Heideck did not quite understand why she told him this.  Had he been a flirt, convinced of his own irresistibility, he would perhaps have found in her words a very transparent encouragement; but he was far from discerning any such meaning in Edith’s words.  The respect in which he had held this beautiful young wife, since the first moment of their acquaintance, sufficiently protected her from any such dishonourable suspicions.  That she had bidden him there at a time when she must know that their conversation would not be disturbed by the presence of her husband, must assuredly have had other reasons than the mere desire for an adventure.

And as he saw her sitting before him, with a look of deep distress on her face, there arose in his heart no other than the honest wish to be able to do this poor creature, who was evidently most unhappy, some chivalrous service.

But he had not the courage to suggest anything of the sort before she had given him in an unequivocal way a right to do so.  Hence it was that he waited in silence for anything further that she might wish to say.  And there was a fairly long and somewhat painful pause before Mrs. Irwin, evidently collecting all her courage, went on:  “You witnessed the scene that took place last evening in the officers’ mess between my husband and Captain McGregor?  If I have been rightly informed, I owe it solely to you that my husband did not, in the excitement of the moment, lay hand on himself.”

Heideck turned modestly away.

“I did absolutely nothing to give me any claim to your gratitude, Mrs. Irwin, and I do not really believe that your husband would have so far forgot himself as to commit such a silly and desperate deed.  At the last moment, a thought of you would certainly have restrained him from taking such a step.”

He was surprised at the expression of disdain which the face of the young wife assumed as he said this, and at the hard ring in her voice, when she replied—­

“Thoughts of me?  No! how little you know my husband.  He is not wont to make the smallest sacrifice for me, and, maybe, his voluntary death would not, after all, be the worst misery he is capable of inflicting on me.”

She saw the look of utter surprise in his eyes, and therefore quickly added—­

“You will, I know, consider me the most heartless woman in the world because I can talk to a stranger like this; but is not in your country loss of honour regarded as worse than death?”

“Under certain circumstances—­yes; but your husband’s position is not, I hope, to be viewed in this tragic light.  Judging from the impression that Captain McGregor’s personality has made upon me, I should say that he is not the man to drive Mr. Irwin to take an extreme course on account of a recklessly incurred debt at cards.”

“Oh no! you judge of that honourable man quite correctly.  He would be best pleased to forego the whole amount, and with the intention of bringing about such an arrangement he called here this afternoon.  But the foolish pride and unbounded vanity of Irwin brought all his good intentions to naught.  The result of McGregor’s well-meant endeavours was only a violent scene, which made matters a thousand times worse.  My husband is determined to pay his debt at any price.”