"Cannot you wait till after the funeral?" she said crossly. "It will look so strange, your remaining here with me." "Ah, but no, madame. To those who might speak I am but your doctor, who has brought you here to recover yourself." "I am perfectly recovered--perfectly." "In that case we can talk," he insisted. She yielded, not being yet her old fighting self after the soul-shaking. It was dangerous to enter upon a contest with flawed armour, so she temporised. It would be best, she decided, to hear his story, without committing herself to comments. Later, when her nerves were steady, she could answer more cautiously the question he was about to ask at an inopportune moment. Her wary nature declined a consideration of marriage arrangements, to the extent of fixing a date for a ceremony in which she did not intend to take part. Still, he could plead, and she could, and would, procrastinate; therefore would the victory be with her when this unprepared interview ended. "Talk on," she said languidly; then added, with a spite created by shattered nerves, "though I think it very disagreeable of you, to make me look on that horrid dead thing." Demetrius was tolerant of feminine irrelevance. "Madame, to avert possible suspicion, it was necessary." "Undoubtedly it was necessary," admitted self-contradicting woman. "But--what a risk!" "Ah, pardon; in the dark, all cats are grey." "I know nothing about cats, but the faces of the dead certainly vary, M. Demetrius. And dangers cannot be explained away by proverbs." "In this case the danger has explained itself. We are now safe." The plural struck disagreeably on Leah's ear, and reminded her somewhat pointedly of the readjusted relations between herself and the doctor. "_We_ are now safe," she echoed, with reproving emphasis. "Assuredly," responded Demetrius, wilfully blind. "Monseigneur has been completely deceived; also M. le Marquis and Madame his wife; while your tears, my dear friend, have washed away any possible doubts which, for my part, I do not believe existed." Again she was faced by positive circumstances, for the Russian's last words hinted a sarcasm which annoyed her. It might be that, with still quivering nerves, she looked too anxiously for causes of offence, but the familiar ease of his manner was unpalatable. A second implied rebuke would avail as little as had the first, and Leah, mindful of her dignity, abstained from indicating in words the Rubicon he was not to cross. Demetrius knew overmuch for her to speak authoritatively, so it was necessary to permit him the odious intimacy of an accomplice. But he should pay hereafter for his usurpation of such a position: that she vowed inwardly, even while smiling on his success. Smiling was possible now, as the prospect of an inevitable verbal duel braced her to abnormal self-control. "Sit down," she commanded abruptly. "I have yet to learn details of your scheme." "_Our_ scheme," he reminded her.