He opened a cupboard in his sideboard and gave her some soda-water. She had still the air of waiting for his reply. "What am I going to do?" he repeated. "Well, here I am with an idle twelve months. It makes no difference to anybody what time I get up, what time I go to bed, with whom or how I spend the day. I suppose to some people it would sound like Paradise. To me it is hateful. Shall I be your secretary?" "How do you know that I need a secretary?" she asked. "How should I?" he replied. "Yet you are not altogether an idler in life, are you?" For a moment she did not answer. The silence in the room was almost impressive. He looked at her over the top of the soda-water syphon whose handle he was manipulating. "What do you imagine might be my occupation, then?" she asked. "I have heard it suggested," he said slowly, "that you have been a useful intermediary in carrying messages of the utmost importance between the Kaiser and the Emperor of Austria." "Your Intelligence Department is not so bad," she remarked. "It is true. Why not? At the German Court I count for little, perhaps. In Austria my father was the Emperor's only personal friend. My mother was scarcely popular there--she was too completely English--but since my father died the Emperor will scarcely let me stay a week away. Yes, your information is perhaps true. I will supplement it, if you like. Since our little affair in the Café de Berlin, the Kaiser, who went out of his way to insist upon your removal from Berlin, has notified the Emperor that he would prefer to receive his most private dispatches either through the regular diplomatic channels or by some other messenger." Norgate's emphatic expletive was only half-stifled as she continued. "For myself," she said with a shrug, "I am not sorry. I found it very interesting, but of late those feelings of which I have told you have taken hold of me. I have felt as though a terrible shadow were brooding over the world." "Let me ask you once more," he begged. "Why are you in London?" "I received a wire from the Emperor," she explained, "instructing me to return at once to Vienna. If I go there, I know very well that I shall not be allowed to leave the city. I have been trusted implicitly, and they will keep me practically a prisoner. They will think that I may feel a resentment against the Kaiser, and they will be afraid. Therefore, I came here. I have every excuse for coming. It is according to my original plans. You will find that by to-morrow morning I shall have a second message from Vienna. All the same, I am not sure that I shall go." There was a ring at the bell. Norgate started, and Anna looked at the clock. "Who is that?" she asked. "Do you see the time?" Norgate moved to the door and threw it open. A waiter stood there. "What do you want?" demanded Norgate. The man pointed to the indicator. "The bell rang, sir," he replied. "Is there anything I can get for you?"