"If you render secret service to the Ministry you must never reason as to the why or the wherefore. Always rest a.s.sured that we are acting solely for the benefit and safety of Italy."
She thought deeply for a moment.
"When I met the Frenchman by appointment at a seat in the Montagnola garden, and gave him the packet, he broke it open, and I saw that some tracings were inside."
"And what did the Frenchman say?" inquired Borselli. "Oh, he was very polite," she laughed, blushing slightly. "We walked about the garden for nearly half an hour; for he was a pleasant man, who spoke Italian exceedingly well--evidently an officer."
"Most of the men in the French secret service are recruited from the army or the detective police," he remarked. "But I intend that Italy, like Russia, shall in future rely upon the shrewdness of clever women like yourself. This Frenchman said nothing regarding Solaro?"
"He merely remarked that he supposed the captain trusted me implicitly, and I, of course, replied in the affirmative. He wrote to me from the Hotel National in Lucerne, making the appointment in the Montagnola, indicating a certain seat, which showed that he was well acquainted with Bologna."
"Did he mention me?"
"No. He urged me, however, to deny all knowledge of the mysterious packet if taxed with receiving it. From that I concluded that he was in ignorance of how the whole affair had been arranged."
"Of course," he answered, with a laugh. "It would never do for France to learn our motives. We allow them to have the secrets of Tresenta because we have other ends in view. What they are you will know later."
"And in the meantime Felice Solaro is dismissed the army in disgrace?"
The sallow-faced man nodded. He did not tell her that he had been sentenced to fifteen years" imprisonment, for he knew how soft-hearted women are towards the innocent.
"Do you know," she said presently, "I have a suspicion which I think I ought to tell you. It is that the address upon the envelope which contained the packet of papers was not in Captain Solaro"s own handwriting."
He looked quickly into her face, frowning slightly and saying--
"Suspicions do not concern you, signorina. When I give you orders, it is for you first to execute them as secretly and expeditiously as possible, and secondly to have a care that your a.s.sociation with me is never discovered. You understand? I am merely Filipo Florena, shipping agent, of Genoa, and you write to me always to my office in the Via Balbi. Should you ever be in real peril, you have that code address by which a telegram will find me, either at home or abroad."
She saw that her remark caused him annoyance, therefore she began to apologise and declare her readiness to serve the War Department of her country in every way possible.
"As I have already said," he remarked in a quiet voice, obtaining her permission to smoke, "you have shown yourself in every way adapted to the responsible office I intend that you shall hold. You come of good family, although at present in straitened circ.u.mstances; you possess good looks, and you are a perfect model of all the virtues. Your mother, the widow of my old friend, Colonel Nodari, would, of course, object to the capacity in which you have once or twice served Italy.
Yet it is for the honour and safety of your country, recollect. You are an agent of the Ministry of War, and being in its employ should act obediently, without expressing any surprise at the information you are asked to obtain, or attempting to deduct any logical conclusion."
She sat silent, listening to the advice the schemer gave her. Her late father, a colonel of cavalry, had been the Under-Secretary"s friend, and the latter had been a frequent guest at their house. Indeed, she had known General Borselli ever since she had been a child, and of late, by clever ruses, this man had contrived to use her quick woman"s intelligence for his own ends. In recognition of her services, he had sent her small sums of money, which she found very useful for her dress bills, and on one or two occasions had sent her little trinkets, which she had locked up carefully from her mother"s prying eyes.
The Under-Secretary for War, far-seeing and deeply scheming always, recognised in her a very valuable a.s.sistant. She was known to the officers of a dozen garrisons, for she had been reared in the military atmosphere, therefore she was enabled to discover for him facts about persons that it would otherwise have been impossible for the Ministry to obtain.
A dozen times had she been successful in elucidating various sources of discontent, and gaining other information of greatest value to the War Office in Rome, information which Borselli used for his own ends and with the purpose of undermining the power of the Minister Camillo Morini. As the dead colonel"s daughter, and very popular on account of her bright disposition and good looks, she was the last person suspected of collecting that information which so mysteriously found its way to headquarters. And yet, under Borselli"s secret tuition, she had become as clever and ingenious an agent as any the Government employed.
Truth to tell, however, the part she had played in the Solaro affair, now that she realised how the unfortunate captain had been entrapped, caused her a deep pang of conscience. Several months before, in that very room, she had met the Under-Secretary by appointment, and he had, after some preliminaries, remarked upon her acquaintance with Captain Solaro, whereupon she blushingly explained that they had known each other for some years, ever since her father was in garrison on the frontier at Ventimiglia. He put some direct questions to her, and discovered that, although they corresponded frequently, she was in no way in love with him. Then he gave her instructions how to act, declaring that the captain was strongly suspected of secret dealing with a French agent, and that if she received a sealed packet by post from the Alpine garrison she was to hold it, and deal with it exactly in the manner which the captain ordered, but in the meantime she was also to communicate with the supposed shipping agent in the Via Balbi in Genoa-- himself. In brief, she was to appear very friendly with the captain, inspire him with every confidence, and yet betray him into the hands of the authorities. To her, the suggestion was a very unwelcome one, but Borselli urged her to carry out the delicate negotiation from patriotic motives--as daughter of a brave soldier who had served Italy so faithfully and well in the struggles of the sixties. It was this claptrap appeal to her loyalty that had caused her to become a secret agent of the Under-Secretary, which had now resulted, she knew, in the disgrace of an innocent man.
Why had the trap been baited so cunningly? she wondered within herself.
There was some hidden motive in the expulsion of Solaro from the army; what could it be? Surely that packet she had given the polite Frenchman had not really contained plans, for it was not likely that the War Office would actually connive at its own betrayal to France?
"I know that this recent little affair in the north has puzzled you, signorina," the general remarked slowly, his eyes fixed upon her. "But you will see that we have right on our side one day. Act with care, exercise a wise discretion always, and you will not only be able to a.s.sist us, but you will, in future, receive a secret payment from the Ministry of seven thousand lire per annum, together with a fair allowance for expenses. The first payment has already been made to you in recognition of your tact towards Solaro," he added, and taking from his wallet a slip of paper, he handed it to her, adding, "This is a draft on the Bank of Italy for the amount. Leave it in the bank if you wish--you will probably find it useful one day. You see it is upon the private account of Filipo Florena."
She, wondering, held the draft between her fingers. It was the first she had ever seen, and she told him so.
"Put it away in your writing-desk or your jewel-case. And when you want it you can cash it on sight at any branch of the Bank of Italy--or, indeed, at any moneychanger"s."
She folded it carefully, and slowly placed it in her purse, while he, glancing at her furtively and seeing that possession of such a sum had given her confidence, suddenly exclaimed--
"And now let me tell you the real reason why I am here."
CHAPTER TWELVE.
CONCERNS SOME CURIOUS INSTRUCTIONS.
"Well?" she asked, as he paused and looked at her. "Why are you in Bologna?"
"I am here," he answered, "for the purpose of sending you to England."
"To England!" she echoed, half rising from her chair.
"Yes. You speak English quite well, therefore I have obtained for you a situation as governess in a highly respectable and wealthy family," he said. "You remember you asked me a year ago to arrange that you might leave home and become your own mistress, for you told me you were tired of living on your mother"s narrow means."
"But I--"
"As I have already said, signorina," he interrupted, "there are no buts where the safety of Italy is concerned. You are wanted to go to England for two reasons: the change will be beneficial to you, and you will render a service to the Ministry."
"Then I am to accept the post with an ulterior object in view?" she remarked quickly.
"Of course," he replied, with a smile. "There are certain matters of which we desire information, and it lies with you to supply it. You are well educated, a good linguist, and just the stamp of young lady who goes as governess in a wealthy family. Therefore, the post being vacant, I at once secured it for you by giving you a very strong recommendation."
"I would rather remain in Italy," the girl implored, recognising almost for the first time how entirely she was in that man"s hands.
"No," he declared. "They expect you in England next week. The young lady, your pupil, is to begin her studies at once--while you will commence to study other matters on our behalf," he added, his dark face relaxing into a meaning grin.
She was silent, twisting her handkerchief nervously in her gloved hand.
She realised that so cleverly during the past three years had this man weaved a net about her she was now bound to obey him. But she had never dreamed that the services she rendered to the Ministry of War were to take her abroad--to England.
There, in Bologna, her status as the daughter of a colonel who had served with distinction and had died a commendatore gave her the _entree_ into what was a select circle of society for a provincial town, but strange perhaps to English ideas--a society composed mostly of needy counts and seedy countesses, marquises who lived in bare, half-furnished palaces upon the remnant of what past generations of gamblers and spendthrifts had left them, and government employees, together with the officers of the garrison. It was a degrading thing that she should go out as a governess, yet if it were really necessary, she must, she knew, bow to the inevitable.
At first she resisted his request, urging that it was impossible. She had only made the suggestion as a joke; she was ready to serve the Ministry of War at home in her own small way, but to go abroad, to become a secret agent of Italy in England, was quite another matter.
He smoked on in silence, standing at the window and pretending to be interested in the people pa.s.sing in the street below.
"My dear signorina," he exclaimed at last, turning his thin, unprepossessing face to her, and looking straight at her with his dark, crafty eyes, "I quite admit that to leave your home and friends is not a pleasant outlook. But you see it is imperative--absolutely imperative.
You can render us most valuable a.s.sistance. Indeed, we are relying entirely upon you."
"My mother will never consent to it," she a.s.sured him.
"Leave the signora to me," he laughed drily. "She will believe that you have become companion to an English lady. I will arrange it all. You know what entire confidence the signora has in me!"
Filomena smiled. This man, who held such a high office in the Ministry, had always been a friend of her family. Indeed, the colonel"s widow was greatly indebted to him, for, through him, the War Office now paid her a small sum annually in recognition of her late husband"s services to the kingdom, a payment which was not legal, but which had been ordered by Borselli and made law by decree of the Minister Morini himself.
"You will have a very pleasant time of it in England, I a.s.sure you," he went on. "As governess you will, of course, be treated as an underling, but remain patient, watchful, and attentive always to your instructions.
Remember that upon you depends much, that you may render greater service to Italy than even her amba.s.sadors. Knowledge is power, is an old and trite saying--and knowledge is in no place more powerful than the Ministry of War."
He treated her with a certain fatherly solicitude and confidence which impressed her. Four years ago, when she left the convent school at Ravenna and resumed the acquaintance formed in her childhood, he had gradually taken her into his confidence. He required certain information regarding certain officers in the Bologna garrison which with her woman"s subtle way of learning secrets she could obtain, while on his part he was ready to further her interests, to obtain that very necessary income for her mother--to act, in fact, as her friend, and to place her, in secret, under the protection of the Ministry of War. But secrecy was to be observed--secrecy in everything. To him alone was she to report, by letter or verbally. She was to act the spy on his behalf with cunning, care, and caution.