"In plain words, you are accusing me of being a spy."
"Ah, no!" he protested gently. "No one can be a spy in one"s own country. You are within your rights as a patriot in seeking to discover whatever may be useful knowledge to the English Government. That, I fear, is one reason for your kindness to me, Lady Maggie. I trust that it is not the only reason."
She knew better than to make the mistake of denial. After all, it was an absurdly unequal contest.
"It is not the only reason," she a.s.sured him, a little tremulously.
"I am glad. One word more upon this subject, and we speak of other things. Please, Lady Maggie, do not stoop to be hopelessly obvious in these efforts of yours. If I drop a pocketbook, believe me there will be nothing in it to interest you. If I speak with Immelan or any other, save in the secrecy of my chamber, there will be nothing which it will be worth your while to overhear. If Lord Dorminster should decide to adopt buccaneering expedients and kidnap me, the attempt would probably fail; and if it succeeded, it would in the end profit you nothing. As you say over here, for your sake, Lady Maggie, I will lay the cards upon the table. I am discussing with Oscar Immelan, and indirectly with an emissary from Russia, a certain scheme which, if carried out, would certainly be harmful to this country. I shall decide for or against that scheme entirely as it seems to me that it will be for the good or evil of my own country. Nothing will change my purpose in that. In your heart you know that nothing should change it. But I bring to the deliberations upon which we are engaged a new sentiment towards your country, since I have known you. Other things being equal, I shall decline the scheme for your sake, Lady Maggie."
There was a curious quivering at the corners of her mouth and a lump in her throat. She was absolutely incapable of speech. His grave and reasonable words seemed to fill her with a sense of importance. Her little efforts and schemes seemed puny, almost laughable.
"So you see," he continued, after a moment"s pause, "that you have done your work. You have done it very effectually. You have created a strong sentiment in my mind in favour of this country, a sentiment which I did not previously possess. There is no other way in which you could have influenced the decision soon to be arrived at. In return for what I have told you, Lady Maggie, I ask for no promise, but I beg you to forget the role you played in Germany; not to attempt--you will not be offended?--to influence events so far as I am concerned by any attempt at spying upon my actions, or by treating me any other way than with your whole confidence. I do not ask for any promise. I have said something to you which has been on my mind. Now I shall ask you a favour," he declared, rising to his feet. "You will walk with me through the flower gardens yonder. If there is one thing I miss in this country so much that the want of it makes me sometimes a little homesick," he went on, as they moved away together, "it is the perfume of the flowers in the morning and at night from the gardens of my summer palace. Next time you honour me with an hour or so of your time, I shall ask you to let me bring some pictures of my favourite home in China."
Maggie walked dutifully by his side, answering his frequent questions about flowers and shrubs, listening while he told her about his white peac.o.c.ks and the tame birds which were his own pets. Suddenly she broke into a fit of laughter. She looked up into his grave face, her eyes imploring him for sympathy.
"I feel so like a precocious child," she exclaimed, "who has been put in her place! No one has ever turned me inside out so skilfully, has made me feel such an ignorant little donkey. Do you know, I half like you for it, Prince Shan, and half detest you."
He seemed suddenly to become younger, to meet her upon her own ground.
"Please do not be angry," he begged. "Please do not think that I look upon you at all as a little child. You have brought something into my life for which I have searched and hoped, and I am deeply grateful to you. Shall I--go on?"
She caught at his wrist.
"Please not," she begged breathlessly. "Be content with this moment."
They had paused by the side of an arbour. She suddenly felt the pressure of his fingers upon her hand.
"I shall be content," he said, in a low tone, the pa.s.sion of which seemed to throw her senses into complete turmoil, "only when I have what my heart desires. But I will wait."
They walked almost into the midst of a little crowd of acquaintances.
Maggie was herself again immediately. She chattered away with Chalmers, and led him off to see a wonderful yellow rose. He watched her curiously. When they found themselves isolated at the end of the garden path, he ignored for a moment their mission.
"Any luck, Lady Maggie?" he asked.
She looked up at him, and to his amazement her eyes were swimming.
"I think that Prince Shan will be on our side," she replied.
CHAPTER XVII
Monsieur Felix Senn, the distinguished Frenchman who had just acquitted himself of the special mission which had brought him to London, was a little loath to depart from the historical chamber in Downing Street.
Diplomatically, the interview was over. The Prime Minister, however, on this occasion, was courteous, even affable. There seemed no reason for his visitor to hurry away.
"You will accept, I trust, sir," the latter begged, "this a.s.surance of my extreme regret at the present unfortunate condition of affairs. I am one of those who threw his hat into the air on the boulevards in August, 1914, when the news came that your great country had decided to fulfil her unwritten promises and in the cause of honour had declared war against Germany. I have never forgotten that moment, sir, even in those months and years of misunderstandings which followed the signing of the Treaty of Peace. I was one of those who pointed always to the sacrifices which Great Britain had made on our behalf, to her glorious deeds on land and sea. I have always been a friend of your country, Mr. Mervin Brown. That is why I think I was chosen to bring this dispatch."
"You are very welcome," the Prime Minister a.s.sured him. "As for the purpose of your mission, I a.s.sure you that I view it less seriously than you do. Glance with me at the position for a moment. Notwithstanding the era of peace which has sprung up all over the world, owing to the happy influence of the League of Nations, France alone has decided to follow still the path of militarism. Your last year"s army estimates were staggering. The number of men whom you keep out of your factories in order that they may learn a useless drill and wear an unnecessary uniform is, to the economist, simply scandalous. Look at the result.
Compare our imports and exports with yours. See the leaps and strides with which we have improved our financial position during the last ten years. We have not only recovered from the after effects of the war, but we have reached a state of prosperity which we never previously attained. You, on the other hand, are still groaning with enormous taxes. You carry a burden which is self-imposed and unnecessary. You, of all the nations, refuse to recognise the fact that the government of the great countries of the world has pa.s.sed into the hands of the democracy, and that democracies will not tolerate war."
"There I join issue with you, sir," the Frenchman replied. "These are the obvious and expressed views of other European countries, yet month by month come rumours of the training of great ma.s.ses of troops, far in excess of the numbers permitted by the League of Nations. There is all the time a haze of secrecy over what is going on in certain parts of Germany. And as for Russia, ostensibly the freest country in the world, Tsarism in its worst days never imposed such despotic restrictions concerning the coming and going of foreigners, in one particular district, at any rate."
"The Russian Government have certainly given us cause for complaint in that direction," Mr. Mervin Brown admitted. "Strong representations are being made to them at the present moment. On the other hand, the reason for their att.i.tude is easily enough understood. In the days when Russia lay exhausted, foreigners took too much advantage of her, attained far too close a grip upon her great natural resources. Russia has determined that what she has left she will keep to herself. The att.i.tude is reasonable, although I am free to admit that she is carrying her legislation against foreigners too far."
"What about the number of men she has under arms every year?" Monsieur Senn enquired.
"Russia has always a possible danger to fear from China, the new Colossus of Asia," the Prime Minister pointed out. "Even Russia herself has not made such strides within the last fifteen years as China. The secession of the Asiatic countries from the League of Nations demanded certain precautions which Russia is justified in taking."
The Frenchman had risen to his feet, but he still lingered. A tall man, of commanding presence, with olive complexion, deep brown eyes, and black hair lightly streaked with grey, Monsieur Felix Senn had been a great figure in the war of 1914-1918 and had retained since a commanding position in French politics. It had often been said that nothing but his great friendship for England had prevented his gaining the highest honours. His present mission, therefore, which was practically to end the alliance between the two countries, was a peculiarly painful one to him.
"I must tell you before we part, Mr. Mervin Brown," he said gravely, "that neither I nor many of my fellow countrymen share your optimism.
You seem to have inherited the timeworn theory that the War of 1914 was entirely provoked by the junker cla.s.s of Germans. That is not true. It was a people"s war, and the people have never forgotten what they were pleased to consider the harsh terms of the Treaty of Peace. Then as regards Russia, have you ever considered that Russia financially and politically is more than half German? When Germany lost the war, she had one great consolation--she acquired Russia. You have compared the economic condition of France to-day with that of your country, sir. I admit your commercial supremacy, but let me tell you this. I would not, for the greatest boon the G.o.ds could offer me, see France in the same helpless state as England is in to-day."
The Prime Minister rose also to his feet. He wore an air of offended dignity.
"Monsieur Senn," he declared, "the spirit of militarism is in the blood of your country. You cannot rid yourself of it in one generation or two.
But, believe me, no people"s government at any time in the future, whether it be English, Russian, German, or American, will ever dare to suggest or even to dream of a war of aggression or revenge. If we are comparatively unprotected, it is because we need no protection. We hear the footfall of your marching millions, and we thank G.o.d that that sound is represented in our country by the roar of machinery and the blaze of furnaces."
The Frenchman bowed and accepted the hand which the Prime Minister offered him.
"I present to you once more, sir," he said, "the compliments and infinite regrets of Monsieur le President."
A chapter of English history ended with the quiet pa.s.sing of Monsieur Senn into the sunlit street. The latter entered his waiting automobile and drove at once to the French Emba.s.sy. The Amba.s.sador listened in silence to his report.
"What about the Press?" was his only question.
"Monsieur le President insists upon the truth being known," the emissary announced. "France has pledged her word against secret treaties.
Besides, the honour of France must never afterwards be called in question."
The Amba.s.sador sighed. He was new to his present post, but he had grown grey in the service of his country.
"It is the end of a one-sided arrangement," he declared. "It is incredible that these people do not realise that it is against their own country--against themselves--that this slowly fermenting hatred is being brewed. The racial enmity between Germany and France is nothing compared with the hate of antagonistic kinship between Germany and England.
However, France is the gainer by to-day"s event. We have only our own frontiers to watch."
Monsieur Felix Senn wandered on to the St. Philip"s Club, where he found his old friend Prince Karschoff talking in a corner of the smoking room with Nigel. They were both of them prepared for the news which he presently communicated to them. Karschoff was bitter, Nigel silent.
"Well said Carlyle that "History is philosophy teaching by examples","
the former expounded. "How the historian of the future will revel in this epoch! What treatises he will write, what parallels he will draw!
See him point to the days when the aristocracy ruled England, and England fought and flourished; then to the epoch when the _bourgeoisie_ took their place, and with a mighty effort, met a great emergency and flourished. And finally, in sympathy with the great European upheaval, in sympathy with the great natural law of change, Labour ousts both, single-eyed Labour, and down goes England, crumbling into the dust!--Let us lunch, my friends. The cuisine is still good here."
Nigel excused himself.
"I am engaged," he said. "We may meet afterwards."
"Something tells me, my dear Nigel," Karschoff declared, "that you are bent on frivolity."
"If to lunch with a woman is frivolous, I plead guilty," Nigel replied.