"I know," she continued slowly, "that Selingman has made advances to you.
I know that he has a devilish gift for enrolling on his list men of honour and conscience. He has the knack of subtle argument, of twisting facts and preying upon human weaknesses. You have been shockingly treated by your Foreign Office. You yourself are entirely out of sympathy with your Government. You know very well that England, as she is, is a country which has lost her ideals, a country in which many of her sons might indeed, without much reproach, lose their pride, Selingman knows this. He knows how to work upon these facts. He might very easily convince you that the truest service you could render your country was to a.s.sist her in pa.s.sing through a temporary tribulation."
He looked at her almost in surprise.
"You seem to know the man"s methods," he observed.
"I do," she answered, "and I detest them. Now, Francis, please tell me the truth. Is your name, too, upon that long roll of those who are pledged to a.s.sist his country?"
"It is," he admitted.
She drew a little away.
"You admit it? You have already consented?"
"I have drawn a quarter"s salary," Norgate confessed. "I have entered Selingman"s corps of the German Secret Service."
"You mean that you are a traitor!" she exclaimed.
"A traitor to the false England of to-day," Norgate replied, "a friend, I hope, of the real England."
She sat quite still for some moments.
"Somehow or other," she said, "I scarcely fancied that you would give in so easily."
"You seem disappointed," he remarked, "yet, after all, am I not on your side?"
"I suppose so," she answered, without enthusiasm.
There was another and a more prolonged silence. Norgate rose at last to his feet. He walked restlessly to the end of the room and back again. A dark ma.s.s of clouds had rolled up; the air seemed almost sulphurous with the presage of a coming storm. They looked out into the gathering darkness.
"I don"t understand," he said. "You are Austrian; that is the same as German. I tell you that I have come over on your side. You seem disappointed."
"Perhaps I am," she admitted, standing up, too, and linking her arm through his. "You see, my mother was English, and they say that I am entirely like her. I was brought up here in the English country.
Sometimes my life at Vienna and Berlin seems almost like a dream to me, something unreal, as though I were playing at being some other woman.
When I am back here, I feel as though I had come home. Do you know really that nothing would make me happier than to hear or think nothing about duty, to just know that I had come back to England to stay, and that you were English, and that we were going to live just the sort of life I pictured to myself that two people could live so happily over here, without too much ambition, without intrigue, simply and honestly. I am a little weary of cities and courts, Francis. To-night more than ever England seems to appeal to me, to remind me that I am one of her daughters."
"Are you trying me, Anna?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely.
"Trying you? Of course not!" she answered. "I am speaking to you just simply and naturally, because you are the one person in the world to whom I may speak like that."
"Then let"s drop it, both of us!" he exclaimed, holding her arm tightly to his. "Courts and cities can do without you, and Selingman can do without me. We"ll take a cottage somewhere and live through these evil days."
She shook her head.
"You and I are not like that, Francis," she declared. "When the storm breaks, we mustn"t be found hiding in our holes. You know that quite well. It is for us to decide what part we may play. You have chosen. So, in a measure, have I. Tomorrow I am going on a secret mission to Italy."
"Anna!" he cried in dismay.
"Alas, yes!" she repeated, "We may not even meet again, Francis, till the map of Europe has been rewritten with the blood of many of our friends and millions of our country-people. But I shall think of you, and the kiss you will give me now shall be the last upon my lips."
"You can go away?" he demanded. "You can leave me like this?"
"I must," she answered simply. "I have work before me. Good-by, Francis!
Somehow I knew what was coming. I believe that I am glad, dear, but I must think about it, and so must you."
Norgate left the hotel and walked out amid the first mutterings of the storm. He found a taxi and drove to his rooms. For an hour he sat before his window, watching the lightning play, fighting the thoughts which beat upon his brain, fighting all the time a losing battle. At midnight the storm had ceased. He walked back through the rain-streaming streets. The air was filled with sweet and pungent perfumes. The heaviness had pa.s.sed from the atmosphere. His own heart was lighter; he walked swiftly.
Outside her hotel he paused and looked up at the window. There was a light still burning in her room. He even fancied that he could see the outline of her figure leaning back in the easy-chair which he had wheeled up close to the cas.e.m.e.nt. He entered the hotel, stepped into the lift, ascended to her floor, and made his way with tingling pulses and beating heart along the corridor. He knocked softly at her door. There was a little hesitation, then he heard her voice on the other side.
"Who is that?"
"It is I--Francis," he answered softly. "Let me in."
There was a little exclamation. She opened the door, holding up her finger.
"Quietly," she whispered. "What is it, Francis? Why have you come back?
What has happened to you?"
He drew her into the room. She herself looked weary, and there were lines under her eyes. It seemed, even, as though she might have been weeping. But it was a new Norgate who spoke. His words rang out with a fierce vigour, his eyes seemed on fire.
"Anna," he cried, "I can"t fence with you. I can"t lie to you. I can"t deceive you. I"ve tried these things, and I went away choking, I had to come back. You shall know the truth, even though you betray me. I am no man of Selingman"s. I have taken his paltry money--it went last night to a hospital. I am for England--G.o.d knows it!--the England of any government, England, however misguided or mistaken. I want to do the work for her that"s easiest and that comes to me. I am on Selingman"s roll.
What do you think he"ll get from me? Nothing that isn"t false, no information that won"t mislead him, no facts save those I shall distort until they may seem so near the truth that he will build and count upon them. Every minute of my time will be spent to foil his schemes. They don"t believe me in Whitehall, or Selingman would be at Bow Street to-morrow morning. That"s why I am going my own way. Tell him, if you will. There is only one thing strong enough to bring me here, to risk everything, and that"s my love for you."
She was in his arms, sobbing and crying, and yet laughing. She clutched at him, drew down his face and covered his lips with kisses.
"Oh! I am so thankful," she cried, "so thankful! Francis, I ached--my heart ached to have you sit there and talk as you did. Now I know that you are the man I thought you were. Francis, we will work together."
"You mean it?"
"I do, England was my mother"s country, England shall be my husband"s country. I will tell you many things that should help. From now my work shall be for you. If they find me out, well, I will pay the price. You shall run your risk, Francis, for your country, and I must take mine; but at least we"ll keep our honour and our conscience and our love. Oh, this is a better parting, dear! This is a better good night!"
CHAPTER XXVI
Mrs. Benedek was the first to notice the transformation which had certainly taken place in Norgate"s appearance. She came and sat by his side upon the cushioned fender.
"What a metamorphosis!" she exclaimed. "Why, you look as though Providence had been showering countless benefits upon you."
There were several people lounging around, and Mrs. Benedek"s remark certainly had point.
"You look like Monty, when he"s had a winning week," one of them observed.
"It is something more than gross lucre," a young man declared, who had just strolled up. "I believe that it is a good fat appointment. Rome, perhaps, where every one of you fellows wants to get to, nowadays."
"Or perhaps," the Prince intervened, with a little bow, "Mrs. Benedek has promised to dine with you? She is generally responsible for the gloom or happiness of us poor males in this room."
Norgate smiled.