He sat thinking a moment. "I ought to tell you, I think. There has been some rumour again of betrayal of our plans. Only vague, I give you my honour; but hints which I do not understand. You have not spoken to any one?"
"Not to a soul."
"I do not understand it. I do not understand it," he repeated.
"Questions were even put to me about myself--to me, who have given so much to the cause and done so much, too. But if any questions are put to you to-day, you will understand the reason. Will you come here this afternoon?"
After some further conversation I agreed to return in the afternoon and left him. I attached little or no importance to his statements at the time, but they had a more than sinister look when I came to recall them in the light of after events.
I knew I was playing with double-edged tools in the affair. Suspicion of my good faith would bring on me the anger of men to whom treachery was the one unforgivable crime; while, on the other hand, the mere fact of my having any dealings at all with them might place me in jeopardy with the authorities.
It was for this reason that I had resolved to prevent von Felsen having any knowledge of the part I was playing until the very last moment. I should not be a free man for an hour after he got wind of the thing, unless I was in a position to call a halt by means of my knowledge of his own acts.
From Ziegler I went to Chalice, and found matters in a pretty muddle.
Ever since I had seen her two days before she had been in a condition of excited indecision; and as I had not gone to her, she had sent for Prince von Graven. He was there when I arrived, and she had just told him all I had said to her.
His reception of me may be imagined. He looked as if it would have given him the pleasure of his life to run me through there and then, and his furiously indignant denunciation of my interference in the affair matched his looks.
A very warm altercation followed, in the course of which it came out that the Kaiser had heard the rumours in regard to the Prince and Althea. Chalice watched us both and appeared to side with each in turn.
She evidently wished to be able both to marry a man of his high rank, and yet to secure the triumph of the promised Court patronage.
At length I began to find myself losing command of my temper under the fire of his invective, so I held my tongue and let him rage at will.
"If ill temper would solve the difficulty we should very soon settle it," I declared, when a pause gave me a chance to speak. "But we are not doing an atom of good by all this talk. The thing is perfectly simple: Fraulein Chalice can either give up this chance or give up you.
One of the two sacrifices she must make, and if we stay here and talk till to-morrow morning we can"t alter the position."
"You have no right to interfere, sir," he rapped back.
"My interference has consisted in telling her the plain truth."
"To attempt to come between us in this way is unjustifiable, monstrous.
I will not allow it either. You shall answer to me, sir."
"I don"t care a snap of my finger for your anger, Prince von Graven; and I certainly do not intend to have a personal quarrel over the thing.
Can you deny that I have put the matter in its true light?"
"That is not the point. The point is your conduct."
I shrugged my shoulders and turned to Chalice. "It is for you to decide.
I shall of course take your answer as final."
"But how can I decide? Is there no way out?"
"There is only one of the two ways. You can"t have both. I will come for your decision in an hour," I replied and rose. I thought that it would be best for me to leave them together to discuss it alone.
But Chalice stopped me. "Don"t go, Herr Bastable; but excuse us a moment"; and she took him into another room.
She was soon back again, smiling and carolling an air from one of her songs. "The Prince has gone," she announced. "He is in a tearing rage and vows he will never see me again if I do what you ask. But I shall do it. I wrote the letter yesterday, and it took me such a time. Here it is"; and she handed it to me.
"I may place this in hands which will give it to the Emperor?"
"Why, of course," she cried. "But you must make sure that it does get to him."
"I can promise that, I think."
"You don"t know how I thank you, Herr Bastable," she said gaily, as we shook hands. "And if I tell the truth, I would really rather please the Kaiser than the Prince. I would indeed, although I didn"t dare to say so while he was here. He is such a dear fellow. I hate to make him angry; but he is awfully handsome when he is in a rage, isn"t he? And if he doesn"t come round this time, I can"t help it, can I? And now I must get to my practice. Good-bye."
In this way she settled it; and whether she did or did not care for the man who was willing to sacrifice all his prospects in life for her sake, I could not even then determine. Nor did I, in truth, very much care.
I went straight with the letter to Herr Borsen, who showed some surprise at seeing me. "I heard strange news about you, Herr Bastable. I am glad to see there was no truth in it. You were reported to have disappeared."
"I have reappeared, that"s all; and I have news for you, which I think you will agree is of importance."
"You newspaper men have certainly the habit of rushing matters," he smiled. "What is it?"
"We must have a deal over it. It is something that the Emperor will be very glad to know; and if I tell you, will you give me an undertaking to get it direct to him?"
"Would you wish His Majesty to be also a party to the matter?" he asked with a very dry smile. "Or perhaps you would prefer an audience with him?"
I affected to take his jibe as earnest and replied very seriously: "Yes, that would be by far the simplest course."
"You could then force your own terms on him."
"Exactly. Do you think I had better just drop in on him in a friendly way?" I paused and then added: "Or shall we quit fooling and settle something?"
"What is the nature of your news?"
"I understand that at length the news about Prince von Graven and Fraulein Korper has reached His Majesty. Is that so?"
"Undoubtedly; and with results."
"Well, if I can hand you a statement as to the truth of the whole affair, together with a written renunciation on the lady"s part, will you pledge me your word of honour that it shall go straight to the Kaiser?"
"You"re a cool hand, Bastable," he said laughing.
"Well, my dear fellow, there are other ways of doing it; but I know enough of Court affairs to be aware that any one who could claim the credit of having obtained such a doc.u.ment would do himself a good turn.
I would rather you had the credit than any one else; but you see you are Count von Felsen"s secretary, and I have to reckon with him."
He sat thinking. He knew the advantage to be gained as well as I did.
"Yes, I"ll give you my word," he said after the pause.
I handed him the letter which Chalice had given me without a word, and watched his mounting surprise as he read it. "But this is not from Fraulein Korper at all."
"No. That"s the mistake. The Prince cares no more for her than you do"; and I made the matter plain, taking good care to emphasize the sacrifice which Althea had made and her real motive.
"She is a singer, then?" he asked, referring to Chalice.
"She has one of the most beautiful voices you ever heard, Borsen. She is Grumpel"s favourite pupil, and he is putting her into the programme for the State concert next week in the place of his Prima, who has disappointed him."