"Oh yes, I saw her; and I hope. But of course one craves for some full assurance when such a prize is within reach; and--and I suppose one's nerves are a little excited, so that you imagine possibilities and dangers--" He rose, and took a turn up and down the room. "It is the old story, Evelyn. I distrust Lind." "What has that to do with it?" "As you say, what has that to do with it? If I had Natalie's full promise, I should care for nothing. She is a woman; she is not a school girl, to be frightened. If I had only that, I should start off for the North with a light heart." "Why not secure it, then?" "Perhaps it is scarcely fair to force myself on her at present until her father returns. Then she will be more her own mistress. But the doubt--I don't know when I may be back from the North--" At last he stopped short. "Yes, I will see her to-morrow at all hazards." By-and-by he began to tell his friend of the gay-hearted old albino he had encountered at Lind's house; though in the mean time he reserved to himself the secret of Natalie's mother being alive. "Lind must have an extraordinary faculty," he said at length, "of inspiring fear, and of getting people to obey him." "He does not look a ferocious person," Lord Evelyn said, with a smile. "I have always found him very courteous and pleasant--frank, amiable, and all the rest of it." "And yet here is this man Calabressa, an old friend of his; and he talks of Lind with a sort of mysterious awe. He is not a man whom you must think of thwarting. He is the Invulnerable, the Implacable. The fact is, I was inclined to laugh at my good friend Calabressa; but all the same, it was quite apparent that the effect Lind had produced on his mind was real enough." "Well, you know," said Lord Evelyn, "Lind has a great organization to control, and he must be a strict disciplinarian. It is the object of his life; everything else is of minor importance. Even you confess that you admire his tremendous power of work." "Yes, I do. I admire his administrative capacity; it is wonderful. But I don't believe for a moment that it was his mind that projected this big scheme. That must have been the work of an idealist, perhaps of a dozen of them, all adding and helping. I think he almost said as much to me one night. His business is to keep the machinery in working order, and he does it to perfection." "There is one thing about him: he never forgets, and he never forgives. You remember the story of Count Verdt?" "I have cause to remember it. I thought for a moment the wretch had committed suicide because I caught him cheating." "I have been told that Lind played with that fellow like a cat with a mouse. Verdt got hints from time to time that his punishment as a traitor was overtaking him; and yet he was allowed to live on in constant fear. And it was the Camorra, and not Lind, or any of Lind's friends, who finished him after all."