"You heard?"
"Yes, princess, I heard."
She was silent, and minutes pa.s.sed before she spoke again, so that I began to wonder if she had decided to say no more.
"Mr. Dubravnik," she said, and in English, "will you do me one favor in regard to this conversation you have overheard? Will you keep my confidence till to-morrow?"
I wondered again at the princess" coolness. Realizing the peril she was in, as she must unquestionably have done, it was strange that she could command herself so well as to remain perfectly in possession of all her faculties, in the face of such dire peril.
For a moment I hesitated. It was a very great favor that she asked of me so calmly; just how great a favor it was, she could not know; and yet there was no reason why I should not grant her request, being what I was and who I was. In that interval I wondered what this beautiful creature before me would think, or say, if she could have guessed that it was the chief of the most remarkable secret service bureau in the world whom she was addressing; if she could have guessed that the very man among all other men, whom she would least have thought of taking into her confidence, was the one before her who had listened to the conversation.
"Yes. I will do that," I replied, as deliberately as she had asked the question; and I watched her closely as I did so, holding myself well in hand, the while, in order that I might not instantly fall again under the spell of her fascinations.
"And come to me then? I will expect you at noon."
"Yes, princess."
"I thank you, sir. And now, if you will give me your arm, we will return to the drawing room."
I could not help marveling at the wonderful self possession of the woman whose life, liberty, honor, happiness, and whose all, had been by means of the conversation I had overheard, placed utterly at my mercy.
Even though I were really what she supposed me to be, an ordinary citizen, the danger was no less, for I had but to repeat what I had heard, to bring about an investigation which could result in only one way. Her composure was absolute as we walked side by side towards the house, nor did she once refer to the subject upon which we were both thinking so deeply. She was a shade paler than usual, but beyond that there was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had occurred; nor did she manifest any evidence of the nervous fear which would have prostrated most women in such a predicament.
Neither of us recurred to the subject that was uppermost in our minds.
Indeed we were silent during the moment that was required to traverse the length of the garden, and to pa.s.s from it into the house where the company was a.s.sembled.
But I was conscious of a subtle change in the character of my feelings towards Zara de Echeveria. The fascination that had enthralled me a little while back, was tempered now by a wholesome dread of this riotously beautiful creature who could use her G.o.d-given feminine attributes to attain such deplorable ends. What had seemed to me to be a creature of utter loveliness, had now degenerated to a thing that was momentarily horrible, because what I had believed to be all purity, and all perfection, had suddenly been revealed as something that was akin to unmoral.
We parted at the door, she to cross the room and join a group of her guests who were clamoring for her while I loitered, with no purpose save to avoid comment on the apparent fact that the princess and I had been so long a time together in the garden. The prince joined me while I stood there. He was accompanied by a man whom he wished to introduce to me.
"Ah, Dubravnik," he said. "I have been looking everywhere for you.
Didn"t know but you had gone. This is my friend Alexis Durnief. You"ve each heard me talk about the other, so you should be good friends."
"Captain Alexis Durnief?" I asked, shaking hands with him.
"The same," he replied. "Just returned from one of the far posts in Siberia, and I am very glad to be back here again. I haven"t had an opportunity to greet the princess yet; you kept her in the garden so long."
I thought that he gave me a significant glance as he made the laughing remark, but as the princess herself joined us at that moment, I did not give it a second thought. He gave her his arm, and they went away together, leaving the prince and myself alone.
"I think, if you do not mind, I will go," I said. The house of Princess Zara had suddenly become hateful to me."
"What! At this hour? Why?" Prince Michael was amazed.
"Oh, there is no reason, other than that I feel like it," I told him, shrugging my shoulders and trying to look bored.
"Then stay. Some of the best people are not here, yet. Or did your half hour in the garden upset you, Dubravnik?" He essayed a light laughter as he asked the question, but it had a hollow sound, nevertheless.
"Not at all," I a.s.sured him.
"I can a.s.sure you that it is an honor which the princess confers upon very few of her friends, and never on new acquaintances. You are the only exception I have ever known," he added.
"Indeed? We met in the garden by accident, and in reality were together not more than two minutes--the time that it takes to walk the length of it, so I do not feel as greatly honored as I might have done if she had gone there with me and had given me all that time----"
"I did not have an opportunity, for you never asked me to do so," said the soft tones of the princess immediately behind me; and as I turned she added: "but these rooms are suffocating, so if you will give me your arm now, Mr. Dubravnik, we will lead the way, and perhaps the others will follow. I know that the gentlemen are longing for an opportunity to smoke."
"Dubravnik was on the point of leaving us," the prince called after her. "You arrived just in time, princess. Perhaps you can persuade him to change his mind."
"Were you contemplating suicide, Mr. Dubravnik?" she asked laughing; but there was an undercurrent of gravity in her question which was deeply significant.
"Something very like it," I replied, as gravely, "since I was about to leave your presence."
"Supposing you to be serious"--and I felt that her hand unconsciously tightened its clasp upon my arm as we moved away--"would it not be better for me to do the deed, than for you?"
"I am afraid that the supposition is altogether too foreign to my nature for me to entertain it, princess."
We had entered the garden, and a throng of guests were trooping after us. I glanced down at my companion, and saw that she was regarding me rather anxiously through her lashes.
"Suicide is the only solution for all problems at once," she said.
"Pardon me; it is the solution for only one."
"Only one? What is that?"
"Moral cowardice."
"But there may be circ.u.mstances where it offers the only means of escape from an alternative that is infinitely worse, Mr. Dubravnik." We were in the act of pa.s.sing one of the little side paths, and I drew her into it, noticing that there was just a suggestion of resistance from my companion when I did so; but it was only for an instant. Then, as I paused abruptly underneath one of the green shaded globes, she added, as though she knew that I perfectly understood her: "I have really been considering the subject quite seriously."
I looked down at her. The green hue of the light above us seemed to have transformed her into a spirit. It had changed the color of her dress, of her hair, and it had touched her cheeks as with a magic wand which softened and heightened every feature. Instead of transforming her into something that she was not, I was convinced that it brought her back from what she was not to what she really was. At all events, I realized that she was in deadly earnest.
In that moment I felt again all the spell of this woman"s charm as she stood before me, beneath the glow of that shaded light, looking up into my face with her beautiful eyes now widened with serious concern, with her full, lithe, graceful body pulsing with life so close to mine, while she talked calmly, and seriously I knew, too, of destroying it by her own act.
What a place to talk of suicide, there, in the midst of that oriental garden, voluptuous with a thousand unspoken suggestions, laden with the perfume of flowers, glowing with the many colored lights that illumined it, rustling as with the sound of hidden insects as the gowns of gorgeously bedecked women brushed against the growing things! Over our heads, beyond the gla.s.s roof, the storm still howled, although with less violence, and the contrast seemed strangely in keeping with the condition of my own mind, outwardly so calm and composed, yet torn by the thousand conflicting emotions that were induced by the proximity of this entrancing creature, and the knowledge of what her fate, and therefore mine, must inevitably be.
CHAPTER X
SENTENCED TO DEATH
To what lengths our conversation on that subject might have gone I will never know, for at that instant we were interrupted by Prince Michael, who was seeking my companion. I had only time to utter one admonition:
"Extremities should never be resorted to until the necessity arises, nor is it wise for one to burn a bridge until it has been crossed; besides, you have an engagement at noon to-morrow which should be kept."
"Which will be kept," she murmured, in reply. Then Prince Michael came upon us.
The prince reported that many of the guests were calling for their hostess and so I utilized the opportunity to take my leave, which I did notwithstanding the protests of my friend. He told me to make use of his _sanka_, which would return and wait for him after it had deposited me at my door; but when I left the house the storm had lulled almost to stopping and as the distance was not great I decided to walk.
That decision very nearly cost me my life, and very materially altered my views regarding the princess as well as my intentions concerning her. As I pa.s.sed through the house on my way to the street I met Captain Durnief, who stopped me for a moment.