Having some idea of this mental confusion, Leah waited for him to make an almost certain mistake, of which she intended to take full advantage. She was like a cat watching a mouse-hole, ready to pounce at an opportune moment. Meanwhile, she held her tongue, which sufficiently assured Aksakoff of her dangerous capability. He had never before beheld the ominous miracle of a silent woman, and his nerves were none the better for this surprising spectacle. "Demetrius, madame," he finally blundered, and recognised the blunder as the words left his mouth--"Demetrius is your friend." The attack was so weak that Lady Jim contemptuously gave him vantage-ground. "Katinka's lover also, I understand." "And the Czar's enemy," retorted Aksakoff angrily. "Let us have all his qualifications at once, madame." "By all means. Enemy, friend, lover. Well?" "It is very far from well, as you know, madame. I desire no Siberian felon for my son-in-law." "I never knew that M. Demetrius had been to Siberia." "He will go there yet--to his grave." "What an odd choice of a cemetery!" said Leah, shrugging; "but I assure you, M. Aksakoff, that I take no interest in these funeral arrangements." "No! Yet report says----" He was about to blurt out something still more undiplomatic, but that Lady Jim's pity for his ineptitude made her intervene. "I know what it says, and of course I deeply sympathise with you." "Madame!" "Yes, yes; I comprehend your feelings. It is hard that your own daughter should defy you, especially as M. Demetrius is merely a doctor." "He is a prince in our country," said Aksakoff, furious that she should take the lead, and at a loss how to regain it. "A felon also, I understood you to say." "Let him venture on French soil, and I shall certainly make him one," snarled Aksakoff, with unpleasantly glittering eyes. Lady Jim had scratched him rather dexterously, and the Tartar stood revealed. She scratched again. "Even if Katinka makes him your son-in-law?" "That shall never be!" He hesitated, then attempted a bear-hug. "I will speak plainly, madame----" "About Katinka and her infatuation? Oh, certainly." Aksakoff bit his lip. Used as he was to verbal fencing, Leah's handling of her tongue baffled him. He took refuge in truth-telling. "Demetrius does not love my daughter," he said bluntly. "How fortunate for you, and disagreeable for her!" "He loves an--an--an actress," explained Aksakoff, wondering if her interest in the man deepened to jealousy. Apparently it did not. "That would interest Katinka more than it does me," she assured him; then, affecting the innocence of ignorance, "May I ask why you chronicle small beer?" "Demetrius is your intimate friend." "My husband's medical attendant," she corrected quietly. "If you remove him to that distance, I confess to an indiscretion. Shall we return?" "Without admiring the Estrelles?" "Madame, the excuse was obvious." "For what?"