The Double Traitor.
by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
CHAPTER I
The woman leaned across the table towards her companion.
"My friend," she said, "when we first met--I am ashamed, considering that I dine alone with you to-night, to reflect how short a time ago--you spoke of your removal here from Paris very much as though it were a veritable exile. I told you then that there might be surprises in store for you. This restaurant, for instance! We both know our Paris, yet do we lack anything here which you find at the Ritz or Giro"s?"
The young man looked around him appraisingly. The two were dining at one of the newest and most fashionable restaurants in Berlin. The room itself, although a little sombre by reason of its oak panelling, was relieved from absolute gloom by the lightness and elegance of its furniture and appointments, the profusion of flowers, and the soft grey carpet, so thickly piled that every sound was deadened. The delicate strains of music came from an invisible orchestra concealed behind a canopy of palms. The head-waiters had the correct clerical air, half complacent, half dignified. Among the other diners were many beautiful women in marvellous toilettes. A variety of uniforms, worn by the officers at different tables, gave colour and distinction to a _tout ensemble_ with which even Norgate could find no fault.
"Germany has changed very much since I was here as a boy," he confessed.
"One has heard of the growing wealth of Berlin, but I must say that I scarcely expected--"
He hesitated. His companion laughed softly at his embarra.s.sment.
"Do not forget," she interrupted, "that I am Austrian--Austrian, that is to say, with much English in my blood. What you say about Germans does not greatly concern me."
"Of course," Norgate resumed, as he watched the champagne poured into his gla.s.s, "one is too much inclined to form one"s conclusions about a nation from the types one meets travelling, and you know what the Germans have done for Monte Carlo and the Riviera--even, to a lesser extent, for Paris and Rome. Wherever they have been, for the last few years, they seem to have left the trail of the _nouveaux riches_. It is not only their clothes but their manners and bearing which affront."
The woman leaned her head for a moment against the tips of her slim and beautifully cared for fingers. She looked steadfastly across the table at her vis-a-vis.
"Now that you are here," she said softly, "you must forget those things.
You are a diplomatist, and it is for you, is it not, outwardly, at any rate, to see only the good of the country in which your work lies."
Norgate flushed very slightly. His companion"s words had savoured almost of a reproof.
"You are quite right," he admitted. "I have been here for a month, though, and you are the first person to whom I have spoken like this. And you yourself," he pointed out, "encouraged me, did you not, when you insisted upon your Austro-English nationality?"
"You must not take me too seriously," she begged, smiling. "I spoke foolishly, perhaps, but only for your good. You see, Mr. Francis Norgate, I am just a little interested in you and your career."
"And I, dear Baroness," he replied, smiling across at her, "am more than a little interested in--you."
She unfurled her fan.
"I believe," she sighed, "that you are going to flirt with me."
"I should enter into an unequal contest," Norgate a.s.serted. "My methods would seem too clumsy, because I should be too much in earnest."
"Whatever the truth may be about your methods," she declared, "I rather like them, or else I should not be risking my reputation in this still prudish city by dining with you alone and without a chaperon. Tell me a little about yourself. We have met three times, is it not--once at the Emba.s.sy, once at the Palace, and once when you paid me that call. How old are you? Tell me about your people in England, and where else you have served besides Paris?"
"I am thirty years old," he replied. "I started at Bukarest. From there I went to Rome. Then I was second attache at Paris, and finally, as you see, here."
"And your people--they are English, of course?"
"Naturally," he answered. "My mother died when I was quite young, and my father when I was at Eton. I have an estate in Hampshire which seems to get on very well without me."
"And you really care about your profession? You have the real feeling for diplomacy?"
"I think there is nothing else like it in the world," he a.s.sured her.
"You may well say that," she agreed enthusiastically. "I think you might almost add that there has been no time in the history of Europe so fraught with possibilities, so fascinating to study, as the present."
He looked at her keenly. It is the first instinct of a young diplomatist to draw in his horns when a beautiful young woman confesses herself interested in his profession.
"You, too, think of these things, then?" he remarked.
She shrugged her shoulders.
"But naturally! What is there to do for a woman but think? We cannot act, or rather, if we do, it is in a very insignificant way. We are lookers-on at most of the things in life worth doing."
"I will spare you all the obvious retorts," he said, "if you will tell me why you are gazing into that mirror so earnestly?"
"I was thinking," she confessed, "what a remarkably good-looking couple we were."
He followed the direction of her eyes. He himself was of a recognised type. His complexion was fair, his face clean-shaven and strong almost to ruggedness. His mouth was firm, his nose thin and straight, his grey eyes well-set. He was over six feet and rather slim for his height. But if his type, though attractive enough, was in its way ordinary, hers was entirely unusual. She, too, was slim, but so far from being tall, her figure was almost pet.i.te. Her dark brown hair was arranged in perfectly plain braids behind and with a slight fringe in front. Her complexion was pale. Her features were almost cameo-like in their delicacy and perfection, but any suggestion of coldness was dissipated at once by the extraordinary expressiveness of her mouth and the softness of her deep blue eyes. Norgate looked from the mirror into her face. There was a little smile upon his lips, but he said nothing.
"Some day," she said, "not in the restaurant here but when we are alone and have time, I should so much like to talk with you on really serious matters."
"There is one serious matter," he a.s.sured her, "which I should like to discuss with you now or at any time."
She made a little grimace at him.
"Let it be now, then," she suggested, leaning across the table. "We will leave my sort of serious things for another time. I am quite certain that I know where your sort is going to lead us. You are going to make love to me."
"Do you mind?" he asked earnestly.
She became suddenly grave.
"Not yet," she begged. "Let us talk and live nonsense for a few more weeks. You see, I really have not known you very long, have I, and this is a very dangerous city for flirtations. At Court one has to be so careful, and you know I am already considered far too much of a Bohemian here. I was even given to understand, a little time ago, by a very great lady, that my position was quite precarious."
"Does that--does anything matter if--"
"It is not of myself alone that I am thinking. Everything matters to one in your profession," she reminded him pointedly.
"I believe," he exclaimed, "that you think more of my profession than you do of me!"
"Quite impossible," she retorted mockingly. "And yet, as I dare say you have already realised, it is not only the things you say to our statesmen here, and the reports you make, which count. It is your daily life among the people of the nation to which you are attached, the friends you make among them, the hospitality you accept and offer, which has all the time its subtle significance. Now I am not sure, even, that I am, a very good companion for you, Mr. Francis Norgate."
"You are a very bad one for my peace of mind," he a.s.sured her.
She shook her head. "You say those things much too glibly," she declared.
"I am afraid that you have served a very long apprenticeship."
"If I have," he replied, leaning a little across the table, "it has been an apprenticeship only, a probationary period during which one struggles towards the real thing."
"You think you will know when you have found it?" she murmured.