"It is useless to try to serve Monsieur; he does everything himself,"
murmured the poor girl, mortified.
"Nonsense, Fauchette, I have just praised you. It is always possible that I may overlook something."
Fauchette shook her head with an incredulous air.
I have found it good policy to maintain this character for infallibility with my staff. It is true, perhaps, that I do not very often blunder.
"And now," I went on, "it is time for the poison to take effect! As soon as I am dead, you will awake Madame."
I lay down on another couch, and composed myself in a rigid att.i.tude with my eyes closed. I did not believe, of course, that it would be possible to deceive a close observer, but I trusted to the wild emotions of the Princess to blind her to any signs of life.
I heard Fauchette dart on her mistress with a well-acted scream, and sprinkle her face and neck with cold water.
Sophia seemed to revive quickly.
"Andreas!" I heard her gasp. "Where? What has become of him?"
"M. Sterling has also fainted," the maid replied with a.s.sumed innocence.
"Ha!"
It was more like a shriek than a sob. I heard a hasty rustling of skirts, and then Sophia seemed to be kneeling beside me, and feeling for the beat of my heart.
"Go, Fauchette! Send Gregory instantly to M. Petrovitch to inform him that M. Sterling has been taken ill in my house, and that I fear he is dead."
The Princess began loosening my necktie.
Had Fauchette been present I should have been able to point to this as a proof that I was not incapable of an occasional oversight.
As a matter of fact, I had not antic.i.p.ated this very natural action on Sophia"s part. Yet it should have been evident that, were it only to keep up appearances before any one who might come to view my supposed corpse, she would be bound to free my neck.
And I was wearing the locket which contained the portrait of my promised bride!
I lay, really rigid with apprehension, while Sophia"s caressing fingers tenderly removed the necktie, and began unfastening my collar and shirt.
Suddenly I heard an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n--at first striking the note of surprise and curiosity merely, but deepening to fear.
In a moment the locket was lifted from my chest, and forced open with a metallic click.
"Ah!--Ah!"
She let the open locket drop from her fingers on my bare throat.
Instantly it was clutched up again. I could picture the frenzied gaze of jealousy and hate in those burning eyes of deepest violet; I could actually feel the pa.s.sionate breathing from between the clenched teeth of whitest ivory.
"Miserable child!" she hissed, the hand that held the locket trembling so that I could feel it against my neck. "So _you_ have robbed me of him!"
She paused, and then added, forcing out each word with a pa.s.sion of distilled hate----
"But you shall never have him! He shall be mine! Mine! Mine, in the grave!"
CHAPTER XXII
A PERILOUS MOMENT
I lay with every nerve strained to its utmost tension, listening for the least movement on the part of the maddened woman which might indicate she was about to stab me then and there.
In the silence that followed, if she did not hear the beating of my heart it was only because her own stormy emotions had rendered her deaf and blind to everything else.
For a time her rapid breathing continued to warm my uncovered neck.
Then she snapped-to the locket and let it fall, and rose from my side to pace the floor of the room with swift, irregular steps.
Fauchette, who must have been anxious to know how I was faring, now came back without waiting to be summoned.
"Well?" the Princess demanded, halting in her promenade.
"Gregory has gone for M. Petrovitch, Madame. Is there anything I can do?"
"I have tried every restorative," came the answer. "See if you can detect any signs of life."
The last command seemed to come as an afterthought. No doubt, Sophia wished to test her work before Petrovitch arrived.
I was encouraged to think that she had no immediate intention of killing me; and as the maid bent over me I contrived to give her hand a rea.s.suring squeeze.
"He is quite dead, Madame," the girl said, turning away. "Would you like to have the body carried into another room?"
"No. Wait till M. Petrovitch comes," her mistress replied. "You can go."
As my a.s.sistant withdrew I again became on the alert for any dangerous move on the part of the Princess.
It was not long before I was conscious that the room had grown darker.
I gathered that Sophia had switched off some of the lights in order to make it more difficult for Petrovitch to detect her fraud, and again I took courage.
Some muttered words helped me to understand the plan of the desperate woman.
"I will give him one chance. He shall choose. Men do not die for love in these days."
There was little doubt that she intended to lock me up in her oratory and hold me a prisoner till I consented to sacrifice my faith to her j.a.panese rival.
Satisfied that there was little risk of any immediate violence, I waited calmly for the arrival of Sophia"s colleague, or master.
The head of the Manchurian Syndicate lost no time on the way. Very soon I heard the door open and the familiar voice, with its slightly affected accent, saying,