choosing such a public place and acting as she did."
"Why do you say choosing, Rosa? You don"t imagine she expected to meet Johann there, do you? What happened after we left?" she asked me.
"My impression is that she did choose the place, aunt. I had a talk with her and afterwards saw her at her flat."
"But surely there can"t be a sc.r.a.p of truth in it."
"How can I say? Most emphatically I don"t remember her nor a thing she told me."
"What did she tell you, Herr La.s.sen?" asked Nessa, her eyes twinkling.
"Of course we"re all anxious to hear--if you don"t mind telling us, that is."
"I don"t mind in the least. It"s not a nice story;" and I told them as shortly as possible. Nessa had to hide her face from the Countess when I spoke of my offer of marriage, and Rosa covered her laughter under a pretence of indignation.
"You seem to have forgotten our engagement very easily, Johann!"
"Oh no. She reminded me of it; but of course she has the first claim."
"Indeed!" she cried, tossing her head.
But her mother took it seriously. "I think you were right, Johann, and I"m thankful you had sufficient manly spirit," she declared, making me feel no end of a hypocrite.
"And when are you to be married, Herr La.s.sen?" asked Nessa, with mischief in look and tone.
"It is not yet definitely settled."
"And your child?" chipped Rosa.
"There was a mistake there. She admitted afterwards that the child is neither hers nor mine."
"Admitted that!" exclaimed the Countess with more indignation than I thought she was capable of feeling. "Do you mean to tell us that she was brazen-faced enough to confess such a thing? She must be a regular baggage and you must be mad to think of marrying her! I never heard such a thing in all my life."
"She wasn"t exactly brazen-faced when she told me, Aunt Olga. I think she was rather affected by my offer; and as an honourable man----"
"Honourable fiddlesticks, Johann! Don"t talk rubbish. She"s an impostor, nothing else; and I shall go to my lawyer in the morning and tell him to inform the police."
Rosa came to the rescue then. "Unless you want to get Johann into serious trouble, you won"t do that, mother. You"ve often worried because I didn"t wish to marry him, and I haven"t told you the real reason; but you had better know it now. The woman"s story about the sale of secret information is true. You may not remember it, Johann; but I have a couple of letters of yours in which you more than half admit it, and that it was the reason why you fled the country and never intended to come back."
"Rosa!" cried the dear old lady in deep distress. "Is that true, Johann?"
"Unfortunately, I can"t say either yes or no, Aunt Olga."
"I"ll get the letters," said Rosa, and she fetched them and read the portions out to us. "You can see it"s his handwriting;" and she gave the letters to her mother, who glanced at them and then handed them to me.
"I don"t know the writing, of course," I said. "I don"t believe I could even copy it. I"m in the pothook stage still." It was a small, curiously wriggling fist, difficult to decipher, but easily identified by any one who had ever seen it. And the Countess knew it well.
"What had I better do, Johann?" she appealed.
"I leave that to you. I hope I am incapable of anything of the sort now; but if I did it, I must take the consequences."
"There is only one thing to do, mother; and that is, nothing. You don"t want Johann to be shot, I suppose," said Rosa sharply.
"Don"t, Rosa!"
"It"s all very well to say don"t; but that"s what will happen if you insist on stirring this dirty water."
"But you wouldn"t have him marry such a woman, child!"
"Perhaps he"d rather do even that than be shot," was the retort.
It was cruel, but effective; and after a few more words her mother gave in and went away, distressed to the point of tears.
"I"d rather have had you tell her the whole truth than grieve her like that, Rosa," I said.
"Possibly, but I wouldn"t. You don"t know mother, and I do. It was necessary to frighten her or she would have spread the story broadcast.
I"ll go and make it all right presently."
"Do you believe this story about your cousin?"
"I know it"s true, and so does Oscar. He told me the moment we heard Johann was coming back."
"But he was coming back in spite of it," pointed out Nessa.
"Because of his spy work, Nessa. He was a born spy. He wormed out a lot of things in America; and the Secret Service people, seeing how good he was at the work, sent him to England and, after what he found out there, told him to come home and promised to overlook the other affair.
That"ll explain why I wasn"t overjoyed to see you," she added to me.
I nodded. "And explain probably why von Gratzen thinks it worth while to send me back to England to recover my memory."
"Very possibly--if he really believes you"ve lost it, that is. Oscar says its the reason, and he ought to know. He laughed at it all; but it"s no mere laughing matter."
"Better to laugh than worry," said I.
"Now tell us all about your Anna," said Nessa, who refused to consider the thing serious.
I gave them a more detailed account of the interview and answered a heap of questions about Anna, describing the change of front she had shown, the way in which she had been led to confess about the child, and my opinion that von Erstein was at the back of it.
"I shall never forget that scene in the Thiergarten to-day," laughed Nessa. "You did look so thunderstruck."
"Nothing to what I felt, I can tell you. I never felt such a fool in my life. Of course I couldn"t tell whether she was in earnest or not."