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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13123 ***
+
+THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN
+
+by
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+1922
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"A club for diplomats and gentlemen," Prince Karschoff remarked, looking
+lazily through a little cloud of tobacco smoke around the spacious but
+almost deserted card room. "The classification seems comprehensive
+enough, yet it seems impossible to get even a decent rubber of bridge."
+
+Sir Daniel Harker, a many years retired plenipotentiary to one of the
+smaller Powers, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Personally, I have come to the conclusion," he declared, "that the
+_raison d'être_ for the club seems to be passing. There is no diplomacy,
+nowadays, and every man who pays his taxes is a gentleman. Kingley, you
+are the youngest. Ransack the club and find a fourth."
+
+The Honourable Nigel Kingley smiled lazily from the depths of his
+easy-chair. He was a young Englishman of normal type, long-limbed,
+clean-shaven, with good features, a humorous mouth and keen grey eyes.
+
+"In actual years," he admitted, "I may have the advantage of you two,
+but so far as regards the qualities of youth, Karschoff is the youngest
+man here. Besides, no one could refuse him anything."
+
+"It is a subterfuge," the Prince objected, "but if I must go, I will go
+presently. We will wait five minutes, in case Providence should be kind
+to us."
+
+The three men relapsed into silence. They were seated in a comfortable
+recess of the card room of the St. Philip's Club. The atmosphere of the
+apartment seemed redolent with suggestions of faded splendour. There was
+a faint perfume of Russian calf from the many rows of musty volumes
+which still filled the stately bookcases. The oil paintings which hung
+upon the walls belonged to a remote period. In a distant corner, four
+other men were playing bridge, speechless and almost motionless, the
+white faces of two of them like cameos under the electric light and
+against the dark walls. There was no sound except the soft patter of the
+cards and the subdued movements of a servant preparing another bridge
+table by the side of the three men. Then the door of the room was
+quietly opened and closed. A man of youthful middle-age, carefully
+dressed, with a large, clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and fair hair
+sprinkled with grey, came towards them. He was well set up, almost
+anxiously ingratiating in manner.
+
+"You see now what Providence has sent," Sir Daniel Harker observed under
+his breath.
+
+"It is enough to make an atheist of one, this!" the Prince muttered.
+
+"Any bridge?" the newcomer enquired, seating himself at the table and
+shuffling one of the packs of cards.
+
+The three men rose to their feet with varying degrees of unwillingness.
+
+"Immelan is too good for us," Sir Daniel grumbled. "He always wins."
+
+"I am lucky," the newcomer admitted, "but I may be your partner; in
+which case, you too will win."
+
+"If you are my partner," the Prince declared, "I shall play for five
+pounds a hundred. I desire to gamble. London is beginning to weary me."
+
+"Mr. Kingley is a better player, though not so lucky," Immelan
+acknowledged, with a little bow.
+
+"Never believe it, with all due respect to our young friend here," Sir
+Daniel replied, as he cut a card. "Kingley plays like a man with brain
+but without subtlety. In a duel between you two, I would back Immelan
+every time."
+
+Kingley took his place at the table with a little gesture of
+resignation. He looked across the table to where Immelan sat displaying
+the card which he had just cut. The eyes of the two men met. A few
+seconds of somewhat significant silence followed. Then Immelan gathered
+up the cards.
+
+"I have the utmost respect for Mr. Kingley as an adversary," he said.
+
+The latter bowed a little ironically.
+
+"May you always preserve that sentiment! To-day, chance seems to have
+made us partners. Your deal, Mr. Immelan."
+
+"What stakes?" the Prince enquired, settling himself down in his chair.
+
+"They are for you to name," Immelan declared.
+
+The Prince laughed shortly.
+
+"I believe you are as great a gambler at heart as I am," he observed.
+
+"With Mr. Kingley for my partner, and the game one of skill," was the
+courteous reply, "I do not need to limit my stakes."
+
+A servant crossed the room, bringing a note upon a tray. He presented it
+to Kingley, who opened and read it through without change of
+countenance. When he had finished it, however, he laid his cards face
+downwards upon the table.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I owe you my most profound apologies. I am called
+away at once on a matter of urgent business."
+
+"But this is most annoying," the Prince declared irritably.
+
+"Here comes my saviour," Kingley remarked, as another man entered the
+card room. "Henderson will take my place. Glad I haven't to break you
+up, after all. Henderson, will you play a rubber?"
+
+The newcomer assented. Nigel Kingley made his adieux and crossed the
+room. Immelan watched him curiously.
+
+"What is our friend Kingley's profession?" he enquired.
+
+"He has no profession," Sir Daniel replied. "He has never come into
+touch with the sordid needs of these money-grubbing days. He is the
+nephew and heir of the Earl of Dorminster."
+
+Immelan looked away from the retreating figure.
+
+"Lord Dorminster," he murmured. "The same Lord Dorminster who was in the
+Government many years ago?"
+
+"He was Foreign Secretary when I was Governor of Jamaica," Sir Daniel
+answered. "A very brilliant man he was in those days."
+
+Immelan nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"I remember," he said.
+
+Nigel Kingley, on leaving the St. Philip's Club, was driven at once, in
+the automobile which he found awaiting him, to a large corner house in
+Belgrave Square, which he entered with the air of an habitué. The
+waiting major-domo took him at once in charge and piloted him across the
+hall.
+
+"His lordship is very much occupied, Mr. Nigel," he announced. "He is
+not seeing any other callers. He left word, however, that you were to be
+shown in the moment you arrived."
+
+"His lordship is quite well, I hope?"
+
+"Well in health, sir, but worried, and I don't wonder at it," the man
+replied, speaking with the respectful freedom of an old servant. "I
+never thought I'd live to see such times as these."
+
+A man in the early sixties, still good-looking, notwithstanding a
+somewhat worn expression, looked up from his seat at the library table
+on Kingley's entrance. He nodded, but waited until the door was closed
+behind the retreating servant before he spoke.
+
+"Good of you to come, Nigel," he said. "Bring your chair up here."
+
+"Bad news?" the newcomer enquired.
+
+"Damnable!"
+
+There was a brief silence, during which Nigel, knowing his uncle's
+humours, leaned back in his chair and waited. Upon the table was a
+little pile of closely written manuscript, and by their side several
+black-bound code books, upon which the "F.O.Private" still remained,
+though almost obliterated with time. Lord Dorminster's occupation was
+apparent. He was decoding a message of unusual length. Presently he
+turned away from the table, however, and faced his nephew. His hands
+travelled to his waistcoat pocket. He drew out a cigarette from a thin
+gold case, lit it and began to smoke. Then he crossed his legs and
+leaned a little farther back in his chair.
+
+"Nigel," he said, "we are living in strange times."
+
+"No one denies that, sir," was the grave assent.
+
+Lord Dorminster glanced at the calendar which stood upon the desk.
+
+"To-day," he continued, "is the twenty-third day of March, nineteen
+hundred and thirty-four. Fifteen years ago that terrible Peace Treaty
+was signed. Since then you know what the history of our country has
+been. I am not blowing my own trumpet when I say that nearly every man
+with true political insight has been cast adrift. At the present moment
+the country is in the hands of a body of highly respectable and
+well-meaning men who, as a parish council, might conduct the affairs of
+Dorminster Town with unqualified success. As statesmen they do not
+exist. It seems to me, Nigel, that you and I are going to see in reality
+that spectre which terrified the world twenty years ago. We are going to
+see the breaking up of a mighty empire."
+
+"Tell me what has happened or is going to happen," Nigel begged.
+
+"Well, for one thing," his uncle replied, "the Emperor of the East is
+preparing for a visit to Europe. He will be here probably next month.
+You know whom I mean, of course?"
+
+"Prince Shan!" Nigel exclaimed.
+
+"Prince Shan of China," Lord Dorminster assented. "His coming links up
+many things which had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what happens
+during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide the destinies of this
+country, and yet I wouldn't mind betting you a thousand to one that
+there isn't a single official of the Government who has the slightest
+idea as to why he is coming, or that he is coming at all."
+
+"Do you know?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan for the moment, Nigel. Now
+listen. You go about a great deal. What do people say about
+me--honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the light."
+
+"They call you a faddist and a scaremonger," Nigel confessed, "yet there
+are one or two, especially at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and
+ambassadors whose place in the world has passed away, who think and
+believe differently. You know, sir, that I am amongst them."
+
+Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.
+
+"Well," he said, "I fancy I am about to prove myself. Seven years ago,
+it was," he went on reminiscently, "when the new National Party came
+into supreme power. You know one of their first battle cries--'Down with
+all secret treaties! Down with all secret diplomacy! Let nothing exist
+but an honest commercial understanding between the different countries
+of the world!' How Germany and Russia howled with joy! In place of an
+English statesman with his country's broad interests at heart, we have
+in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen representatives of the great
+industries, whose object, in their own words, is, I believe, to develop
+friendly commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between the nations.
+Not only our ambassadors but our secret service were swept clean out of
+existence. I remember going to Broadley, the day he was appointed
+Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple question. I asked him whether
+he did not consider it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of
+the other great nations, however friendly they might seem, to keep
+himself assured that all these expressions of good will were honourable,
+and that in the heart of the German nation that great craving for
+revenge which is the natural heritage of the present generation had
+really become dissipated. Broadley smiled at me. 'Lord Dorminster,' he
+said, 'the chief cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We look
+upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It is the people of Germany
+with whom we are in touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
+of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides, there is the League
+of Nations.' Those were Broadley's views then, and they are his views
+to-day. You know what I did?"
+
+Nigel assented cautiously.
+
+"I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few of us," he observed. "You
+have been running an unofficial secret service of your own."
+
+"Precisely! I have had a few agents at work for over a year, and when I
+have finished decoding this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which
+will prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold of terrible
+events. The worst of it is--well, we have been found out."
+
+"What do you mean?" Nigel asked quickly.
+
+His uncle's sensitive lips quivered.
+
+"You knew Sidwell?"
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"Sidwell was found stabbed to the heart in a café in Petrograd, three
+weeks ago," Lord Dorminster announced. "An official report of the
+enquiry into his death informs his relatives that his death was due to a
+quarrel with some Russian sailors over one of the women of the quarter
+where he was found."
+
+"Horrible!" Nigel muttered.
+
+"Sidwell was one of those unnatural people, as you know," Lord
+Dorminster went on, "who never touched wine or spirits and who hated
+women. To continue. Atcheson was a friend of yours, wasn't he?"
+
+"Of course! He was at Eton with me. It was I who first brought him here
+to dine. Don't tell me that anything has happened to Jim Atcheson!"
+
+"This dispatch is from him," Lord Dorminster replied, indicating the
+pile of manuscript upon the table,--"a dispatch which came into my hands
+in a most marvellous fashion. He died last week in a nursing home
+in--well, let us say a foreign capital. The professor in charge of the
+hospital sends a long report as to the unhappy disease from which he
+suffered. As a matter of fact, he was poisoned."
+
+Nigel Kingley had been a soldier in his youth and he was a brave man.
+Nevertheless, the horror of these things struck a cold chill to his
+heart. He seemed suddenly to be looking into the faces of spectres, to
+hear the birth of the winds of destruction.
+
+"That is all I have to say to you for the moment," his uncle concluded
+gravely. "In an hour I shall have finished decoding this dispatch, and I
+propose then to take you into my entire confidence. In the meantime, I
+want you to go and talk for a few minutes to the cleverest woman in
+England, the woman who, in the face of a whole army of policemen and
+detectives, crossed the North Sea yesterday afternoon with this in her
+pocket."
+
+"You don't mean Maggie?" Nigel exclaimed eagerly.
+
+His uncle nodded.
+
+"You will find her in the boudoir," he said. "I told her that you were
+coming. In an hour's time, return here."
+
+Lord Dorminster rose to his feet as his nephew turned to depart. He laid
+his hand upon the latter's shoulder, and Nigel always remembered the
+grave kindliness of his tone and expression.
+
+"Nigel," he sighed, "I am afraid I shall be putting upon your shoulders
+a terrible burden, but there is no one else to whom I can turn."
+
+"There is no one else to whom you ought to turn, sir," the young man
+replied simply. "I shall be back in an hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Lady Maggie Trent, a stepdaughter of the Earl of Dorminster, was one of
+those young women who had baffled description for some years before she
+had commenced to take life seriously. She was neither fair nor dark,
+petite nor tall. No one could ever have called her nondescript, or have
+extolled any particular grace of form or feature. Her complexion had
+defied the ravages of sun and wind and that moderate indulgence in
+cigarettes and cocktails which the youth of her day affected. Her nose
+was inclined to be retroussé, her mouth tender but impudent, her grey
+eyes mostly veiled in expression but capable of wonderful changes. She
+was curled up in a chair when Nigel entered, immersed in a fashion
+paper. She held out her left hand, which he raised to his lips.
+
+"Well, Nigel, dear," she exclaimed, "what do you think of my new
+profession?"
+
+"I hate it," he answered frankly.
+
+She sighed and laid down the fashion paper resignedly.
+
+"You always did object to a woman doing anything in the least useful. Do
+you realise that if anything in the world can save this stupid old
+country, I have done it?"
+
+"I realise that you've been running hideous risks," he replied.
+
+She looked at him petulantly.
+
+"What of it?" she demanded. "We all run risks when we do anything worth
+while."
+
+"Not quite the sort that you have been facing."
+
+She smiled thoughtfully.
+
+"Do you know exactly where I have been?" she asked.
+
+"No idea," he confessed. "What my uncle has just told me was a complete
+revelation, so far as I was concerned. I believed, with the rest of the
+world, what the newspapers announced--that you were visiting Japan and
+China, and afterwards the South Sea Islands, with the Wendercombes."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Dad wanted to tell you," she said, "but it was I who made him promise
+not to. I was afraid you would be disagreeable about it. We arranged it
+all with the Wendercombes, but as a matter of fact I did not even start
+with them. For the last eight months, I have been living part of the
+time in Berlin and part of the time in a country house near the Black
+Forest."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Not a bit of it! I have been governess to the two daughters of Herr
+Essendorf."
+
+"Essendorf, the President of the German Republic?"
+
+Lady Maggie nodded.
+
+"He isn't a bit like his pictures. He is a huge fat man and he eats a
+great deal too much. Oh, the horror of those meals!" she added, with a
+little shudder. "Think of me, dear Nigel, who never eat more than an
+omelette and some fruit for luncheon, compelled to sit down every day to
+a _mittagessen_! I wonder I have any digestion left at all."
+
+"Do you mean that you were there under your own name?" he asked
+incredulously.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I secured some perfectly good testimonials before I left," she said.
+"They referred to a Miss Brown, the daughter of Prebendary Brown. I was
+Miss Brown."
+
+"Great Heavens!" Nigel muttered under his breath. "You heard about
+Atcheson?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Poor fellow, they got him all right. You talk about thrills, Nigel,"
+she went on. "Do you know that the last night before I left for my
+vacation, I actually heard that fat old Essendorf chuckling with his
+wife about how his clever police had laid an English spy by the heels,
+and telling her, also, of the papers which they had discovered and
+handed over. All the time the real dispatch, written by Atcheson when
+he was dying, was sewn into my corsets. How's that for an exciting
+situation?"
+
+"It's a man's job, anyhow," Nigel declared.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and abandoned the personal side of the
+subject.
+
+"Have you been in Germany lately, Nigel?" she enquired.
+
+"Not for many years," he answered.
+
+She stretched herself out upon the couch and lit a cigarette.
+
+"The Germany of before the war of course I can't remember," she said
+pensively. "I imagine, however, that there was a sort of instinctive
+jealous dislike towards England and everything English, simply because
+England had had a long start in colonisation, commerce and all the rest
+of it. But the feeling in Germany now, although it is marvellously
+hidden, is something perfectly amazing. It absolutely vibrates wherever
+you go. The silence makes it all the more menacing. Soon after I got to
+Berlin, I bought a copy of the Treaty of Peace and read it. Nigel, was
+it necessary to have been so bitterly cruel to a beaten enemy?"
+
+"Logically it would seem not," Nigel admitted. "Actually, we cannot put
+ourselves back into the spirit of those days. You must remember that it
+was an unprovoked war, a war engineered by Germany for the sheer
+purposes of aggression. That is why a punitive spirit entered into our
+subsequent negotiations."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I expect history will tell us some day," she continued, "that we needed
+a great statesman of the Beaconsfield type at the Peace table. However,
+that is all ended. They sowed the seed at Versailles, and I think we are
+going to reap the harvest."
+
+"After all," Nigel observed thoughtfully, "it is very difficult to see
+what practical interference there could be with the peace of the world.
+I can very well believe that the spirit is there, but when it comes to
+hard facts--well, what can they do? England can never be invaded. The
+war of 1914 proved that. Besides, Germany now has a representative on
+the League of Nations. She is bound to toe the line with the rest."
+
+"It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked," Maggie reminded him.
+"We seem somehow or other to have found our way into the bad books of
+every country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or what?"
+
+"I should attribute it," Nigel replied, "to the passing of our old
+school of ambassadors. After all, ambassadors are born, not made, and
+they should be--they very often were--men of rare tact and perceptions.
+We have no one now to inform us of the prejudices and humours of the
+nations. We often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many
+opportunities of a _rapprochement_. It is trade, trade, trade and
+nothing else, the whole of the time, and the men whom we sent to the
+different Courts to further our commercial interests are not the type to
+keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate matters which
+sometimes need adjustment between two countries."
+
+"That may be the explanation of all the bad feeling," Maggie admitted,
+"and you may be right when you say that any practical move against us is
+almost impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is terribly
+exercised about the coming of Prince Shan."
+
+"I must get him to talk to me," Nigel said. "As a matter of fact, I
+don't think that we need fear Asiatic intervention over here. Prince
+Shan is too great a diplomatist to risk his country's new prosperity."
+
+"Prince Shan," Maggie declared, "is the one man in the world I am
+longing to meet. He was at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel?"
+
+"For one year only. He went from there to Harvard."
+
+"Tell me what he was like," she begged.
+
+"I have only a hazy recollection of him," Nigel confessed. "He was a
+most brilliant scholar and a fine horseman. I can't remember whether he
+did anything at games."
+
+"Good-looking?"
+
+"Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved, though, and even in those
+days he was far more exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
+thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he would become Asia's great
+man. I'll tell you all that I can remember about him another time,
+Maggie. I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson's. Have you any
+idea what it is about?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"None at all. It is in the old Foreign Office cipher and it looks like
+gibberish. I only know that the first few lines he transcribed gave dad
+the jumps."
+
+"I wonder if he has finished it by now."
+
+"He'll send for you when he has. How do you think I am looking, Nigel?"
+
+"Wonderful," he answered, rising to his feet and standing with his elbow
+upon the mantelpiece, gazing down at her. "But then you _are_ wonderful,
+aren't you, Maggie? You know I always thought so."
+
+She picked up a mirror from the little bag by her side and scrutinized
+her features.
+
+"It can't be my face," she decided, turning towards him with a smile. "I
+must have charm."
+
+"Your face is adorable," he declared.
+
+"Are you going to flirt with me?" she asked, with a faint smile at the
+corners of her lips. "You always do it so well and so convincingly. And
+I hate foreigners. They are terribly in earnest but there is no finesse
+about them. You may kiss me just once, please, Nigel, the way I like."
+
+He held her for a moment in his arms, tenderly, but with a reserve to
+which she was accustomed from him. Presently she thrust him away. Her
+own colour had risen a little.
+
+"Delightful," she murmured. "Think of the wasted months! No one has
+kissed me, Nigel, since we said good-bye."
+
+"Have you made up your mind to marry me yet?" he asked.
+
+"My dear," she answered, patting his hand, "do restrain your ardour. Do
+you really want to marry me?"
+
+"Of course I do!"
+
+"You don't love me."
+
+"I am awfully fond of you," he assured her, "and I don't love any one
+else."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It isn't enough, Nigel," she declared, "and, strange to say, it's
+exactly how I feel about you."
+
+"I don't see why it shouldn't be enough," he argued. "Perhaps we have
+too much common sense for these violent feelings."
+
+"It may be that," she admitted doubtfully. "On the other hand, don't
+let's run any risk. I should hate to find an affinity, and all that sort
+of thing, after marriage--divorce in these days is such shocking bad
+form. Besides, honestly, Nigel, I don't feel frivolous enough to think
+about marriage just now. I have the feeling that even while the clock is
+ticking we are moving on to terrible things. I can't tell you quite what
+it is. I carried my life in my hands during those last few days abroad.
+I dare say this is the reaction."
+
+He smiled reassuringly.
+
+"After all, you are safe at home now, dear," he reminded her, "and I
+really am very fond of you, Maggie."
+
+"And I'm quite absurdly fond of you, Nigel," she acknowledged. "It makes
+me feel quite uncomfortable when I reflect that I shall probably have to
+order you to make love to some one else before the week is out."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the sort," he declared firmly. "I am not good at
+that sort of thing. And who is she, anyhow?"
+
+They were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door--not the discreet
+tap of a well-bred domestic, but a flurried, almost an imperative
+summons. Before either of them could reply, the door was opened and
+Brookes, the elderly butler, presented himself upon the threshold. Even
+before he spoke, it was clear that he brought alarming news.
+
+"Will you step down to the library at once, sir?" he begged, addressing
+Nigel.
+
+"What is the matter, Brookes?" Maggie demanded anxiously.
+
+"I fear that his lordship is not well," the man replied.
+
+They all hurried out together. Brookes was evidently terribly perturbed
+and went on talking half to himself without heeding their questions.
+
+"I thought at first that his lordship must have fainted," he said. "I
+heard a queer noise, and when I went in, he had fallen forward across
+the table. Parkins has rung for Doctor Wilcox."
+
+"What sort of a noise?" Nigel asked.
+
+"It sounded like a shot," the man faltered.
+
+They entered the library, Nigel leading the way. Lord Dorminster was
+lying very much as Brookes had described him, but there was something
+altogether unnatural in the collapse of his head and shoulders and his
+motionless body. Nigel spoke to him, touched him gently, raised him at
+last into a sitting position. Something on which his right hand seemed
+to have been resting clattered on to the carpet. Nigel turned around and
+waved Maggie back.
+
+"Don't come," he begged.
+
+"Is it a stroke?" she faltered.
+
+"I am afraid that he is dead," Nigel answered simply.
+
+They went out into the hall and waited there in shocked silence until
+the doctor arrived. The latter's examination lasted only a few seconds.
+Then he pointed to the telephone.
+
+"This is very terrible," he said. "I am afraid you had better ring up
+Scotland Yard, Mr. Kingley. Lord Dorminster appears either to have shot
+himself, as seems most probable," he added, glancing at the revolver
+upon the carpet, "or to have been murdered."
+
+"It is incredible!" Nigel exclaimed. "He was the sanest possible man,
+and the happiest, and he hadn't an enemy in the world."
+
+The physician pointed downwards to the revolver. Then he unfastened once
+more the dead man's waistcoat, opened his shirt and indicated a small
+blue mark just over his heart.
+
+"That is how he died," he said. "It must have been instantaneous."
+
+Time seemed to beat out its course in leaden seconds whilst they waited
+for the superintendent from Scotland Yard. Nigel at first stood still
+for some moments. From outside came the cheerful but muffled roar of the
+London streets, the hooting of motor horns, the rumbling of wheels, the
+measured footfall of the passing multitude. A boy went by, whistling;
+another passed, calling hoarsely the news from the afternoon papers. A
+muffin man rang his bell, a small boy clattered his stick against the
+area bailing. The whole world marched on, unmoved and unnoticing. In
+this sombre apartment alone tragedy reigned in sinister silence. On the
+sofa, Lord Dorminster, who only half an hour ago had seemed to be in
+the prime of life and health, lay dead.
+
+Nigel moved towards the writing-table and stood looking at it in wonder.
+The code book still remained, but there was not the slightest sign of
+any manuscript or paper of any sort. He even searched the drawers of the
+desk without result. Every trace of Atcheson's dispatch and Lord
+Dorminster's transcription of it had disappeared!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+On a certain day some weeks after the adjourned inquest and funeral of
+Lord Dorminster, Nigel obtained a long-sought-for interview with the
+Right Honourable Mervin Brown, who had started life as a factory
+inspector and was now Prime Minister of England. The great man received
+his visitor with an air of good-natured tolerance.
+
+"Heard of you from Scotland Yard, haven't I, Lord Dorminster?" he said,
+as he waved him to a seat. "I gather that you disagreed very strongly
+with the open verdict which was returned at the inquest upon your
+uncle?"
+
+"The verdict was absolutely at variance with the facts," Nigel declared.
+"My uncle was murdered, and a secret report of certain doings on the
+continent, which he was decoding at the time, was stolen."
+
+"The medical evidence scarcely bears out your statement," Mr. Mervin
+Brown pointed out dryly, "nor have the police been able to discover how
+any one could have obtained access to the room, or left it, without
+leaving some trace of their visit behind. Further, there are no
+indications of a robbery having been attempted."
+
+"I happen to know more than any one else about this matter," Nigel
+urged,--"more, even, than I thought it advisable to mention at the
+inquest--and I beg you to listen to me, Mr. Mervin Brown. I know that
+you considered my uncle to be in some respects a crank, because he was
+far-seeing enough to understand that under the seeming tranquillity
+abroad there is a universal and deep-seated hatred of this country."
+
+"I look upon that statement as misleading and untrue," the Minister
+declared. "Your late uncle belonged to that mischievous section of
+foreign politicians who believed in secret treaties and secret service,
+and who fostered a state of nervous unrest between countries otherwise
+disposed to be friendly. We have turned over a new leaf, Lord
+Dorminster. Our efforts are all directed towards developing an
+international spirit of friendliness and trust."
+
+"Utopian but very short-sighted," Nigel commented. "If my uncle had
+lived to finish decoding the report upon which he was engaged, I could
+have offered you proof not only of the existence of the spirit I speak
+of, but of certain practical schemes inimical to this country."
+
+"The papers you speak of have disappeared," Mr. Mervin Brown observed,
+with a smile.
+
+"They were taken away by the person who murdered my uncle," Nigel
+insisted.
+
+The Right Honourable gentleman nodded.
+
+"Well, you know my views about the affair," he said. "I may add that
+they are confirmed by the police. I am in no way prejudiced, however,
+and am willing to listen to anything you may have to say which will not
+take you more than a quarter of an hour," he added, glancing at the
+clock upon his table.
+
+"Here goes, then," Nigel began. "My uncle was a statesman of the old
+school who had no faith in the Utopian programme of the present
+Government of this country. When you abandoned any pretence of a
+continental secret service, he at his own expense instituted a small one
+of his own. He sent two men out to Germany and one to Russia. The one
+sent to Russia was the man Sidwell, whose murder in a Petrograd café you
+may have read of. Of the two sent to Germany, one has disappeared, and
+the other died in hospital, without a doubt poisoned, a few days after
+he had sent the report to England which was stolen from my uncle's desk.
+That report was brought over by Lady Maggie Trent, Lord Dorminster's
+stepdaughter, who was really the brains of the enterprise and under
+another name was acting as governess to the children of Herr Essendorf,
+President of the German Republic. Half an hour before his death, my
+uncle was decoding this dispatch in his library. I saw him doing it, and
+I saw the dispatch itself. He told me that so far as he had gone
+already, it was full of information of the gravest import; that a
+definite scheme was already being formulated against this country by an
+absolutely unique and dangerous combination of enemies."
+
+"Those enemies being?"
+
+Nigel shook his head.
+
+"That I can only surmise," he replied. "My uncle had only commenced to
+decode the dispatch when I last saw him."
+
+"Then I gather, Lord Dorminster," the Minister said, "that you connect
+your uncle's death directly with the supposed theft of this document?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"And the conclusion you arrive at, then?"
+
+"Is an absolutely logical one," Nigel declared firmly. "I assert that
+other countries are not falling into line with our lamentable abnegation
+of all secret service defence, and that, in plain words, my uncle was
+murdered by an agent of one of these countries, in order that the
+dispatch which had come into his hands should not be decoded and passed
+on to your Government."
+
+The Right Honourable gentleman smiled slightly. He was a man of some
+natural politeness, but he found it hard to altogether conceal his
+incredulity.
+
+"Well, Lord Dorminster," he promised, "I will consider all that you have
+said. Is there anything more I can do for you?"
+
+"Yes!" Nigel replied boldly. "Induce the Cabinet to reëstablish our
+Intelligence Department and secret service, even on a lesser scale, and
+don't rest until you have discovered exactly what it is they are
+plotting against us somewhere on the continent."
+
+"To carry out your suggestions, Lord Dorminster," the Minister pointed
+out, "would be to be guilty of an infringement of the spirit of the
+League of Nations, the existence of which body is, we believe, a
+practical assurance of our safety."
+
+Nigel rose to his feet.
+
+"As man to man, sir," he said, "I see you don't believe a word of what I
+have been telling you."
+
+"As man to man," the other admitted pleasantly, as he touched the bell,
+"I think you have been deceived."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nigel, even as a prophet of woe, was a very human person and withal a
+philosopher. He strolled along Piccadilly and turned into Bond Street,
+thoroughly enjoying one of the first spring days of the season. Flower
+sellers were busy at every corner; the sky was blue, with tiny flecks of
+white clouds, there was even some dust stirred by the little puffs of
+west wind. He exchanged greetings with a few acquaintances, lingered
+here and there before the shop windows, and presently developed a fit of
+contemplation engendered by the thoughts which were all the time at the
+back of his mind. Bond Street was crowded with vehicles of all sorts,
+from wonderfully upholstered automobiles to the resuscitated victoria.
+The shop windows were laden with the treasures of the world, buyers were
+plentiful, promenaders multitudinous. Every one seemed to be cheerful
+but a little engrossed in the concrete act of living. Nigel almost ran
+into Prince Karschoff, at the corner of Grafton Street.
+
+"Dreaming, my friend?" the latter asked quietly, as he laid his hand
+upon Nigel's shoulder.
+
+"Guilty," Nigel confessed. "You are an observant man, Prince. Tell me
+whether anything strikes you about the Bond Street of to-day, compared
+with the Bond Street of, say, ten years ago?"
+
+The Russian glanced around him curiously. He himself was a somewhat
+unusual figure in his distinctively cut morning coat, his carefully tied
+cravat, his silk hat, black and white check trousers and faultless white
+spats.
+
+"A certain decline of elegance," he murmured. "And is it my fancy or has
+this country become a trifle Americanised as regards the headgear of its
+men?"
+
+Nigel smiled.
+
+"I believe our thoughts are moving in the same groove," he said. "To me
+there seems to be a different class of people here, as though the
+denizens of West Kensington, suddenly enriched, had come to spend their
+money in new quarters. Not only that, but there is a difference in the
+wares set out in the shops, an absence of taste, if you can understand
+what I mean, as though the shopkeepers themselves understood that they
+were catering for a new class of people."
+
+"It is the triumph of your _bourgeoisie_," the Russian declared. "Your
+aristocrat is no longer able to survive. _Noblesse oblige_ has no
+significance to the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he caters for
+the people who can write them. Let us pursue our reflections a little
+farther and in a different direction, my friend," he added, glancing at
+his watch. "Lunch with me at the Ritz, and we will see whether the
+cookery, too, has been adapted to the new tastes."
+
+Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he
+many times afterwards remembered.
+
+"I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two," he said
+doubtfully. "Besides, I had half promised to be at the club."
+
+"Not to-day," Karschoff insisted. "To-day let us listen to the call of
+the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant
+will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps 'One for you and one for
+me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat."
+
+The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two
+men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many
+acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of
+mind, pointed out many of the habitués of the place to his companion.
+
+"I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age," he declared,
+a little bitterly. "Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for
+a man without a country to do?"
+
+"You know everybody," Nigel replied, without reference to his
+companion's lament. "Tell me who the woman is who has just entered?"
+
+Karschoff glanced in the direction indicated, and for a moment his
+somewhat saturnine expression changed. A smile played upon his lips, his
+eyes seemed to rest upon the figure of the girl half turned away from
+them with interest, almost with pleasure. She was of an unusual type,
+tall and dark, dressed in black with the simplicity of a nun, with only
+a little gleam of white at her throat. Her hair--so much of it as showed
+under her flower-garlanded hat--was as black as jet, and yet, where she
+stood in the full glare of the sunlight, the burnish of it was almost
+wine-coloured. Her cheeks were pale, her expression thoughtful. Her
+eyes, rather heavily lidded, were a deep shade of violet. Her mouth was
+unexpectedly soft and red.
+
+"Ah, my friend, no wonder you ask!" Karschoff declared with enthusiasm.
+"That is a woman whom you must know."
+
+"Tell me her name," Nigel persisted with growing impatience.
+
+"Her name," Karschoff replied, "is Naida Karetsky. She is the daughter
+of the man who will probably be the next President of the Russian
+Republic. You see, I can speak those words without a tremor. Her father
+at present represents the shipping interests of Russia and England. He
+is one of the authorised consuls."
+
+"Is he of the party?"
+
+Karschoff scrutinised the approaching figures through his eyeglass and
+nodded.
+
+"Her father is the dark, broad-shouldered man with the square beard," he
+indicated. "Immelan, as you can see, is the third. They are coming this
+way. We will speak of them afterwards."
+
+Naida, with her father and Oscar Immelan, left some acquaintances with
+whom they had been talking and, preceded by a _maître d'hôtel_, moved in
+the direction of the two men. The girl recognised the Prince with a
+charming little bow and was on the point of passing on when she
+appeared to notice his companion. For a moment she hesitated. The
+Prince, anticipating her desire to speak, rose at once to his feet.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said, bending over her hand, "welcome back to
+England! You bring with you the first sunshine we have seen for many
+days."
+
+"Are you being meteorological or complimentary?" she asked, smiling.
+"Will you present your companion? I have heard of Mr. Kingley."
+
+"With the utmost pleasure," the Prince replied. "Mr. Kingley, through
+the unfortunate death of a relative, is now the Earl of
+Dorminster--Mademoiselle Karetsky."
+
+Nigel, as he made his bow, was conscious of an expression of something
+more than ordinary curiosity in the face of the girl who had herself
+aroused his interest.
+
+"You are the son, then," she enquired, "of Lord Dorminster who died
+about a month ago?"
+
+"His nephew," Nigel explained. "My uncle was unfortunately childless."
+
+"I met your uncle once in Paris," she said. "It will give me great
+pleasure to make your better acquaintance. Will you and my dear friend
+here," she added, turning to the Prince, "take coffee with us
+afterwards? I shall then introduce you to my father. Oscar Immelan you
+both know, of course."
+
+They murmured their delighted assent, and she passed on. Nigel watched
+her until she took her place at the table.
+
+"Surely that girl is well-born?" he observed. "I have never seen a more
+delightful carriage."
+
+"You are right," Karschoff told him. "Karetsky is a well-to-do man of
+commerce, but her mother was a Baroness Kolchekoff, a distant relative
+of my own. The Kolchekoffs lived on their estates, and as a matter of
+fact we never met. Naida has gone over to the people, though, body and
+soul."
+
+"She is extraordinarily beautiful," Nigel remarked.
+
+His companion was swinging his eyeglass back and forth by its cord.
+
+"Many men have thought so," he replied. "For myself, there is antagonism
+in my blood against her. I wonder whether I have done well or ill in
+making you two acquainted."
+
+Nigel felt a sudden desire to break through a certain seriousness which
+had come over his own thoughts and which was reflected in the other's
+tone. He shrugged his shoulders slightly and filled his glass with wine.
+
+"Every man in the world is the better," he propounded, "for adding to
+the circle of his acquaintances a beautiful woman."
+
+"Sententious and a trifle inaccurate," the Prince objected, with a
+sudden flash of his white teeth. "The beauty which is not for him has
+been many a man's undoing. But seriously, my quarrel with Naida is one
+of prejudice only. She is the confidante and the inspiration of
+Matinsky, and though one realises, of course, that so long as there is a
+Russian Republic there must be a Russian President, I suppose I should
+scarcely be human if I did not hate him."
+
+"Surely," Nigel queried, "she must be very much his junior?"
+
+"Matinsky is forty-four," Karschoff said. "Naida is twenty-six or
+twenty-seven. The disparity of years, you see, is not so great.
+Matinsky, however, is married to an invalid wife, and concerning Naida I
+have never heard one word of scandal. But this much is certain. Matinsky
+has the blandest confidence in her judgment and discretion. She has
+already been his unofficial ambassador in several capitals of Europe. I
+am convinced that she is here with a purpose. But enough of my
+country-people. We came here to be gay. Let us drink another bottle of
+wine."
+
+The joy of living seemed for a moment to reassert itself in Karschoff's
+face. His momentary fierceness, reminiscent of his Tartar ancestry, had
+passed, but it had left a shadow behind.
+
+"At least one should be grateful," he conceded a moment later, "for the
+distinction such a woman as Naida Karetsky brings into a room like this.
+Our Bond Street lament finds its proof here. Except for their
+clothes--so ill-worn, too, most of them--the women here remind one of
+Blackpool, and their men of Huddersfield. I am inclined to wish that I
+had taken you to Soho."
+
+Nigel shook his head. His eyes had strayed to a distant corner of the
+room, where Naida and her two companions were seated.
+
+"We cannot escape anywhere," he declared, "from this overmastering wave
+of mediocrity. A couple of generations and a little intermarriage may
+put things right. A Chancellor of the Exchequer with genius, fifteen
+years ago, might even have prevented it."
+
+"You can claim, at any rate, a bloodless and unapparent revolution," the
+Prince observed. "You chivied your aristocracy of birth out of existence
+with yellow papers, your aristocracy of mind with a devastating income
+tax. This is the class whom you left to gorge,--the war profiteers. I
+hope that whoever writes the history of these times will see that it is
+properly illustrated."
+
+In the lounge, they had barely seated themselves before Naida, with her
+father and Immelan, appeared. The little party at once joined up, and
+Naida seated herself next to Nigel. She talked very slowly, but her
+accent amounted to little more than a prolongation of certain syllables,
+which had the effect of a rather musical drawl. Her father, after the
+few words of introduction had been spoken, strolled away to speak to
+some acquaintances, and Immelan and the Prince discussed with measured
+politeness one of the commonplace subjects of the moment. Naida and her
+companion became almost isolated.
+
+"I met your uncle once," Naida said, "at a dinner party in Paris. I
+remember that he attracted me. He represented a class of Englishman of
+whom I had met very few, the thinking aristocrat with a sense for
+foreign affairs. It was some years ago, that. He remained outside
+politics, did he not, until his death?"
+
+"Outside all practical politics," Nigel assented. "He had his interests,
+though."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully.
+
+"Have you inherited them?" she asked.
+
+He declined the challenge of her eyes. After all, she belonged to the
+Russia whose growing strength was the greatest menace to European peace,
+and whose attitude towards England was entirely uncertain.
+
+"My uncle and I were scarcely intimate," he said. "I was never really in
+his confidence."
+
+"Not so much so as Lady Maggie Trent? She would be your cousin?"
+
+"It is not a relationship of blood," Nigel replied. "Lady Maggie was the
+daughter of my uncle's second wife."
+
+"She is very charming," Naida murmured.
+
+"I find her delightful," Nigel agreed.
+
+"She is not only charming, but she has intelligence," Naida continued.
+"I think that Lord Dorminster was very fond of her, that he trusted her
+with many of his secrets."
+
+"Had he secrets?" Nigel asked.
+
+She remained for a moment very thoughtful, smoking a thin cigarette
+through a long holder and watching the little rings of smoke.
+
+"You are right," she said at last. "I find your attitude the only
+correct one. Did you know that Maggie was a friend of mine, Lord
+Dorminster?"
+
+"I can very well believe it," he answered, "but I have never heard her
+speak of you."
+
+"Ah! But she has been away for some months. You have not seen much of
+her, perhaps, since her return?"
+
+"Very little," he acquiesced. "She only arrived in London just before my
+uncle's death, and since then I have had to spend some time at
+Dorminster."
+
+"As a matter of curiosity," Naida enquired, "when do you expect to see
+her again?"
+
+"This afternoon, I hope," he replied,--"directly I leave here, in fact."
+
+"Then you will give her a little message for me, please?"
+
+"With great pleasure!"
+
+"Tell her from me--mind she understands this, if you please--that she
+is not to leave England again until we have met."
+
+"Is this a warning?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him searchingly.
+
+"I wonder," she reflected, "how much of you is Lord Dorminster's
+nephew."
+
+"And I, in my turn," he rejoined, with sudden boldness, "wonder how much
+of you is Matinsky's envoy."
+
+She began to laugh softly.
+
+"We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster," she said. "I should like
+to see more of you."
+
+"You will permit me to call upon you," he begged eagerly.
+
+"Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for a little time. My father
+is trying to get a house. My sister is coming over to look after him. I
+am unfortunately only a bird of passage."
+
+"Then I shall not run the risk of missing you," he declared. "I shall
+call very soon."
+
+Immelan intervened,--grim, suspicious, a little disturbed. For some
+reason or other, the meeting between these two young people seemed to
+have made him uneasy.
+
+"Your father has desired me to present his excuses to Lord Dorminster,"
+he announced, "and to escort you back to the Milan. He has been
+telephoned for from the Consulate."
+
+Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluctance.
+
+"You will not delay your call too long, Lord Dorminster?" she enjoined,
+as she gave him her hand. "I shall expect you the first afternoon you
+are free."
+
+"I shall not delay giving myself the pleasure," he assured her.
+
+She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince. The two men stood together
+and watched her depart with her companion.
+
+"Really, one gains much through being an onlooker," the Prince
+reflected. "There go the spirit of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You
+dabble in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you guess what they
+are met for--for whom they wait?"
+
+"I might guess," Nigel replied, "but I would rather be told."
+
+"They wait for the master spirit," Karschoff declared, taking his arm.
+"They wait for the great Prince Shan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little room which the latter
+had used as a boudoir. They were discussing the question of her future
+residence there.
+
+"I am afraid," he declared, "that you will have to marry me."
+
+"It would have its advantages," she admitted thoughtfully. "I am really
+so fond of you, Nigel. I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's,
+Kensington, and have the Annersley children for bridesmaids. Don't you
+think I should look sweet in old gold and orange blossoms?"
+
+"Don't tantalise me," he begged.
+
+"We really must decide upon something," she insisted. "I hate giving up
+my rooms here, I should hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna,
+and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for us two to go on living
+here if I didn't. Are you quite sure that you love me, Nigel?"
+
+"I am not quite so sure as I was this morning," he confessed, holding
+out his cup for some more tea. "I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day
+at luncheon at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest, most
+wonderful figure you ever saw!"
+
+"Who was the cat?" Maggie enquired with asperity.
+
+"She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karetsky. Karschoff introduced me."
+
+Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a trace of the one
+expression he had never before seen in her face--fear--lurking in her
+eyes, even asserting itself in her tone.
+
+"Naida Karetsky?" she repeated. "Tell me exactly how you met her?"
+
+"She was lunching with her father and Oscar Immelan. She stopped to
+speak to Karschoff and asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited
+us to take coffee in the lounge."
+
+"She went out of her way to make your acquaintance, then?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose she did."
+
+"You know who she is?"
+
+"The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over here, I understood."
+
+"She is more than that," Maggie declared nervously. "She is the
+inspiration of the President himself. She is the most vital force in
+Russian politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to know, to whom I
+told you that I wished you to pay attentions. And now that you know her,
+I am afraid."
+
+"Where did you meet her?" he asked curiously.
+
+"We were at school together in Paris. She was two years older than I,
+but she stayed there until she was twenty. Afterwards we met in
+Florence."
+
+Nigel was greatly interested.
+
+"Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell me about her surprises me,"
+he admitted. "She has the air of counting for great things in the world.
+She is very beautiful, too."
+
+"She is beautiful enough," Maggie replied, "to have turned the head of
+the great Paul Matinsky himself. They say that he would give his soul to
+be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned Tsarina of Russia."
+
+Nigel frowned slightly.
+
+"Isn't that going rather a long way?" he objected.
+
+"Not when one remembers what manner of a man Matinsky is," Maggie
+replied. "He may have his faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far
+as regards his private life. There has never been a word of scandal
+concerning him and Naida, nor will there ever be. But in his eyes, Naida
+has that most wonderful gift of all,--she has vision. He once told a man
+with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was the one person in the world
+to whom a mistake was impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at
+all what she was over here for?"
+
+"Not as yet," he replied, "but she has asked me to go and see her."
+
+"Did she seem interested in you personally, or was it because your name
+is Dorminster?"
+
+Nigel sighed.
+
+"I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot tell. She asked me
+whether I had inherited my uncle's hobby."
+
+"What did you tell her?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after all she is in the enemy
+camp. She and Immelan seemed on particularly good terms."
+
+"Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet," Maggie declared.
+"She always used to speak so affectionately of England. Nigel, do you
+think that I have vision?"
+
+"I am sure that you have," he answered.
+
+"Very well, then, I will tell you what I see," she continued. "I see
+Naida Karetsky for Russia, Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and
+Sweden, and Prince Shan for Asia--here--meeting in London--within the
+next week or ten days, to take counsel together to decide whether the
+things which are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall not
+be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals it cleverly enough, but he
+hates England with all the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced.
+She is to be won. And Prince Shan--"
+
+"Well, what about him?" Nigel demanded, a little carried away by
+Maggie's earnestness.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I don't know," she confessed. "If the stories one hears about him are
+true, no man nor any woman could ever influence him. At least, though,
+one could watch and hope."
+
+"Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris, not to London," Nigel
+remarked.
+
+"If he goes to Paris," Maggie said, "Naida and Immelan will go. So shall
+we. If he comes here, it will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the
+Prime Minister?"
+
+"I saw him," Nigel replied, "but without the slightest result. He is
+clearly of the opinion that the open verdict was a merciful one. In
+other words, he believes that it was a case of suicide."
+
+"How wicked!" Maggie exclaimed.
+
+"I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a little high," Nigel
+remarked, "to ask him to believe that he was murdered in cold blood,
+here in the heart of London, by the secret service agent of a foreign
+Power. The strangest part of it all is that it is true. To think that
+those few pages of manuscript would have told us exactly what we have to
+fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand."
+
+"And I in my corsets!" Maggie groaned.
+
+They were both silent for a moment. Then Nigel moved towards the door
+and opened it.
+
+"Come downstairs into the library, will you, Maggie?" he begged. "Let us
+go in for a little reconstruction."
+
+They found Brookes in the hall and took him with them. The blinds in
+the room had never been raised, and there was still that nameless
+atmosphere which lingers for long in an apartment which has become
+associated with tragedy. Instinctively they all moved quietly and spoke
+in hushed voices. Nigel sat in the chair where his uncle had been found
+dead and made a mental effort to reconstruct the events which must have
+immediately preceded the tragedy.
+
+"I know that this was all thrashed out at the inquest, Brookes," he
+said, "but I want you to tell me once more. You see how far it is from
+this table to the door. My uncle must have had abundant warning of any
+one approaching. Was there no other way by which any one could have
+entered the room?"
+
+"There was, your lordship," the man replied, "and I have regretted
+several times since that I did not mention it at the inquest. The
+cleaners were here on the morning of that day, and the window at the
+farther end of the room was unfastened--I even believe that it was
+open."
+
+Nigel rose and examined the window in question. It was almost flush with
+the ground, and although there were iron railings separating it from the
+street, a little gate opening from the area entrance made ingress not
+only possible but easy. Nigel returned to his chair.
+
+"I can't understand this not having been mentioned at the inquest,
+Brookes," he said.
+
+"I was waiting for the question to be asked, your lordship. It was
+perfectly clear to every one there, if your lordship will excuse my
+saying so, that both the coroner and the police seemed to have made up
+their minds that it was a case of suicide."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"I had the same idea with reference to the coroner, at any rate,
+Brookes," he said. "So long as the verdict was returned in the form it
+was, I am not sure that it was not better so."
+
+He dismissed the man with a little nod and sat turning over the code
+books which still stood upon the table.
+
+"You and I, at any rate, Maggie, know the truth," he said, "and so long
+as we can get no help from the proper quarters, I think that we should
+do better to let the matter remain as it is. We don't want to direct
+people's attention to us. We want to lull suspicion so far as we can, to
+be free to watch the three."
+
+The telephone bell rang, and as Nigel moved his arm to take off the
+receiver, he knocked over one of the black, morocco-bound code books, A
+sheet of paper with a few words upon it came fluttering to the ground.
+Maggie picked it up, glanced at it carelessly at first and then with
+interest.
+
+"Nigel," she exclaimed, "you see whose handwriting this is? Could it be
+part of the decoded dispatch?"
+
+The telephone enquiry had been unimportant. Nigel pushed the instrument
+away. They both looked eagerly at the page of manuscript paper. It was
+numbered "8" at the top, and the few words written upon it in Lord
+Dorminster's writing were obviously the continuation of a paragraph:
+
+     The name of the middle one, then, of the three secret cities, into
+     which at all costs some one must find his way, is Kroten, and the
+     telephone number which is all the clue I have been able to get, up
+     to the present, to the London end of the affair, is Mayfair 146.
+
+"This is just where he got to in the decoding!" Nigel declared. "I
+wonder whether it's any use looking for the rest."
+
+They searched through every page of the heavy code books in vain. Then
+they returned to their study of the single page. Nigel dragged down an
+atlas and studied it.
+
+"Kroten," he muttered. "Here it is,--a small place about six hundred
+miles from Petrograd, apparently the centre of a barren, swampy
+district, population thirty thousand, birth rate declining, industries
+nil. Cheerful sort of spot it seems!"
+
+"I have more luck than you!" Maggie cried, her finger tracing out a
+line in the open telephone book. "Look!"
+
+Nigel glanced over her shoulder and read the entry to which she was
+pointing:
+
+"_Immelan Oscar, 13 Clarges Street, W. Mayfair 146._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Nigel played golf at Ranelagh, on the following Sunday morning, with
+Jere Chalmers, a young American in the Diplomatic Service, who had just
+arrived in London and brought a letter of introduction to him. They had
+a pleasant game and strolled off from the eighteenth green to the
+dressing rooms on the best of terms with each other.
+
+"Say, Dorminster," his young companion enjoined, "let's get through this
+fixing-up business quickly. I've had a kind of feeling for a cocktail,
+these last four holes, which I can't exactly put into words. Besides, I
+want to have a word or two with you before the others come down."
+
+"I shan't be a minute," Nigel promised. "I'm going to change into
+flannels after lunch--that is, if you don't mind playing a set or two at
+tennis. My cousin-in-law Maggie Trent, whom you'll meet at luncheon, is
+rather keen, and she doesn't care about golf."
+
+"I'm game for anything," the other agreed, lifting his head spluttering
+from the basin. "Gee, that's good! Get a move on, there's a good fellow.
+I have a fancy for just five minutes with you out on the lawn, with the
+ice chinking in our glasses."
+
+Nigel finished smoothing his hair, and the two men strolled through the
+hall, gave an order to a red-coated attendant, and found a secluded
+table under a marvellous tree in the gardens on the other side. Chalmers
+had become a little thoughtful.
+
+"Dorminster," he declared, "yours is a wonderful country."
+
+"Just how is it appealing to you at the moment?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"I'll try and tell you," was the meditative reply. "It's your
+extraordinary insouciance. It seems to me, as a budding diplomat, that
+you are running the most ghastly risks on earth."
+
+"In what direction?"
+
+The young American shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Well, you've got a thoroughly democratic Government--not such a bad
+Government, I should say, as things go. They've bled your _bourgeoisie_
+a bit, and serve 'em right, but with an empire to keep up you're losing
+all touch upon international politics. Your ambassadors have been
+exchanged for trade consuls, the whole of your secret service staff has
+been disbanded, you place your entire faith on this sacred League of
+Nations. Say, Dorminster, you're taking risks!"
+
+"You mustn't forget," Dorminster replied, "that it was your country who
+started the League of Nations."
+
+"President Wilson did," Chalmers grunted. "You can't say that the
+country ever backed him up. That's the worst of us on the other side--we
+so seldom really get a common voice."
+
+"The League of Nations was a thundering good idea," Nigel declared, "but
+it belongs to Utopia and not to this vulgar planet."
+
+"Just so," Chalmers rejoined, "and yet you are about the only nation who
+ever took it into her bosom and suckled it. To be perfectly frank with
+you, now, what other nation in the world is there, except yours, which
+is obeying the conventions strictly? I tell you frankly, we keep our eye
+on Japan, and we build a good many commercial ships which would astonish
+you if you examined them thoroughly. Our National Guard, too, know a bit
+more about soldiering than their grandfathers. You people, on the other
+hand, seem to have become infatuated pacifists. I can't tell tales out
+of school, but I don't like the way things are going on eastwards. Asia
+means something different now that that amazing fellow, Prince Shan, has
+made a great nation of China."
+
+"I am entirely in accord with you," Nigel agreed, "but what is one to do
+about it? Our present Government has a big majority, trade at home and
+abroad is prosperous, the income tax is down to a shilling in the pound
+and looks like being wiped out altogether. Everybody is fat and happy."
+
+"Just as they were in 1914," Chalmers remarked significantly.
+
+"More so," Dorminster asserted. "In those days we had our alarmists.
+Nowadays, they too seem to have gone to sleep. My uncle--"
+
+"Your uncle was an uncommonly shrewd man," Chalmers interrupted. "I was
+going to talk about him."
+
+"After lunch," Nigel suggested, rising to his feet. "Here come my cousin
+and some of her tennis friends. Karschoff is lunching with us, too. You
+know him, don't you? Come along and I'll introduce you to the others."
+
+It was a very cheerful party who, after a few minutes under the trees,
+strolled into luncheon and took their places at the round table reserved
+for them at the end of the room. Maggie at once took possession of
+Chalmers.
+
+"I have been so anxious to meet you, Mr. Chalmers," she said. "They tell
+me that you represent the modern methods in American diplomacy, and that
+therefore you have been made first secretary over the heads of half a
+dozen of your seniors. How they must dislike you, and how clever you
+must be!"
+
+"I don't know that I'm so much disliked," the young man answered, with a
+twinkle in his eyes, "but I flatter myself that I have brought a new
+note into diplomacy. I was always taught that there were thirty-seven
+different ways of telling a lie, which is to state a diplomatic fact. I
+have swept them all away. I tell the truth."
+
+"How daring," Maggie murmured, "and how wonderfully original! What
+should you say, now, if I asked you if my nose wanted powdering?"
+
+"I should start by saying that the question was outside the sphere of my
+activities," he decided. "I should then proceed to add, as a private
+person, that a little dab on the left side would do it no harm."
+
+"I begin to believe," she confessed, "that all I have heard of you is
+true."
+
+"Tell me exactly what you have heard," he begged. "Leave out everything
+that isn't nice. I thrive on praise and good reports."
+
+"To begin with, then, that you are an extraordinarily shrewd young man,"
+she replied, "that you speak seven languages perfectly and know your way
+about every capital of Europe, and that you have ideas of your own as to
+what is going to happen during the next six or seven years."
+
+"You've been moving in well-informed circles," he admitted. "Now shall I
+proceed to turn the tables upon you?"
+
+"You can't possibly know anything about me," she declared confidently.
+
+"I could tell you what I've discovered from personal observation," he
+replied.
+
+"That sounds like compliments or candour," she murmured. "I'm terrified
+of both."
+
+"Well, I guess I'm not out to frighten you," he assured her. "I'll keep
+the secrets of my heart hidden--until after luncheon, at any rate---and
+just ask you--how you enjoyed your stay in Berlin?"
+
+Maggie's manner changed. She lowered her voice.
+
+"In Berlin?" she repeated.
+
+"In the household of the erstwhile leather manufacturer, the present
+President, Herr Essendorf. I hope you liked those fat children. They
+always seemed to me loathsome little brats."
+
+"What do you know about my stay in Berlin?" she demanded.
+
+"Everything there is to be known," he answered. "To tell you the truth,
+our people there were a trifle anxious about you. I was the little angel
+watching from above."
+
+"You are, without a doubt," Maggie pronounced, "a most interesting young
+man. We will talk together presently."
+
+"A hint which sends me back to my mutton," the young man observed.
+"Dorminster," he added, turning to his host, "I heard the other day, on
+very good authority, that you were thinking of writing a novel. If you
+are, study the lady who has just entered. There is a type for you, an
+intelligence which might baffle even your attempts at analysis."
+
+Naida, escorted by her father and Immelan, took her place at an
+adjacent table. She bowed to Nigel and Karschoff before sitting down,
+and her eyes travelled over the rest of the party with interest. Then
+she recognised Maggie and waved her hand.
+
+"Immelan is a very constant admirer," Prince Karschoff remarked, a
+little uneasily.
+
+"Is that her father?" Maggie asked.
+
+The Prince nodded.
+
+"He is one of the ambassadors of commerce from my country," he said. "In
+place of diplomacy, he superintends the exchange of shipping cargoes and
+talks freights. I suppose Immelan and he are all the time comparing
+notes, but I scarcely see where my dear friend Naida comes in."
+
+"There is still the oldest interest in the world for her to fall back
+upon," Chalmers murmured. "One hears that Immelan is devoted."
+
+"Scandalmonger!" the Prince declared severely. "Young man from the New
+World," he proceeded, "get on with your lunch and drink your iced water.
+Let the vision of those two remind you that it was your people who
+foisted the League of Nations upon us, and be humble, even sorrowful,
+when you view one of the sad results."
+
+"I can't be responsible, directly or indirectly, for a political
+flirtation," Chalmers grumbled. "Besides, why should there be any
+politics about it at all? Mademoiselle Karetsky is quite attractive
+enough to turn the head even of a seasoned old boulevardier like you,
+Prince."
+
+"That young man," Karschoff said deliberately, "will find himself before
+long face to face with a blighted career. He has no respect for age, and
+he is shockingly lacking in finesse. All the same, on one point I am
+agreed. I don't think there is a man breathing who could resist Naida if
+she wished to call him to her."
+
+The little party broke up presently and wandered out into the gardens.
+They sat for a while upon the lawn, drinking their coffee and exchanging
+greetings with acquaintances. In the distance, the orchestra was playing
+soft music, with a fine regard for the atmosphere of the pleasant,
+almost languorous spring afternoon. Everywhere were signs of
+contentment, even gaiety, and here the alien streak of unfamiliar
+newcomers was far less pronounced. When the time came for tennis,
+Chalmers led the way with Maggie. As soon as they were out of hearing of
+the others, she turned towards him a little abruptly.
+
+"Tell me exactly what you know about my stay in Berlin," she demanded.
+
+"Everything," he answered gravely.
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"I mean that the New World to-day has progressed where the Old World
+seems to have been stricken with a terrible blindness. Our
+secret-service system has never been better, and frankly I hear many
+things which I don't like. I am going to talk to Lord Dorminster this
+afternoon very seriously, but in the meantime I wanted to speak to you.
+I heard a rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin."
+
+"I don't know how you heard it, but the rumour is not altogether
+untrue," she admitted. "I have not yet made up my mind."
+
+"Don't go," he begged.
+
+"You think they really do know all about me?"
+
+"I know that they do. I don't mind telling you that you had the shave of
+your life on the Dutch frontier last time, and I don't mind telling you,
+also, that we had two of our men shadowing you. One of them acted on his
+own initiative, or you would never have crossed the frontier."
+
+"I rather wondered why they let me out," she observed. "Perhaps you can
+explain why Frau Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my pseudonym of
+'Miss Brown' and to my reputed address in Lincolnshire, begging me to
+return."
+
+"I could tell you that, too," he replied. "They want you back in
+Berlin."
+
+"They really do know, then, that I brought over the dispatch from
+Atcheson?" she asked.
+
+"They know it," he assured her. "They know, too, that it was chiefly a
+wasted labour. Their London agents saw to that."
+
+"Perhaps," she suggested, "you know who their London agents are?"
+
+"Sooner or later in our conversation," he remarked, "we were bound to
+arrive at a point--"
+
+"Come along and let us make up a set then," she intervened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a taxicab to take him back
+to the purlieus of Piccadilly and auction bridge, sauntered along at the
+back of the tennis nets until she arrived at the court where Nigel and
+his party were playing.
+
+"I should like to watch this game for a few minutes," she told her
+companion. "The men are such opposite types and yet both so
+good-looking. And Lady Maggie fascinates me."
+
+Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down to watch the set.
+Nigel, with his clean, well-knit figure, looked his best in spotless
+white flannels. Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
+presented a fine appearance. The play was fast and sometimes brilliant.
+Nigel had Maggie for a partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
+set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned forward in her chair,
+following every stroke with interest.
+
+"I find this most fascinating," she murmured. "I hope that Lord
+Dorminster and his cousin will win. Your sympathies, of course, are on
+the other side."
+
+"You are right," Immelan assented. "My sympathies are on the other
+side."
+
+There was a lull in the game for a moment or two. The sun was
+troublesome, and the players were changing courts. Naida turned towards
+her companion thoughtfully.
+
+"My friend," she said, glancing around as though to be sure that they
+were not overheard, "there are times when you move me to wonder. In the
+small things as well as the large, you are so unchanging. I think that
+you would see an Englishman die, whether he were your friend or your
+enemy, very much as you kick a poisonous snake out of your path."
+
+"It is quite true," was the calm reply.
+
+"But America was once your enemy," she continued, watching Chalmers'
+powerful service.
+
+"With America we made peace," he explained. "With England, never. If you
+would really appreciate and understand the reason for that undying
+hatred which I and millions of my fellow countrymen feel, it will cost
+you exactly one shilling. Go to any stationer's and buy a copy of the
+Treaty of Versailles. Read it word by word and line by line. It is the
+most brutal document that was ever printed. It will help you to
+understand."
+
+She nodded slowly.
+
+"Paul always declared," she said, "that in those days England had no
+statesmen--no one who could feel what lay beyond the day-by-day
+horizon. When I think of that Treaty, my friend, I sympathise with you.
+It is not a great thing to forge chains of hate for a beaten enemy."
+
+"If you realise this, are you not then our friend?" Immelan asked.
+
+She appeared for a few moments to be engrossed in the tennis. Her
+companion, however, waited for her answer.
+
+"In a way," she acknowledged, "I find something magnificent in your
+wonderfully conceived plans for vengeance, and in the spirit which has
+evolved and kept them alive through all these years. Then, on the other
+hand, I look at home, and I ask myself whether you do not make what they
+would call over here a cat's-paw of my country."
+
+"Ours is the most natural and most beneficial of all possible
+alliances," Immelan insisted. "Germany and Russia, hand in hand, can
+dominate the world."
+
+"I am not sure that it is an equal bargain, though, which you seek to
+drive with us," she said. "Germany aims, of course, at world power, but
+you are still fettered by the terms of that Treaty. You cannot build a
+great fleet of warships or æroplanes; you cannot train great armies; you
+cannot lay up for yourselves all the store that is necessary for a
+successful war. So you bring your brains to Russia, and you ask us to do
+these things; but Russia does not aim at world power. Russia seeks only
+for a great era of self-development. She, too, has a mighty neighbour
+at her gates. I am not sure that your bargain is a fair one."
+
+"It is the first time that I have heard you talk like this," Immelan
+declared, with a little tremor in his tone.
+
+"I have been in England twice during the last few months," Naida said.
+"You know very well at whose wish I came, I have been studying the
+conditions here, studying the people so far as I can. I find them such a
+kindly race. I find their present Government so unsuspicious, so
+genuinely altruistic. After all, that Treaty belongs to an England that
+has passed. The England of to-day would never go to war at all. They
+believe here that they have solved the problem of perpetual peace."
+
+Immelan smiled a little bitterly.
+
+"Dear lady," he said, "if I lose your help, if you go back to Petrograd
+and talk to Paul Matinsky as you are talking to me, do you know that you
+will break the heart of a nation?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Paul does not look upon me as infallible," she protested. "Besides,
+there are other considerations. And now, please, we will talk of the
+tennis. I do not know whether it is my fancy, but that man there to your
+left, in grey, seems to me to be taking an interest in our conversation.
+He cannot possibly overhear, and he has not glanced once in our
+direction, yet I have an instinct for these things."
+
+Immelan glanced in the direction of the stranger,--a quiet-looking,
+spare man dressed in a grey tweed suit, clean-shaven and of early
+middle-age. There was nothing about his appearance to distinguish him
+from a score or more of other loiterers.
+
+"You are quite right," her companion admitted. "One should not talk of
+these things even where the birds may listen, but it is so difficult. As
+for that man, he could not possibly hear, but there might be others. One
+passes behind on the grass so noiselessly."
+
+They relapsed into silence. Naida, leaning a little forward, became once
+more engrossed in the play. Her eyes were fixed upon Nigel. It was his
+movements which she followed, his strokes which she usually applauded.
+Immelan sat by her side and watched.
+
+"They are well matched," he remarked presently.
+
+"Mr. Chalmers has a wonderful service," she declared, "but Lord
+Dorminster has more skill. Oh, bravo!"
+
+The set at that moment was finished by a backhanded return from Nigel,
+which skimmed over the net at a great pace, completely out of reach of
+the opposing couple. The players strolled across to the seats under the
+trees. Naida smiled at Nigel, and he came over to her side. Once again
+he was conscious of that peculiar sense of pleasure and well-being
+which he felt in her company.
+
+"You play tennis very well, Lord Dorminster," she said.
+
+"I found inspiration," he answered.
+
+"In your partner?"
+
+"Maggie is always charming to play with. I was thinking of the
+onlookers."
+
+"Mr. Immelan is very interested in tennis," she remarked, with a smile
+which challenged him.
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Even more so."
+
+"Tell me about games in Russia," he begged, seating himself on the grass
+by her side.
+
+"We have none," she replied. "I learnt my tennis at Cannes, where,
+curiously enough, I saw you play three years ago."
+
+"You were there then?" he asked with interest.
+
+"For a few days only. We were motoring from Spain to Monte Carlo. Cannes
+was very crowded, but you see I remembered."
+
+Her voice seemed to have some lingering charm in it, some curiously
+potent suggestion of personal interest which stirred his pulses. He
+looked up and met her eyes. For a moment the world of tennis fields, of
+pleasant chatter and of holiday-makings, passed away. He rose abruptly
+to his feet. This time he avoided looking at her.
+
+"You must come over and speak to Maggie," he begged. "Perhaps Mr.
+Immelan will spare you for a few moments."
+
+Immelan bowed, sphinxlike but coldly furious. The two strolled away
+together.
+
+When the next set was over, Naida, who had rejoined her companion, had
+disappeared. On one of their vacated chairs was seated the quiet-looking
+stranger in grey. Chalmers passed his arm through Nigel's and led him in
+that direction.
+
+"I want you two to know each other," he said. "Jesson, this is Lord
+Dorminster--Mr. Gilbert Jesson--Lord Dorminster."
+
+The two men shook hands, Nigel a little vaguely. He was at first unable
+to place this newcomer.
+
+"Mr. Jesson," Chalmers explained, dropping his voice a little, "was a
+highly privileged and very much valued member of our Intelligence
+Department, until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if you
+could spare an hour or two any time this evening, Dorminster, it would
+interest you very much to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's
+resignation."
+
+"I should be very pleased indeed," Nigel replied. "Won't you both come
+and dine in Belgrave Square to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow,
+Chalmers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and my cousin will be
+hostess."
+
+"It will give me very great pleasure," Jesson acquiesced. "You will
+understand," he added, "that the information which Mr. Chalmers has
+just given you concerning myself is entirely confidential."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"We three will have a little talk to ourselves afterwards," he
+suggested. "At eight o'clock--Number 17, Belgrave Square."
+
+Jesson strolled away after a little desultory conversation. Chalmers
+looked after him thoughtfully.
+
+"Harmless-looking chap, isn't he?" he observed. "Yet I'll let you in on
+this, Dorminster: there isn't another living person who knows so much of
+what is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man."
+
+"Why has he chucked his job, then?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"He will tell you that to-night," was Chalmers' quiet reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"I don't think I shall marry you, after all," Maggie announced that
+evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors
+with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.
+
+"Why not?" Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.
+
+"You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity," she declared. "Your
+flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went
+out of your way to ask her to dine to-night."
+
+"I like that!" Nigel complained. "Supposing it were true, I should
+simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to
+her."
+
+"The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country," Maggie
+sighed. "However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you
+admire her very much, Nigel?"
+
+He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from
+self-consciousness.
+
+"Of course I do," he admitted. "She's a perfectly wonderful person,
+isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment," he added,
+looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of
+furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. "We'll go into
+the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and
+cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received formally, and
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreciate the cosmopolitan note of our
+welcome."
+
+"We do look a little too domestic, don't we?" Maggie replied, as she
+passed through the portière which Nigel was holding up. "I'm not at all
+sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or
+anything. I must think of my reputation. I may decide to marry Mr.
+Chalmers, and Americans are very particular about that sort of thing."
+
+"From what I have seen of him, I should think that Chalmers would make
+you an excellent husband," Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. "You
+need a firm hand, and I should think he would be quite capable of using
+it."
+
+"You take the matter far too calmly," she objected. "I can assure you
+that I am getting peevish. I hate all Russian women with creamy
+complexions and violet-coloured eyes."
+
+"They are wonderful eyes," Nigel declared, after he had given Brookes an
+order.
+
+Maggie looked at him curiously.
+
+"Naida is for your betters, sir," she reminded him. "You must not forget
+that she is to rule over Russia some day."
+
+"Just at present," Nigel observed, "Paul Matinsky has a perfectly good
+wife of his own."
+
+"An invalid."
+
+"Invalids always live long."
+
+"Presidents and emperors can always get divorces," Maggie insisted,
+"especially in this irreligious age."
+
+"Matinsky isn't that sort," Nigel said cheerfully. "Even an old gossip
+like Karschoff calls him a purist, and you yourself have spoken of his
+principles."
+
+Maggie shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"All right," she remarked. "If you are determined to rush into danger, I
+suppose you must. There is just one more point to be considered, though.
+I suppose you know that if you succeed any farther with Naida, you will
+introduce a personal note into our coming struggle."
+
+"What do you mean?" Nigel demanded.
+
+"Why, Immelan, of course," she replied. "He's head over ears in love
+with Naida. Any one can see that."
+
+Nigel laughed scornfully.
+
+"My dear child," he protested, "can you imagine a woman like Naida
+thinking seriously of a fellow like Immelan?--a scheming, Teutonic
+adventurer, without even the breeding of his class!"
+
+Maggie laughed softly for several moments.
+
+"My dear Nigel," she exclaimed, "what a luxury to get at the man of
+you! I haven't seen your eyes flash like that for ages. The cocktails,
+thank goodness! Shake one for me till it froths all the way up the
+glass, please, and then give me a cigarette."
+
+Nigel obeyed orders, helped himself, and glanced at the clock as Brookes
+left the room.
+
+"How nice of you to come half an hour early, Maggie!" he remarked.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"The first time you have noticed it," she said dolefully. "Do you
+realise, Nigel, that it is nearly a week since you proposed to me? Apart
+from your penchant for Naida, don't you really want to marry me any
+more?"
+
+He came across the room and stood looking down at her thoughtfully. She
+was wearing a somewhat daringly fashioned black lace gown, which showed
+a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her brown hair was simply
+but artistically arranged. She was piquante, alluring, with a
+provocative smile at the corners of her lips and a challenging gleam in
+her eyes. The daintiness and femininity of her were enthralling.
+
+"You would make an adorable wife," he reflected.
+
+"For some one else?"
+
+"An unspeakable proposition," he assured her.
+
+"You're very nice-looking, Nigel," she murmured.
+
+"You're terribly attractive, Maggie!"
+
+"Then why is it," she sighed, "that we neither of us want to marry the
+other?"
+
+"If a serious proposition would really be of interest to you," he
+began,--
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"You heard them coming," she interrupted.
+
+The three expected guests arrived almost together, bringing with them,
+at any rate so far as Chalmers and Naida were concerned, an atmosphere
+of light-heartedness which was later on to make the little dinner party
+a complete success. Naida, too, was in black, a gown simpler than
+Maggie's but full of distinction. She wore no jewellery except a
+wonderful string of pearls. Her black hair was brushed straight back
+from her forehead but drooped a little over her ears. She seemed to
+bring with her a larger share of girlishness than any of them had
+previously observed in her, as though she had made up her mind for this
+one evening to cast herself adrift from the graver cares of life and to
+indulge in the frivolities which after all were the heritage of her
+youth. She sat at Nigel's right hand and plied him with questions as to
+the lighter side of his life,--his favourite sport, books, and general
+occupation. She gave evidences of humour which delighted everybody, and
+Nigel, though he would at times have welcomed, and did his best to
+initiate, an incursion into more serious subjects, found himself
+compelled to admire the tact with which she continually foiled him.
+
+"It is a mistake," she declared once, "to believe that a woman is ever
+serious unless she is forced to be. All our natural proclivities are
+towards gaiety. We are really butterflies by instinct, and we are at our
+best when we are natural. Don't you agree with me, Maggie?"
+
+"From the bottom of my heart," Maggie assented. "Nothing but conscience
+ever induces me to pull a long face and turn my thoughts to serious
+things. And I haven't a great deal of conscience."
+
+"So you see," Naida continued, smiling up at her host, "when you try to
+get a woman to talk politics or sociology with you, you are brushing a
+little of the down off her wings. We really want to be told--other
+things."
+
+"I should imagine," he replied, "that my sex frequently indulged you."
+
+"Not so much as I should desire," she assured him. "I have somehow or
+other acquired an undeserved reputation for brains. In Russia
+especially, when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my frock or
+the way my hair is done. They plunge instead into a subject of which I
+know nothing--philosophy or history, or international politics."
+
+"Do you know nothing of international politics?" Nigel asked.
+
+"A home thrust," she declared, laughing. "I suppose that is a subject
+upon which I have some glimmerings of knowledge. Really not very much,
+though, but then I have a theory about that. I think sometimes that the
+clearest judgments are formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a
+subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling in it half their lifetime and
+acquired prejudices. Do you always provide strawberries for your guests,
+Lord Dorminster? If so, I should like to come and live here."
+
+"If you will promise to come and live here," he replied, "I will provide
+strawberries if I have to start a nursery garden in Jersey."
+
+"Maggie," Naida announced across the table, "Lord Dorminster has
+proposed to me. The matter of strawberries has brought us together. I
+don't think I shall accept him. There are no means of making him keep
+his bargain."
+
+"He'd make an awfully good husband," Maggie declared. "If no one else
+wants me, I shall probably marry him myself some day."
+
+Naida shook her head.
+
+"Lord Dorminster is more my type," she declared. "Besides, you have had
+your chance if you really wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia
+who prophesies that I shall never marry. That does not please me. I
+think not to be married is the worst fate that can happen to any woman."
+
+"The remedy," Nigel told her, "is in your own hands."
+
+Jesson, quieter than the others, was still an interesting personality,
+often intervening with a shrewd remark and listening to the sallies of
+the others with a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes. When at
+last the girls left them for a time, Nigel led the way at once into the
+library, where coffee and liqueurs were served.
+
+"I expect the others will find their way here in a few minutes," he
+said, as the door closed behind Brookes and his satellite. "You had
+something to say to me, Chalmers, about Mr. Jesson here."
+
+"All that I have to say is in the nature of a testimonial," the young
+American replied. "Jesson was easily one of our best men in Europe. He
+resigned a few months ago simply because he wants a job with you
+fellows."
+
+"I don't quite understand," Nigel began.
+
+"Let me explain," Jesson begged. "I spent the last three years poking
+about Europe, and so far as the United States is concerned, there's
+nothing doing. My reports aren't worth much more than the paper they are
+written on, and while I'm drawing my money from Washington, it's not my
+business to collect information that affects other countries. That's why
+I've sent in my resignation. There are great events brewing eastwards,
+Lord Dorminster, and I want to take a hand in the game."
+
+"Do you want to work for us?" Nigel asked.
+
+"You're right," was the quiet reply. "I guess that's how I've figured it
+out. You see, I'm one of those Americans who still consider themselves
+half English. Next to the United States, Great Britain is the country
+for me. I know what I'm talking about, Lord Dorminster, and I've come to
+the conclusion that there's a lot of trouble in store for you people."
+
+"I'm pretty well convinced of that myself," Nigel agreed, "but you know
+how things are with us. We have a democratic Government who have placed
+their whole faith in the League of Nations, and who are absolutely and
+entirely anti-militarist. On paper, the governments of Russia, Germany,
+and most of the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk. Some of
+us--my uncle was one--who have studied history and who know something of
+the science of international politics, realise perfectly well that no
+Empire can be considered secure under such conditions. This country
+swarms with foreign secret-service men. What they are planning against
+us, Heaven knows!"
+
+"Heaven and Naida Karetsky," Chalmers intervened softly.
+
+"You believe that she is our enemy?" Nigel asked, with a look of trouble
+in his eyes.
+
+"She is Immelan's friend," Chalmers reminded him.
+
+"There was a man named Atcheson," Jesson began quietly--
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The first one was stabbed in
+Petrograd. Jim Atcheson was poisoned and died in Berlin."
+
+"There was rather a scare in a certain quarter about Atcheson," Jesson
+observed. "He was supposed to have got a report through to the late Lord
+Dorminster."
+
+"He got it through all right," Nigel replied. "My uncle was busy
+decoding it, seated in this room, at that table, when he died."
+
+"His death was very sudden," Jesson ventured.
+
+"I have not the faintest doubt but that he was murdered," Nigel
+declared. "The document upon which he was working disappeared entirely
+except for one sheet."
+
+"You have that one sheet?" Jesson asked eagerly.
+
+Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed it cut, and laid it upon
+the table.
+
+"There are two things worth noticing here," he pointed out. "The first
+is that the actual name of a town in Russia is given, and a telephone
+number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It seems to be an
+unimportant place in a very desolate region. The telephone number is
+Oscar Immelan's."
+
+"That is interesting, though not surprising," Jesson declared. "Immelan,
+as you of course know, is one of your enemies, one of those who are
+working in this country for purposes of his own. But as regards Kroten,
+may I ask where you obtained your information about the place?"
+
+Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them the paragraph. Jesson read
+it with a faint smile upon his lips.
+
+"I fancy," he remarked, "that this is a little out of date. I should
+like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week."
+
+"Good heavens! Why?" Nigel exclaimed.
+
+"I can scarcely answer that question," Jesson said. "I am like a man
+with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those
+pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here," he
+said, "is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities,
+situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their
+way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have
+heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
+have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled.
+Kroten is the next, and of the third I have still to discover the
+whereabouts. Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act for you
+abroad? I require no salary or remuneration of any sort. I am a wealthy
+man, and investigations of this kind are my one hobby. I shall not move
+without your permission, although I recognise, of course, that your own
+position is entirely an unofficial one. If you will trust me, however, I
+promise that all my energies shall be devoted to the interests of this
+country."
+
+Nigel held out his hand.
+
+"It is a pact," he decided. "Before you leave, I will give you the whole
+of my uncle's brief correspondence with Sidwell. You may be able to
+gather from it what he was after. Sidwell, you remember, was stabbed in
+a café in the slums of Petrograd."
+
+"I remember quite well," Jesson admitted quietly. "I knew Sidwell. He
+was a clever person in his way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I
+fancy that I hear the voices of the ladies coming. I shall just have
+time to tell you rather a curious coincidence."
+
+The two men waited eagerly. Jesson touched with his forefinger the sheet
+of paper which he had been studying.
+
+"Sidwell," he concluded, "could not have been so far off the mark. The
+man with whom he was spending the evening in that café was a mechanic
+from Kroten."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Naida, early one afternoon, a few days after the dinner at Belgrave
+Square, raised herself on one elbow from the sofa on which she was
+resting, glanced at the roses and the card which the maid had presented
+for her inspection, and waved them impatiently away.
+
+"The gentleman waits," the woman reminded her.
+
+Naida glanced out of the window across a dull and apparently uninviting
+prospect of roofs and chimneys, to where in the background a faint line
+of silver and a wheeling flock of sea gulls became dimly visible through
+the branches of the distant trees. The window itself was flung wide
+open, but the slowly moving air had little of freshness in it. Sparrows
+twittered around the window-sill, and a little patch of green shone out
+from the Embankment Gardens. The radiance of spring here found few
+opportunities.
+
+"The gentleman waits," the serving woman repeated stolidly, speaking in
+her native Russian.
+
+"You can show him up," her mistress replied a little wearily.
+
+Immelan entered, a few moments later, spruce and neat in a well-fitting
+grey suit, and carrying a grey Homburg hat. He was redolent of soaps
+and perfumes. His step was buoyant, almost jaunty, yet in his blue eyes,
+as he bent over the hand of the woman upon whom he had come to call,
+lurked something of the disquietude which, notwithstanding his most
+strenuous efforts, was beginning to assert itself.
+
+"You make me very happy, my dear Naida," he began, "that you receive me
+thus so informally. Your good father is smoking in the lounge. He bade
+me come up."
+
+She beckoned him to a seat.
+
+"A thousand thanks for your flowers, my friend," she said. "Now tell me
+why you are possessed to see me at this untimely hour. I always rest for
+a time after luncheon, and I am only here because the sunshine filled my
+room and made me restless."
+
+"There is a little matter of news," he announced slowly. "I thought it
+might interest you. I hoped it would."
+
+She turned her head and looked at him.
+
+"News?" she repeated. "News from you means only one thing. Is it good or
+bad?"
+
+"It is good," he replied, "because it saves me a long and tedious
+journey, because it saves me also from a separation which I should have
+found detestable."
+
+"Your journey to China, then, is abandoned?"
+
+"It is rendered unnecessary. Prince Shan has decided after all to
+adhere to his original plan and come to Europe."
+
+"You are sure?"
+
+"I have an official intimation," he replied. "I may probably have to go
+to Paris, but no farther. It is even possible that I might leave
+to-night."
+
+She was genuinely interested.
+
+"There is no one in the whole world," she declared, "whom I have wanted
+to meet so much as Prince Shan."
+
+"You will not be disappointed," he promised her. "There is no one like
+him. When he enters the room, you know that you are in the presence of a
+great man. The three of us together! Naida, we will remake the map of
+the world."
+
+She frowned a little uneasily.
+
+"Do not take too much for granted, Oscar," she enjoined. "Remember that
+I am here to watch and to report. It is not for me to make decisions."
+
+"Then for whom else?" he demanded. "Paul Matinsky himself wrote me that
+you had his entire confidence--that you possessed full powers for
+action. You will not be faint-hearted, Naida?"
+
+"I shall never be false to my convictions," she replied.
+
+There was a brief silence. He was not altogether satisfied, but he
+judged the moment unpropitious for any further reference to the coming
+of Prince Shan.
+
+"My plans, as you see, are changed," he said at last, "and for that
+reason a promise which I made to myself will not now be kept."
+
+She rose to her feet a little uneasily, shook out her fluffy morning
+gown, and retreated towards the door leading to the apartments beyond.
+He watched her without movement. She picked up a pile of letters from a
+table in the middle of the room, glanced at them, and threw them down.
+
+"It is as well," she warned him, "to keep all promises."
+
+"As for this one," he replied, "I have no responsibility save to myself.
+I absolve myself. I give myself permission to speak. Your father is even
+wishful that I should do so. I crave from you, Naida, the happiness
+which only you can bring into my life. I ask you to become my wife."
+
+She looked at him without visible change of expression. Her lips,
+however, were a little parted. The air of aloofness with which she moved
+through the world seemed suddenly more marked. He would have been a
+brave man, or one entirely without perceptions, who would have advanced
+towards her at that moment.
+
+"That is quite impossible," she pronounced.
+
+"I do not admit it," he contended. "No, I will never admit that. The
+fates brought us together. It will take something stronger than fate to
+drive us apart. I had not meant to speak yet. I had meant to wait until
+the great pact was sealed and the glory to come assured, but during
+these last few days I have suffered. A strange fancy has come to me. I
+seem to feel something between us, so I speak before it can grow. I
+speak because without you life for me would be a thing not worth having.
+You are my life and my soul. You will not send me away?"
+
+Naida was troubled but unhesitating. It was perhaps at that moment that
+a hidden characteristic of her features showed itself. Her mouth,
+sometimes almost too voluptuous in its softness, had straightened into a
+firm line of scarlet. The deeper violet of her eyes had gone. So a woman
+might have looked who watched suffering unmoved, the woman of the bull
+or prize fight.
+
+"I am glad that you have spoken, Oscar," she said. "I know a thing now
+which has been a source of doubt and anxiety to me. What you ask is
+impossible. I do not love you. I shall never love you. A few days ago, I
+asked myself the very question you have just asked me, and I could not
+answer it. Now I know."
+
+Pain and anger struggled in his face. He was suffering, without a doubt,
+but for a moment it seemed as though the anger would predominate. His
+great shoulders heaved, his hands were clenched until the signet ring on
+his left finger cut into the flesh, his eyes were like glittering points
+of fire.
+
+"It is the old dream concerning Paul?" he demanded.
+
+"It has nothing to do with Paul," she assured him. "Concerning him I
+will admit that I have had my weak moments. I think that those have
+passed. It was such a wonderful dream," she went on reflectively, "the
+dream of ruling the mightiest nation in the world, a nation that even
+now, after many years of travail, is only just finding its way through
+to the light. It seemed such a small thing that stood in the way. Since
+then I have met Paul's wife. She does not understand, but at least she
+loves."
+
+"She is a poor fool, no helpmate for any man," Immelan declared. "Yet it
+is not his cause I plead, but mine. I, too, can minister to your
+ambitions. Be my wife, and I swear to you that before five years have
+passed I will be President of the German Republic. Germany is no strange
+country to you," he went on passionately. "It is you who have helped in
+the great _rapprochement_. At times when Paul has been difficult, you
+have smoothed the way. I would not speak against your country, I would
+not speak against anything which lies close to your heart, but let me
+tell you that when the day of purification comes, the day when God gives
+us leave to pour out the vials of vengeance, there will be no prouder,
+no more glorious people than ours. Our triumph will be yours, Naida. You
+yourself will help to cement the great alliance of these years."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am a woman," she said simply. "Incidentally, I am a politician and
+something of an altruist, but when it comes to marriage, I am a woman. I
+do not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you."
+
+There was a darker shade upon his face now. Unconsciously he had drawn a
+little nearer to her.
+
+"Listen," he begged; "it is perhaps possible that I have not been
+mistaken--that a certain change has crept up in you even within the last
+few days? Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way into your
+heart? No, I will not say heart! It could not be your heart in so short
+a time. Into your fancy? Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you are
+thinking?"
+
+"That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only," she answered haughtily.
+
+A weaker woman he would have bullied. His veins were filled with anger.
+His tongue ached to spend itself. Naida's bearing cowed him. She
+remained a dominating figure. The unnatural restraint imposed upon
+himself, however, made his voice sound hard and unfamiliar. There were
+little patches of white around his mouth; his teeth showed, when he
+spoke, more than usual.
+
+"If there were any one else," he declared, "and that some one else
+should chance to be an Englishman, I would find a new hell for him."
+
+"There is no one else," she answered calmly, "but if there ever should
+be, Oscar Immelan, and if you ever interfered with him, either in this
+country or any other, my arm would follow you around the world. Remember
+that."
+
+She turned away for a moment, eager to gain a brief respite from his
+darkening face. When she looked around, he was gone. She heard his
+footsteps passing down the corridor, the bell ringing for the lift, the
+clank of the gates as he stepped in. Once more she gazed out over the
+uninspiring prospect. There was a little more sunshine upon the river;
+more of the dusty chimney-pots seemed bathed in its silvery radiance. As
+she stood there, she felt herself growing calmer. The tension passed
+from her nerves. Her eyes grew soft again. Then an impulse came to her.
+She stretched out her hand for the telephone book, turned over the pages
+restlessly, looked through the "D's" until she found the name for which
+she was searching. For a long time she hesitated. When at last she took
+up the receiver and asked for a number, she was conscious of a slight
+thrill, a sense of excitement which in moments of more complete
+self-control would at least have served as a warning to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The curtain fell upon the first act of "Louise." The lights were turned
+up, the tenseness relaxed, men made dives for their hats, and the
+unmusical murmured the usual platitudes. Naida leaned forward from the
+corner of her box to the man who was her sole companion.
+
+"Father," she said, "I am expecting a caller with whom I wish to
+speak--Lord Dorminster. If he comes, will you leave us alone? And if any
+one else should be here, please take them away."
+
+"More mysteries," her father muttered, not unkindly. "Who is this man
+Dorminster?"
+
+Naida leaned back in her chair and fanned herself slowly.
+
+"No one I know very much about," she acknowledged. "I have selected him
+in my mind, however as being a typical Englishman of his class. I wish
+to talk to him, to appreciate his point of view. You know what Paul said
+when he gave you the appointment and sent us over here: 'Find out for me
+what sort of men these Englishmen are.'"
+
+"Matinsky should know," her father observed. "He was here twelve years
+ago. He came over with the first commission which established regular
+relations with the British Government."
+
+"No doubt," she said equably, "he was able to gauge the official
+outlook, but this country, during the last ten years, has gone through
+great vicissitudes. Besides, it is not only the official outlook in
+which Paul is interested. He doesn't understand, and frankly I don't,
+the position of what they call over here 'the man in the street.' You
+see, he must be either a fool, or he must be grossly deceived."
+
+"So far as my dealings with him go, I should never call the Englishman a
+fool," Karetsky confessed.
+
+"There are degrees and conditions of fools," his daughter declared
+calmly. "A man with a perfectly acute brain may have simply idiotic
+impulses towards credulity, and a credulous man is always a fool.
+Anyhow, I know what Paul wants."
+
+There was a knock at the door. Karetsky opened it and stood aside to let
+Nigel pass in. Naida held out her hand to the latter with a smile.
+
+"I am so glad that you have come," she said, raising her eyes for a
+minute to his. "Father, you remember Lord Dorminster?"
+
+The two men exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Then Karetsky reached
+for his hat.
+
+"Your arrival, Lord Dorminster," he observed, "leaves me free to make a
+few calls myself. We shall, I trust, meet again."
+
+Nigel murmured a few courteous words and watched the retreating figure
+with some curiosity.
+
+"Your father is very typical," he declared. "He reminds me of your
+country itself. He is massive, has suggestions of undeveloped strength."
+
+"Add that he is a little ponderous," Naida said lightly, "slow to make
+up his mind, but as obstinate as the Urals themselves, and you have
+described him. Now tell me what you think of a young woman who rings you
+up without the slightest encouragement and invites you to come to the
+Opera purposely to visit her box."
+
+"I deny the absence of encouragement, and I am very grateful for the
+opportunity of coming," Nigel answered. "And if I were to tell you all
+that I think of you," he added, after a moment's pause, "it would take
+me a great deal longer than this quarter of an hour's interval."
+
+These were their first few moments absolutely alone. Neither of them was
+unduly emotional, neither wholly free from experience, yet they looked
+and spoke and felt as though the coming of new things was at hand. The
+atmosphere of music, still present, was a wonderful background to the
+intensified sensations of which both were conscious. Naida had the
+utmost difficulty in steadying her voice.
+
+"I wanted to talk to you seriously because you can help me very much if
+you will," she began. "In a sense, I am over here upon a mission. Some
+of us in Russia feel that your nation is imperfectly understood there.
+We are bearing grudges against you which may not be wholly justified.
+You see, to speak very plainly, we are under the constant influence of a
+people which cherishes no feelings of friendship towards you."
+
+For a moment the personal element had disappeared. Nigel remembered who
+his companion was and all that she stood for. He drew his chair a little
+nearer to hers.
+
+"If you are looking for a typical Englishman," he said, "I fear that I
+shall be a disappointment to you. The typical Englishman of to-day is
+hiding his head in the sand. I am not disposed to do anything of the
+sort. I recognise a great coming danger, and I am afraid of your
+country."
+
+"The attitude of the official Englishman I know," she declared, a little
+eagerly. "What I want to find out is whether there are many like
+yourself, who are awake."
+
+"I am afraid that I am in the minority," he confessed. "I am trying to
+carry on the work which my uncle commenced. I am trying to secure firm
+and definite evidence of a certain plot which I believe to be brewing in
+your country and in Germany."
+
+"Tell me exactly what you know," she begged.
+
+Nigel looked at her for several moments in silence. She was wearing a
+Russian headdress, a low tiara of bound coils of pearls. A rope of
+pearls hung from her neck. Her white net gown was trimmed with ermine.
+At her first appearance in the front of the box she had created almost a
+sensation among those to whom she was visible. In these darker shadows
+the sensuous disturbance of which he had been conscious since his
+entrance swept over him once more with overmastering power.
+
+"You are very beautiful," he said, a little abruptly.
+
+"I am glad you think so," she murmured, with a very sweet answering
+light in her eyes, "but I am hoping that you have other things to tell
+me."
+
+"You are the friend of Immelan," he reminded her.
+
+"To some extent, yes," she assented, "but I admit of no prejudices. The
+greatest friend I have in the world is Paul Matinsky, and it is at his
+wish that I am here. He is anxious above all things not to make a
+mistake."
+
+"Your country is very much under the dominance of Germany," he ventured.
+
+"Very much, I admit, but not utterly so. You must remember that after
+the cataclysm of 1917, Russia has been born again in travail and agony.
+No hand was outstretched to help her, save that of Germany alone, for
+her own sake ultimately, perhaps, but nevertheless with invaluable
+results to Russia. We had vast resources which Germany exploited,
+magnificent human material which Germany has educated and disciplined.
+The two nations have grown together for their common interest. At the
+same time, Paul Matinsky and very many others have always felt that
+there is one of Germany's great ambitions in which Russia ought not
+necessarily to become involved. I think--I hope that you understand me."
+
+"In plain words," Nigel said, "you refer to this projected plan of
+isolating England."
+
+"In plain words, I do," she admitted. "Russia's intentions concerning
+that are trembling in the balance. Germany is pressing her hard. Nothing
+will be finally decided until I return to Petrograd. You see, I speak to
+you quite openly, for I myself have had some experience of your present
+statesmen. I believe if you were to repeat this conversation to any one
+of them, if, even, you could open their eyes to what is happening, they
+would only shrug their shoulders and say that they relied for their
+protection on the League of Nations."
+
+"You are unhappily right," Nigel groaned, "yet one perseveres, and after
+all there is an element of mystery about the whole affair. The French,
+as you know, have not imitated our blind credulity. Their frontier would
+seem to be impregnable, and the difficulties of invading England, even
+from the air, are very much as they were during the last war. It was
+these considerations which made my uncle persevere in his attempt at
+secret-service work on the Continent. Everything depends upon our
+knowing exactly what is in store for us."
+
+"And have you discovered that?" she enquired.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Everything that we have learnt so far has been of negative value," he
+replied. "The German citizen army is large, but not threateningly so. So
+far as we have been able to discover, they do not seem to have any
+secret store of guns or ammunition. Their docks hold no secrets. Yet we
+know that there is something brewing. Both the men upon whom my uncle
+relied have been murdered."
+
+"But one of them succeeded in getting a dispatch through, did he not?"
+she asked quietly.
+
+"Yes, he succeeded," Nigel acknowledged. "My uncle was murdered,
+however, in the act of decoding it, and the dispatch itself was stolen."
+
+"You are very frank," she said. "I suppose I ought to feel flattered
+that you treat me with so little reserve."
+
+"If you are a friend to Germany," he replied, "you probably know all
+that I can tell you. If you are inclined towards friendship with us,
+then it is as well that you should know everything."
+
+"That is reasonable," she admitted. "Now listen. This conversation can
+only last a few minutes longer. It is true that Oscar Immelan is my
+father's old friend and also mine, but my judgment in all matters which
+relate to the welfare of my country is not influenced by that fact."
+
+"There was a report once," Nigel said, taking his courage into both
+hands, "that you were engaged to be married to him."
+
+She looked him in the eyes. Against the whiteness of his skin, the
+colour of her own seemed more wonderful than ever.
+
+"That is not true," she replied. "It will never be true."
+
+"I am glad," he declared fervently.
+
+There was a brief pause. Both seemed conscious of a renewal of that air
+of disturbance which had reigned between them during their first few
+moments alone. It was Naida who made an effort to restore their
+conversation to its former tone.
+
+"If Germany has any scheme against this country," she said, "believe me,
+it will not be so obvious as you seem to think. It will be a scheme
+which can only be carried out with the assistance of other countries,
+and that assistance is not yet wholly promised. I cannot betray to you
+my knowledge of certain things," she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, "but I can at least give you this warning. It is not for his
+health alone that Prince Shan is flying from China to Paris. If there is
+a single member of your Government who has the least apprehension of
+world politics, now is the time for action."
+
+"There is no one," Nigel answered gloomily.
+
+The box was suddenly invaded. Karetsky reappeared with several other
+men. In the rear of the little procession came Immelan. His face
+darkened as he recognised Nigel. Naida looked across at him with a
+slight frown upon her forehead.
+
+"You have changed your mind?" she remarked. "I thought you were for
+Paris to-night?"
+
+"A fortunate chance intervened," Immelan replied.
+
+"Fortunate?"
+
+Immelan watched Nigel's retreating figure with a menacing frown.
+
+"I find it so," he replied. "Our wonderful prima donna is in great voice
+to-night--and I like to be prepared for all possible combinations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Maggie came suddenly into the library at Belgrave Square, where Jesson,
+Chalmers and Nigel were talking together. She carried in her hand a
+note, which she handed to the latter.
+
+"Naida is a dear, after all," she declared. "There is one person at
+least who does not wish to have me pass away in a German nursing home or
+fall a victim to Frau Essendorf's cooking."
+
+Nigel read the note aloud. It consisted of only a sentence or two and
+was dated from the Milan Court that morning:
+
+     Maggie dear, this is just a line of advice from your friend. You
+     must not go back to Germany.
+
+     Naida.
+
+"I fear," Maggie sighed, "that my little expedition is scotched, even if
+I had been able to persuade you others to let me go. Every one seems to
+have made up their mind that I shall not go to Germany. It will be such
+a disappointment to those flaxen-haired atrocities, Gertrud and Bertha.
+Their so-much-loved Miss Brown can never return to them again."
+
+"In any case, the game was scarcely worth the candle," Nigel observed.
+"We have already all the evidence we require that some scheme inimical
+to this country is being proposed and fostered by Immelan. Our next move
+must be to find out the nature of this scheme--whether it be naval,
+military, or political. I don't think Essendorf would be at all likely
+to give away any more interesting information in the domestic circle."
+
+"What are we all going to do, then?" Maggie asked.
+
+"We are met here to discuss it," Nigel replied. "Jesson is off to Russia
+this afternoon. I asked him to come round and have a few last words with
+us, in case there was anything to suggest for us stay-at-homes."
+
+"We shall have to rely very largely upon luck," Jesson declared. "There
+are three places, in any of which we might discover what we want to
+know. One is Kroten, another is Paris, provided that Prince Shan really
+goes there, and the third London."
+
+"London?" Maggie repeated.
+
+"There are two people in London," Jesson declared, "who know everything
+we are seeking to discover. One is Immelan and the other Naida
+Karetsky."
+
+"It seems to me," Maggie said, "that if that is so, the place for us is
+where those two people are. What is the importance of Kroten, Mr.
+Jesson?"
+
+"Kroten," Jesson replied, "is the second of what I have seen referred
+to in a private diplomatic report, written in an enemy country, as the
+three mystery cities of the world. The first one is in Germany, and I
+have already explored it. I have information, but information which
+without its sequel is valueless. Kroten is the second. Ten years ago it
+was a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. To-day there are at least
+two hundred thousand people there, and it is growing all the time."
+
+"Say, how can a town of that size," Chalmers enquired, "be termed a
+mystery city in any sense of the word? Travelling's free in Russia. I
+guess any one that wanted could take a ticket to Kroten."
+
+"A good many do," Jesson assented calmly, "and some never come back.
+America and Russia are on friendly terms, yet two men in my branch of
+the service--good fellows they were, too--started out from Washington
+for Kroten six months ago. Neither of them has been heard of since;
+neither ever will be."
+
+"How's it done?" Chalmers asked curiously.
+
+"In the first place," Jesson explained, "the city itself stands at the
+arm of the river, in a sort of cul-de-sac, with absolutely untraversable
+mountains on three sides of it. All the roads have to come around the
+plain and enter from eastwards. There is only one line of railway, so
+that all the approaches into the city are easily guarded."
+
+"That's all right geographically, of course," Nigel admitted, "but what
+earthly excuse can any one make for keeping tourists or travellers out
+of the place if they want to go there?"
+
+"That is perhaps the most ingenious thing of all," Jesson replied. "You
+know that Russia is now practically a tranquil country, but there are
+certain bands of the extreme Bolshevistic faction who never gave in to
+authority and who practically exist in the little-known places by means
+of marauding expeditions. The mountains about Kroten are supposed to
+have been infested by these nomadic companies. Whether the outrages set
+down to them are really committed or not, I don't suppose any one knows,
+but my point of view is that the presence of these people is absolutely
+encouraged by the Government, to give them an excuse for the most
+extraordinary precautions in issuing passports or allowing any one from
+the outside world to pass into the city. If you get in, I understand you
+are waited upon by the police within half an hour and have to tell them
+the story of your past life and your future intentions. After that you
+are allowed to go about on parole. If you get too inquisitive, you are
+discovered to be in touch with the robber bands, and--well--that's an
+end of you."
+
+"A nice, salubrious spot," Nigel murmured.
+
+"It sounds most interesting," Maggie declared. "I think a woman would
+be less likely to cause suspicion," she added hopefully.
+
+"Utterly out of the question," Jesson pronounced. "Kroten is the one
+place that must be left in my hands. I know more about the getting there
+than any of you, and I know the tricks of changing my identity."
+
+"I should rather like to go with you," Nigel confessed.
+
+"Impossible!" was the brief reply.
+
+"Why?"
+
+Jesson smiled.
+
+"To be perfectly frank," he said, "because you are developing an
+interest in the one person in the world who might give success over into
+our hands. It is necessary for you to remain where you can encourage
+that interest."
+
+Nigel was a little staggered.
+
+"My friendship with Mademoiselle Karetsky," he protested, "is scarcely
+likely to influence her political views."
+
+"I am a somewhat close observer," Jesson continued. "You will not ask me
+to believe that your conversation with mademoiselle in her box at the
+Opera last night related all the time to--well, shall we say music?"
+
+"Nigel, you never told me you were at the Opera," Maggie intervened.
+"What made you go?"
+
+"I think that it was a message from Mademoiselle Karetsky," Jesson
+suggested quietly.
+
+Nigel smiled.
+
+"Upon my word, I think you're going to be a success, Jesson," he
+declared. "Perhaps you can tell me what we did talk about?"
+
+"I believe I almost could," was the calm reply. "In any case, I think I
+see the situation as it exists. Mademoiselle Karetsky is a wonderful
+woman. She has a great, open mind. To a certain extent, of course, she
+has seen things from the point of view of Paul Matinsky, Immelan, and
+that little coterie of Russo-Germans who see a future for both countries
+only in an alliance of the old-fashioned order. Matinsky, however, has
+always had his doubts. That is why he sent over here the one person whom
+he trusted. Presently she will make a report, and the whole issue will
+remain with her. Immelan knows this and pays her ceaseless court. My
+impression, however, is that his influence is waning. I believe that
+to-day he is terrified at the bare reflection of how much Naida Karetsky
+knows."
+
+"You believe that she does know exactly what is intended?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I am perfectly certain of it," Jesson replied. "If she could be induced
+to tell us everything, my journey to Kroten might just as well be
+abandoned. Yet somehow I do not think she will go so far as that. The
+most that we can hope for is that she will advise Matinsky to reject
+Immelan's proposals, and that she will perhaps bring some influence to
+bear in the same direction upon Prince Shan."
+
+"I am inclined to agree with Jesson," Nigel pronounced, "inasmuch as I
+believe that Mademoiselle Karetsky is disposed to change or modify her
+views concerning us. You see, after all, this threatened blow against
+England is purely a private affair of Germany's. There is really no
+reason why Russia or any other country should be dragged into it. She is
+the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for her most dangerous
+rival."
+
+"Matinsky might be brought to think that way," Chalmers observed, "but
+they say half the members of his Cabinet are under German influence."
+
+"If Matinsky believed that," Nigel declared, "he is quite strong enough
+to clear them all out and make a fresh start."
+
+"In the meantime," Maggie interposed, "I should like to know in what way
+you propose to use poor little me? I am not to go to Germany, the man
+whom I at one time seriously thought of marrying is told off to engage
+the attentions of another woman, Mr. Jesson here is going to Kroten, and
+he doesn't show the slightest inclination to take me with him. Am I to
+sit here and do nothing?"
+
+"There remains for you the third enterprise," Jesson replied, "one in
+which, so far as I can see," he continued, with a smile, "you have not
+the faintest chance of success."
+
+"Tell me what it is, at least?" she begged.
+
+"The conversion of Prince Shan."
+
+Maggie made a little grimace.
+
+"Aren't you trying me a little high?" she murmured.
+
+"Very high indeed," Jesson acknowledged. "Prince Shan, for all his
+wonderful statesmanship and his grip upon world affairs, is reputed to
+be almost an anchorite in his daily life. No woman has ever yet been
+able to boast of having exercised the slightest influence over him. At
+the same time, he is an extraordinarily human person, and success with
+him would mean the end of your enemies."
+
+"It sounds a bit of a forlorn hope," Maggie remarked cheerfully, "but
+I'll do my little best."
+
+"Prince Shan has abandoned his idea of landing at Paris," Jesson
+continued. "He is coming direct to London. I have to thank Chalmers for
+that information. Immelan will meet him directly he arrives, and their
+first conversations will make history. Afterwards, if things go well,
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will join the conference."
+
+"I fear," Maggie sighed, "that there will be difficulties in the way of
+my establishing confidential relations with Prince Shan."
+
+"There will be difficulties," Jesson assented, "but the thing is not so
+impossible as it would be in Paris. Prince Shan has a very fine house
+in Curzon Street, which is kept in continual readiness for him. He will
+probably entertain to some extent. You will without doubt have
+opportunities of meeting him socially."
+
+Maggie glanced at herself in the glass.
+
+"A Chinaman!" she murmured.
+
+"I guess that doesn't mean what it did," Chalmers pointed out. "Prince
+Shan is an aristocrat and a born ruler. He has every scrap of culture
+that we know anything about and something from his thousand-year-old
+family that we don't quite know how to put into words. Don't you worry
+about Prince Shan, Lady Maggie. Ask Dorminster here what they called him
+at Oxford."
+
+"The first gentleman of Asia," Nigel replied. "I think he deserves the
+title."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+On the morning following the conclave in Belgrave Square, the Right
+Honourable Mervin Brown received two extremely distinguished visitors in
+Downing Street. It was doubtful whether the Prime Minister was
+altogether at his best. There was a certain amount of irritability
+rankling beneath his customary air of bonhommie. He motioned his callers
+to take chairs, however, and listened attentively to the few words of
+introduction which his secretary thought necessary.
+
+"This is General Dumesnil, sir, of the French Staff, and Monsieur
+Pouilly of the French Cabinet. They have called according to
+appointment, on Government business."
+
+"Very glad to see you, gentlemen," was the Prime Minister's brisk
+welcome. "Sorry I can't talk French to you. Politics, these last ten
+years, haven't left us much time for the outside graces."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly at once took the floor. He was a thin, dark man with a
+beautifully trimmed black beard, flashing black eyes, and thoughtful,
+delicate features. He was attired in the frock coat and dark trousers of
+diplomatic usage, and he appeared to somewhat resent the brown tweed
+suit and soft collar of the man who was receiving him.
+
+"Mr. Mervin Brown," he began, "you will kindly look upon our visit as
+official. We are envoys from Monsieur le Président and the French
+Government. General Dumesnil has accompanied me, in case our
+conversation should turn upon military matters here or at the War
+Office."
+
+The General saluted. The Prime Minister bowed a little awkwardly.
+
+"So far as I am concerned," the latter declared, "I will be perfectly
+frank with you from the start. I know nothing whatever about military
+affairs. My job is to govern this country, to make the most of its
+resources, and to bring prosperity to its citizens from the English
+Channel to the North Sea. We don't need soldiers and never shall, that I
+can see. I am firmly convinced that the days of wars are over. The
+government of every country in the world is getting into the hands of
+the democracy, and the democracy don't want war and never did. If any of
+the more quarrelsome folk on the continent get scrapping, well, my
+conception of my duty is to keep out of it."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly restrained himself. To judge from his appearance,
+however, it was not altogether an easy matter.
+
+"You belong, sir," he said, "to a type of statesman whose rise to power
+in this country some of us have watched with a certain amount of
+concern, for although it is not my mission here to-day to talk politics,
+I am yet bound to remind you that you do not stand alone. The very
+League of Nations upon which you rely imposes certain obligations upon
+you, some actual, some understood. It is to discuss the situation
+arising from your neglect to make the provisions called for in that
+agreement that I am here to-day."
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown glanced at some figures which his secretary had laid
+before him.
+
+"You complain, I presume, of the reduction of our standing army?" he
+observed.
+
+"We complain of that," Monsieur Pouilly replied, "and we complain also
+of the gradually decreasing interest shown by your Government in matters
+of æronautics, artillery, and naval construction. We learnt our lesson
+in 1914. If trouble should come again, our country would once more be
+the sufferer. You would no doubt do everything that was expected of you,
+in time. Before you were ready, however, France would be ruined. You
+entered into certain obligations under the League of Nations. My
+Government begs to call your attention to the fact that you are not
+fulfilling them."
+
+"It is my intention within the course of the next few months," Mervin
+Brown declared, "to lay before the League of Nations a scheme for total
+disarmament."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly was staggered. A little exclamation escaped the
+General.
+
+"What about those nations," the latter enquired, "who were left outside
+the League? What of Russia, for instance?"
+
+"Russia is a great and peaceful republic," Mervin Brown replied. "All
+her efforts are devoted towards industrial development. No nation would
+have less to gain by a return to militarism."
+
+"Pardon, monsieur, but how do you know anything about Russia?" Monsieur
+Pouilly asked. "You have not a single secret service agent there, and
+your ambassadors are ambassadors of commerce."
+
+"I know what every one else knows," Mervin Brown declared. "Our
+commercial travellers are our secret service agents. They travel where
+they please in Russia."
+
+"And Germany?" the General queried.
+
+"I defy you to say that there is the slightest indication of any
+militarism in Germany," the Prime Minister insisted. "I was there myself
+only a few months ago. The country is quiet and moving on now to a new
+prosperity. I am absolutely and entirely convinced that the world has
+nothing to fear from either Russia or Germany."
+
+"Have you any theory, sir," General Dumesnil enquired, "as to why Russia
+refused to join the League of Nations?"
+
+"None whatever," was the genial acknowledgment. "Russia was left out at
+the start through jealous statesmanship, and afterwards she preferred
+her independence. I have every sympathy with her attitude."
+
+"One more question," the soldier begged. "Are you aware, sir, that since
+Japan left the League of Nations on the excuse of her isolation, she has
+been building æroplanes and battleships on a new theory, instigated, if
+you please, by China?"
+
+"And look at her last balance sheet as a result of it," was the prompt
+retort. "If a nation chooses to make herself a bankrupt by building war
+toys, no one in the world can help her. Legislation of that sort is
+foolish and simply an incitement to revolution. Look at the difference
+in our country. Our income tax is practically abolished, our industrial
+troubles are over. Our credit never stood so high, the wealth of the
+country was never so great. We are satisfied. A peaceful nation makes
+for peace. The rattling of the sabre incites military disturbance. Do
+not ask us, gentlemen, to train armies or build ships."
+
+"We ask you only to keep your covenant," Monsieur Pouilly pronounced
+stiffly.
+
+"Who does keep it?" the Prime Minister demanded. "The world is governed
+now by common sense and humanity. I look upon a war of aggression on the
+part of any country as a sheer impossibility."
+
+"What about a war of revenge?" the General enquired quietly.
+
+"You can search Germany from end to end," Mervin Brown declared, "and
+find no trace of any spirit of the sort. I am sorry if I am a
+disappointment to you, gentlemen, but the present Government views your
+attitude without sympathy. General Richardson is expecting a visit from
+you this morning at the War Office, and he will give you any information
+you desire. An appointment has also been made for you this afternoon at
+the Admiralty. You are doing me the honour of dining with me here
+to-morrow night to meet certain members of my Cabinet, and we will, if
+you choose, discuss the matter further then. I have thought it best to
+place my views clearly before you, however, at the outset of your visit
+here."
+
+The Frenchmen rose a few minutes later and took their leave,
+ceremoniously but with obvious discontent. The Prime Minister leaned
+back in his chair and awaited his secretary's return with a
+well-satisfied smile. In a few minutes the latter presented himself.
+
+"Well, Franklin," the great man said, "I've let them hear the truth for
+once. Plain speaking, eh?"
+
+The young man bowed.
+
+"They certainly know your views, sir."
+
+The Minister glanced at his subordinate sharply.
+
+"What's the matter with you this morning, Franklin?" he demanded.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me, thank you, sir," was the quiet
+reply.
+
+"You're not going to tell me that you disapprove of my attitude?"
+
+"By no means, sir," the young man assured his Chief hastily,--"not
+altogether, that is to say. At the same time, one wonders how far those
+two men represent the feeling of France."
+
+His Chief shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The military spirit is hard to kill," he said. "It is in the blood of
+most Frenchmen. They are not big enough to understand that the world is
+moving on to greater things. What did they say to you before they left?"
+
+"Nothing much, sir. The General just asked me whether I thought you
+would soon be content to leave London unpoliced."
+
+"What rubbish! Any one else for me to see this morning?"
+
+"You promised to give Lord Dorminster ten minutes," the young man
+reminded him. "He is in the anteroom now."
+
+The Prime Minister frowned.
+
+"Dorminster," he repeated. "He is a nephew of the man who was always
+worrying the Government to reëstablish the secret service. I remember he
+came to see me the other day, declared that his uncle had been
+murdered, and a secret dispatch from Germany stolen. I wonder he didn't
+wind up with a report that the Chinese were on their way to seize
+Ireland!"
+
+"It is the same man, sir."
+
+"Well, I suppose I'd better see him and get it over," his Chief declared
+irritably. "If only one could make these people realize how far behind
+the times they are!"
+
+Nigel was shown in, a few minutes later. Mr. Mervin Brown was gracious
+but terse.
+
+"I haven't had the opportunity of congratulating you upon becoming one
+of our hereditary legislators, Lord Dorminster, since you took your seat
+in the House of Lords," he said. "Pray let me do so now. I hope that we
+may count upon your support."
+
+"My support, sir," Nigel replied, "will be given to any Party which will
+take the urgent necessary steps to protect this country against a great
+danger."
+
+"God bless my soul!" the Prime Minister exclaimed. "Another of you!"
+
+"I can only guess who my predecessors were," Nigel continued, smiling,
+"but I will frankly confess that the object of my visit is to beg you to
+reëstablish our secret service in Germany, Russia and China."
+
+"Nothing," the other declared, "would induce me to do anything of the
+sort."
+
+"Are you aware," Nigel enquired, "that there is a considerable foreign
+secret service at work in this country at the present moment?"
+
+"I am not aware of it, and I don't believe it," was the blunt retort.
+
+"I have absolute proof," Nigel insisted. "Not only that, but two
+ex-secret service men whom my uncle sent out to Germany and Russia on
+his own account were murdered there as soon as they began to get on the
+track of certain things which had been kept secret. A report from one of
+these men got through and was stolen from my uncle's library in Belgrave
+Square on the day he was murdered. You will remember that I placed all
+these facts before you on the occasion of a previous visit."
+
+Mervin Brown nodded.
+
+"Anything else?" he asked patiently.
+
+"You know that a special envoy from China is on his way here at the
+present moment to meet Immelan?"
+
+"Oscar Immelan, the German Commissioner?"
+
+"The same," Nigel assented.
+
+"A most delightful fellow," the Prime Minister declared warmly, "and a
+great friend to this country."
+
+"I must take the liberty of disagreeing with you," Nigel rejoined,
+"because I know very well that he is our bitter enemy. Prince Shan, who
+is on his way from China to meet him, is the envoy of the one country
+outside Europe whom we might fear. We sit still and do nothing. We have
+no means of knowing what may be plotted against us here in London. At
+least a polite request might be sent to Prince Shan to ask him to pay
+you a visit and disclose the nature of his conference with Immelan."
+
+"If he cares to come, we shall be glad to see him," Mervin Brown
+replied, "but I for one shall not go out of my way to talk politics."
+
+"Do you know what politics are, sir?" Nigel asked, in a sudden fury.
+
+The Prime Minister's eyes flashed for a moment. He controlled himself,
+however, and rang the bell.
+
+"I have an idea that I do," he answered. "A few millions of my fellow
+countrymen believe the same thing, or I should not be here. I think that
+you know what my principles are, Lord Dorminster. I am here to govern
+this country for the benefit of the people. We don't want to govern any
+one else's country, we don't want to meddle in any one else's affairs.
+Least of all do we want to revert to the times when your uncle was a
+young man, and every country in Europe was sitting with drawn sword,
+trusting nobody, fearing everybody, living in a state of nerves, with
+the roll of the drum always in their ears. The best preventative of war,
+in my opinion, is not to believe in it. Good morning, Lord Dorminster."
+
+It was a dismissal against which there was no appeal. Nigel followed the
+secretary from the room.
+
+"You found the Chief a little bit ratty this morning, I expect, Lord
+Dorminster," the latter remarked. "We've had the French Mission here."
+
+"Mr. Mervin Brown has at least the virtue of knowing his own mind,"
+Nigel replied dryly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The automobile turned in through the great entrance gates of the South
+London Aeronautic Terminus and commenced a slow ascent along the broad
+asphalted road to what, a few years ago, had been esteemed a new wonder
+of the world. Maggie rose to her feet with a little exclamation of
+wonder.
+
+"Do you know I have never been here at night before?" she exclaimed.
+"Isn't it wonderful!"
+
+"Marvellous!" Nigel replied. "It's the largest aeronautic station in the
+world--bigger, they say, than all our railway termini put together. Look
+at the flares, Maggie! No wonder the sky from the housetop at Belgrave
+Square seems always to be on fire at night!"
+
+They were approaching now the first of the huge sheds which were
+arranged in circular fashion around an immense stretch of perfectly
+level asphalted ground. Every shed was as big as an ordinary railway
+station, its arched opening framed with electric illuminations. Inside
+could be seen the crowds of people waiting on the platforms; in many of
+them, the engine of a great airship was already throbbing, waiting to
+start. In the background was a huge wireless installation, and around,
+at regular intervals, enormous pillars, on the top of which flares of
+different-coloured fire were burning. The automobile came to a
+standstill before a large electrically illuminated time chart. Nigel
+alighted for a moment and spoke to one of the inspectors.
+
+"Which station for the _Black Dragon_, private ship from China?" he
+enquired.
+
+The man glanced at the chart.
+
+"Number seven, on the other side," he replied. "You can drive around."
+
+"How is she for time?"
+
+"She crossed the North Sea punctually," he replied. "We should see her
+violet lights in ten minutes. Mind the traffic as you pass number three.
+The North ship from Norway is just in."
+
+Nigel addressed a word of caution to the chauffeur, and they drove on.
+From the first shed they passed a stream of vehicles was pouring
+out,--porters with luggage, jostling throngs of newly arrived passengers
+on their way to the Electric Underground. They drove into number seven
+shed, left the car, and walked to the end of the long platform. The
+great arc of glass-covered roof above them was brilliantly illuminated,
+throwing a queer downward light upon the long line of waiting porters,
+the refreshment rooms, the kiosks and newspaper stalls. In the far end,
+a huge airship, bound for the East, was already filling up. Maggie and
+her companion stood for a few minutes gazing into the huge void of
+space.
+
+"Tell me about Naida," the former begged, a little abruptly.
+
+"Naida is a wonderful woman," Nigel declared enthusiastically. "We
+lunched at Ciro's. She wore a black and white muslin gown which arrived
+this morning from Paris. Afterwards we went down to Ranelagh and sat
+under the trees."
+
+"Throwing yourself thoroughly into your little job, aren't you!" Maggie
+sniffed.
+
+"You'll have a chance to catch me up before long," he replied. "Naida
+has promised that she will arrange a meeting with the Prince."
+
+"I wonder what Oscar Immelan will have to say about it," Maggie
+reflected.
+
+"To tell you the truth," Nigel said hopefully, "I believe that Immelan
+is losing ground. His whole scheme is too selfish. Of course, Naida
+won't discuss these things with me in plain words, but she gives me a
+hint now and then. Amongst her gifts, she has a marvellous sense of
+justice and a hatred of any form of bribery. That is where I feel
+convinced that she and Immelan will never come together. Immelan could
+never see more than the selfish side, even of a world upheaval. Naida
+searches everywhere for motive. She has the altruistic instinct. I
+wonder no longer at Matinsky. She is a born ruler herself."
+
+"I'm glad you are getting along with her," Maggie remarked. "Look!" she
+broke off, catching at his arm. "The violet lights!"
+
+High up in the sky outside, two violet specks of light suddenly rose and
+fell like airballs. A crowd of mechanics appeared through subterranean
+doors and stood about in the vast arena. Very soon the airship came into
+sight, her cars brilliantly illuminated. She circled slowly round and
+came noiselessly to the ground, and with the mechanics running by her
+side, and her engines now scarcely audible, came slowly into the shed
+and to a standstill by the side of the platform. Maggie and her
+companion stood well in the background.
+
+"There he is," the latter whispered.
+
+Immelan, suddenly appeared as though from the bowels of the earth, was
+shaking hands warmly with a tall, slender man who was one of the first
+to descend from the airship. They talked rapidly together for a few
+minutes. Then they disappeared, walking down towards the
+luggage-clearing station. Maggie watched the retreating figures
+earnestly.
+
+"He doesn't look in the least Chinese," she declared.
+
+"I told you he didn't," Nigel replied. "He was considered the
+best-looking man of his year up at Oxford."
+
+Maggie was unusually silent on their way back.
+
+"It was perhaps scarcely worth our while, this little expedition of
+ours," Maggie said thoughtfully.
+
+"You're not sorry that we came?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head. "I think not," she replied.
+
+"Why only 'think'?"
+
+She roused herself with an effort.
+
+"I don't know, Nigel," she confessed. "I can't imagine what is wrong
+with me. I feel shivery--nervous--as though something were going to
+happen."
+
+He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie whom he scarcely
+recognised.
+
+"Presentiments?" he asked.
+
+"Absurd, isn't it!" she replied, with a weak smile. "I'll get over it
+directly. I don't think I am going to like Prince Shan, Nigel."
+
+"Well, you haven't been long making up your mind," he observed. "I
+shouldn't have thought you had been able even to see his face."
+
+"I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it," she reflected. "To me it
+seemed as though it were carved out of granite, and as though all that
+was human about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he hadn't been
+looking."
+
+"Are you flattering yourself that he will recognise you?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I know that he will," she answered simply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at the Ritz on the
+following evening, Prince Shan and Immelan dined tête-à-tête, Immelan in
+the best of spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world,
+drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities; Prince Shan, his
+features and expression unchanging, and his face as white as the
+perfectly fitting shirt he wore. His clothes were fashionable and
+distinctive, his black pearls unobtrusive but wonderful, his smoothly
+brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger nails, his skilfully tied tie
+all indicative of his close touch with western civilization. There was
+nothing, in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly
+unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air of personal
+detachment, to denote the Oriental. He drank water, he ate sparingly, he
+preserved an almost unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one giving
+courteous attention to everything which his companion said and finding
+interest in it. Only once he asked a question.
+
+"You are well acquainted here, my host," he said. "You know the trio at
+the table just behind the entrance--the attractive young lady with her
+chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must be an old college
+acquaintance whose name I have forgotten. Tell me some more about them
+in their private capacity, and not as saviours of their country."
+
+Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across the room.
+
+"There is not much to tell," he answered, without enthusiasm. "The young
+lady is, as you know, Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white
+hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their escort is Lord
+Dorminster. You would probably know him by the name of Kingley--he has
+only just succeeded to the title."
+
+Prince Shan was looking straight across the room, his eyes travelling
+over the heads of the many brilliant little groups of diners to rest
+apparently upon an empty space in the white-and-gold walls. He had been
+a great traveller, but always his first evening, when he came once more
+into touch with a civilisation more meretricious but more poignant than
+his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His
+companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.
+
+"They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is
+only gossip, however."
+
+For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His
+eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully _soignée_, very
+alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not
+actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more
+he felt the disturbance of the West.
+
+"If we should chance to come together naturally," he said, "it would
+gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very
+naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that
+evening, and the table towards which an attentive _maître d'hôtel_
+conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by
+Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was
+bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently,
+to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after
+the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to
+offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.
+
+"This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie," he said. "I am
+fortunate."
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted her unspoken invitation
+and seated himself on the lounge by her side.
+
+"We who come from the self-contained countries of the world," he
+explained, "and China is one of them, come always with the desire and
+longing for new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite for these
+is insatiable."
+
+"And am I a new sensation?" Maggie asked, glancing up at him innocently
+enough, but with a faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.
+
+"You are," he answered placidly. "You reveal--or rather you suggest--the
+things of which in my country we know nothing."
+
+"But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised over there," Maggie
+observed. "Please tell me at once what it is that I possess which your
+womenkind do not."
+
+"If I answered all that your question implies," he said, "I should make
+use of speech too direct for the conventions of the world in which you
+live. I would simply remind you that whereas we men in China may claim,
+I think, to have reached the same standard of culture and civilisation
+as Europeans, we have left our womenkind far behind in that respect. The
+Chinese woman, even the noble lady, does not care for serious affairs.
+The God of the Mountains, as they call him, made her a flower to pluck,
+a beautiful plaything for her chosen mate. She remains primitive. That
+is why, in time, man wearies of her, why the person of imagination looks
+sometimes westward, finds a new joy and a strange new fascination in a
+wholly different type of femininity."
+
+"But you have many European women now living in China," Maggie reminded
+him,--"American women, too, and they are so much admired everywhere."
+
+"The Chinese, especially we of the nobility," Prince Shan replied, "are
+born with racial prejudices. An individual may forgive an affront, a
+nation never. The days of retaliation by force of arms may indeed have
+passed, but the gentleman of China, even of these days, is not likely to
+take to his heart the woman of America."
+
+"Dear me," Maggie murmured, "isn't it rather out of date to persevere in
+these ancient feuds?"
+
+"Feeling of all sorts is out of date," he admitted patiently, "yet there
+are some things which endure. I should be honoured by your friendship,
+Lady Maggie."
+
+"This is very sudden," she laughed. "I am very flattered--but what does
+it mean?"
+
+"Permission to call upon you--and your aunt," he added, glancing around
+the little circle.
+
+"We shall be delighted," Maggie replied, "but you won't like my aunt.
+She is a little deaf, and she has no sense of humour. She has come to
+live with us because Lord Dorminster and I are not really related,
+although we call ourselves cousins, and I should hate to leave Belgrave
+Square. You shall take me out to tea to-morrow afternoon instead, if you
+like."
+
+A smouldering fire burned for a moment in his eyes.
+
+"That will make me very happy," he said. "I shall attend you at four
+o'clock."
+
+Thenceforward, conversation became general. Prince Shan, with the air
+of one who has achieved his immediate object, left his place by Maggie's
+side and talked with grave courtesy to her aunt. Presently the little
+party broke up, bound, it seemed, for the same theatre. Nigel had become
+a little serious.
+
+"Well, you've made a good start, Maggie," he remarked, leaning forward
+in his place in the limousine.
+
+"Have I?" Maggie answered thoughtfully. "I wonder!"
+
+"I wish we could get at him in some different fashion," her companion
+observed uneasily.
+
+"My dear man, I'm hardened to these enterprises," Maggie assured him. "I
+even let the President of the German Republic hold my hand once when his
+wife wasn't looking. Nothing came of it," she added, with a little sigh.
+"These Germans are terribly sentimental when it doesn't cost them
+anything. They've no idea of a fair exchange."
+
+"By a 'fair exchange' you mean," her aunt suggested, a little
+censoriously, "that you expected him to barter his country's secrets for
+a touch of your fingers?"
+
+"Or my lips, perhaps," Maggie added, with a little grimace. "Please
+don't look so serious, Aunt. I'm not really in love with Prince Shan,
+you know, and to-night I rather feel like marrying Nigel, if I can get
+him back again. I like his waistcoat buttons, and the way he has tied
+his tie."
+
+"Too late, my dear," Nigel warned her. "I give you formal notice. I
+have transferred my affections."
+
+"That decides me," Maggie declared firmly. "I shall collect you back
+again. I hate to lose an admirer."
+
+"The nonsense you young people talk!" Mrs. Bollington Smith observed, as
+they reached the theatre.
+
+Chalmers joined them soon after they had reached their box. He sank into
+the empty place by Maggie's side which Nigel had just vacated and leaned
+forward confidentially.
+
+"So you've started the campaign," he whispered.
+
+"How do you know?" she enquired.
+
+"I was at the Ritz to-night," he told her, "at the far end of the room
+with my Chief and two other men. We were behind you in the lounge
+afterwards."
+
+"I was so engrossed," Maggie murmured.
+
+Chalmers paused for a moment to watch the performance. When he spoke
+again, his voice, was, for him, unusually serious.
+
+"Young lady," he said, "I told you on our first meeting my idea of
+diplomacy. Truth! No beating about the bush--just the plain, unvarnished
+truth! I have conceived an affection for you."
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Maggie exclaimed softly. "Are you going to
+propose?"
+
+"Nothing," he assured her, "is farther from my thoughts. Lest I should
+be misunderstood, let me substitute the term 'affectionate interest' for
+'affection.' I have felt uneasy ever since I saw Prince Shan watching
+you across the restaurant to-night."
+
+"Did he really watch me?" Maggie asked complacently.
+
+"He not only watched you," Chalmers assured her, "but he thought about
+you--and very little else."
+
+"Congratulate me, then," she replied. "I am on the way to success."
+
+Chalmers frowned.
+
+"I'm not quite so sure," he said. "You'll think I'm an illogical sort of
+person, but I've changed my mind about your rôle in this little affair."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I am afraid of Prince Shan," he answered deliberately.
+
+She looked at him from behind her fan. Her eyes sparkled with interest.
+If there were any other feeling underneath, she showed no trace of it.
+
+"What a queer word for you to use!"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know it. I would back you, Lady Maggie, to hold your own against any
+male creature breathing, of your own order and your own race, but Prince
+Shan plays the game differently. He possesses every gift which women and
+men both admire, but he hasn't our standards. Life for him means power.
+A wish for him entails its fulfilment."
+
+"You are afraid," Maggie suggested, still with the laughter in her eyes,
+"that he will trifle with my affections?"
+
+"Something like that," he admitted bluntly. "Prince Shan will be here
+for a week--perhaps a fortnight. When he goes, he goes a very long
+distance away."
+
+"I may decide to marry him," Maggie said. "One gets rather tired here of
+the regular St. George's, Hanover Square, business, and all that comes
+afterwards."
+
+"Dear Lady Maggie," Chalmers replied, "that is the trouble. Prince Shan
+would never marry you."
+
+"Why not?" she asked simply.
+
+"First of all," Chalmers went on, after a moment's hesitation, "because
+Prince Shan, broad-minded though he seems to be and is on all the great
+questions of the world, still preserves something of what we should call
+the superstition of his country and order. I believe, in his own mind,
+he looks upon himself as being one of the few elect of the earth. He
+travels, he is gracious everywhere, but though his manner is the
+perfection of form, in his heart he is still aloof. He rides through the
+clouds from Asia, and he leaves always something of himself over there
+on the other side. Let me tell you this, Lady Maggie. I have never
+forgotten it. He was at Harvard in my year, and so far as he unbent to
+any one, he sometimes unbent to me. I asked him once whether he were
+ever going to marry. He shook his head and sighed. 'I can never marry,'
+he replied. 'Why not?' I asked him. 'Because there are no women of the
+Shan line alive,' he answered. Later, he took pity on my bewilderment.
+He let me understand. For two thousand years, no Shan has married, save
+one of his own line. To ally himself with a princess of the royal house
+of England would be a mésalliance which would disturb his ancestors in
+their graves. Of course, this sounds to us very ridiculous, but to him
+it isn't. It is part of the religion of his life."
+
+"You are not very encouraging, are you?" Maggie remarked. "Perhaps he
+has changed since those days."
+
+Her companion shook his head.
+
+"I should say not," he replied, "the Prince is not of the order of those
+who change."
+
+"Is it matrimony alone," she asked, "which he denies himself?"
+
+Chalmers glanced towards Mrs. Bollington Smith, whose eyes were closed.
+Then he nodded towards the stage.
+
+"You see the woman who has just come upon the stage?"
+
+Maggie glanced downwards. A very wonderful little figure in white satin,
+lithe and sinuous as a cat, Chinese in the subtlety of her looks,
+European in her almost sinister over-civilisation, stood smiling
+blandly at the applauding audience.
+
+"La Belle Nita," Maggie murmured. "I thought she was in Paris. Well,
+what of her?"
+
+"She is reputed to be a protégée of Prince Shan. You see how she looks
+up at his box."
+
+Maggie was conscious of a queer and almost incomprehensible stab at the
+heart. She answered without hesitation or change of expression, however.
+
+"The Prince must be kind to a fellow countrywoman," she declared
+indulgently. "You are talking terrible scandal."
+
+La Belle Nita danced wonderfully, sang like a linnet, danced again and
+disappeared, notwithstanding the almost wild calls for an encore. With
+the end of her turn came a selection from the orchestra and a general
+emptying of the boxes. Presently Chalmers went in search of Nigel. A few
+moments later there was a knock at the door. Maggie gripped the sides of
+her chair tightly. She was moved almost to fury by the turmoil in which
+she found herself. Her invitation to enter was almost inaudible.
+
+"I am deserted," Prince Shan explained, as he made his bow and took the
+chair to which Maggie pointed. "My friend Immelan has left me to visit
+acquaintances, and I chance to be unattended this evening. I trust that
+I do not intrude."
+
+"You are very welcome here," Maggie replied. "Will you listen to the
+orchestra, or talk to me?"
+
+"I will talk, if I may," he answered. "Lord Dorminster is not with
+you?"
+
+"Nigel went to look up a friend whom he wants to bring to supper. He is
+one of those people who seem to discover friends and acquaintances in
+every quarter of the globe."
+
+"And to that fortunate chance," her visitor continued, dropping his
+voice a little, "I owe the happiness of finding you alone."
+
+Maggie glanced towards her aunt, who was leaning back in her seat.
+
+"Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't," she declared. "She is really a
+very efficient chaperon. Talk to me about China, please, and tell me
+about your _Dragon_ airship. Is it true that you have silver baths, and
+that Gauteron painted the walls of your dining salon?"
+
+"One is in the air five days on the way over," he answered
+indifferently. "It is necessary that one's surroundings should be
+agreeable. Perhaps some day I may have the honour of showing it to you.
+In the darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to be seen."
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"You knew that I was there, then?"
+
+"Yours was the first face I saw when I descended from the car," he told
+her. "You stood apart, watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that
+you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I came there. As a rule,
+I do not dine in public."
+
+"How could you possibly know that I was going to be there?" Maggie asked
+curiously.
+
+"I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through the names of those who
+had booked tables," he answered. "It was very simple."
+
+"It was only a chance that the table was reserved in my name," she
+reminded him.
+
+"It was chance which brought us together," he rejoined. "It is chance
+under another name to which I trust in life."
+
+For the first time in her life, in her relations with the other sex,
+Maggie felt a queer sensation which was almost fear. She felt herself
+losing poise, her will governed, her whole self dominated. Unconsciously
+she drew herself a little away. Her eyes travelled around the crowded
+house and suddenly rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
+Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly forward, her eyes fixed
+intently upon Prince Shan, was La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown
+around her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure in the
+semi-obscurity.
+
+"You have some one waiting for you in your box," Maggie told him.
+
+He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his feet. She gave him
+credit for the adroitness of mind which rejected the obvious
+explanation of her presence there.
+
+"I must go," he said simply, "but I have many things which I desire to
+say to you. You will not forget to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"I shall not forget," she answered, in a low tone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince Shan's eyes as he sat
+back in the dim recesses of his box and scrutinised his visitor. La
+Belle Nita had learnt all that Paris and London could teach her.
+
+"You are very beautiful, Nita," he said.
+
+"Many men tell me so," she answered.
+
+"Life has gone well with you since we met last?" he asked reflectively.
+
+"The months have passed," she replied.
+
+"You have been faithful?"
+
+"Fidelity is of the soul."
+
+He paused, as though pondering over her answer. A famous French comedian
+was holding the stage, and the house rocked with laughter.
+
+"You have the same apartment?"
+
+She pressed the clasp of a black velvet bag which rested on the edge of
+the box, opened it, and passed him a key.
+
+"It is the same."
+
+He held the key in his fingers for a moment, but he had the air of a man
+to whom the action had no significance.
+
+"You have enough money?" he asked.
+
+"I have saved a million francs," she told him. "I am waiting for my
+lord to speak of things that matter. The woman in the box over
+there--who is she?"
+
+"An English spy," he answered calmly.
+
+She lowered her eyes for a moment, as though to conceal the sudden soft
+flash.
+
+"An English spy," she repeated. "My rival in espionage."
+
+"You have no rival, Nita," he replied, "and she is in the opposite
+camp."
+
+Her two red lips were distorted into a pout.
+
+"Is it over, my task?" she asked. "I am weary of Paris. I love it over
+here better. I am weary of French officers, of these solemn officials
+who come to my room like guilty schoolboys, and who speak of themselves
+and their importance with bated breath, as though their whisper would
+rock the world. My master has enough information?"
+
+"More than enough," he assured her. "You have done your work
+wonderfully."
+
+"Shall I now deal with her?" she continued, with a slight, eager
+movement of her head towards the opposite box.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"She is harmless, she and her entourage," he replied. "Some stroke of
+good fortune brought them word of the meeting between myself and
+Immelan, and beyond that they guessed at its significance. They were at
+the shed to watch my arrival. Now, with their mouths open, they sit and
+wait for the information which they hope will drop in. They are very
+ingenuous, these Anglo-Saxons, but they are not diplomats."
+
+She turned her head and looked across the auditorium. Maggie was talking
+to a man whom Nigel had just brought in, and who was bending over her in
+obvious admiration. Nita, with her wealth of cosmetics, her over-red
+lips, stared curiously at this possible rival, with her clear skin, her
+beautiful neck and shoulders, her hair dressed close to her head, her
+air of quiet, almost singular distinction.
+
+"The young lady," she confessed, "wears her clothes well for an English
+woman. She is _bien soignée_, but she looks a little difficult."
+
+His eyes followed the direction of hers, and her object was achieved.
+She read correctly the light that gleamed in them.
+
+"I may come to-night?" she asked quietly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Not again," he replied.
+
+A violinist now held the stage, a Pole newly come to London. La Belle
+Nita closed her eyes. For a few minutes her sorrow seemed to throb to
+the minor music to which she was listening.
+
+"For all my work, then," she said presently, "for the suffering and the
+risk, there is to be nothing?"
+
+"Is it nothing for you to be invited to live in whatsoever manner you
+choose?" he remonstrated.
+
+"It is little," she replied steadily. "There are a dozen who would do
+this for me, who pray every day that they may do so. What are all these
+things beside the love of my master?"
+
+He looked at her a little sadly, yet without any sign of real feeling.
+To him she represented nothing more than a doll with brains, from whose
+intelligence he had profited, but of whose beauty he was weary.
+
+"You know what our poet says, Nita," he reminded her. "'Love is like the
+rustling of the wind in the almond trees before dawn.' We cannot command
+it. It comes to us or leaves us without reason."
+
+She looked across the auditorium once more and spoke with her head
+turned away from her companion.
+
+"There is no one in the East," she said, "because those who write me
+weekly send news of my lord's doings. There is no one in the East,
+because there they give the body who know nothing of the soul. And so my
+Prince is safe amongst them. But here--these western women have other
+gifts. Is that she, master of my life and soul?"
+
+"I met her this evening for the first time," he replied.
+
+She laughed drearily.
+
+"Eyes may meet in the street without speech, a glance may burn its way
+into the soul. Once I thought that I might love again, because a
+stranger smiled at me in the Bois, and he had grey eyes, and that look
+about his mouth which a woman craves for. He passed on, and I forgot.
+You see, my lord was still there.--So this is the woman."
+
+"Who knows?" he answered.
+
+Immelan came into the box a little abruptly. There was a cloud upon his
+face which he did his best to conceal. Almost simultaneously, a
+messenger from behind the scenes arrived for Nita. She rose to her feet
+and wrapped her green cloak closely around her lissom figure.
+
+"In a quarter of an hour," she said, "I have to appear again. It is to
+be good-night, then?"
+
+She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the appeal which knows no
+nationality shone out of their velvety depths. She stood before him
+simply, like a slave who pleads. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face
+moved.
+
+"It is to be good-night, Nita," he answered calmly.
+
+Her head drooped, and she passed out. She had the air of a flower whose
+petals have been bruised. Immelan looked after her curiously, almost
+compassionately.
+
+"It is finished, then, with the little one, Prince?" he enquired.
+
+"It is finished," was the calm reply.
+
+Immelan stroked his short moustache thoughtfully.
+
+"Is it wise?" he ventured. "She has been faithful and assiduous. She
+knows many things."
+
+Prince Shan's eyes were filled with mild wonder.
+
+"She has had some years of my occasional companionship," he said. "It is
+surely as much as she could hope for or expect. We are not like you
+Westerners, Immelan," he went on. "Our women are the creatures of our
+will. We call them, or we send them away. They know that, and they are
+prepared."
+
+"It seems a little brutal," Immelan muttered.
+
+"You prefer your method?" his companion asked. "Yet you practise deceit.
+Your fancy wanders, and you lie about it. You lose your dignity, my
+friend. No woman is worth a man's lie."
+
+Immelan was leaning back in his chair, gazing steadfastly across the
+crowded theatre.
+
+"Your principles," he said, "are suited to your own womenkind. La Belle
+Nita has become westernised. Are you sure that she accepts the situation
+as she would if she dwelt with you in Pekin?"
+
+"I am her master," Prince Shan declared calmly. "I have made no promises
+that I have not fulfilled."
+
+"The promise between a man and a woman is an unspoken one," Immelan
+persisted. "You have not been in Europe for five months. All that time
+she has awaited you."
+
+"Something else has happened," Prince Shan said deliberately.
+
+"Since your arrival in London?"
+
+"Since my arrival in London, since I stepped out of my ship last night."
+
+Immelan was frankly incredulous.
+
+"You mean Lady Maggie Trent?"
+
+"Certainly! I have always felt that some day or other my thoughts would
+turn towards one of these strange, western women. That time has come.
+Lady Maggie possesses those charms which come from the brain, yet which
+appeal more deeply than any other to the subtle desires of the poet, the
+man of letters and the philosopher. She is very wonderful, Immelan. I
+thank you for your introduction."
+
+Immelan ceased to caress his moustache. He leaned back in his chair and
+gazed at his companion. For many years he and the Prince had been
+associates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even begun to
+understand him.
+
+"But you forget, Prince," he said, "that Lady Maggie and her friends are
+in the opposite camp. When our agreement is concluded and known to the
+world, she will look upon you as an enemy."
+
+"As yet," Prince Shan answered calmly, "our agreement is not concluded."
+
+Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat
+prevented an expression of anger.
+
+"But, Prince," he expostulated, "apart from political considerations,
+you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you
+and Lady Maggie?"
+
+"Why not?" was the cool reply.
+
+"Lady Maggie is of the English nobility," Immelan pointed out. "Neither
+she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in
+the nature of a morganatic alliance."
+
+"It would not be necessary," Prince Shan declared. "It is in my mind to
+offer her marriage."
+
+Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his
+pocket. He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.
+
+"Marriage?" he muttered. "You are not serious!"
+
+"I am entirely serious," the Prince insisted. "I can understand your
+amazement, Immelan. When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it
+as I would at a weed. But we who have studied in the West have learnt
+certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.
+All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.
+From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity: devotion to our country
+and singleness of purpose. Over here, though, one has also learnt
+something. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the Shans must seek not
+for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate. If
+their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of
+his life."
+
+Immelan was speechless. There was something final and convincing in his
+companion's measured words. His own protest, when at last he spoke,
+sounded paltry.
+
+"But supposing it is true that she is already engaged to Lord
+Dorminster?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled very quietly.
+
+"That," he said, "can easily be disposed of."
+
+"But do you seriously believe that you would be able to induce her to
+return with you to Pekin?" Immelan persisted.
+
+At that moment it chanced that Maggie turned her head and looked across
+at the two men. Prince Shan leaned a little forward to meet her gaze.
+His face was expressionless. The lines of his mouth were calm and
+restful, yet in his eyes there glowed for a single moment the fire of a
+man who looks upon the thing he covets.
+
+"I seriously believe it," he answered under his breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Maggie leaned back in her chair with a little sigh of content. The
+scarlet-coated waiter had just removed their tea tray, a pleasant breeze
+was rustling through the leaves of the trees under which she and Prince
+Shan were seated. From the distance came the low strains of a military
+band. Everywhere on the lawns and along the paths men and women were
+promenading.
+
+"Confess that this is better than Rumpelmayer's or the Ritz," she
+murmured lazily.
+
+"It is better," he admitted. "It is a very wonderful place."
+
+"You have nothing like it in China?" she asked him.
+
+"It would not be possible," he answered. "Democracy there is confined to
+politics. In other respects, our class prejudices are far more rigid
+than yours. But then I see a great change in this country since I was
+here as a student."
+
+"You have lost your affection for it, perhaps?" she ventured, looking at
+him through half-closed eyes.
+
+"On the contrary," he assured her, "my gratitude towards her was never
+so great as at this moment. Your country has given me nothing I prize
+so much, Lady Maggie, as my knowledge of you."
+
+She looked away from his very earnest eyes, and the light retort died
+away upon her lips. The men and women whom she watched so steadfastly
+seemed like puppets, the flowers artificial, the music unreal. Already
+she was beginning to resent the influence which he was establishing over
+her. The art of badinage in which she was so proficient stood her in no
+stead. Words, even the power of light speech, had deserted her.
+
+"Tell me about the changes that you see," she asked.
+
+"Perhaps," he replied, after a moment's hesitation, "it is because I am
+an occasional visitor that differences seem so marked to me, but look at
+the tables there. That is the Duke of Illinton, is it not? At the next
+table, the man in the strange clothes and uncomfortable hat--it seems to
+me that I have seen him somewhere under different circumstances."
+
+Maggie nodded.
+
+"Life is a terrible hotchpotch nowadays," she admitted. "After the war,
+our gentry and aristocracy who were not wealthy were taxed out of
+existence. The profiteers, and the men who had made fortunes during the
+war, took their place. It has made the country prosperous but less
+picturesque."
+
+"You put things very clearly," he said. "To-day in England is certainly
+the day of the shopkeeper's triumph. Wealth is a great thing, but it is
+great only for what it leads to. I think your philosopher of the
+streets, your new school of politicians, have alike forgotten that."
+
+"You have lost sympathy with England, have you not, Prince Shan?" Maggie
+asked him.
+
+He turned towards her, a faint but kindly smile upon his lips, a light
+in his eyes which she did not altogether understand.
+
+"Lady Maggie," he said quietly, "they tell me that you are interested in
+the political side of my visit to this country."
+
+"Who tells you that?" she demanded. "What have I to do with politics?"
+
+"You have been gifted with great intelligence," he continued, "and you
+are the confidante of your connection, Lord Dorminster. Lord Dorminster
+is one of those few Englishmen who realise the ill direction of the
+destinies of this country. You would like to help him in his present
+very strenuous efforts to ascertain the truth as to certain movements
+directed against the British Empire. That is so, is it not?"
+
+"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 assured 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
+peacocks 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 passion 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 assurance 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 assured him. "As for the
+purpose of your mission, I assure 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 passed 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 masses 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 attitude 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 attitude 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 class 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 gods 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 God 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 Président."
+
+A chapter of English history ended with the quiet passing of Monsieur
+Senn into the sunlit street. The latter entered his waiting automobile
+and drove at once to the French Embassy. The Ambassador listened in
+silence to his report.
+
+"What about the Press?" was his only question.
+
+"Monsieur le Président 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 Ambassador 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.
+
+Karschoff's face was suddenly grave. He seemed on the point of saying
+something but checked himself and turned away with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+"Each one to his taste," he murmured. "For my aperitif, a dash of
+absinthe in my cocktail; for Dorminster here, the lure of a woman's
+smile. Perhaps he gains. Who knows?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Nigel waited for his luncheon companion in the crowded vestibule of
+London's most famous club restaurant. He was to a certain extent out of
+the picture among the crowd of this new generation of pleasure seekers,
+on the faces of whom opulence and acquisitiveness had already laid its
+branding hand. The Mecca alike of musical comedy and the Stock Exchange,
+the place, however, still preserved a curious attraction for the foreign
+element in London, so that when at last Naida appeared, she was
+exchanging courtesies with an Italian Duchess on one side and a
+celebrated Russian dancer on the other. Nigel led her at once to the
+table which he had selected in the balcony.
+
+"I have obeyed your wishes to the letter," he said, "and I think that
+you are right. Up here we are entirely alone, and, as you see, they have
+had the sense to place the tables a long way apart. Am I to blame, I
+wonder, for asking you to do so unconventional a thing as to lunch here
+again alone with me?"
+
+She drew off her gloves and smiled across the table at him. Her plain,
+tailor-made gown, with its high collar, was the last word in elegance.
+The simplicity of her French hat was to prove the despair of a
+well-known modiste seated downstairs, who made a sketch of it on the
+menu and tried in vain to copy it. Even to Nigel's exacting taste she
+was flawless.
+
+"Is it unconventional?" she asked carelessly. "I do not study those
+things. I lunch or dine with a party, generally, because it happens so.
+I lunch alone with you because it pleases me."
+
+"And for this material side of our entertainment?" he enquired, smiling,
+as he handed her the menu card.
+
+"A grapefruit, a quail with white grapes, and some asparagus," she
+replied promptly. "You see, in one respect I am an easy companion. I
+know exactly what I want. A mixed vermouth, if you like, yes. And now,
+tell me your news?"
+
+"There is news," he announced, "which the whole world will know of
+before many hours are past. France has broken her pact with England."
+
+"It is my opinion," she said deliberately, "that France has been very
+patient with you."
+
+"And mine," he acknowledged. "We have now to see what will become of a
+fat and prosperous country with a semi-obsolete fleet and a comic opera
+army."
+
+"Must we talk of serious things?" she asked softly. "I am weary of the
+clanking wheels of life."
+
+He sighed.
+
+"And yet for you," he said, "they are not grinding out the fate of your
+country."
+
+"Nevertheless, I too hear them all the time," she rejoined. "And I hate
+them. They make one lose one's sense of proportion. After all, it is our
+own individual and internal life which counts. I can understand Nero
+fiddling while Rome burned, if he really had no power to call up fire
+engines."
+
+"Are you an individualist?" he asked.
+
+"Not fundamentally," she replied, "but I am caught up in the throes of a
+great reaction. I have been studying events, which it is quite true may
+change the destinies of the world, so intently that I have almost
+forgotten that, after all, the greatest thing in the world, my world, is
+the happiness or ill-content of Naida Karetsky. It is really of more
+importance to me to-day that my quail should be cooked as I like it than
+that England has let go her last rope."
+
+"You are not an Englishwoman," he reminded her.
+
+"That is of minor importance. We are all so much immersed in great
+affairs just now that we forget it is the small ones that count. I want
+my luncheon to be perfect, I want you to seem as nice to me as I have
+fancied you, and I want you to chase completely away the idea that you
+are cultivating my acquaintance for interested motives."
+
+"That I can assure you from the bottom of my heart is not the case," he
+replied. "Whatever other interests I may feel in you," he added, after
+a moment's hesitation, "my first and foremost is a personal one."
+
+She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes for his understanding.
+
+"A woman in my position," she complained, "is out of place. A man ought
+to come over and study your deservings or your undeservings and pore
+over the problem of the future of Europe. I am a woman, and I am not big
+enough. I am too physical. I have forgotten how to enjoy myself, and I
+love pleasure. Now am I a revelation to you?"
+
+"You have always been that," he told her. "You are so truthful
+yourself," he went on boldly, "that I shall run the risk of saying the
+most banal thing in the world, just because it happens to be the truth.
+I have felt for you since our first meeting what I have felt for no
+other woman in the world."
+
+"I like that, and I am glad you said it," she declared lightly enough,
+although her lips quivered for a moment. "And they have put exactly the
+right quantity of Maraschino in my grapefruit. I feel that I am on the
+way to happiness. I am going to enjoy my luncheon.--Tell me about
+Maggie."
+
+"I saw her yesterday," he answered. "We have arranged for her to come
+and live at Belgrave Square, after all."
+
+"My terrible altruism once more," she sighed. "I had meant not to speak
+another serious word, and yet I must. Maggie is very clever, amazingly
+clever, I sometimes think, but if she had the brains of all of her sex
+rolled into one, she would still be facing now an impossible situation."
+
+"Just what do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
+
+"Maggie seems determined to measure her wits with those of Prince Shan,"
+she said. "Believe me, that is hopeless."
+
+She looked up at him and laughed softly.
+
+"Oh, my dear friend," she went on, "that wooden expression is wonderful.
+You do not quite know where I stand, except--may I flatter myself?--as
+regards your personal feelings for me. Am I for Immelan and his schemes,
+or for your own foolish country? You do not know, so you make for
+yourself a face of wood."
+
+"Where do you stand?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"Sufficiently devoted to your interests to beg you this," she replied.
+"Do not let your little cousin think that she can deal with a man like
+Prince Shan. There can be only one end to that."
+
+Nigel moved a little uneasily in his place.
+
+"Prince Shan is only an ordinary human being, after all," he protested.
+
+"That is just where you are mistaken," she declared. "Prince Shan is one
+of the most extraordinary human beings who ever lived. He is one of the
+most farseeing men in the world, and he is absolutely the most
+powerful."
+
+"But China," Nigel began--
+
+"His power extends far beyond China," she interrupted, "and there is no
+brain in the world to match his to-day."
+
+"If he were a god wielding thunderbolts," Nigel observed, "he could
+scarcely do much harm to Maggie here in London."
+
+"There was an artist once," she said reflectively, "who drew a
+caricature of Prince Shan and sent it to the principal comic paper in
+America. It was such a success that a little time later on he followed
+it up with another, which included a line of Prince Shan's ancestors.
+Within a month's time the artist was found murdered. Prince Shan was in
+China at the time."
+
+"Are you suggesting that the artist was murdered through Prince Shan's
+contrivance?"
+
+"Am I a fool?" she answered. "Do you not know that to speak
+disrespectfully of the ancestors of a Chinaman is unforgivable? To all
+appearances Prince Shan never moved from his wonderful palace in Pekin,
+many thousands of miles away. Yet he lifted his little finger and the
+man died."
+
+"Isn't this a little melodramatic?" Nigel murmured.
+
+"Melodrama is often nearer the truth than people think," she said.
+"Shall I give you another instance? I know of several."
+
+"One more, then."
+
+"Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incognito," she continued.
+"There was at the time a small but very fashionable restaurant in the
+Bois, close to the Pré Catelan. He presented himself one night there for
+dinner, accompanied, I believe, by La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who
+is in London to-day. As you know, there is little in Prince Shan's
+appearance to denote the Oriental, but for some reason or other the
+proprietor refused him a table. Prince Shan made no scene. He left and
+went elsewhere. Three nights later, the café was burnt to the ground,
+and the proprietor was ruined."
+
+"Anything else?" Nigel asked.
+
+"Only one thing more," she replied. "I have known him slightly for
+years. In Asia he ranks to all men as little less than a god. His
+palaces are filled with priceless treasures. He has the finest
+collection of jewels in the world. His wealth is simply inexhaustible.
+His appearance you appreciate. Yet I have never seen him look at a woman
+as he looked at your cousin the first time he met her. I was at the Ritz
+with my father, and I watched. I know you think that I am being foolish.
+I am not. I am a person with a very great deal of common sense, and I
+tell you that Prince Shan has never desired a thing in life to which he
+has not helped himself. Maggie is a clever child, but she cannot toss
+knives with a conjuror."
+
+Nigel was impressed and a little worried.
+
+"It seems absurd to think that anything could happen to Maggie here in
+London," he said, "after--"
+
+He paused abruptly. Naida smiled at him.
+
+"After her escape from Germany, I suppose you were going to say? You
+see, I know all about it. There was no Prince Shan in Berlin."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Well," he admitted, "I don't quite bring myself to believe in your
+terrible ogre, so I shall not worry. Tell me what news you have from
+Russia?"
+
+"Political?"
+
+"Any news."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I notice," she said, "that English people are changing their attitude
+towards my country. A few years ago she seemed negligible to them. Now
+they are beginning to have--shall I call them fears? Even my kind host,
+I think, would like to know what is in Paul Matinsky's heart as he hears
+the friends of Oscar Immelan plead their cause."
+
+"I admit it," he told her frankly. "I will go farther. I would give a
+great deal to know what is in your own mind to-day concerning us and our
+destiny. But these things are not for the moment. It was not to discuss
+or even to think of them that I asked you here to-day."
+
+"Why did you invite me, then?" she asked, smiling.
+
+"Because I wanted the pleasure of having you opposite me," he
+replied,--"because I wanted to know you better."
+
+"And are you progressing?"
+
+"Indifferently well," he acknowledged. "I seem to gain a little and
+slide back again. You are not an easy person to know well."
+
+"Nothing that is worth having is easy," she answered, "and I can assure
+you, when my friendship is once gained, it is a rare and steadfast
+thing."
+
+"And your affection?" he ventured.
+
+Her eyes rested upon his for a moment and then suddenly drooped. A
+little tinge of colour stole into her cheeks. For a moment she seemed to
+have lost her admirable poise.
+
+"That is not easily disturbed," she told him quietly. "I think that I
+must have an unfortunate temperament, there are so few people for whom I
+really care."
+
+He took his courage into both hands.
+
+"I have heard it rumoured," he said, "that Matinsky is the only man who
+has ever touched your heart."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That is not the truth. Paul Matinsky cares for me in his strange way,
+and he has a curiously exaggerated appreciation of my brain. There have
+been times," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "when I myself
+have been disturbed by fancies concerning him, but those times have
+passed."
+
+"I am glad," he said quietly.
+
+His fingers, straying across the tablecloth, met hers. She did not
+withdraw them. He clasped her hand, and it remained for a moment passive
+in his. Then she withdrew it and leaned back in her chair.
+
+"Is that meant to introduce a more intimate note into our conversation?"
+she asked, with a slight wrinkling of the forehead and the beginnings of
+a smile upon her lips.
+
+"If I dared, I would answer 'yes'," he assured her.
+
+"They tell me," she continued pensively, "that Englishmen more than any
+other men in the world have the flair for saying convincingly the things
+which they do not mean."
+
+"In my case, that would not be true," he answered. "My trouble is that I
+dare not say one half of what I feel."
+
+She looked across the table at him, and Nigel suddenly felt a great
+weight of depression lifted from his heart. He forgot all about his
+country's peril. Life and its possibilities seemed somehow all
+different. He was carried away by a rare wave of emotion.
+
+"Naida!" he whispered.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+Her eyes were soft and expectant. Something of the gravity had gone from
+her face. She was like a girl, suddenly young with new thoughts.
+
+"You know what I am going to say to you?"
+
+"Do not say it yet, please," she begged. "Somehow it seems to me that
+the time has not come, though the thought of what may be in your heart
+is wonderful. I want to dream about it first," she went on. "I want to
+think."
+
+He laughed, a strange sound almost to his own ears, for Nigel, since his
+uncle's death, had tasted the very depths of depression.
+
+"I obey," he agreed. "It is well to dally with the great things.
+Meanwhile, they grow."
+
+She smiled across at him.
+
+"I hope that they may," she answered. "And you will ask me to lunch
+again?"
+
+"Lunch or dine or walk or motor--whatever you will," he promised.
+
+She reflected for a moment and then laughed. She was drawing on her
+gloves now, and Nigel was paying the bill.
+
+"There are some people who will not like this," she said.
+
+"And one," he declared, "for whom it is going to make life a Paradise."
+
+They passed out into the street and strolled leisurely westwards. As
+they crossed Trafalgar Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
+spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion seemed suddenly
+surrounded by placards, all with the same headlines. They paused to
+read:
+
+              _TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR_
+          _HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT_
+           _TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX_
+
+They walked on. Naida said nothing, although she shook her head a little
+sorrowfully. Nigel glanced across the Square and down towards
+Westminster.
+
+"They will shout themselves hoarse there this afternoon," he groaned.
+
+For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of coming events.
+
+"It is amazing," she whispered, "for the writing on the wall is already
+there."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert Hall, in the
+gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff officer in the Russian Imperial
+Forces, Prince Karschoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
+other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene below and around.
+The greatest city the world has ever known seemed in those days to have
+entered upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in history. Every box
+and every yard of dancing space on the floor beneath was crowded with
+men and women in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked with
+jewels which eager merchants had brought together from every market of
+the world; even the men, in their silks and velvets and ruffles,
+carrying out the dominant note of wealth. It was a ball given for
+charity and under royal patronage.
+
+"All our friends seem to be here to-night," the Prince remarked,
+glancing around. "I saw Naida with her father and the eternal Oscar
+Immelan. Chalmers is here with an exceedingly gay party, and yonder sits
+his Imperial Highness, looking very much the barbaric prince.--By the
+by," he added, glancing towards Maggie, "I thought that he was not
+coming?"
+
+Maggie, who seemed a little tired, nodded quietly. It was a week or ten
+days later, and an early season was now in full swing.
+
+"He told me that he was not coming," she said. "I suppose the temptation
+to wear that gorgeous raiment was too much for him."
+
+"Apropos of that, there is one curious thing to be noted here with
+regard to clothes," the Prince continued. "Amongst the men, you find
+Venetian Doges, Chancellors, gallants of every age, but scarcely a
+single uniform. In a way, this seems typical of the passing of the
+militarism of your country. You are beginning to remind me of Venice in
+the Middle Ages. There is a new type of brain dominant here, fat instead
+of muscle, a citizen aristocracy instead of the lean, clear-eyed,
+athletic type."
+
+Maggie moved in her place a little irritably.
+
+"I am tired of warnings," she declared. "I wish some one could do
+something."
+
+"It is impossible," the Prince pronounced solemnly. "Napoleon earned for
+himself a greater claim to immortality when he christened the English a
+nation of shopkeepers than when he won the Battle of Austerlitz. If the
+Englishman of to-day saw his material prosperity slipping away from him,
+then indeed he would be nervous and restless, ready to lean towards
+every wind that blew, to listen to every disquieting rumour. To-day his
+bank balance is prodigious, and all's well with the world.--How
+wonderfully Prince Shan lives up to his part to-night!"
+
+They looked across towards the opposite box, whose single occupant, in
+the bright green robes of a mandarin, sat looking down upon the gay
+throng with an absolutely immovable expression. There was something
+almost regal about his air of detachment, his solitude amidst such a gay
+scene.
+
+"There is one of the strangest and most consistent figures in history,"
+Karschoff, who was in a talkative frame of mind, went on reflectively.
+"I honestly believe that Prince Shan considers himself to be of
+celestial descent, to carry in his person the honour of countless
+generations of Manchus. He has no intimates. Even Immelan usually has to
+seek an audience. What his pleasures may be, who knows?--because
+everything that happens with him happens behind closed walls. To-night,
+the door of his box is guarded as though he were more than royalty. No
+one is allowed to enter unless he has special permission."
+
+"There is some one entering now," Maggie pointed out, "for the first
+time. Watch!"
+
+La Belle Nita stood for a moment in the front of the box. She was
+dressed in the gala costume of a Chinese lady, in a cherry-coloured robe
+with wide sleeves, her hair, with its many jewelled ornaments, like a
+black pool of night, her face ghastly white with a superabundance of
+powder. Prince Shan turned his head slightly towards her, and though no
+muscle of his face moved, it was obvious that her coming was unwelcome.
+She began to talk. He listened with the face of a sphinx. Presently she
+drew back into the shadows of the box. She had thrown herself into a
+chair, and her face was hidden.
+
+"La Belle Nita has made a mistake," Maggie observed. "His Serene
+Highness evidently had no wish to be disturbed."
+
+Karschoff's eyes rested upon the figure in green silk, and they were
+filled with an unwilling admiration.
+
+"That man is magnificent," he declared. "Watch his face now that he is
+speaking. Not a muscle moves, not a flash in his eyes, yet one has the
+fancy that he is saying terrible things."
+
+It was obvious, a moment later, that La Belle Nita had left the box.
+Maggie sprang up. Her colour was a little heightened. There was a rare
+nervousness in her tone.
+
+"Let us walk around and find some of the others," she suggested, turning
+to Nigel. "I want to dance."
+
+They all three passed out and mingled with the dancers. Maggie put on
+her mask and deliberately glided into the crowd as though with the
+intention of losing herself. It was not until she was underneath Prince
+Shan's box and out of sight of its occupant that she paused. Her
+thoughts were in a turmoil. His presence there, after his deliberate
+assurance to her that he had no intention of coming, his calm and
+unnoticing regard of her and every one else, seemed to confirm in every
+way the wave of pessimism which she as well as Nigel was experiencing.
+She had passed Immelan in the entrance, and there was something
+ominously disturbing in his cool, triumphant smile. She pictured to
+herself the agreement signed, some nameless terror already launched. She
+remembered that Nigel had complained of Naida's inaccessibility during
+the last few days. She herself had been surprised at Prince Shan's
+apparent withdrawal, temporary though it might be, from the peculiar but
+impressive position which he had taken up with regard to her.
+
+She stood back against the wall, in a dark corner, striving to collect
+her thoughts, thankful for the brief respite from conversation. A man in
+the costume of a monk, who had followed her across the room, touched her
+on the shoulder. He spoke in a quiet, unfamiliar voice with a foreign
+accent,
+
+"You are Lady Maggie Trent?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Will you please go to box number fourteen, on the second tier? There is
+some one there who waits for you."
+
+"Who is it?" she asked.
+
+The monk had glided away. Maggie, after a few minutes' reflection,
+slipped out into the corridor, mounted one flight of stairs, and passed
+along the semicircular balcony. The door of box number fourteen was
+ajar. She pushed it gently open and glanced in. Seated so as to be out
+of sight of the whole house was La Belle Nita. For a moment the two
+looked at each other. Then the Chinese girl sprang to her feet, made a
+quaint little bow, and, gliding around, closed the door behind her
+visitor.
+
+"Sit down, please," she invited. "I will tell you things you may like to
+hear."
+
+A sudden thought flashed into Maggie's mind. She began to see light. She
+obeyed at once. The two women sat well back and out of sight of the
+house. La Belle Nita held the handle of the door in her hand while she
+spoke, as though to prevent any one entering.
+
+"I have an enemy who was once a friend," she said, "and I wish to do him
+evil. He is not only my enemy, but he is yours. He is the enemy of all
+you English people, because it is a great disaster which he plans to
+bring upon you."
+
+"You speak of Prince Shan?" Maggie exclaimed.
+
+Even at the mention of his name, the girl shook. She looked around as
+though fearing the shadows. She rattled the door to make sure that it
+was closed.
+
+"For him whom you call Prince Shan I have worked many years, first of
+all in Paris, now here. I was content with small reward. That reward he
+now takes from me. It is my wish to betray him."
+
+"Why do you send for me?" Maggie asked.
+
+"Because you have been an English spy," was the quiet reply. "It may
+surprise you that I know that, but I do know. I have been a spy for
+Prince Shan in Paris. You were a spy for England in Berlin. You were a
+spy for your country's sake; I was a spy for love. Now I betray for
+hate."
+
+"Please go on."
+
+"Prince Shan came this time to Europe with two schemes in his mind," the
+girl continued. "One concerned France. That one he has discarded.
+Through me he learned of the military strength of France, her secret
+resources, of her tireless watch upon the Rhine. So he listens to
+Immelan, and Immelan and he together, oh, English lady, they have made a
+wonderful plan!"
+
+"Are you going to tell me what it is?" Maggie asked, her eyes bright
+with excitement.
+
+"I cannot tell you because I do not know," was the unwilling admission,
+"but I will make it so that you can discover for yourself. A few hours
+ago, the plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the third drawer
+of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the left-hand side of the hall after
+you have entered his house in Curzon Street."
+
+"But no one can enter it!" Maggie exclaimed. "The place is like a fort.
+No stranger may pass the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
+that he receives no visitors."
+
+La Belle Nita smiled. From a pocket somewhere within the folds of her
+flowing gown, she produced two small keys.
+
+"Listen," she said. "The house in Curzon Street has been called the
+House of Silence. There are many servants there, but they come only from
+beneath and when they are summoned. There is what no other person has
+ever possessed--the key of the front door. There is also the key of the
+cabinet. Prince Shan has ordered his automobile for two o'clock. It is
+now barely midnight."
+
+The keys lay in the palm of Maggie's hand. Her heart had begun to beat
+quickly. Somehow or other, she was conscious of a thrill of excitement
+which she had never before experienced, even when she had sat back in
+her corner of the railway carriage, watching for the frontier, knowing
+that the wires were busy with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
+were on her track.
+
+"If the servants should hear me?" she faltered.
+
+"You say only 'I await the Prince'," La Belle Nita murmured. "That key
+never leaves his own person save for one in great favour. They will
+believe that he gave it to you. You will be unmolested."
+
+A queer sensation suddenly assailed Maggie. She felt extraordinarily
+primitive, ridiculously feminine. She looked at the girl opposite to
+her, the girl whose body was draped in perfumed silks, whose face was
+thick with rice powder, whose eyes were sad. She felt no pity. What
+feeling she had, she did not care to analyse.
+
+"Is this your key?" she asked.
+
+"It was mine once, but its use has been forbidden to me," the girl
+replied. "Prince Shan is a changed man. Something has come into his life
+of which I know nothing, but as it has come, so must I go. I give you
+your chance, lady, but already I weaken. Go quickly, if you go at all.
+Please leave me, for I am very unhappy."
+
+Maggie stole quietly out and made her way through the jostling throng
+back to her own box, which for the moment was empty. She slipped on her
+cloak, and from the hidden spaces where she stood she looked across the
+auditorium. The silent figure in green silk robes was still seated in
+his place, his eyes following the movements of the dancers, his head a
+little thrown back, a slight weariness in his face. He was still alone.
+He still had the air of being alone because it was his desire. Once he
+looked up towards the box in which she was, and Maggie, although she
+knew she was invisible, shrank back against the wall. She set her teeth
+hard and looked back through the slightly misty space. An unfamiliar
+feeling for a moment almost choked her. She waited until she had
+vanquished it, then adjusted her mask and left the box.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+From the moment when the taxicab drove away and left her in the deserted
+street, Maggie was conscious of a strange sense of suppressed
+excitement, something more poignant and mysterious, even, than the
+circumstances of her adventure might account for. It was exciting
+enough, in its way, to play the part of a marauding thief, to find
+herself unexpectedly face to face with a possible solution of the great
+problem of Prince Shan's intentions. But beneath all this there was
+another feeling, more entirely metaphysical, which in a sense steadied
+her nerves because it filled her with a strange impression that she had
+lost her own identity, that she was playing somebody else's part in a
+novel and thrilling drama.
+
+The street was empty when she inserted the little key in the front door.
+There was not a soul there to see her step in as it swung open and then
+softly, noiselessly, but without any conscious effort of hers, closed
+again behind her. She held her breath and looked around.
+
+The hall was round, painted white and dimly lit by an overhead electric
+globe. In the centre was a huge green vase filled with great branches of
+some sort of blossoms. Not a picture hung upon the walls, nor was there
+any hall stand, chest, closet for coats or hats, or any of the usual
+furbishings of such a place. There were three rugs upon the polished
+floor and nothing else except a yawning stairway and closed doors.
+Whatever servants might be in attendance were evidently in a distant
+part of the building. Not a sound was to be heard. Still without any
+lack of courage, but oppressed with that curious sense of unreality, she
+turned almost automatically towards the door on the left and opened it.
+Again it closed behind her noiselessly. She realised that she was in one
+of the principal reception rooms of the house, dimly lit as the hall
+from a dome-shaped globe set into the ceiling. She moved a yard or two
+across the threshold and stood looking about her. Here again there was
+an almost singular absence of furniture. The walls were hung with
+apple-green silk, richly embroidered. There were some rugs upon the
+polished floor, a few quaintly carved chairs set with their backs
+against the wall, and opposite to her the ebony cabinet of which La
+Belle Nita had spoken. She moved towards it. Somehow or other, she found
+herself with the other key in her hand, stooping down. She counted the
+drawers--one, two three--fitted in the key, turned it, and realised with
+a little start the presence in the drawer of a roll of parchment, tied
+around with tape and sealed with a black seal. She laid her hand upon
+it, but even at that moment she felt a shiver pass through her body.
+There had been no sound in the room, which she could have sworn had been
+empty when she entered it, yet she had now a conviction that she was not
+alone. She turned slowly around, her lips parted, breathing quickly.
+Standing in the middle of the room, a grim, commanding figure in his
+flowing green robes, the dim light flashing upon the great diamonds in
+his belt, stood Prince Shan.
+
+To Maggie at that moment came a great throbbing in her ears, a sense of
+remoteness from this terrible happening, followed by an intense and
+vital consciousness of danger. The man who had brought new things into
+her life, the polished gentleman of the world, with his fascinating
+brain and gentle courtesy, had gone. It was Prince Shan of China who
+stood there. She felt the chill of his contempt and disapproval in her
+heart. She had forfeited her high estate. She was a convicted thief,--an
+adventuress!
+
+She gripped at the side of the cabinet. Her poise had gone. She had the
+air of a trapped animal.
+
+"You!" she exclaimed. "How did you get here?"
+
+He answered her without change of expression. A sense of crisis seemed
+to have made his tone more level, his face stony.
+
+"It is my house," he said. "I do not often leave it. I sat in my
+sleeping chamber behind"--he pointed to the silken curtains through
+which he had passed--"I heard your entrance and guessed with pain and
+regret at your mission."
+
+"But a quarter of an hour ago you were at the ball!"
+
+"You are mistaken," he replied. "I do not attend such gatherings. I had
+given you my word that I should not be there."
+
+"But I saw you," she persisted, "in that same costume!"
+
+"Surely not," he dissented. "The person whom you saw was a gentleman
+from my suite, who wore the dress of an inferior mandarin. He is
+sometimes supposed to resemble me. I should have believed that your
+apprehension of such things would have informed you that no Prince of my
+line would wear the garments of his order for a public show."
+
+Her fingers had left the drawer now. She stood upright, pale and
+desperate.
+
+"That woman of your country, then--La Belle Nita--did she lie to me?"
+
+"How can I tell?" he answered coldly, "because I do not know what she
+said."
+
+Maggie made an effort to test her position.
+
+"I came here as a thief," she confessed. "I am detected. What are your
+intentions?"
+
+He moved very slowly a little closer to her. Maggie felt her sense of
+excitement grow.
+
+"You came here as a thief," he repeated, "as a spy. Why did you not ask
+me for the information you desired?"
+
+"Because you would not have told me," she replied, "at least you would
+not have told me the truth."
+
+"For a price," he said, "the truth would have been yours for the asking.
+For a different price it is yours now."
+
+Again without noticeable movement he seemed to have drawn nearer. The
+edge of that cool ebony cabinet seemed to be burning her fingers. Try
+however hard, she could not frame the question which had risen to her
+lips.
+
+"The price," he continued, "is you--yourself. A few hours ago it was
+your love I craved for. Now it is yourself."
+
+He was so near to her now that she faced the steady radiance of his
+wonderful eyes, so near that she could trace the faint lines about his
+mouth, the strong, stern immobility of his perfectly shaped,
+olive-tinted features.
+
+"You are too wonderful," he went on, "to remain a daughter of the crude
+West. I want to take you back with me to the land where life still moves
+to poetry, to the land where one can live in a world unknown by these
+struggling hordes. You shall live in a palace where the perfume of
+flowers lingers always, with the sound of running water in your ears, a
+palace from which all sordid things and all manner of ugliness are
+banished because we alone have found the key to the garden of
+happiness."
+
+He raised his hand, and it seemed as though unseen eyes watched them
+from every quarter. The silken curtains through which he had issued were
+drawn back by invisible hands, and the inner apartment was disclosed.
+Its faint illumination was obscured with purple shades. There was a high
+lacquer bedstead, with little ivory ladders on either side, a bedstead
+hung with silks of black and purple and mauve. There was a huge couch, a
+shrine opposite the bed, in which was a kneeling figure of black marble.
+A faint odour, as though from thousand-year-old sachets, very faint
+indeed and yet with its mead of intoxication, seemed to steal out from
+the room, which had borrowed from its curious hangings, its marvellous
+adornments, its strangely attuned atmosphere, all the mysticism of a
+fabled world.
+
+"You have come," he said. "Will you stay?" The inertia seemed suddenly
+to leave her limbs. She threw up her head as though gasping for air,
+escaped, somehow or other, from the thrall of his eyes, and passed
+across the smooth floor with flying footsteps. Her fingers seized the
+handle of the door and turned it, only to find it held by some invisible
+fastening. She shook it passionately. There was not even sound. She
+turned back once more. Prince Shan had only slightly changed his
+position. He stood upon the threshold of the inner room, and his arms
+were outstretched in invitation.
+
+"Am I a prisoner?" she sobbed.
+
+"You came of your own free will," he replied. "You will stay for my
+pleasure and for the joy of my being. As for these things," he went on,
+moving slowly to the cabinet, picking up the pile of papers and throwing
+them on one side contemptuously, "these are only one's amusements. I
+pass my lighter hours with them. They interest me in the same manner as
+a chess problem. We do not care, we in the mighty East, which of you
+holds your head highest this side of Suez. All you western nations are
+to us a peck of dust outside our palace gates. Listen, dear one. We can
+leave, if you will, to-night, and top the clouds before sunrise. And I
+promise you this," he went on, "when you pass from the greyness of these
+sordid lands into the everlasting sunshine of the East, you will not
+care any longer about these people who go about the world on all fours.
+Day by day you will know what life and love mean. You will find the
+cloying weight of material things pass from your brain and body, and the
+joy of holy and wonderful living take their place."
+
+Her whole being was in a turmoil. She drew nearer to the papers upon the
+table. She was now within a yard of Prince Shan himself. He made no
+effort to intercept her, no movement of any sort to stop her. Only his
+eyes never left her face, and she felt a madness which seemed to be
+choking the life out of her, a pounding of her heart against her ribs, a
+strange and wonderful joy, a joy in which there was no fear, a joy of
+new things and new hopes. With the papers for which she had come only a
+few yards away, she forgot them. She turned her head slowly. His arms
+seemed to steal out from those long, silken sleeves. She suddenly felt
+herself held in a wonderful embrace.
+
+"Dear lady of all my desires," he whispered in her ear, "you shall make
+me happy and find the secret of happiness yourself in giving, in
+suffering, in love."
+
+For a long and wonderful moment she lay in his arms. She felt the soft
+burning of his kisses, the call of the room with its intoxicating, yet
+strangely ascetic perfume, the room to which all the time he seemed to
+be gently leading her. And then a flood of strange, alien recollections
+and realisations seemed to bring her from a better place back to a
+worse,--the sound of a passing taxicab, the distant booming of Big Ben,
+sounds of the world outside, the actual day-by-day world, with its
+day-by-day code of morals, the world in which she lived, and her
+friends, and all that had made life for her. She drew away, and he
+watched the change in her.
+
+"I want to go!" she cried. "Let me go!"
+
+"You are no prisoner," he assured her sadly.
+
+He clapped his hands. She had reached the door by now and found the
+handle yield to her fingers. Outside in the hall, the front door stood
+open, and a heavy rain was beating in on the white flags. She looked
+around. She was in her own atmosphere here. Their eyes met, and his were
+very sorrowful.
+
+"My servants are assembling," he said. "You will find a car at your
+service."
+
+Even then she hesitated. There was a strange return of the wonderful
+emotion of a few minutes ago. She hoped almost painfully that he would
+call. Instead, he lifted the silk hangings and passed out of sight.
+Somehow or other, she made her way down the hall. A butler stood upon
+the steps, another servant was holding open the door of a limousine just
+drawn up. She had no distinct recollection of giving any address. She
+simply threw herself back amongst the cushions. It was not until they
+were in Piccadilly that she suddenly remembered that she had left upon
+the table the papers he had scornfully offered her. Then she began to
+laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+It chanced that the box was empty when Maggie, with flying footsteps,
+hastened down the corridor and pushed open the door. She sank into a
+chair, her knees trembling, her senses still dazed. Deliberately,
+although with hot and trembling fingers, she folded over and tore into
+small pieces a programme of the dances, which she had picked up from an
+adjoining chair. The action, insignificant though it was, seemed to
+bring her back into touch with the real and actual world, the world of
+music and wild gayety, of swiftly moving feet, of laughter and
+languorous voices. For a brief space of time she had escaped, she had
+wandered a little way into an unknown country, a country from whose
+thrilling dangers she had emerged with a curious feeling that life would
+never be altogether the same again. She glanced at the clock at the back
+of the box. She had been absent from the Hall altogether only about an
+hour and twenty minutes. There was still at least an hour before it
+would be possible for her to plead weariness and escape. And opposite,
+in the shadows of the distant box, the mock Prince Shan seemed always to
+be gazing at her with that cryptic smile upon his lips.
+
+Presently the door was stealthily opened. A face as pale as death, with
+black eyes like pieces of coal, was framed for a moment in the shadowed
+slit. A little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle Nita, her
+flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she recognised the sole occupant
+of the box, crept through the opening and closed the door again.
+
+"You are here?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Your courage failed you?
+You did not go?"
+
+"I have been and returned," Maggie answered. "Now tell me what I have
+done that you should have plotted this thing against me?"
+
+The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a moment hummed the refrain
+of a sad chant, as she rocked slowly backwards and forwards.
+
+"'What have you done?' the rose asked the butterfly. 'What have you
+done?' the mimosa blossom asked the little blue bird, whose wings
+fluttered amongst her leaves. 'You have taken love from me, love which
+is the blossom of life.'"
+
+"It sounds very picturesque," Maggie said coldly, "but I do not follow
+your allegory. What I want to know is why you lied to me, why you sent
+me to that house to meet Prince Shan?"
+
+"How did I lie to you?" Nita demanded. "The papers you sought were
+there. Were they not yours for the asking, or was the price too great?"
+
+"The papers were there, certainly," Maggie acquiesced, "but you knew
+very well--"
+
+She stopped short. Slowly the Oriental idea of it all was beginning to
+frame itself in her mind. She dimly understood the bewilderment in the
+other's face.
+
+"The papers were there, and he, the most wonderful of all men, was
+there," Nita murmured, "yet you leave him while the night is yet young,
+you return here without them!"
+
+Maggie rose from her chair, moved to the side table and poured herself
+out a glass of wine, which she drank hastily. Anything to escape from
+the scornful wonder of those questioning eyes!
+
+"I did not go there," she said, "to make bargains with Prince Shan. I
+believed as you wished me to believe, that he was here in that box. I
+believed that I should have found the house empty, should have found
+what I wanted and have escaped with it. Why did you do this thing? Why
+did you send me on that errand when you knew that Prince Shan was
+there?"
+
+"It was my desire that he should know that you are no different from
+other women," was the calm reply. "I was a spy for him. You are a
+spy--against him."
+
+"It was a deliberate plot, then!" Maggie exclaimed, trying to feel the
+anger which she imparted to her tone.
+
+La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a bird.
+
+"You very, very foolish Englishwoman," she said. "A hand leaned down
+from Heaven, and you liked better to stay where you were, but I am
+glad."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because I have been his slave," the girl continued. "At odd, strange
+moments he has shown me a little love, he has let me creep into a small
+corner of his heart. Now I am cast out, and there is no more life for me
+because there is no more love, and there is no more love because, having
+felt his, no other can come after. Here have I sat with all the tortures
+of Hell burning in my blood because I knew that you and he were there
+alone, because I was never sure that, after all, I was not doing my
+lord's will. And now I know that I suffered in vain. You did not
+understand."
+
+Maggie looked across at her visitor reflectively. She was beginning to
+regain her poise.
+
+"Listen," she said, "did you seriously expect me to accept Prince Shan
+as a lover?"
+
+The girl's eyes were round with wonder.
+
+"It would be your great good fortune," she murmured, "if he should offer
+you so wonderful a thing."
+
+Maggie laughed,--persisted in her laugh, although it sounded a little
+hard and the mirth a little forced.
+
+"I cannot reason with you," she declared, "because you would not
+understand. If you love him so much, why not go back to him? You will
+find him quite alone. I dare say you know the secrets of his lockless
+doors and hordes of unseen servants."
+
+La Belle Nita rose to her feet. About her lips there flickered the
+faintest smile.
+
+"Young English lady," she said, "I shall not go, because I am shut for
+ever out of his heart. But listen; would you have me go?"
+
+For a moment Maggie's poise was gone again. A strange uncertainty was
+once more upon her. She was terrified at her own feelings. The smile on
+the other's lips deepened and then passed away.
+
+"Ah," she murmured, as with a little bow she turned towards the door,
+"you are not all snow and ice, then! There is something of the woman in
+you. He must have known that. I am better content."
+
+Alone in the box, Maggie was confronted once more with spectres. She
+felt all the fear and the sweetness of this new awakening. The old
+dangers and problems, the danger of life and death, the problem of her
+well-ordered days, fell away from her as trifles. There was wilder music
+in the world than any to which she had yet listened,--music which seemed
+to be awakening vibrant melodies in her terrified heart. The curtain
+which hung about the forbidden world had been suddenly lifted. Little
+shivers of fear convulsed her. Her standards were confused, her whole
+sense of values disturbed. Her primal virginity, left to itself because
+it had never needed a guard, had suddenly become a questioning thing.
+She sat there face to face with this new phase in her life. She was not
+even conscious of the abrupt pause in the music, the agitated murmur of
+voices, the sudden cessation of that rhythmical sweep of footsteps on
+the floor below.
+
+The door of the box was once more opened. Naida, attired as a lady of
+the Russian Court, entered, followed by Nigel. Both were obviously
+disturbed. Nigel, who was in ordinary evening dress, carrying his
+discarded mask in his hand, was paler than usual and exceedingly grave.
+Naida's dark eyes, too, seemed filled with a sense of awesome things.
+Almost at the same moment, Maggie realised for the first time that the
+music had ceased, that there was a hush outside, curiously perceptible,
+almost audible.
+
+"What has happened?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+Nigel had poured out a glass of wine and was holding it to Naida's lips.
+
+"Something very terrible," he said quietly. "Prince Shan was murdered in
+his box there a few minutes ago."
+
+Maggie half rose to her feet. The walls seemed spinning round. Then she
+looked across the great empty space. The still figure in the apple-green
+coat had disappeared.
+
+"Prince Shan was murdered in that box," she repeated, "a few minutes
+ago?"
+
+"Yes!" Nigel assented gravely. "He seems to have feared something of the
+sort, for he had two servants on guard outside and announced that he
+was not receiving visitors to-night. No one knows any particulars, but a
+number of people in the auditorium saw him fall sideways from his chair.
+When he was picked up, there was a small dagger through his heart."
+
+"Through Prince Shan's heart?" Maggie persisted wildly.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+Suddenly she began to laugh. It was a strange, hysterical ebullition of
+feeling, frankly horrifying. Naida gazed at her with distended eyes.
+
+"Prince Shan has never been here!" Maggie explained brokenly. "He has
+never left his house in Curzon Street! He is there now!"
+
+Nigel shook his head.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Maggie?" he demanded. "Every one has seen
+Prince Shan here. You spoke of him yourself. He was in the box exactly
+opposite."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That was one of his suite," she cried. "I know! I tell you I know!" she
+went on, her voice rising a little. "Prince Shan is safe in his house in
+Curzon Street."
+
+"How can you possibly know this, Maggie?" Naida intervened eagerly.
+
+"Because I left him there half an hour ago," was the tremulous reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+There is in the Anglo-Saxon temperament an almost feverish desire to
+break away from any condition of strain, a sort of shamefaced impulse to
+discard emotionalism. The strange hush which had lent a queer sensation
+of unreality to all that was passing in the great building was without
+any warning brought to an end. Whispers swelled into speech, and speech
+into almost a roar of voices. Then the music struck up, although at
+first there were few who cared to dance. There were many who, like
+Maggie and her companions, silently left their places and hurried
+homewards.
+
+In the limousine scarcely a word was spoken. Maggie leaned back in her
+seat, her face dazed and expressionless. Opposite to her, Nigel sat with
+set, grim face, looking with fixed stare out of the window at the
+deserted streets. Of the three, Naida seemed more on the point of giving
+way to emotion. They had passed Hyde Park Corner, however, before a word
+was spoken. Then it was she who broke the silence.
+
+"Where do we go to first?" she demanded.
+
+"To the Milan Court," Nigel replied.
+
+"You are taking me home first, then?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+She was silent for a moment. Then she leaned forward and touched the
+window.
+
+"Pull that down, please," she directed. "I am stifling."
+
+He obeyed, and the rush of cold, wet air had a curiously quietening
+effect upon the nerves of all of them. Raindrops hung from the leaves of
+the lime trees and still glittered upon the windowpane. On the way
+towards the river, the masses of cloud were tinged with purple, and
+faintly burning stars shone out of unexpectedly clear patches of sky.
+The night of storm was over, but the wind, dying away before the dawn,
+seemed to bring with it all the sweetness of the cleansed places, to be
+redolent even of the budding trees and shrubs,--the lilac bushes,
+drooping with their weight of moisture, and the pink and white chestnut
+blossoms, dashed to pieces by the rain but yielding up their lives with
+sweetness. The streets, in that single hour between the hurrying
+homewards of the belated reveller and the stolid tramp of the early
+worker, were curiously empty and seemed to gain in their loneliness a
+new dignity. Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the
+background, became almost classical; Whitehall the passageway for
+heroes.
+
+"What does it all mean?" Naida asked, almost pathetically.
+
+It was Maggie who answered. Her tone was lifeless, but her manner
+almost composed.
+
+"It means that the attempt to assassinate Prince Shan has failed," she
+said. "Prince Shan told me himself that he had no intention of going to
+the ball. He kept his word. The man who was murdered was one of his
+suite."
+
+"But how do you know this?" Naida persisted.
+
+"You heard what I told you in the box," was the quiet reply. "I shall
+explain--as much as I can explain--to Nigel when we get home. He can
+tell you everything later on to-day at lunch-time, if you like."
+
+"It has been one of the strangest nights I ever remember," Naida
+declared, after a brief pause. "Oscar Immelan, who was dining with us,
+arrived half an hour late. I have never seen him in such a condition
+before. He had the air of a broken man."
+
+"Have you any idea of what had happened?" Nigel asked.
+
+"Only this," Naida replied. "We saw Prince Shan last night. He spent
+several hours with us. I may be wrong, but I came to the conclusion then
+that he had at any rate modified his views about the whole situation
+since his arrival in England."
+
+Again there was a brief silence. The minds of all three of them were
+busy with the same thought. Prince Shan's word had been spoken and
+Immelan's hopes dashed to the ground,--and within a few hours, this
+murder! They nursed the thought, but no one put it into words.
+
+A sleepy-eyed porter opened the door of the car outside the Milan Court.
+Naida gathered herself together with a little shiver.
+
+"I think that after to-night," she said quietly, "there need be no
+secrets between any of us."
+
+Nigel held her hand in his. Their eyes met, and both of them were
+conscious, in that moment, of closer personal relations, of the passing
+of a certain sense of strain. She even smiled as she turned away.
+
+"To-morrow," she concluded, "there must be a great exchange of
+confidences. I am lunching at Belgrave Square, if Maggie has not
+forgotten, and I shall tell you then what I have written to Paul
+Matinsky. I showed it to Prince Shan yesterday. Good night!"
+
+She patted Maggie's hand affectionately and flitted away. The revolving
+doors closed behind her, and the car swung out once more into the
+Strand, glided down the Mall, past Buckingham Palace, and stopped at
+last before the great, lifeless house in Belgrave Square. Nigel opened
+the front door with a latchkey and turned on the light.
+
+"You won't mind sparing me a few minutes?" he begged.
+
+"I suppose not," she answered, shivering.
+
+He led the way to the study. She threw off her cloak and sank into the
+depths of one of the big easy-chairs. She looked very frail and rather
+pathetic as she leaned her head against the chair back. Now that the
+excitement was over, the strain of the emotion she had experienced
+showed in the violet shadows under her eyes and in the droop of her
+shoulders.
+
+"I am tired," she said plaintively.
+
+Nigel came over and sat on the arm of her chair.
+
+"Tell me what happened to-night, Maggie."
+
+"The little Chinese girl sent for me to go to her box," she explained.
+"She told me where in Prince Shan's house were hidden the papers which
+revealed the understanding between Immelan and himself. She gave me a
+key of the house and a key of the cabinet. We could both see the man
+whom I believed to be Prince Shan seated in his box. She assured me that
+he would be there for the next two hours. I went to the house in Curzon
+Street."
+
+"Well?"
+
+His monosyllable was sharp and incisive. His face was grey and anxious.
+She herself remained lifeless. All that there was of emotion between
+them seemed to have become vested in his searching eyes.
+
+"I found what I believe to have been the papers. They were in the
+cabinet, just where she had told me. Then I turned around and found
+Prince Shan watching me. He had been there all the time."
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"At first he said little, but I knew that he was very angry. I have
+never felt so ashamed in my life."
+
+"You must tell me the rest, please."
+
+She stirred uneasily in her chair.
+
+"It is very difficult," she confessed frankly.
+
+"Remember," he persisted, "that in a way, Maggie, I am your guardian. I
+am responsible, too, for anything which may happen to you whilst you are
+engaged in work for the good of our cause. You seem to have walked into
+a trap. Did he threaten you, or what?"
+
+"There was nothing definite," she answered, "and yet--he made me
+understand."
+
+"Made you understand what?"
+
+"His wishes," she replied, looking up coolly. "He offered me the
+papers."
+
+"That damned Chinaman!"
+
+There was a cold light in her eyes which Nigel had met with before and
+dreaded.
+
+"You forget yourself, Nigel," she said. "Prince Shan is a great
+nobleman."
+
+"The rest? Tell me the rest," he demanded.
+
+"I am here," she reminded him.
+
+"And the papers?"
+
+"I came away without them."
+
+He turned, and, walking to the window, threw it open. The dawn had
+become almost silvery, and the leaves of the overhanging trees were
+rustling in the faintest of breezes. Presently he came back.
+
+"What exactly are your feelings for this man, Maggie?" he asked.
+
+For the first time he was struck with a certain pathos in her immobile
+face. She looked up at him, and there was a gleam almost of fear in her
+eyes.
+
+"I don't know, Nigel," she confessed.
+
+He moved restlessly about the room, seemed to notice for the first time
+the whisky and soda set out upon the sideboard and the open box of
+cigarettes. He helped himself and came back.
+
+"Did you read the papers?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I had no chance."
+
+"You don't know for certain what they were about?"
+
+"I think I do," she replied. "I believe they contained the text of the
+agreement between Immelan and Prince Shan. I believe they would have
+shown us exactly what we have to fear."
+
+He stood there for a moment thoughtfully.
+
+"To-night," he said, "I find it difficult to concentrate upon these
+things. Naida was extraordinarily hopeful. She has seen Prince Shan, and
+between them I believe that they have decided to let Oscar Immelan's
+scheme alone. Karschoff, too, has heard rumours. He is of the same
+opinion. Somehow or other, though, I seem to have lost my sense of
+perspective. A greater fear has come into my heart, Maggie."
+
+She rose to her feet and laid her hands upon his shoulders.
+
+"Nigel," she whispered, "I cannot answer you. I cannot say what you
+would like me to say, although, on the other hand, there is no surety of
+what you seem to fear. I am going to bed. I am very tired."
+
+A feeble shaft of sunlight stole into the room, flickered and passed
+away, then suddenly reappeared. Nigel turned and opened the door, and
+she passed out, curiously silent and absorbed. He looked after her,
+perplexed and worried. Suddenly a strangely commonplace, yet--in the
+silence of the house and the great hall--an almost dramatic sound
+startled him. The front doorbell rang sharply. After a moment's
+hesitation, he hurried to it himself. Karschoff stood upon the steps,
+still in his evening clothes, his face a little drawn and haggard in the
+bright light.
+
+"I could not resist coming in, Nigel," he said. "I saw the light in the
+study from outside. Is there any definite news?"
+
+Nigel drew him inside.
+
+"There are indications," he replied cautiously, "that the present danger
+is passing."
+
+Karschoff nodded.
+
+"I gathered so from Naida," he admitted. "Prince Shan, though, is the
+pivot upon which the whole thing turns. You have heard nothing final
+from him?"
+
+"Nothing! Tell me, was any one arrested at the Albert Hall?"
+
+"No one. The murdered man, as I suppose you have heard, was Sen Lu, one
+of the Prince's secretaries."
+
+"The whole thing seems strange," Nigel remarked. "Do you suppose Prince
+Shan knew that an attempt upon his life was likely to-night?"
+
+Karschoff shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"It is difficult to say. These Orientals contrive to surround themselves
+with such an atmosphere of mystery. But from what I know of Prince
+Shan," he went on, "I do not think that he is one to shirk danger--even
+from the assassin's dagger."
+
+A milk cart drew up with a clatter outside. There was the sound of the
+area gate being opened. Karschoff put on his hat. He looked Nigel in the
+face.
+
+"Maggie," he began--
+
+Nigel nodded understandingly as he threw open the front door.
+
+"I'll tell you about it to-morrow," he promised, "or rather later on
+to-day. She's a little overwrought. Otherwise--there's nothing."
+
+Karschoff turned away with a sigh of relief.
+
+"I am glad," he said. "Prince Shan is the soul of honour according to
+his own standard, but these Orientals--one never knows. I am glad,
+Nigel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+In his spacious reception room, with its blue walls, the high vases of
+flowers, the faint odour of incense, its indefinable ascetic charm,
+Prince Shan sat in his high-backed chair whilst Li Wen, his trusted
+secretary talked. Li Wen was very eloquent. His tone was never raised,
+he never forgot that he was speaking to a being of a superior world. He
+had a great deal to say, however, and he was eager to say it. Prince
+Shan, as he listened, smoked a long cigarette in a yellow tube. He wore
+a ring in which was set an uncut green stone on the fourth finger of his
+left hand. Although the hour was barely nine o'clock, he was shaved and
+dressed as though for a visit of ceremony. He listened to Li Wen gravely
+and critically.
+
+"I am sorry about the little one," he said, looking through the cloud of
+tobacco smoke up towards the ceiling. "Nita has been very useful. She
+has been as faithful, too, as is possible for a woman."
+
+Li Wen bowed and waited. He knew better than to interrupt.
+
+"It was through the information which Nita brought me," his master went
+on, "that I have been able to check the truth of Immelan's statement as
+to the French dispositions and the _rapprochement_ with Italy. Nita has
+served me very well indeed. What she has done in this matter, she has
+done in a moment of caprice."
+
+"My lord," Li Wen ventured, "a woman is of no account in the plans of
+the greatest. She is like a leaf blown hither or thither on the winds of
+love or jealousy. She may be used, but she must be discarded."
+
+"It is a strange world, this western world," Prince Shan mused. "In our
+own country, Li Wen, we plot or we fight, we build the great places,
+climb to the lofty heights, and when we rest we pluck flowers, and women
+are our flowers. But here, while one builds, the women are there; while
+one climbs, the women are in the way. They jostle the thoughts, they
+disturb the emotions, not only of the poet and the pleasure seeker, but
+of the man who hews his way upwards to the goal he seeks. And it is very
+deliberate, Li Wen. An Englishman eats and drinks in public and places
+opposite him a flower he has plucked or hopes to pluck. He drugs himself
+deliberately. Half the time when he should be soaring in his thoughts,
+he descends of deliberate intent. Instead of his flower, he makes his
+woman the partner of his grossness."
+
+"The master speaks," Li Wen murmured. "But what of the woman? She awaits
+your pleasure."
+
+"I shall hear what she has to say," Prince Shan decided.
+
+Walking backwards as nimbly as a cat, his head drooped, his hands in
+front of him, Li Wen left his master's presence. A moment later he
+reappeared, ushering in La Belle Nita. Prince Shan waved him away. The
+girl came slowly forward, pale and trembling, smouldering fires in her
+narrow eyes. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face moved. He watched her
+approach in silence. She sank on to the floor by the side of his chair.
+
+"What is my master's will?" she asked.
+
+Prince Shan looked downwards at her, and she began to tremble again.
+There was nothing threatening in his eyes, nothing menacing in his
+expression. Nevertheless, she felt the chill of death.
+
+"You have done me many good and faithful services, Nita," he said. "What
+evil spirit has put it into your brain that it would be a good thing to
+deceive me?"
+
+Her scarlet lips opened and closed again.
+
+"How have I deceived?" she faltered. "I gave the keys to the woman with
+the blue eyes, and I sent her to my lord. It was a hard thing to do
+that, but I did it. Was there any risk of evil? My lord was here to deal
+with her."
+
+"Why did you do this thing, Nita?" he asked.
+
+"My lord knows," she answered simply. "I did it to bring evil upon this
+English woman whom he has preferred. I did it that he might understand.
+It was my lord himself who told me that she was a spy. Now it is
+proved."
+
+Prince Shan's fingers stole into the pocket of his coat. He held out a
+crumpled sheet of paper, on which was written a single sentence. The
+girl began to shiver.
+
+"You have been very anxious indeed, Nita," he said, "to bring evil upon
+this woman. This is the message you sent to Immelan. Do you recognise
+your words? Listen, these are your words:
+
+"'The greatest of all will desert you, if the Englishwoman whom he loves
+is not speedily removed. Even to-night he may give papers into her hand,
+and your secret will be known.'"
+
+The girl sat transfixed. She seemed to have lost all power of speech.
+
+"That is a copy of the message which you sent to Immelan," he told her
+sternly.
+
+"It is the terrible Li Wen," she faltered. "He has the second sight. The
+devil walks with him."
+
+"The devil is sometimes a useful confederate," her companion continued
+equably. "You warned Immelan that it was in my mind to refuse his terms
+and to open my heart to the Englishwoman, and you seduced Sen Lu to
+carry your message. Yet your judgment was at fault. The hand of Immelan
+was stretched out against me, and me alone. But for my knowledge of
+these things, I might have sat in the place of Sen Lu, who rightly died
+in my stead. What have you to say?"
+
+She rose to her feet. He made no movement, but his eyes watched her, and
+the muscles of his body stiffened. He watched the white hand which stole
+irresolutely towards the loose folds of her coat.
+
+"You ask me why I have done this," she cried, "but you already know. It
+is because you have taken this woman with the blue eyes into your
+heart."
+
+"If that were true," he answered, "of what concern is it to others? I am
+Prince Shan."
+
+"You sent me here to breathe this cursed western atmosphere," she
+moaned, "to drink in their thoughts and see with their eyes. I see and
+know the folly of it all, but who can escape? Jealousy with us is a
+disease. Over there one creeps away like a hurt animal because there is
+nothing else. Here it is different. The Frenchwoman, the Englishwoman,
+who loses her lover--she does not fold her hands. She strikes, she is a
+wronged creature. I too have felt that."
+
+Her master sat for long in silence.
+
+"You are right," he pronounced. "I shall try to be just. You are a
+person of small understanding. You have never made any effort to live
+with your head in the clouds. Let that be so. The fault was mine."
+
+"I do not wish to live," she cried.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Live or die--what does it matter?" he answered indifferently. "With
+life there is pain, and with death there is none, but if you choose
+life, remember this. The woman with the blue eyes, as you call her, has
+become the star of my life. If harm should come to her, not only you,
+but every one of your family and race, in whatsoever part of the world
+they may be, will leave this life in agony."
+
+The girl stood and wondered.
+
+"My lord thinks so much of a plaything?" she murmured.
+
+Prince Shan frowned. His finely shaped, silky eyebrows almost met. She
+covered her eyes and drooped her head.
+
+"We of the East," he said, "although we are the mightier race, progress
+slowly, because the love of new things is not with us. Something of
+western ways I have learned, and the love of woman. It is not for a
+plaything I desire her whom we will not name. She shall sit by my side
+and rule. I shall wed her with my brain as with my body. Our minds will
+move together. We shall feel the same shivering pleasure when we rule
+the world with great thoughts as when our bodies touch. I shall teach
+her to know her soul, even as my own has been revealed to me."
+
+"No woman is worthy of this, my lord," the girl faltered.
+
+He waved his hand and she stole away. At the door he stopped her.
+
+"Do you go to life or death, Nita?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him with a great sorrow.
+
+"I am a worthless thing," she replied. "I go where my lord's words have
+sent me."
+
+Li Wen reappeared presently for an appointed audience. He brought
+messages.
+
+"Highness," he announced, "there is a code dispatch here from Ki-Chou.
+An American gained entrance to the City last week. Yesterday he left by
+æroplane for India. He was overtaken and captured. It is feared,
+however, that he has agents over the frontier, for no papers were found
+upon him."
+
+"It was a great achievement," Prince Shan said thoughtfully. "No other
+foreigner has ever passed into our secret city. Is there word as to how
+he got there?"
+
+"He came as a Russian artificer from that city in Russia of which we do
+not speak," Li Wen replied. "He brought letters, and his knowledge was
+great."
+
+"His name?" the Prince asked.
+
+"Gilbert Jesson, Highness. His passport and papers refer to Washington,
+but his message, if he sent one, is believed to have come to London."
+
+"The man must die," the Prince said calmly. "That, without doubt, he
+expects. Yet the news is not serious. My heart has spoken for peace, Li
+Wen."
+
+Li Wen bowed low. His master watched him curiously.
+
+"If I had asked it, Li Wen, where would your counsel have led?"
+
+"Towards peace, Highness. I do not trust Immelan. It is not in such a
+manner that China's Empire shall spread. There are ancestors of mine who
+would turn in their graves to find China in league with a western
+Power."
+
+"You are a wise man, Li Wen," his master declared. "We hold the mastery
+of the world. What shall we do with it?"
+
+"The mightiest sword is that which enforces peace," was the calm reply.
+"Highness, the lady whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom."
+
+Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who was ushered in a moment or
+two later, with rather more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy,
+leading her himself to a chair.
+
+"I wondered," she confessed, "if I were ever to be allowed to see inside
+your wonderful house."
+
+"It is my misfortune to be compelled to pay so brief a visit to this
+country," he replied. "As a rule, it gives me great pleasure to open my
+rooms three evenings and entertain those who care to come and see me."
+
+"I have heard of your entertainments," she said, smiling. "Prima donnas
+sing. You rob the capitals of Europe to find your music. Then the great
+Monsieur Auguste is lured from Paris to prepare your supper, and not a
+lady leaves without some priceless jewel."
+
+"I entertain so seldom," he reminded her. "I fear that the fame of my
+feasts has been exaggerated."
+
+"When do you leave, Prince?" she asked him.
+
+"Within a few days," he replied.
+
+"I come for your last word," she announced. "All that I have written to
+Paul Matinsky you know."
+
+"The last word is not yet to be spoken," he said. "This, however, you
+may tell Matinsky. The scheme of Oscar Immelan has been laid before me.
+I have rejected it."
+
+"In what other way, then, would you use your power?" she asked.
+
+He made no answer. She watched him with a great and growing curiosity.
+
+"Prince," she said, "they tell me that you are a great student of
+history."
+
+"I have read what is known of the history of most of the countries of
+the world," he admitted.
+
+"There have been men," she persisted, "who have dealt in empires for the
+price of a woman's smile."
+
+"Such men have loved," he said, "as I love."
+
+"Yet for you life has always been a great and lofty thing," she reminded
+him. "You could not stand where you do if you had not realised the
+beauty and wonder of sacrifice. Fate has given the peace of the world
+into your keeping. You will not juggle with the trust?"
+
+He rose to his feet. A servant stood almost immediately at the open
+door.
+
+"Fate and an American engineer," he remarked with a smile. "I thank you,
+dear lady, for your visit. You will hear my news before I leave."
+
+She looked into his eyes for a moment.
+
+"It is a great decision," she said, "which rests with you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+An hour or so later, Prince Shan left his house in Curzon Street and,
+followed at a discreet distance by two members of his household,
+strolled into the Park. It had pleased him that morning to conform
+rigorously to the mode of dress adopted by the fashionable citizens of
+the country which he was visiting. Few people, without the closest
+observation, would have taken him for anything but a well-turned-out,
+exceedingly handsome and distinguished-looking Englishman. He carried
+himself with a faint air of aloofness, as though he moved amongst scenes
+in which he had no actual concern, as though he were living, in thought
+at any rate, in some other world. The morning was brilliantly sunny, and
+both the promenade and the Row were crowded. Slightly hidden behind a
+tree, he stood and watched. A gay crowd of promenaders passed along the
+broad path, and the air was filled with the echo of laughter, the jargon
+of the day, intimate references to a common world, invitations lightly
+given and lightly accepted. It was Sunday morning, in a season when
+colour was the craze of the moment, and the women who swept by seemed to
+his rather mystical fancy like the flowers in some of the great open
+spaces he knew so well, stirred into movement by a soft wind. They were
+very beautiful, these western women; handsome, too, the men with whom
+they talked and flirted. Always they had that air, however, of absolute
+complacency, as though they felt nothing of the quest which lay like a
+thread of torture amongst the nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was
+no more distinguished figure among the men there than he himself, and
+yet the sense of alienation grew in his heart as he watched. There were
+many familiar faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one who would
+not have greeted him with interest, even with gratification. And yet he
+had never been so deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
+oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid self-assurance of
+these westerners, so well-content with the earth upon which their feet
+fell. He had judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held in
+their thoughts and estimation. He was something of a curiosity, his
+title half a joke, the splendour of his long race a thing unrealisable
+by these scions of a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
+new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan had been a shade
+more eloquent, had pleaded his cause upon a higher level, that Naida
+Karetsky also had formed a different impression of the world which he
+was studying so earnestly,--what a transformation he could have brought
+upon this light-hearted and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly
+balanced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious of a certain faint
+contempt for the almost bovine self-satisfaction of a nation without
+eyes. Literature and painting, art in all its far-flung branches, even
+science, were suffering in these days from a general and paralysing
+inertia. Life which demanded no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of
+everything in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the only
+incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long in this fat land the only
+brake upon an era of self-indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his
+own millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in their ears, and
+it seemed to his elastic fancy that he was inhaling a long breath of
+cooler and more vigorous life.
+
+The current of his reflections was broken. He had moved a little towards
+the rails, and he was instantly aware of the girl cantering towards
+him,--a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay horse. She
+wore a simple brown habit and bowler hat, and she sat her horse with
+that complete lack of self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
+horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she cantered towards him,
+with no thought of the crowds passing along the promenade. Yet, as she
+drew nearer, she suddenly glanced down, and their eyes met. As though
+obeying his unspoken wish, she reined in her horse and came close to the
+rails behind which he stood for a moment bareheaded. There was the
+faintest smile upon her lips. She was amazingly composed. She had asked
+herself repeatedly, almost in terror, how they should meet when the time
+came. Now that it had happened, it seemed the most natural thing in the
+world. She was scarcely conscious even of embarrassment.
+
+"You are demonstrating to the world," she remarked, "that the reports of
+your death this morning were exaggerated?"
+
+"I had forgotten the incident," he assured her calmly.
+
+His callousness was so unaffected that she shivered a little.
+
+"Yet this Sen Lu, this man for whom you were mistaken, was an intimate
+member of your household, was he not?"
+
+"Sen Lu was a very good friend," Prince Shan answered. "He did his duty
+for many years. If he knows now that his life was taken for mine, he is
+happy to have made such atonement."
+
+She manoeuvred her horse a little to be nearer to him.
+
+"Why was Sen Lu murdered?" she asked.
+
+"There are those," he replied, "of whom I myself shall ask that question
+before the day is over."
+
+"You have an idea, then?" she persisted.
+
+"If," he said, "you desire my whole confidence, it is yours."
+
+She sat looking between her horse's ears.
+
+"To tell you the truth," she confessed, "I do not know what I desire.
+Your philosophy, I suppose, does not tolerate moods. I shall escape from
+them some time, I expect, but just now I seem to have found my way into
+a maze. The faces of these people don't even seem real to me, and as for
+you, I am perfectly certain that you have never been in China in your
+life."
+
+"Tell me the stimulant that is needed to raise you from your apathy," he
+asked. "Will you find it in the rapid motion of your horse--a very noble
+animal--in the joy of this morning's sunshine and breeze, or in the
+toyland where these puppets move and walk?" he added, glancing down the
+promenade. "Dear Lady Maggie, I beg permission to pay you a visit of
+ceremony. Will you receive me this afternoon?"
+
+She knew then what it was that she had been hoping for. She looked down
+at him and smiled.
+
+"At four o'clock," she invited.
+
+She nodded, touched her horse lightly with the whip, and cantered off.
+Prince Shan found himself suddenly accosted by a dozen acquaintances,
+all plying him with questions. He listened to them with an amused smile.
+
+"The whole affair is a very simple one," he said. "A member of my
+household was assassinated last night. It was probably a plot against my
+own life. Those things are more common with us, perhaps, than over
+here."
+
+"Jolly country, China, I should think," one of the younger members of
+the group remarked. "You can buy a man's conscience there for
+ninepence."
+
+Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.
+
+"The market value here," he observed, "seems a little higher, but the
+supply greater."
+
+"_Touché_!" Karschoff laughed. "There is another point of view, too. The
+further east you go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes an
+absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag it out to its
+furthermost span. The American millionaire, for example, has a resident
+physician attached to his household and is likely to spend the aftermath
+of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose condition. And in the East,
+who cares? If not to-day--to-morrow! Inevitability, which is the
+nightmare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By the by,
+Prince," he added, "have you any theory as to last night's attempt?"
+
+"That is just the question," Prince Shan replied, "which two very
+intelligent gentlemen from Scotland Yard asked me this morning. Theory?
+Why should I have a theory?"
+
+"The attempt was without a doubt directed against you," Karschoff
+observed. "Do you imagine that it was personal or political?"
+
+"How can I tell?" the Prince rejoined carelessly. "Why should any one
+desire my death? These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
+Immelan!" he went on. "Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not
+one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the
+world!"
+
+"My own or another's?" Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism.
+
+"I trust," was the bland reply, "that you are, as I have always esteemed
+you, an altruist."
+
+"And why?"
+
+Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a very agreeable figure in
+the centre of the little group of men, the hands which held his malacca
+cane behind his back, the smile which parted his lips benign yet
+cryptic.
+
+"Because," he explained, "it is a great thing to have more regard for
+the lives of others than for one's own, and there are times," he added,
+"when it is certainly one's own life which is in the more precarious
+state."
+
+There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus of congratulations
+and farewells. Immelan and Prince Shan were left alone. The former
+seemed to have turned paler. The sun was warm, and yet he shivered.
+
+"Just what do you mean by that, Prince?" he asked.
+
+"You shall walk with me to my house, and I will tell you," was the quiet
+reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+"I suppose," Immelan suggested, as the two men reached the house in
+Curzon Street, "it would be useless to ask you to break your custom and
+lunch with me at the Ritz or at the club?"
+
+His companion smiled deprecatingly.
+
+"I have adopted so many of your western customs," he said
+apologetically. "To this lunching or dining in public, however, I shall
+never accustom myself."
+
+Immelan laughed good-naturedly. The conversation of the two men on their
+way from the Park had been without significance, and some part of his
+earlier nervousness seemed to be leaving him.
+
+"We all have our foibles," he admitted. "One of mine is to have a pretty
+woman opposite me when I lunch or dine, music somewhere in the distance,
+a little sentiment, a little promise, perhaps."
+
+"It is not artistic," Prince Shan pronounced calmly. "It is not when the
+wine mounts to the head, and the sense of feeding fills the body, that
+men speak best of the things that lie near their hearts. Still, we will
+let that pass. Each of us is made differently. There is another thing,
+Immelan, which I have to say to you."
+
+They passed into the reception room, with its shining floor, its
+marvellous rugs, its silken hangings, and its great vases of flowers.
+Prince Shan led his companion into a recess, where the light failed to
+penetrate so completely as into the rest of the apartment. A wide
+settee, piled with cushions, protruded from the wall in semicircular
+shape. In front of it was a round ebony table, upon which stood a great
+yellow bowl filled with lilies. Prince Shan gave an order to one of the
+servants who had followed them into the room and threw himself at full
+length among the cushions, his head resting upon his hand, his face
+turned towards his guest.
+
+"They will bring you the aperitif of which you are so fond," he said,
+"also cigarettes. Mine, I know, are too strong for you."
+
+"They taste too much of opium," Immelan remarked.
+
+Prince Shan's eyes grew dreamy as he gazed through a little cloud of
+odorous smoke.
+
+"There is opium in them," he admitted. "Believe me, they are very
+wonderful, but I agree with you that they are not for the ordinary
+person."
+
+The soft-footed butler presented a silver tray, upon which reposed a
+glassful of amber liquid. Immelan took it, sipped it appreciatively, and
+lit a cigarette.
+
+"Your man, Prince," he acknowledged, "mixes his vermouths wonderfully."
+
+"I am glad that what he does meets with your approval," was the
+courteous reply. "He came to me from one of your royal palaces. I simply
+told him that I wished my guests to have of the best."
+
+"Yet you never touch this sort of drink yourself," Immelan observed
+curiously.
+
+The Prince shook his head.
+
+"Sometimes I take wine," he said. "That is generally at night. A few
+evenings ago, for instance," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I
+drank Chateau Yquem, smoked Egyptian cigarettes, ate some muscatel
+grapes, and read 'Pippa Passes.' That was one of my banquets."
+
+"As a matter of fact," Immelan remarked thoughtfully, "you are far more
+western in thought than in habit. The temperance of the East is in your
+blood."
+
+"I find that my manner of life keeps the brain clear," Prince Shan said
+slowly. "I can see the truth sometimes when it is not very apparent. I
+saw the truth last night, Immelan, when I sent Sen Lu to die."
+
+Immelan's expression was indescribable. He sat with his mouth wide open.
+The hand which held his glass shook. He stared across the bowl of lilies
+to where his host was looking up through the smoke towards the ceiling.
+
+"Sen Lu was a traitor," the latter went on, "a very foolish man who with
+one act of treachery wiped out the memory of a lifetime of devotion. In
+the end he told the truth, and now he has paid his debt."
+
+"What do you mean?" Immelan demanded, in a voice which he attempted in
+vain to control. "How was Sen Lu a traitor?"
+
+"Sen Lu," the Prince explained, "was in the pay of those who sought to
+know more of my business than I chose to tell--who sought, indeed, to
+anticipate my own judgment. When they gathered from him, and, alas! from
+my sweet but frail little friend Nita, that the chances were against my
+signing a certain covenant, they came to what, even now, seems to me a
+strange decision. They decided that I must die. There I fail wholly to
+follow the workings of your mind, Immelan. How was my death likely to
+serve your purpose?"
+
+Immelan was absolutely speechless. Three times he opened his lips, only
+to close them again. Some instinct seemed to tell him that his companion
+had more to say. He sat there as though mesmerised. Meanwhile, the
+Prince lit another cigarette.
+
+"A blunder, believe me, Immelan," he continued thoughtfully. "Death will
+not lower over my path till my task is accomplished. I am young--many
+years younger than you, Immelan--and the greatest physicians marvel at
+my strength. Against the assassin's knife or bullet I am secure. You
+have been brought up and lived, my terrified friend, in a country where
+religion remains a shell and a husk, without comfort to any man. It is
+not so with me, I live in the spirit as in the body, and my days will
+last until the sun leans down and lights me to the world where those
+dwell who have fulfilled their destiny."
+
+Immelan drained the contents of the glass which his unsteady hand was
+holding. Then he rose to his feet. The veins on his forehead were
+standing out, his blue eyes were filled with rage.
+
+"Blast Sen Lu!" he muttered. "The man was a double traitor!"
+
+"He has atoned," his companion said calmly. "He made his peace and he
+went to his death. It seems very fitting that he should have received
+the dagger which was meant for my heart. Now what about you, Oscar
+Immelan?"
+
+Immelan laughed harshly.
+
+"If Sen Lu told you that I was in this plot against your life, he lied!"
+
+The Prince inclined his head urbanely.
+
+"Such a man as Sen Lu goes seldom to his death with a lie upon his
+lips," he said. "Yet I confess that I am puzzled. Why should you plan
+this thing, Immelan? You cannot know what is in my mind concerning your
+covenant. I have not yet refused to sign it."
+
+"You have not refused to sign it," Immelan replied, "but you will
+refuse."
+
+"Indeed?" the Prince murmured.
+
+"You are even now trifling with the secrets confided to you," Immelan
+went on. "You know very well that the woman who came to you last night
+is a spy whose whole time is spent in seeking to worm our secret from
+you."
+
+"Your agents keep themselves well informed," was the calm comment.
+
+"Yours still have the advantage of us," Immelan answered bitterly. "Now
+listen to me. I have heard it said of you--I have heard that you claim
+yourself--that you have never told a falsehood. We have been allies.
+Answer me this question. Have you parted with any of our secrets?"
+
+"Not one," the Prince assured him. "A certain lady visited this house
+last night, not, as you seem to think, at my invitation, but on her own
+initiative. She was not successful in her quest."
+
+"She would not pay the price, eh?" Immelan sneered. "By the gods of your
+ancestors, Prince Shan, are there not women enough in the world for you
+without bartering your honour, and the great future of your country, for
+a blue-eyed jade of an Englishwoman?"
+
+The Prince sat slowly up. His appearance was ominous. His face had
+become set as marble; there was a look in his eyes like the flashing of
+a light upon black metal. He contemplated his visitor across the lilies.
+
+"A man so near to death, Immelan," he enjoined, "might choose his words
+more carefully."
+
+Immelan laughed scornfully.
+
+"I am not to be bullied," he declared. "Your doors with their patent
+locks have no fears for me. When you walk abroad, you are followed by
+members of your household. When you come to my rooms, they attend you. I
+am not a prince, but I, too, have a care for my skin. Three of my secret
+service men never let me out of their sight. They are within call at
+this moment."
+
+His host smiled.
+
+"This is very interesting," he said, "but you should know me better,
+Immelan, than to imagine that mine are the clumsy methods of the dagger
+or the bullet. The man whom I will to die--drinks with me."
+
+He pointed a long forefinger at the empty glass. Immelan gazed at it,
+and the sweat stood out upon his forehead.
+
+"My God!" he muttered. "There was a queer taste! I thought that it was
+aniseed!"
+
+"There was nothing in that glass," the Prince declared, "which the
+greatest chemist who ever breathed could detect as poison, yet you will
+die, my friend Immelan, without any doubt. Shall I tell you how? Would
+you know in what manner the pains will come? No? But, my friend, you
+disappoint me! You showed so much courage an hour ago. Listen. Feel for
+a swelling just behind--Ah!"
+
+Immelan was already across the room. The Prince touched a bell, the
+doors were opened. Ghastly pale, his head swimming, the tortured man
+dashed out into the street. The Prince leaned back amongst his cushions,
+untied a straw-fastened packet of his long cigarettes, lit one, and
+closed his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Nigel was just arriving at Dorminster House when Maggie returned from
+her ride. He assisted her to dismount and entered the house with her.
+
+"There is something here I should like to show you, Maggie," he said, as
+he drew a dispatch from his pocket. "It was sent round to me half an
+hour ago by Chalmers, from the American Embassy."
+
+"It's about Gilbert Jesson!" Maggie exclaimed, holding out her hand for
+it.
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"There's a note inside, and an enclosure," he said. "You had better read
+both."
+
+Maggie opened out the former:
+
+     MY DEAR DORMINSTER,
+
+     I am afraid there is rather bad news about Jesson. One of our
+     regular line of airships, running from San Francisco to
+     Vladivostok, has picked up a wireless which must have come from
+     somewhere in the South of China. They kept it for a few days, worse
+     luck, thinking it was only nonsense, as it was in code. Washington
+     got hold of it, however, and cabled it to us last night. I enclose
+     a copy, decoded.
+
+     Sincerely yours,
+
+     JERE CHALMERS.
+
+The copy was brief enough. Maggie felt her heart sink as she glanced
+through the few lines:
+
+     Report dispatched London. Fear escape impossible. Good-by.
+
+     JESSON.
+
+"Horrible!" Maggie exclaimed, with a shiver. "I thought he was in
+Russia."
+
+"So did we all," Nigel replied. "He must have come to the conclusion
+that the key to the riddle he was trying to solve was in China, and gone
+on there. Look here, Maggie," he continued, after a moment's hesitation,
+"do you think anything could be done for Jesson with Prince Shan?"
+
+Maggie was silent. They were standing in a shaded corner of the hall,
+but a fleck of sunshine shone in her hair. She was still a little out of
+breath with the exercise, her cheeks full of healthy colour, her eyes
+bright. She tapped her skirt with her riding whip. Nigel watched her a
+little uneasily.
+
+"Prince Shan is calling here this afternoon," Maggie announced. "I hope
+you don't mind."
+
+"What are you going to say to him?" Nigel asked bluntly.
+
+There was a short, tense silence. Even at the thought of the crisis
+which she knew to be so close at hand, Maggie felt herself unnerved and
+in dubious straits.
+
+"I do not know," she said at last. "For one thing, I do not know what he
+wants."
+
+"What he wants seems perfectly plain to me," Nigel replied gravely. "He
+wants you."
+
+Maggie made a desperate effort to regain the lightheartedness of a few
+weeks ago.
+
+"If you believe that," she said, "your composure is most unflattering."
+
+There was a ring at the front doorbell, and a familiar voice was heard
+outside. Maggie turned away to the staircase with a little sigh of
+relief.
+
+"Naida!" she exclaimed. "I remember now I asked her for a quarter past
+one instead of half-past. You must entertain her, Nigel. I'll change
+into something quickly. And of course I'll speak to Prince Shan. We
+mustn't lose a minute about that. I'll telephone from my room in a few
+minutes, Naida. Nigel will look after you."
+
+Naida came down the hall, cool and exquisitely gowned in a creation of
+shimmering white. Nigel led her into the rarely used drawing-room and
+found a chair for her between the open window and the conservatory. At
+first they exchanged but few words. The sense of her near presence
+affected Nigel as nothing of the sort had ever done before. She for her
+part seemed quite content with a silence which had in it many of the
+essentials of eloquence.
+
+"If the history of these days is ever written by an irascible German
+historian," Naida remarked at length, "he will probably declare that the
+destinies of the world have been affected during this last month by an
+outburst of primitivism. Do you know that I have written quite nice
+things to Paul about you English people? Honest things, of course, but
+still things which you helped me to discover. And Prince Shan, too. I
+think that when he rode here through the clouds, he believed in his
+heart that he was coming as a harbinger of woe."
+
+"You really think, then, that the crisis is past?" Nigel asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am almost sure of it. Prince Shan returns to China within the course
+of the next few days."
+
+"We have lived so long," Nigel observed, "in dread of the unknown. I
+wonder whether we shall ever understand the exact nature of the danger
+with which we were faced."
+
+"It depends upon Prince Shan," she replied. "The terms were Immelan's,
+but the method was his."
+
+"Do you believe," he asked a little abruptly, "that the attempt on
+Prince Shan's life last night was made by Immelan?"
+
+There was a touch, perhaps, of her Muscovite ancestry in the cool
+indifference with which she considered the matter.
+
+"I should think it most likely," she decided. "Prince Shan never changes
+his mind, and I believe that he has decided against Immelan's scheme.
+Immelan's only chance would be in Prince Shan's successor."
+
+"Why is China so necessary?" Nigel asked.
+
+She turned and smiled at her companion.
+
+"Alas!" she sighed, "we have reached an _impasse_. The great English
+diplomat asks too many questions of the simple Russian girl."
+
+"It is unfortunate," he replied, in the same vein, "because I feel like
+asking more."
+
+"As, for example?"
+
+"Whether you would be content to live for the rest of your life in any
+other country except Russia."
+
+"A woman is content to live anywhere, under certain circumstances," she
+murmured.
+
+Karschoff, discreetly announced, entered the room with flamboyant ease.
+
+"It is well to be young!" he exclaimed, as he bent over Naida's fingers.
+"You look, my far-away but much beloved cousin, as though you had slept
+peacefully through the night and spent the morning in this soft, sunlit
+air, with perhaps, if one might suggest such a thing, an hour at a Bond
+Street beauty parlour. Here am I with crow's-feet under my eyes and
+ghosts walking by my side. Yet none the less," he added, as the door
+opened and Maggie appeared, "looking forward to my luncheon and to hear
+all the news."
+
+"There is no news," Naida declared, as the butler announced the service
+of the meal. "We have reached the far end of the ways. The next
+disclosures, if ever they are made, will come from others. At luncheon
+we are going to talk of the English country, the seaside, the meadows,
+and the quiet places. The time arrives when I weary, weary, of the
+brazen ticking of the clock of fate."
+
+"I shall tell you," Nigel declared, "of a small country house I have in
+Devonshire. There are rough grounds stretching down to the sea and
+crawling up to the moors behind. My grandfather built it when he was
+Chancellor of England, or rather he added to an old farmhouse. He called
+it the House of Peace."
+
+"My father built a house very much in the same spirit," Naida told them.
+"He called it after an old Turkish inscription, engraven on the front of
+a villa in Stamboul--'The House of Thought and Flowers.'"
+
+Maggie smiled across the table approvingly.
+
+"I like the conversation," she said. "Naida and I are, after all, women
+and sentimentalists. We claim a respite, an armistice--call it what you
+will. Prince Karschoff, won't you tell me of the most beautiful house
+you ever dwelt in?"
+
+"Always the house I am hoping to end my days in," he answered. "But let
+me tell you about a villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People
+used to speak of it as one of the world's treasures."
+
+When the two men were seated alone over their coffee, Nigel passed
+Chalmers' note and the enclosure across to his companion.
+
+"You remember I told you about Chalmers' friend, Jesson, the secret
+service man who came over to us?" he said. "Chalmers has just sent me
+round this."
+
+Karschoff nodded and studied the message through his great horn-rimmed
+eyeglass.
+
+"I thought that he was going to Russia for you," he said.
+
+"So he did. He must have gone on from there."
+
+"And the message comes from Southern China," Prince Karschoff reflected.
+
+Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Germany! Prince Shan in
+England, negotiating with Immelan! And behind, sinister, menacing,
+mysterious--Japan!
+
+"Supposing," he propounded at last, "there really does exist a secret
+treaty between China and Japan?"
+
+"If there is," Prince Karschoff observed, "one can easily understand
+what Immelan has been at. Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I
+know they are afraid of something of the sort in the States. An American
+who was in the club yesterday told us they had spent over a hundred
+millions on their west coast fortifications in the last two years."
+
+"One can understand, too, in that case," Nigel continued, "why Japan
+left the League of Nations. That stunt of hers about being outside the
+sphere of possible misunderstandings never sounded honest."
+
+"It was unfortunate," Prince Karschoff said, "that America was dominated
+for those few months by an honest but impractical idealist. He had the
+germ of an idea, but he thrust it on the world before even his own
+country was ready for it. In time the nations would certainly have
+elaborated something more workable."
+
+"You cannot keep a full-blooded man from clenching his fist if he's
+insulted," Nigel pointed out, "and nations march along the same lines as
+individuals. Its existence has never for a single moment weakened
+Germany's hatred of England, and the stronger she grows, the more she
+flaunts its conditions. France guards her frontiers, night and day, with
+an army ten times larger than she is allowed. Russia has become the
+country of mysteries, with something up her sleeve, beyond a doubt, and
+there are cities in modern China into which no European dare penetrate.
+Japan quite frankly maintains an immense army, the United States is
+silently following suit--and God help us all if a war does come!"
+
+"You are right," Karschoff assented gloomily. "The last glamour of
+romance has gone from fighting. There were remnants of it in the last
+war, especially in Palestine and Egypt and when we first overran
+Austria. To-day, science would settle the whole affair. The war would be
+won in the laboratory, the engine room and the workshop. I doubt
+whether any battleship could keep afloat for a week, and as to the
+fighting in the air, if a hundred airships were in action, I do not
+suppose that one of them would escape. Then they say that France has a
+gun which could carry a shell from Amiens to London, and more mysterious
+than all, China has something up her sleeve which no one has even a
+glimmering of."
+
+"Except Jesson," Nigel muttered.
+
+"And Jesson's gleam of knowledge, or suspicion," Prince Karschoff
+remarked, "seems to have brought him to the end of his days. Can
+anything be done with Prince Shan about him, do you think?"
+
+"Only indirectly, I am afraid," Nigel replied. "Maggie is seeing him
+this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I believe she telephoned to him
+before luncheon, but I haven't heard anything yet. When a man goes out
+on that sort of a job, he burns his boats. And Jesson isn't the first
+who has turned eastwards, during the last few months. I heard only
+yesterday that France has lost three of her best men in China--one who
+went as a missionary and two as merchants. They've just disappeared
+without a word of explanation."
+
+The telephone extension bell rang. Nigel walked over to the sideboard
+and took down the receiver.
+
+"Is that Lord Dorminster?" a man's voice asked.
+
+"Speaking," Nigel replied.
+
+"I am David Franklin, private secretary to Mr. Mervin Brown," the voice
+continued. "Mr. Mervin Brown would be exceedingly obliged if you would
+come round to Downing Street to see him at once."
+
+"I will be there in ten minutes," Nigel promised.
+
+He laid down the receiver and turned to Karschoff.
+
+"The Prime Minister," he explained.
+
+"What does he want you for?"
+
+"I think," Nigel replied, "that the trouble cloud is about to burst."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown on this occasion did not beat about the bush. His old
+air of confident, almost smug self-satisfaction, had vanished. He
+received Nigel with a new deference in his manner, without any further
+sign of that good-natured tolerance accorded by a busy man to a kindly
+crank.
+
+"Lord Dorminster," he began, "I have sent for you to renew a
+conversation we had some little time since. I will be quite frank with
+you. Certain circumstances have come to my notice which lead me to
+believe that there may be more truth in some of the arguments you
+brought forward than I was willing at the time to believe."
+
+"I must confess that I am relieved to hear you say so," Nigel replied.
+"All the information which I have points to a crisis very near at hand."
+
+The Prime Minister leaned a little across the table.
+
+"The immediate reason for my sending for you," he explained, "is this.
+My friend the American Ambassador has just sent me a copy of a wireless
+dispatch which he has received from China from one of their former
+agents. The report seems to have been sent to him for safety, but the
+sender of it, of whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
+pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China by you."
+
+"Jesson!" Nigel exclaimed. "I have heard of this already, sir, from a
+friend in the American Embassy."
+
+"The dispatch," Mr. Mervin Brown went on, "is in some respects a little
+vague, but it is, on the other hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It
+gives specific details as to definite military preparations on the part
+of China and Russia, associated, presumably, with a third Power whose
+name you will forgive my not mentioning. These preparations appear to
+have been brought almost to completion in the strictest secrecy, but the
+headquarters of the whole thing, very much to my surprise, I must
+confess, seems to be in southern China."
+
+"In that case," Nigel pointed out, "if you will permit me to make a
+suggestion, sir, you have a very simple course open to you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Send for Prince Shan."
+
+"Prince Shan," the Prime Minister replied, with knitted brows, "is not
+over in this country officially. He has begged to be excused from
+accepting or returning any diplomatic courtesies."
+
+"Nevertheless," Nigel persisted, "I should send for Prince Shan. If it
+had not been," he went on slowly, "for the complete abolition of our
+secret service system, you would probably have been informed before now
+that Prince Shan has been having continual conferences in this country
+with one of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
+shores--Oscar Immelan."
+
+"Immelan has no official position in this country," the Prime Minister
+objected.
+
+"A fact which makes him none the less dangerous," Nigel insisted. "He is
+one of those free lances of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
+ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious wave of altruism
+which is responsible for the League of Nations. Immelan was one of the
+first to see how his country might benefit by the new régime. It is he
+who has been pulling the strings in Russia and China, and, I fear,
+another country."
+
+"What I want to arrive at," Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently,
+"is something definite."
+
+"Let me put it my own way," Nigel begged. "A very large section of our
+present-day politicians--you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
+Brown--have believed this country safe against any military dangers,
+because of the connections existing between your unions of working men
+and similar bodies in Germany. This is a great fallacy for two reasons:
+first because Germany has always intended to have some one else pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for her, and second because we cannot
+internationalise labour. English and German workmen may come together
+on matters affecting their craft and the conditions of their labour, but
+at heart one remains a German and one an Englishman, with separate
+interests and a separate outlook."
+
+"Well, at the end of it all," Mr. Mervin Brown said, "the bogey is war.
+What sort of a war? An invasion of England is just as impossible to-day
+as it was twenty years ago."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"I cannot answer your question," he admitted. "I was looking to Jesson's
+report to give us an idea as to that."
+
+"You shall see it to-morrow," Mr. Mervin Brown promised. "It is round at
+the War Office at the present moment."
+
+"Without seeing it," Nigel went on, "I expect I can tell you one
+startling feature of its contents. It suggested, did it not, that the
+principal movers against us would be Russian and China and--a country
+which you prefer just now not to mention?"
+
+"But that country is our ally!" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed.
+
+Nigel smiled a little sadly.
+
+"She has been," he admitted. "Still, if you had been _au fait_ with
+diplomatic history thirty years ago, Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know
+that she was on the point of ending her alliance with us and
+establishing one with Germany. It was only owing to the genius of one
+English statesman that at the last moment she almost reluctantly
+renewed her alliance with us. She is in the same state of doubt
+concerning our destiny to-day. She has seen our last two Governments
+forget that we are an Imperial Power and endeavour to apply the
+principles of sheer commercialism to the conduct of a great nation. She
+may have opened her eyes a thousand years later than we did, but she is
+awake enough now to know that this will not do. There is little enough
+of generosity amongst the nations; none amongst the Orientals. I have a
+conviction myself that there is a secret alliance between China and this
+other Power, a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance."
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in thought. Somehow or other
+his face had gained in dignity since the beginning of the conversation.
+The nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look of deep and
+solemn anxiety.
+
+"If you are right, Lord Dorminster," he pronounced presently, "the world
+has rolled backwards these last ten years, and we who have failed to
+mark its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility thrust upon
+us."
+
+"Politically, I am afraid I agree with you," Nigel replied. "Only the
+idealist, and the prejudiced idealist, can ignore the primal elements in
+human nature and believe that a few lofty sentiments can keep the
+nations behind their frontiers. War is a terrible thing, but human life
+itself is a terrible thing. Its principles are the same, and force will
+never be restrained except by force. If the League of Nations had been
+established upon a firmer and less selfish basis, it certainly might
+have kept the peace for another thirty or forty years. As it is, I
+believe that we are on the verge of a serious crisis."
+
+"War for us is an impossibility," Mr. Mervin Brown declared frankly,
+"simply because we cannot fight. Our army consists of policemen; science
+has defeated the battleship; and practically the same conditions exist
+in the air."
+
+"You sent for me, I presume, to ask for my advice," Nigel said. "At any
+rate, let me offer it. I have reason to believe that the negotiations
+between Prince Shan and Oscar Immelan have not been entirely successful.
+Send for Prince Shan and question him in a friendly fashion."
+
+"Will you be my ambassador?" the Prime Minister asked.
+
+Nigel hesitated for a moment.
+
+"If you wish it," he promised. "Prince Shan is in some respects a
+strangely inaccessible person, but just at present he seems well
+disposed towards my household."
+
+"Arrange, if you can," Mr. Mervin Brown begged, "to bring him here
+to-morrow morning. I will try to have available a copy of the dispatch
+from Jesson. It refers to matters which I trust Prince Shan will be able
+to explain."
+
+Nigel lingered for a moment over his farewell.
+
+"If I might venture upon a suggestion, sir," he said, "do not forget
+that Prince Shan is to all intents and purposes the autocrat of Asia. He
+has taught the people of the world to remodel their ideas of China and
+all that China stands for. And further than this, he is, according to
+his principles, a man of the strictest honour. I would treat him, sir,
+as a valued _confrère_ and equal."
+
+The Prime Minister smiled.
+
+"Don't look upon me as being too intensely parochial, Dorminster," he
+said. "I know quite well that Prince Shan is a man of genius, and that
+he is a representative of one of the world's greatest families. I am
+only the servant of a great Power. He is a great Power in himself."
+
+"And believe me," Nigel concluded fervently, as he made his adieux, "the
+greatest autocrat that ever breathed. If, when you exchange farewells
+with him, he says--'There will be no war'--we are saved, at any rate for
+the moment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Maggie, very cool and neat, a vision of soft blue, a wealth of colouring
+in the deep brown of her closely braided hair, her lips slightly parted
+in a smile of welcome, felt, notwithstanding her apparent composure, a
+strange disturbance of outlook and senses as Prince Shan was ushered
+into her flower-bedecked little sitting room that afternoon. The unusual
+formality of his entrance seemed somehow to suit the man and his manner.
+He bowed low as soon as he had crossed the threshold and bowed again
+over her fingers as she rose from her easy-chair.
+
+"It makes me very happy that you receive me like this," he told her
+simply. "It makes it so much easier for me to say the things that are in
+my heart."
+
+"Won't you sit down, please?" Maggie invited. "You are so tall, and I
+hate to be completely dominated."
+
+He obeyed at once, but he continued to talk with grave and purposeful
+seriousness.
+
+"I wish," he said, "to bring myself entirely into accord, for these few
+minutes, with your western methods and customs. I address you,
+therefore, Lady Maggie, with formal words, while I keep back in my
+heart much that is struggling to express itself. I have come to ask you
+to do me the great honour of becoming my wife."
+
+Maggie sat for a few moments speechless. The thing which she had half
+dreaded and half longed for--the low timbre of his caressing voice--was
+entirely absent. Yet, somehow or other, his simple, formal words were at
+least as disturbing. He leaned towards her, a quiet, dignified figure,
+anxious yet in a sense confident. He had the air of a man who has
+offered to share a kingdom.
+
+"Your wife," Maggie repeated tremulously.
+
+"The thought is new to you, perhaps," he went on, with gentle tolerance.
+"You have believed the stories people tell that in my youth I was vowed
+to celibacy and the priesthood. That is not true. I have always been
+free to marry, but although to-day we figure as a great progressive
+nation, many of the thousand-year-old ideas of ancient China have dwelt
+in my brain and still sit enshrined in my heart. The aristocracy of
+China has passed through evil times. There is no princess of my own
+country whom I could meet on equal terms. So, you see, although it
+develops differently, there is something of the snobbishness of your
+western countries reflected in our own ideas."
+
+"But I am not a princess," Maggie murmured.
+
+"You are the princess of my soul," he answered, lowering his eyes for a
+moment almost reverently. "I cannot quite hope to make you understand,
+but if I took for my wife a Chinese lady of unequal mundane rank, I
+should commit a serious offence against those who watch me from the
+other side of the grave, and to whom I am accountable for every action
+of my life. A lady of another country is a different matter."
+
+"But I am an Englishwoman," Maggie said, "and I love my country. You
+know what that means."
+
+"I know very well," he admitted. "I had not meant to speak of those
+things until later, but, for your country's sake, what greater alliance
+could you seek to-day than to become the wife of him who is destined to
+be the Ruler of Asia?"
+
+Maggie caught hold of her courage. She looked into his eyes
+unflinchingly, though she felt the hot colour rise into her cheeks.
+
+"You did not speak to me of these things, Prince Shan, when I came to
+your house last night," she reminded him.
+
+His smile was full of composure. It was as though the truth which sat
+enshrined in the man's soul lifted him above all the ordinary emotions
+of fear of misunderstandings.
+
+"For those few minutes," he confessed, "I was very angry. It brings
+great pain to a man to see the thing he loves droop her wings, flutter
+down to earth, and walk the common highway. It is not for you, dear one,
+to mingle with that crowd who scheme and cheat, hide and deceive, for
+any reward in the world, whether it be money, fame, or the love of
+country. You were not made for those things, and when I saw you there,
+so utterly in my power, having deliberately taken your risk, I was
+angry. For a single moment I meant that you should realise the danger of
+the path you were treading. I think that I did make you realise it."
+
+Her eyes fell. He seemed to have established some compelling power over
+her. He had met her thoughts before they were uttered, and answered even
+her unspoken question.
+
+"I wish you didn't make life so much like a kindergarten," she
+complained, with an almost pathetic smile at the corners of her lips.
+
+"It is a very different place," he rejoined fervently, "that I desire to
+make of life for you. Listen, please. I have spoken to you first the
+formal words which make all things possible between us, and now, if I
+may, I let my heart speak. Somewhere not far from Pekin I have a palace,
+where my lands slope to the river. For five months in the year my
+gardens are starred with blue and yellow flowers, sweet-smelling as the
+almond blossom, and there are little pagodas which look down on the blue
+water, pagodas hung with creepers, not like your English evergreens, but
+with blossoms, pink and waxen, which open as one looks at them and send
+out sweet perfumes. When you are there with me, dear one, then I shall
+speak to you in the language of my ancestors, which some day you will
+understand, and you shall know that love has its cradle in the East, you
+shall feel the flame of its birth, the furnace of its accomplishment.
+Here my tongue moves slowly, yet I stoop my knee to you, I show you my
+heart, and my lips tell you that I love. What that love is you shall
+learn some day, if you have the will and the confidence and the soul.
+Will you come back to China with me, Maggie?"
+
+She rested her fingers on his hand.
+
+"You are a magician," she confessed. "I am very English, and yet I want
+to go."
+
+He stood for a moment looking into her eyes. Then he stooped down and
+raised her hesitating fingers to his lips.
+
+"I believe that you will come," he said simply. "I believe that you will
+ride over the clouds with me, back to the country of beautiful places.
+So now I speak to you of serious things. Of money there shall be what
+you wish, more than any woman even of your rank possesses in this
+country. I shall give you, too, the sister of my great _Black Dragon_ so
+that in five days, if you wish, you can pass from any of my palaces to
+London. And further than that, behold!"
+
+He drew from his pocket a roll of papers. Maggie recognised it, and her
+heart beat faster. Curiously enough, just then she scarcely thought of
+its world importance. She remembered only those few moments of strange
+thrills, the wonder at finding him in that room, as he stood watching
+her, the horror and yet the thrill of his measured words. He laid the
+papers upon the table.
+
+"Read them," he invited. "You will understand then the net that has been
+closing around your country. You will understand the better if I tell
+you this. China and Japan are one. It was my first triumph when
+patriotism urged me into the field of politics. We have a single motto,
+and upon that is based all that you may read there,--'_Europe for the
+Europeans, Asia for us_.'"
+
+Maggie was conscious of a sudden sense of escape from her almost
+mesmeric state. The change in his tone, his calm references to things
+belonging to another and altogether different world, had dissolved a
+situation against the charm of which she had found herself powerless,
+even unwilling to struggle. Once more she was back in the world where
+for the last two years had lain her chief interests. She took the papers
+in her hand and began reading them quickly through. Every now and then a
+little exclamation broke from her lips.
+
+"You will observe," her companion pointed out, looking over her
+shoulder, "that on paper, at any rate, Japan is the great gainer. She
+takes Australia, New Zealand and India. China absorbs Thibet and
+reëstablishes her empire of forty years ago. The arrangement is based
+very largely on racial conditions. China is a self-centered country. We
+have not the power of fusion of the Japanese. You will observe further,
+as an interesting circumstance, that the American foothold in Asia
+disappears as completely as the British."
+
+"But tell me," she demanded, "how are these things to be brought about,
+and where does Immelan come in?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"Immelan's position," he explained, "is largely a sentimental one, yet
+on the other hand he saves his country from what might be a grave
+calamity. The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might
+seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.
+The point is this. He soothes his country of the pain which groans day
+by day in her limbs. He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great
+Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise."
+
+"And France escapes," she murmured.
+
+"France escapes," he assented. "Rightly or wrongly, the whole of
+Germany's post-war animosity was directed against England. She
+considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen. She may have
+been right or wrong. I myself find the evidence conflicting. At this
+moment the matter does not concern us."
+
+"And is Great Britain, then," Maggie asked, "believed to be so helpless
+that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the
+will of China and Japan?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"Great Britain," he reminded her, "has taken the League of Nations to
+her heart. It was a very dangerous thing to do."
+
+"Still," Maggie persisted, "there remains the great thing which you have
+not told me. These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart
+of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?"
+
+"If I had signed the agreement," he replied, "they could very easily
+have been carried into effect. You have heard already, have you not,
+through some of your agents, of the three secret cities? In the
+eastern-most of them is the answer to your question."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Is that a challenge to me to come out and discover for myself all that
+I want to know?"
+
+"If you come," he answered, "you shall certainly know everything. There
+is another little matter, too, which waits for your decision."
+
+"Tell me of it at once, please," she begged, with a sudden conviction of
+his meaning.
+
+He obeyed without hesitation.
+
+"I spoke just now," he reminded her, "of the three secret cities. They
+are secret because we have taken pains to keep them so. One is in
+Germany, one in Russia, and one in China. A casual traveller could
+discover little in the German one, and little more, perhaps, in the
+Russian one. Enough to whet his curiosity, and no more. But in China
+there is the whole secret at the mercy of a successful spy. A man named
+Jesson, Lady Maggie--"
+
+"I telephoned you about him before luncheon to-day," she interrupted.
+
+"I had your message," he replied, "and the man is safe for the moment.
+At the same time, Lady Maggie, let me remind you that this is a game the
+rules of which are known the world over. Jesson has now in his
+possession the secret on which I might build, if I chose, plans to
+conquer the world. He knew the penalty if he was discovered, and he was
+discovered. To spare his life is sentimentalism pure and simple, yet if
+it is your will, so be it."
+
+"You are very good to me," she declared gratefully, "all the more good
+because half the time I can see that you scarcely understand."
+
+"That I do not admit," he protested. "I understand even where I do not
+sympathise. You make of life the greatest boon on earth. We of my race
+and way of thinking are taught to take it up or lay it down, if not with
+indifference, at any rate with a very large share of resignation.
+However, Jesson's life is spared. From what I have heard of the man, I
+imagine he will be very much surprised."
+
+She gave a little sigh of relief.
+
+"You have given me a great deal of your confidence," she said
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Is it not clear," he answered, "why I have done so? I ask of you the
+greatest boon a woman has to give. I do not seek to bribe, but if you
+can give me the love that will make my life a dream of happiness, then
+will it not be my duty to see that no shadow of misfortune shall come to
+you or yours? China stands between Japan and Russia, and I am China."
+
+She gave him her hands.
+
+"You are very wonderful," she declared. "Remember that at a time like
+this, it is not a woman's will alone that speaks. It is her soul which
+lights the way. Prince Shan, I do not know."
+
+He smiled gravely.
+
+"I leave," he told her, "on Friday, soon after dawn."
+
+She found herself trembling.
+
+"It is a very short time," she faltered.
+
+They had both risen to their feet. He was close to her now, and she felt
+herself caught up in a passionate wave of inertia, an absolute inability
+to protest or resist. His arms were clasped around her lightly and with
+exceeding gentleness. He leaned down. She found herself wondering, even
+in that tumultuous moment, at the strange clearness of his complexion,
+the whiteness of his firm, strong teeth, the soft brilliance of his
+eyes, which caressed her even before his lips rested upon hers.
+
+"I think that you will come," he whispered. "I think that you will be
+very happy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the following morning, to a
+state of intense activity. Taxi-cabs and motor-cars were lined along the
+street; a stream of callers came and went. That part of the
+establishment of which little was seen by the casual caller, the rooms
+where half a dozen secretaries conducted an immense correspondence,
+presided over by Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In his
+reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few of the callers, mostly
+journalists and politicians, to whom Li Wen gave the entrée. One visitor
+even this most astute of secretaries found it hard to place. He took the
+card in to his master, who glanced at it thoughtfully.
+
+"The Earl of Dorminster," he repeated. "I will see him."
+
+Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet with a certain
+aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his favourite chair of plain black oak
+heaped with green silk cushions and held out his hand a little
+tentatively.
+
+"You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster," he said. "I trust that
+you come to wish me fortune."
+
+"That," Nigel replied, "depends upon how you choose to seek it."
+
+"I am answered," was the prompt acknowledgment. "One thing in your
+country I have at least learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of
+candour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have you come to speak to
+me as an ambassador from your cousin, or in any way on her behalf?"
+
+"My business has nothing to do with Lady Maggie," Nigel assured him
+gravely.
+
+Prince Shan held out his hand.
+
+"Stop," he begged. "Do not explain your business. If it is a personal
+request, it is granted. If, on the other hand, you seek my advice on
+matters of grave importance, it is yours. Before other words are spoken,
+however, I myself desire to address you on the subject of Lady Maggie
+Trent."
+
+"As you please," Nigel answered.
+
+"It is not the custom of my country, or of my life," Prince Shan
+continued, "to covet or steal the things which belong to another. If
+fate has made me a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady
+Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It is my great desire that
+she should become my wife."
+
+Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There was something in the
+other's measured speech, so fateful, so assured, that it seemed almost
+as though he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that had seemed
+to him impossible and unnatural in such an idea disappeared from that
+moment.
+
+"You tell me this," Nigel began--
+
+"I announce it to you as the head of the family," Prince Shan
+interrupted.
+
+"You tell it to me also," Nigel persisted, "because you have heard the
+rumours which were at one time very prevalent--that Lady Maggie and I
+were or were about to become engaged to be married."
+
+"I have heard such a rumour only very indirectly," Prince Shan
+confessed, "and I cannot admit that it has made any difference in my
+attitude. I think, in my land and yours, we have at least one common
+convention. The woman who touches our heart is ours if we may win her.
+Love is unalterably selfish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for
+those who may suffer by our victory, we may have pity but no
+consideration."
+
+"Am I to understand," Nigel asked bluntly, "that Lady Maggie has
+consented to be your wife?"
+
+"Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her alone with her thoughts.
+Every hour it is my hope to hear from her. She knows that I leave for
+China early to-morrow."
+
+"So at the present moment you are in suspense."
+
+"I am in suspense," Prince Shan admitted, "and perhaps," he went on,
+with one of his rare smiles, "it occurred to me that it would be in one
+sense a relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears that are
+in my heart. You are the one person to whom I could speak, Lord
+Dorminster. You have not wished my suit well, but at least you have been
+clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you that a prince of
+China might venture to compete with a peer of England."
+
+"On the contrary," Nigel assented, "I have the greatest admiration for
+the few living descendants of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a
+right to enter the lists, a right to win if you can."
+
+"And what do you think of my prospects, if I may ask such a delicate
+question?" Prince Shan enquired.
+
+"I cannot estimate them," Nigel replied. "I only know that Maggie is
+deeply interested."
+
+"I think," his companion continued softly, "that she will become my
+Princess. You have never visited China, Lord Dorminster," he went on,
+"so you have little idea, perhaps, as to the manner of our lives. Some
+day I will hope to be your host, so until then, as I may not speak of my
+own possessions, may I go just so far as this? Your cousin will be very
+happy in China. This is a great country, but the very air you breathe is
+cloyed with your national utilitarianism. Mine is a country of beautiful
+thoughts, of beautiful places, of quiet-living and sedate people. I can
+give your cousin every luxury of which the world has ever dreamed,
+wrapped and enshrined in beauty. No person with a soul could be unhappy
+in the places where she will dwell."
+
+"You are at least confident," Nigel remarked.
+
+"It is because I am convinced," was the calm rejoinder. "I shall take
+your cousin's happiness into my keeping without one shadow of misgiving.
+The last word, however, is with her. It remains to be seen whether her
+courage is great enough to induce her to face such a complete change in
+the manner of her life."
+
+"It will not be her lack of courage which will keep her in England,"
+Nigel declared.
+
+Prince Shan bowed, with a graceful little gesture of the hands. The
+subject was finished.
+
+"I shall now, Lord Dorminster," he said, "take advantage of your kindly
+presence here to speak to you on a very personal matter, only this time
+it is you who are the central figure, and I who am the dummy."
+
+"I do not follow you," Nigel confessed, with a slight frown.
+
+"I speak in tones of apology," Prince Shan went on, "but you must
+remember that I am one of reflective disposition; Nature has endowed me
+with some of the gifts of my great ancestors, philosophers famed the
+world over. It seems very clear to me that, if I had not come, from
+sheer force of affectionate propinquity you would have married Lady
+Maggie."
+
+Nigel's frown deepened.
+
+"Prince Shan!" he began.
+
+Again the outstretched hand seemed as though the fingers were pressed
+against his mouth. He broke off abruptly in his protest.
+
+"You would have lived a contented life, because that is your province,"
+his companion continued. "You would have felt yourself happy because you
+would have been a faithful husband. But the time would have come when
+you would both have realised that you had missed the great things."
+
+"This is idle prophecy," Nigel observed, a little impatiently. "I came
+to see you upon another matter."
+
+"Humour me," the Prince begged. "I am going to speak to you even more
+intimately. I shall venture to do so because, after all, she is better
+known to me than to you. I am going to tell you that of all the women in
+the world, Naida Karetsky is the most likely to make you happy."
+
+Nigel drew himself up a little stiffly.
+
+"One does not discuss these things," he muttered.
+
+"May I call that a touch of insularity?" Prince Shan pleaded, "because
+there is nothing else in the world so wonderful to discuss, in all
+respect and reverence, as the women who have made us feel. One last
+word, Lord Dorminster. The days of matrimonial alliances between the
+reigning families of Europe have come to an end under the influence of a
+different form of government, but there is a certain type of alliance,
+the utility of which remains unimpaired. I venture to say that you could
+not do your country a greater service, apart from any personal feelings
+you might have, than by marrying Mademoiselle Karetsky. There, you see,
+now I have finished. This is for your reflection, Lord Dorminster--just
+the measured statement of one who wears at least the cloak of philosophy
+by inheritance. Time passes. Your own reason for coming to see me has
+not yet been expounded."
+
+"I have come to ask you to visit the Prime Minister before you leave
+England," Nigel announced.
+
+Prince Shan changed his position slightly. His forehead was a little
+wrinkled. He was silent for a moment.
+
+"If I pay more than a farewell visit of ceremony," he said, "that is to
+say, if I speak with Mr. Mervin Brown on things that count, I must
+anticipate a certain decision at which I have not yet wholly arrived."
+
+Nigel had a sudden inspiration.
+
+"You are seeking to bribe Maggie!" he exclaimed.
+
+"That is not true," was the dignified reply.
+
+"Then please explain," Nigel persisted.
+
+Prince Shan rose to his feet. He walked to the heavy silk curtains which
+led into his own bedchamber, pushed them apart, and looked for a moment
+at the familiar objects in the room. Then he came back, glancing on his
+way at the ebony cabinet.
+
+"One does not repeat one's mistakes," he said slowly, "and although you
+and I, Lord Dorminster, breathe the common air of the greater world, my
+instinct tells me that of certain things which have passed between your
+cousin and myself it is better that no mention ever be made. I wish to
+tell you this, however. There is in existence a document, my signature
+to which would, without a doubt, have a serious influence upon the
+destinies of this country. That document, unsigned, would be one of my
+marriage gifts to Lady Maggie--and as you know I have not yet had her
+answer. However, if you wish it, I will go to the Prime Minister."
+
+Li Wen came silently in. He spoke to his master for a few minutes in
+Chinese. A faint smile parted the latter's lips.
+
+"You can tell the person at the telephone that I will call within the
+next few minutes," he directed. "You will not object," he added, turning
+courteously to Nigel, "if I stop for a moment, on the way to Downing
+Street, at a small private hospital? An acquaintance of mine lies sick
+there and desires urgently to see me."
+
+"I am entirely at your service," Nigel assured him.
+
+Prince Shan, with many apologies, left Nigel alone in the car outside a
+tall, grey house in John Street, and, preceded by the white-capped nurse
+who had opened the door, climbed the stairs to the first floor of the
+celebrated nursing home, where, after a moment's delay, he was shown
+into a large and airy apartment. Immelan was in bed, looking very ill
+indeed. He was pale, and his china-blue eyes, curiously protruding, were
+filled with an expression of haunting fear. A puzzled doctor was
+standing by the bedside. A nurse, who was smoothing the bedclothes,
+glanced around at Prince Shan's entrance. The invalid started
+convulsively, and, clutching the pillows with his right hand, turned
+towards his visitor.
+
+"So you've come!" he exclaimed. "Stay where yon are! Don't go!
+Doctor--nurse--leave us alone for a moment."
+
+The nurse went at once. The doctor hesitated.
+
+"My patient is a good deal exhausted," he said. "There are no dangerous
+symptoms at present, but--"
+
+"I will promise not to distress him," Prince Shan interrupted. "I am
+myself somewhat pressed for time, and it is probable that your patient
+will insist upon speaking to me in private."
+
+The doctor followed the nurse from the room. Prince Shan stood looking
+down upon the figure of quondam associate. There was a leaven of mild
+wonder in his clear eyes, a faintly contemptuous smile about the corners
+of his lips.
+
+"So you are afraid of death, my friend," he observed, "afraid of the
+death you planned so skilfully for me."
+
+"It is a lie!" Immelan declared excitedly. "Sen Lu was never killed by
+my orders. Listen! You have nothing against me. My death can do you no
+good. It is you who have been at fault. You--Prince Shan--the great
+diplomatist of the world--are gambling away your future and the future
+of a mighty empire for a woman's sake. You have treated me badly enough.
+Spare my life. Call in the doctor here and tell him what to do. He can
+find nothing in my system. He is helpless."
+
+The smile upon the Prince's lips became vaguer, his expression more
+bland and indeterminate.
+
+"My dear Immelan," he murmured, "you are without doubt delirious.
+Compose yourself, I beg."
+
+A light that was almost tragic shone in the man's face. He sat up with a
+sudden access of strength.
+
+"For the love of God, don't torture me!" he groaned. "The pains grow
+worse, hour by hour. If I die, the whole world shall know by whose
+hand."
+
+The expression on Prince Shan's face remained unchanged. In his eyes,
+however, there was a little glint of something which seemed almost like
+foreknowledge,
+
+"When you die," he pronounced calmly, "it will be by your own hand--not
+mine."
+
+For some reason or other, Immelan accepted these measured words of
+prophecy as a total reprieve. The relief in his face was almost piteous.
+He seized his visitor's hand and would have fawned upon it. Prince Shan
+withdrew himself a little farther from the bed.
+
+"Immelan," he said, "during my stay in England I have studied you and
+your methods, I have listened to all you have had to say and to propose,
+I have weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of the scheme you
+have outlined to me, and I only arrived at my decision after the most
+serious and unbiassed reflection. Your scheme itself was bold and almost
+splendid, but, as you yourself well know at the back of your mind, it
+would lay the seeds of a world tumult. I have studied history, Immelan,
+perhaps a little more deeply than you, and I do not believe in
+conquests. For the restoration to China of such lands as belong
+geographically and rightly to the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans.
+You, it seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to gratify your
+hatred of England."
+
+"A cat's-paw!" Immelan gasped. "Australia, New Zealand and India for
+Japan, new lands for her teeming population; Thibet for you, all
+Manchuria, and the control of the Siberian Railway!"
+
+"These are dazzling propositions," Prince Shan admitted, "and yet--what
+about the other side of the Pacific?"
+
+"America would be powerless," Immelan insisted.
+
+"So you said before, in 1917," was the dry reminder. "I did not come
+here, however, to talk world politics with you. Those things for the
+moment are finished. I came in answer to your summons."
+
+Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.
+
+"You meant what you said?" he demanded, with hoarse anxiety. "There was
+no poison? Swear that?"
+
+Prince Shan moved towards the door. His backward glance was coldly
+contemptuous.
+
+"What I said, I meant," he replied. "Extract such comfort from it as you
+may."
+
+He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Immelan stared
+after him, hollow-eyed and anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing
+upon him once more.
+
+Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove off to Downing Street.
+The former was silent for the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
+towards his companion.
+
+"The man Immelan is a coward," he declared. "It is he whom I have just
+visited."
+
+Nigel shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"So many men are brave enough in a fight," he remarked, "who lose their
+nerve on a sick bed."
+
+"Bravery in battle," Prince Shan pronounced, "is the lowest form of
+courage. The blood is stirred by the excitement of slaughter as by
+alcohol. With Immelan I shall have no more dealings."
+
+"Speaking politically as well as personally?" Nigel enquired.
+
+The other smiled.
+
+"I think I might go so far as to agree," he acquiesced, "but in a sense,
+there are conditions. You shall hear what they are. I will speak before
+you to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign of my departure."
+
+Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which hung down, here and
+there, from the blue sky, came the _Black Dragon_, her engines purring
+softly, her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched her for a
+moment in silence.
+
+"At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start," Prince Shan announced. "My
+pilot tells me that the weather conditions are wonderful, all the way
+from here to Pekin. We shall be there on Wednesday."
+
+"You travel alone?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"I have passengers," was the quiet reply. "I am taking the English
+chaplain to your Church in Pekin."
+
+The eyes of the two men met.
+
+"It is an ingenious idea," Nigel admitted dryly.
+
+"I wish to be prepared," his companion answered. "It may be that he is
+my only companion. In that case, I go back to a life lonelier than I
+have ever dreamed of. It is on the knees of the gods. So far there has
+come no word, but although I am not by nature an optimist, my
+superstitions are on my side. All the way over on my last voyage, when I
+lay in my berth, awake and we sailed over and through the clouds, my
+star, my own particular star, seemed leaning always down towards me, and
+for that reason I have faith."
+
+Nigel glanced at his companion curiously but without speech. The car
+pulled up in Downing Street. The two men descended and found everything
+made easy for them. In two minutes they were in the presence of the
+Prime Minister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a
+matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation. He received
+Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an
+earlier visit. To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to
+be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.
+
+"Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation," he said,
+"bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you."
+
+"I have found his lordship," Prince Shan declared, "one of the few
+Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside
+his own country."
+
+The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.
+
+"Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan," he
+said. "They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the
+promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
+friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities. Lord
+Dorminster would have me believe that there is a still more terrible
+price for us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole outlook,
+abandon our belief in the League of Nations, and once more acknowledge
+the supremacy of force."
+
+"Lord Dorminster is right," Prince Shan pronounced. "I have come here to
+tell you so, Mr. Mervin Brown."
+
+"You come here as a friend of England?" the latter asked.
+
+"I come here as one who hesitates to become her enemy," was the measured
+reply. "I will be perfectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
+to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of China and Japan,
+would have resulted in the humiliation of your country and the
+gratification of Germany's eagerly desired revenge."
+
+"You believe in the existence of that sentiment, then?" the Prime
+Minister enquired.
+
+"Any one short of a very insular Englishman," the Prince replied, "would
+have realised it long ago. There is a great society in Germany, scarcely
+even a secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations of the last
+great war. Lord Dorminster tells me that you are to-day without a secret
+service. For that reason you have remained in ignorance of the mines
+beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans well and carefully. Her
+first and greatest weapon has been your sense of security. She has seen
+you contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious satisfaction,
+invincible France, regaining her wealth more slowly than you for the
+simple reason that half the man power of the country is absorbed by her
+military preparations. France is impregnable. A direct invasion of your
+country is in all probability impossible. Those two facts have seemed to
+you all-sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may say so, sir,
+very short-sighted."
+
+"Germany has no power to transport troops in other directions," Mr.
+Mervin Brown observed.
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"You have another enemy besides Germany," he pointed out, "a great
+democracy who has never forgiven your lack of sympathy at her birth,
+your attempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne in agony and
+shame, yet containing the germs of worthy things which your statesmen in
+those days failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Russia stands
+hand in hand with Germany."
+
+"But surely," the Prime Minister protested, "you speak in the language
+of the past? The League of Nations still exists. Any directly predatory
+expedition would bring the rest of the world to arms."
+
+Prince Shan shook his head.
+
+"One of the first necessities of a tribunal," he expounded, "is that
+that tribunal should have the power to punish. You yourself are one of
+the judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With what weapon will
+you chastise him? The culprit has grown mightier than the judge."
+
+"America--"
+
+"America," Prince Shan interrupted, "can, when she chooses, strike a
+weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
+proceed outside her own sphere of influence."
+
+"But she must protect her trade," the Prime Minister insisted.
+
+"She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
+instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
+mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
+as anxious to buy as she is to sell."
+
+"I am to figure to myself, then," Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, "a
+combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
+Great Britain?"
+
+"There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned," Prince Shan
+assured him gravely. "If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
+would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
+treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
+would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
+be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer."
+
+"It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
+knowledge of this scheme," the Prime Minister confessed.
+
+"Official Germany would probably deny it," Prince Shan answered dryly.
+"Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
+but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
+have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
+cities?"
+
+"I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales," Mr.
+Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.
+
+"Nevertheless, they exist," Prince Shan continued, "and they exist for
+the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
+have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
+The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
+design to conquer any country in the world."
+
+"Armoured airships?" Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.
+
+"Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air," Prince
+Shan explained. "On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
+ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
+to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
+these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
+Government."
+
+"I remember something of the sort," the Prime Minister assented. "The
+inventor himself was an American, I believe."
+
+"Precisely! I believe he told you in plain words that whoever possessed
+his model might, if they chose, dominate the world."
+
+"But who wants to dominate the world by force?" Mr. Mervin Brown
+demanded passionately. "We have passed into a new era, an era of peace
+and the higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and money to
+create these horrible instruments of destruction. The League of Nations
+has decreed that they shall not be built."
+
+"Nevertheless," Prince Shan declared, with portentous gravity, "a
+thousand of these engines of destruction are now ready in a certain city
+of China. Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota of work
+in the shape of providing parts. China alone has put them together. I
+bought the secret, and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
+world remains at peace or moves on to war."
+
+"You cannot hesitate, then?" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed anxiously. "You
+yourself are an apostle of civilisation."
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"It is because we are strong," he said, "that we love peace. It is
+because you are weak that you fear war. I am not here to teach you
+statesmanship. It is not for me to point out to you the means by which
+you can make your country safe and keep her people free. Call a meeting
+of what remains of the League of Nations and compare your strength with
+that of the nations who have crept outside and lie waiting. Then take
+the advice of experts and set your house in order. You sacrifice
+everything to-day to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dorminster
+here into your councils. You are not a nation of fools. Speak the truth
+at the next meeting of the League of Nations and see that it is properly
+reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you."
+
+"Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dorminster?" the Prime Minister
+invited, turning to Nigel.
+
+"If you will recreate the post of Minister for War, I will do so with
+pleasure," was the prompt reply.
+
+Prince Shan held out his hand.
+
+"There is great responsibility upon your shoulders, Mr. Mervin Brown,"
+he said. "You will never know how near you have been to disaster. Try
+and wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call together your
+writers, your thinking men, your historians. Encourage the flagging
+spirit of patriotism in your public schools and universities. Is this
+presumption on my part that I give so much advice? If so, forgive me.
+Truth that sits in the heart will sometimes demand to be heard."
+
+At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained behind. They both looked
+at the door through which Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown
+metaphorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a little dazed.
+
+"Is that man real flesh and blood?" he demanded.
+
+"He is as real and as near the truth," Nigel replied solemnly, "as the
+things of which he has told us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+That night, Nigel gave a dinner party on Maggie's account at the
+fashionable London hotel of the moment. Invitations had been sent out by
+telephone, by hurried notes, in one or two cases were delivered by word
+of mouth. On the whole, the acceptances, considering the season was in
+full swing, were a little remarkable. Every one was anxious to come,
+because, as one of her girl friends put it, no one ever knew what Maggie
+was going to be up to next. One of the few refusals came from Prince
+Shan, and even he made use of compromise:
+
+     _My dear Lord Dorminster, will you forgive me if in this instance I
+     do not break a custom to which I have perhaps a little too rigidly
+     adhered. The Prime Minister telephoned, a few minutes after we left
+     him, asking me to meet two of his colleagues from the Foreign
+     Office to-night, and I doubt whether our conference will have
+     concluded at the hour you name._
+
+     _However, if you will permit me, I will give myself the pleasure of
+     joining you later in the evening, to make my adieux to those of my
+     friends whom I am quite sure I shall find amongst your company._
+
+     _Sincerely yours_,
+
+     SHAN.
+
+Maggie passed the note back with a little smile. She made no comment
+whatever. Nigel watched her thoughtfully.
+
+"I have carried out your orders," he observed. "Everything has been
+attended to, even to the colour of your table decorations. Now tell me
+what it all means?"
+
+She looked him in the face quite frankly.
+
+"How can I?" she answered. "I do not know myself."
+
+"Is this by way of being a farewell party?" he persisted.
+
+"I do not know that," she assured him. "The only thing is that if I do
+decide--to go--well, I shall have had a last glimpse of most of my
+friends."
+
+"As your nearest male relative, in fact your guardian," Nigel went on,
+with a touch of his old manner, "I feel myself deeply interested in your
+present situation. If a little advice from one who is considerably your
+senior would be acceptable--"
+
+"It wouldn't," Maggie interrupted quietly. "There are just two things in
+life no girl accepts advice upon--the way she does her hair and the man
+she means to marry. You see, both are decided by instinct. I shall know
+before dawn to-morrow what I mean to do, but until then nothing that
+anybody could say would make any difference. Besides, your mind ought to
+be full of your own matrimonial affairs. I hear that Naida is talking
+of going back to Russia next week."
+
+"My own affairs are less complex," Nigel replied. "I am going to ask
+Naida to marry me--to-night if I have the opportunity."
+
+Maggie made a little grimace.
+
+"There goes my second string!" she exclaimed. "Nigel, you are horribly
+callous. I have never been in the least sure that I haven't wanted to
+marry you myself."
+
+Nigel lit a cigarette and pushed the box across to his companion.
+
+"I've frequently felt the same way," he confessed. "The trouble of it is
+that when the really right person comes along, one hasn't any doubt
+about it whatever. I should have made you a stodgy husband, Maggie."
+
+She sniffed.
+
+"I think that considering the way you've flirted with me," she declared,
+"you ought at least to have given me the opportunity of refusing you."
+
+"If Naida refuses me," he began--
+
+"And I decide that Asia is too far away," she interrupted--
+
+"We may come together, after all," he said, with a resigned little sigh.
+
+"Glib tongue and empty heart," she quoted. "Nigel, I would never trust
+you. I believe you're in love with Naida."
+
+"And I'm not quite so sure about you," he observed, watching the colour
+rise quickly in her cheeks. "Off with you to dress, young woman. It's
+past seven, and we must be there early. I still have the wine to order."
+
+The dinner party was in its way a complete success. Prince Karschoff was
+there, benign and distinguished; Chalmers and one or two other young men
+from the American Embassy. There was a sprinkling of Maggie's girl
+friends, a leaven of the older world in Nigel's few intimates,--and
+Naida, very pale but more beautiful than ever in a white velvet gown,
+her hair brushed straight back, and with no jewellery save one long rope
+of pearls. Nigel who in his capacity as host had found little time for
+personal conversation during the service of dinner, deliberately led her
+a little apart when they passed out into the lounge for coffee and to
+watch the dancing.
+
+"My duties are over for a time," he said. "Do you realise that I have
+not had a word with you alone since our luncheon at Ciro's?"
+
+"We have all been a little engrossed, have we not?" she murmured. "I
+hope that you are satisfied with the way things have turned out."
+
+"Nothing shall induce me to talk politics or empire-saving to-night," he
+declared, with a smile. "I have other things to say."
+
+"Tell me why you asked us all to dine so suddenly," she enquired. "I do
+not know whether it is my fancy, but there seems to be an air of
+celebration about. Is there any announcement to be made?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"None. The party was just a whim of Maggie's."
+
+They both looked across towards the ballroom, where she was dancing with
+Chalmers.
+
+"Maggie is very beautiful to-night," Naida said. "I could scarcely
+listen to my neighbour's conversation at dinner time for looking at her.
+Yet she has the air all the time of living in a dream, as though
+something had happened which had lifted her right away from us all. I
+began to wonder," she added, "whether, after all, Oscar Immelan had not
+told me the truth, and whether we should not be drinking her health and
+yours before the evening was over."
+
+"You could scarcely believe that," he whispered, "if you have any memory
+at all."
+
+There was a faint touch of pink in her cheeks, a tinge of colour as
+delicate as the passing of a gleam of sunshine over a sea-glistening
+shell.
+
+"But Englishmen are so unfaithful," she sighed.
+
+"Then I at least am an exception," Nigel answered swiftly. "The words
+which you checked upon my lips the last time we were alone together
+still live in my heart. I think, Naida, the time has come to say them."
+
+Their immediate neighbours had deserted them. He leaned a little
+towards her.
+
+"You know so well that I love you, Naida," he said. "Will you be my
+wife?"
+
+She looked up at him, half laughing, yet with tears in her eyes. With an
+impulsive little gesture, she caught his hand in hers for a moment.
+
+"How horribly sure you must have felt of me," she complained, "to have
+spoken here, with all these people around! Supposing I had told you that
+my life's work lay amongst my own people, or that I had made up my mind
+to marry Oscar Immelan, to console him for his great disappointment."
+
+"I shouldn't have believed you," he answered, smiling.
+
+"Conceit!" she exclaimed.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"In a sense, of course, I am conceited," he replied. "I am the happiest
+and proudest man here. I really think that after all we ought to turn it
+into a celebration."
+
+The band was playing a waltz. Naida's head moved to the music, and
+presently Nigel rose to his feet with a smile, and they passed into the
+ballroom. Karschoff and Mrs. Bollington Smith watched them with
+interest.
+
+"Naida is looking very wonderful to-night," the latter remarked. "And
+Nigel, too; I wonder if there is anything between them."
+
+"The days of foreign alliances are past," Karschoff replied, "but a few
+intermarriages might be very good for this country."
+
+"Are you serious?" she asked.
+
+"Absolutely! I would not suggest anything of the sort with Germany, but
+with this new Russia, the Russia of which Naida Karetsky is a daughter,
+why not? Although they will not have me back there, Russia is some day
+going to lay down the law to Europe."
+
+"I wonder whether Maggie has any ideas of the sort in her mind," Mrs.
+Bollington Smith observed. "She seems curiously abstracted to-night."
+
+Chalmers came grumblingly up to Mrs. Bollington Smith, with whom he was
+an established favourite.
+
+"Lady Maggie is treating me disgracefully," he complained. "She will
+scarcely dance at all. She goes around talking to every one as though it
+were a sort of farewell party."
+
+"Perhaps it may be," Karschoff remarked quietly.
+
+"She isn't going away, is she?" Chalmers demanded.
+
+"Who knows?" the Prince replied. "Lady Maggie is one of those strange
+people to whom one may look with every confidence for the unexpected."
+
+She herself came across to them, a few moments later.
+
+"Something tells me," she declared, "that you are talking about me."
+
+"You are always a very much discussed young lady," Karschoff rejoined,
+with a little bow.
+
+She made a grimace and sank into a chair by her aunt. She talked on
+lightly enough, but all the time with that slight suggestion of
+superficiality which is a sign of strain. She glanced often towards the
+entrance of the lounge, yet no one seemed less disturbed when at a few
+minutes before eleven Prince Shan came quietly in. He made his way at
+once to Mrs. Bollington Smith and bent over her fingers.
+
+"It is so kind of you and Lord Dorminster," he said, "to give me this
+opportunity of saying good-by to a few friends."
+
+"You are leaving us so soon, Prince?"
+
+"To-morrow, soon after dawn," he replied, his eyes wandering around the
+little circle. "I wish to be in Pekin, if possible, by Wednesday, so my
+_Dragon_ must spread his wings indeed."
+
+He said a few words to almost everybody. Last of all he came to Maggie,
+and no one heard what he said to her. There was no change in his face as
+he bent low over her fingers, no sign of anything which might have
+passed between them, as a few minutes later he turned to one side with
+Nigel. Maggie held out her hand to Chalmers. The strain seemed to have
+passed. Her lips were parted in a wonderful smile, her feet moved to the
+music.
+
+"Come and dance," she invited.
+
+They moved a few steps away together, when Maggie came to an abrupt
+standstill. The two stood for a moment as though transfixed, their eyes
+upon the arched entrance which led from the restaurant into the lounge.
+A man was standing there, looking around, a strange, menacing figure, a
+man dressed in the garb of fashion but with the face of a savage, with
+eyes which burned in his head like twin dots of fire, with drawn, hollow
+cheeks and mouth a little open like a mad dog's. As his eyes fell upon
+the group and he recognised them, a look of horrible satisfaction came
+into his face. He began to approach quite deliberately. He seemed to
+take in by slow degrees every one who stood there,--Maggie herself and
+Chalmers, Naida, Nigel and Prince Shan. He moved forward. All the time
+his right hand was behind him, concealed underneath the tails of his
+dress coat.
+
+"Be careful!" Maggie cried out. "It is Oscar Immelan! He is mad!"
+
+Some of the party and many of the bystanders had shrunk away from the
+menacing figure. Naida stepped out from among the little group of those
+who were left.
+
+"Oscar," she said firmly, "what is the matter with you? You are not well
+enough to be here."
+
+He came to a standstill. At close quarters his appearance was even more
+terrible. Although by some means he had gotten into his evening clothes,
+he was only partly shaven, and there were gashes in his face where the
+hand which had held his razor had slipped. The pupils of his eyes were
+distended, and the eyes themselves seemed to have shrunk back into their
+sockets. His whole frame seemed to have suddenly lost vigour, even
+substance. He had the air of a man in clothes too large for him. Even
+his voice was shriller,--shriller and horrible with the slow and bestial
+satisfaction of his words.
+
+"So here you are, the whole nest of you together, eh?" he exclaimed.
+"Good! Very good indeed! Prince Shan, the poisoner! Dorminster, enjoying
+your brief triumph, eh? And you, Naida Karetsky, traitress to your
+country--deceiver--"
+
+"That will do, Immelan," Nigel interrupted sharply. "We are all here.
+What do you want with us?"
+
+"That comes," Immelan replied. "Soon you shall all know why I have come!
+Let me speak to my friend Shan for a moment. I carry your poison in my
+veins, but there is a chance--just a chance," he added slowly, with a
+horrible smile upon his lips, "that you may go first, after all."
+
+Nigel made a stealthy but rapid movement forward, drawing Naida gently
+out of the way. Immelan was too quick, however. He swung around, showing
+the revolver which he had been concealing behind him, and moved to one
+side until his back was against one of the pillars. By this time, most
+of the other occupants of the ballroom had either rushed screaming away
+altogether, or were hiding, peering out in fascinated horror from the
+different recesses. The chief maître d'hôtel bravely held his ground and
+came to within a few paces of Immelan.
+
+"We can't have any brawling here," he said. "Put that revolver away."
+
+Immelan took no notice of the intervener, except that for a single
+moment the muzzle yawned in the latter's face. The maître d'hôtel was a
+brave man, but he had a wife and family, and after all, it was not his
+affair. There were other men there to look after the ladies. He hurried
+off to call for the police. Almost as he went, Prince Shan stepped into
+the foreground. His voice was calm and expressionless. His eyes, in
+which there shone no shadow of fear, were steadily fixed upon Immelan.
+He spoke without flurry.
+
+"So you carry your own weapons to-night, Immelan," he said. "That at
+least is more like a man. You seem to have a grievance against every
+one. Start with me. What is it?"
+
+There were some of them who wondered why, at this juncture when he so
+clearly dominated his assailant, Prince Shan, whose courage was superb
+and whose _sang froid_ absolutely unshaken did not throw himself upon
+this intruder and take his chance of bringing the matter to an end at
+the moment when the man's nerve was undoubtedly shaken. Then they looked
+towards the entrance, and they understood. Creeping towards the little
+gathering came Li Wen and another of the Prince's suite, a younger and
+even more active man. The two came on tiptoe, crouching and moving
+warily, with the gleam of the tiger in their anxious eyes. Maggie caught
+a warning glance from Nigel and looked away.
+
+"You are my murderer!" Immelan cried hoarsely. "It is through you I
+suffer these pains! I am dying of your accursed poison!"
+
+"If that were true," Prince Shan replied, with the air of one willing to
+discuss the subject impartially, "might I remind you of Sen Lu, who died
+in my box at the Albert Hall? For whom was that dagger thrust meant,
+Immelan? Not for the man whom you had bought to betray me, the only one
+of my suite who has ever been tempted with gold. That dagger thrust was
+meant for me, and the assassin was one of your creatures. So even if
+your words were true, Immelan, and the poison which you imagine to be in
+your body were planted there by me, are we less than quits?"
+
+Immelan's lie was unconvincing.
+
+"I know nothing of Sen Lu's death," he declared. "I employ no assassins.
+When there is killing to be done, I can do it myself. I am here to-night
+for that purpose. You have deserted me at the last moment, Prince
+Shan--played me and my country false for the sake of the English woman
+whom you think to carry back with you to China. And you," he added,
+turning with a sudden furious glance at Naida, "you have deceived the
+man who trusted you, the man who sent you here for one purpose, and one
+purpose only. You have done your best to ruin my scheme. Not only that,
+but you have given the love which was mine--mine, I say--to another--an
+Englishman! I hate you all! That is why I, a dying man, have crawled
+here to reap my little harvest of vengeance.--You, Naida--you shall be
+first--"
+
+Naida was suddenly swung on one side, and the shot which rang out passed
+through Nigel's coat sleeve, grazing his wrist,--the only shot that was
+fired. Prince Shan, watching for his moment, as his two attendants threw
+themselves upon the madman from behind, himself sprang forward, knocked
+Immelan's right hand up with a terrible blow, and sent the revolver
+crashing to the ground. It was a matter of a few seconds. Immelan, when
+he felt himself seized, scarcely struggled. The courage of his madness
+seemed to pass, the venom died out of his face, he shook like a man in
+an ague. Prince Shan kicked the revolver on one side and looked
+scornfully down upon him, now a nerveless wreck.
+
+"Immelan," he said, "it is a pity that you did not wait until to-morrow
+morning. You would then have known the truth. You are no more poisoned
+than I am. If you had been in China--well, who knows? In England there
+is so much prejudice against the taking of a worthless life that as a
+guest I subscribed to it and mixed a little orris-root tooth powder
+with your vermouth."
+
+The man's eyes suddenly opened. He was feverishly, frantically anxious.
+
+"Tell me that again," he shrieked. "You mean it? Swear that you mean
+it."
+
+Prince Shan's gesture as he turned away was one of supreme contempt.
+
+"A Shan," he said, "never needs to repeat."
+
+There was the bustle of arriving police, the story of a revolver which
+had gone off by accident, a very puzzling contretemps expounded for
+their benefit. The situation, and the participants in it, seemed to
+dissolve with such facility that it was hard for any one to understand
+what had actually happened. Prince Shan, with Maggie on his arm, was
+talking to the leader of the orchestra, who had suddenly reappeared. The
+former turned to his companion.
+
+"It is not my custom to dance," he said, "but the waltz that they were
+beginning to play seemed to me to have a little of the lure of our own
+music. Will you do me the honour?"
+
+They moved away to the music. Chalmers stood and watched them, with one
+hand in his pocket and the other on Nigel's shoulder. He turned to
+Naida, who was on the other side.
+
+"Nothing like a touch of melodrama for the emotions," he grumbled. "Look
+at Lady Maggie! Her head might be touching the clouds, and I never saw
+her eyes shine like that when she danced with me."
+
+"You don't dance as well as Prince Shan, old fellow," Nigel told him.
+
+"And the Prince sails for China at dawn," Naida murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Prince Shan stood in the tiny sitting room of his suite upon the _Black
+Dragon_ and looked around him critically. The walls were of black oak,
+with white inlaid plaques on which a great artist had traced little
+fanciful figures,--a quaint Chinese landscape, a temple, a flower-hung
+pagoda. There were hangings of soft, blue silk tapestry, brought from
+one of his northern palaces. The cloth which covered the table was of
+the finest silk. There were several bowls of flowers, a couch, and two
+comfortable chairs. Through the open doors of the two bedchambers came a
+faint glimpse of snow-white linen, a perfume reminiscent at once of
+almond blossom, green tea, and crushed lavender, and in the little room
+beyond glistened a silver bath. Already attired for the voyage, his
+pilot stood on the threshold.
+
+"Is all well, your Highness?" he asked.
+
+"Everything is in order," Prince Shan replied. "Ching Su is a perfect
+steward."
+
+"The reverend gentleman is in his room, your Highness," the pilot went
+on. "All the supplies have arrived, and the crew are at their stations.
+At what hour will it please your Highness to start?"
+
+Prince Shan looked through the open window, along the wooden platform,
+out to the broad stretch of road which led to London.
+
+"I announced the hour of my departure as six o'clock," he replied. "I
+cannot leave before in case of any farewell message. Is the woman of
+whom I spoke to you here?"
+
+"She is in attendance, your Highness."
+
+"She understands that she will not be required unless my other passenger
+should desire to accompany us?"
+
+"She understands perfectly, your Highness."
+
+Prince Shan stepped through his private exit on to the narrow wooden
+platform. Already the mighty engines had started, purring softly but
+deeply, like the deep-throated murmurings of a giant soon to break into
+a roar. It was a light, silvery morning, with hidden sunshine
+everywhere. On the other side of the vast amphitheatre of flat,
+cinder-covered ground, the Downs crept upwards, rolling away to the
+blue-capped summit of a distant range of hills. Northwards, the pall of
+London darkened the horizon. An untidy medley of houses and factories
+stretched almost to the gates of the vast air terminus. Listening
+intently, one could catch the faint roar of the city's awakening
+traffic, punctuated here and there by the shrill whistling of tugs in
+the river, hidden from sight by a shroud of ghostly mist. The dock on
+which Prince Shan stood was one apportioned to foreign royalty and
+visitors of note. A hundred yards away, the Madrid boat was on the point
+of starting, her whistles already blowing, and her engines commencing to
+beat. Presently the great machinery which assisted her flight from the
+ground commenced its sullen roar. There was a chorus of farewell shouts
+and she glided up into the air, a long row of people waving farewells
+from the windows. Prince Shan glanced at his watch,--twenty minutes to
+six. He paced the wooden boards and looked again,--ten minutes to six.
+Then he stopped suddenly. Along that gleaming stretch of private road
+came a car, driven at a rapid pace. Prince Shan stood and watched it,
+and as he watched, it seemed almost as though the hidden sun had caught
+his face and transfigured it. He stood as might stand a man who feels
+his feet upon the clouds. His lips trembled. There was no one there to
+see--his attendants stood respectfully in the background--but in his
+eyes was a rare moisture, and for a single moment a little choking at
+his throat. The car turned in under the arched roof. Prince Shan's
+servants, obeying his gesture, hurried forward and threw open the gates.
+The heavily laden limousine came to a standstill. Three people
+descended. Nigel and Naida lingered, watching the luggage being
+unloaded. Maggie came forward alone.
+
+They met a few yards from the entrance to the platform. Prince Shan was
+bare-headed, and Maggie, at least, saw those wonderful things in his
+face. He bent down and took her hands in his.
+
+"Dear and sweet soul," he whispered, as his lips touched her fingers,
+"may my God and yours grant that you shall find happiness!"
+
+Her own eyes were wet as she smiled up at him.
+
+"I have been so long making up my mind," she said, "and yet I knew all
+the time. I am so glad--so happy that I have come. Think, too, how
+wonderful a start! We leave the earth for the clouds."
+
+"It is a wonderful allegory," he answered, smiling. "We will take it
+into our hearts, dear one. It rests within the power of every human
+being to search for happiness and, in searching, to find it. I am
+fortunate because I can take you to beautiful places. I can spell out
+for you the secrets of a new art and a new beauty. We can walk in fairy
+gardens. I can give you jewels such as Europe has never seen, but I can
+give you, Maggie, nothing so strange and wonderful, even to me who know
+myself, as the love which fills my heart."
+
+Her laugh was like music.
+
+"I am going to be so happy," she murmured.
+
+The other two approached and they all shook hands. They looked over the
+amazing little rooms, watched the luggage stowed away in some marvellous
+manner, saw the crew, every one at his station like a motionless figure.
+Then a whistle was blown, and once more they all clasped hands.
+
+"Very soon," Prince Shan promised, as he and Maggie leaned from the
+window of the car, "I shall send the _Black Dragon_ for you, Lord
+Dorminster, and for the one other whom I think you may wish to bring.
+Asia is not so far off, these days, and Maggie will love to see her
+friends."
+
+Almost imperceptibly the giant airship floated away.
+
+"Watch, both of you," Maggie cried. "I am sending you down a farewell
+present." She whispered to Prince Shan, who handed her something from
+his pocket, smiled, and gave an order. The great ship passed in a
+semicircle and hovered almost exactly above their heads. A little shower
+of small scraps of paper came floating down. Nigel picked one up,
+examined it, and understood. He waved his hat.
+
+"It is Maggie's farewell gift to England," he said, "the treaty which
+Prince Shan never signed."
+
+They stood side by side, watching. With incredible speed, the _Black
+Dragon_ passed into the clouds and out again. Then, as it roared away
+eastwards, the sun suddenly disclosed itself. The airship mounted
+towards it, shimmering and gleaming in every part. Naida passed her hand
+a little shyly through her companion's arm.
+
+"Isn't that rather a wonderful way to depart in search of happiness?"
+she murmured.
+
+He smiled down at her.
+
+"I do not think that we shall find the search very difficult, dear," he
+said, "though our feet may remain upon the earth."
+
+Naida's lip quivered for a moment. Then she caught a glimpse of his face
+and gave a little sigh of content.
+
+"There is heaven everywhere," she whispered.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13123 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13123 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Prince Shan, by E. Phillips
+Oppenheim</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN</h1>
+
+<h2>BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM</h2>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4>1922</h4>
+
+<br />
+
+<h3><a href='#THE_GREAT_PRINCE_SHAN'>THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN</a></h3>
+<h4><a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XI'>CHAPTER XI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XII'>CHAPTER XII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XIII'>CHAPTER XIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XIV'>CHAPTER XIV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XV'>CHAPTER XV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XVI'>CHAPTER XVI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XVII'>CHAPTER XVII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XVIII'>CHAPTER XVIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XIX'>CHAPTER XIX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XX'>CHAPTER XX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXI'>CHAPTER XXI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXII'>CHAPTER XXII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXIII'>CHAPTER XXIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXIV'>CHAPTER XXIV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXV'>CHAPTER XXV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXVI'>CHAPTER XXVI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXVII'>CHAPTER XXVII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXVIII'>CHAPTER XXVIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXIX'>CHAPTER XXIX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXX'>CHAPTER XXX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXXI'>CHAPTER XXXI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXXII'>CHAPTER XXXII</a></h4>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='THE_GREAT_PRINCE_SHAN'></a><h2>THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN</h2>
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_I'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;A club for diplomats and gentlemen,&quot; Prince Karschoff remarked, looking
+lazily through a little cloud of tobacco smoke around the spacious but
+almost deserted card room. &quot;The classification seems comprehensive
+enough, yet it seems impossible to get even a decent rubber of bridge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Daniel Harker, a many years retired plenipotentiary to one of the
+smaller Powers, shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Personally, I have come to the conclusion,&quot; he declared, &quot;that the
+<i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i> for the club seems to be passing. There is no diplomacy,
+nowadays, and every man who pays his taxes is a gentleman. Kingley, you
+are the youngest. Ransack the club and find a fourth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Honourable Nigel Kingley smiled lazily from the depths of his
+easy-chair. He was a young Englishman of normal type, long-limbed,
+clean-shaven, with good features, a humorous mouth and keen grey eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In actual years,&quot; he admitted, &quot;I may have the advantage of you two,
+but so far as regards the qualities of youth, Karschoff is the youngest
+man here. Besides, no one could refuse him anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a subterfuge,&quot; the Prince objected, &quot;but if I must go, I will go
+presently. We will wait five minutes, in case Providence should be kind
+to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three men relapsed into silence. They were seated in a comfortable
+recess of the card room of the St. Philip's Club. The atmosphere of the
+apartment seemed redolent with suggestions of faded splendour. There was
+a faint perfume of Russian calf from the many rows of musty volumes
+which still filled the stately bookcases. The oil paintings which hung
+upon the walls belonged to a remote period. In a distant corner, four
+other men were playing bridge, speechless and almost motionless, the
+white faces of two of them like cameos under the electric light and
+against the dark walls. There was no sound except the soft patter of the
+cards and the subdued movements of a servant preparing another bridge
+table by the side of the three men. Then the door of the room was
+quietly opened and closed. A man of youthful middle-age, carefully
+dressed, with a large, clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and fair hair
+sprinkled with grey, came towards them. He was well set up, almost
+anxiously ingratiating in manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see now what Providence has sent,&quot; Sir Daniel Harker observed under
+his breath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is enough to make an atheist of one, this!&quot; the Prince muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any bridge?&quot; the newcomer enquired, seating himself at the table and
+shuffling one of the packs of cards.</p>
+
+<p>The three men rose to their feet with varying degrees of unwillingness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan is too good for us,&quot; Sir Daniel grumbled. &quot;He always wins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am lucky,&quot; the newcomer admitted, &quot;but I may be your partner; in
+which case, you too will win.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are my partner,&quot; the Prince declared, &quot;I shall play for five
+pounds a hundred. I desire to gamble. London is beginning to weary me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Kingley is a better player, though not so lucky,&quot; Immelan
+acknowledged, with a little bow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never believe it, with all due respect to our young friend here,&quot; Sir
+Daniel replied, as he cut a card. &quot;Kingley plays like a man with brain
+but without subtlety. In a duel between you two, I would back Immelan
+every time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kingley took his place at the table with a little gesture of
+resignation. He looked across the table to where Immelan sat displaying
+the card which he had just cut. The eyes of the two men met. A few
+seconds of somewhat significant silence followed. Then Immelan gathered
+up the cards.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have the utmost respect for Mr. Kingley as an adversary,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>The latter bowed a little ironically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May you always preserve that sentiment! To-day, chance seems to have
+made us partners. Your deal, Mr. Immelan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What stakes?&quot; the Prince enquired, settling himself down in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are for you to name,&quot; Immelan declared.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince laughed shortly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe you are as great a gambler at heart as I am,&quot; he observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Mr. Kingley for my partner, and the game one of skill,&quot; was the
+courteous reply, &quot;I do not need to limit my stakes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A servant crossed the room, bringing a note upon a tray. He presented it
+to Kingley, who opened and read it through without change of
+countenance. When he had finished it, however, he laid his cards face
+downwards upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; he said, &quot;I owe you my most profound apologies. I am called
+away at once on a matter of urgent business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this is most annoying,&quot; the Prince declared irritably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here comes my saviour,&quot; Kingley remarked, as another man entered the
+card room. &quot;Henderson will take my place. Glad I haven't to break you
+up, after all. Henderson, will you play a rubber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer assented. Nigel Kingley made his adieux and crossed the
+room. Immelan watched him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is our friend Kingley's profession?&quot; he enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has no profession,&quot; Sir Daniel replied. &quot;He has never come into
+touch with the sordid needs of these money-grubbing days. He is the
+nephew and heir of the Earl of Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan looked away from the retreating figure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster,&quot; he murmured. &quot;The same Lord Dorminster who was in the
+Government many years ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was Foreign Secretary when I was Governor of Jamaica,&quot; Sir Daniel
+answered. &quot;A very brilliant man he was in those days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan nodded thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel Kingley, on leaving the St. Philip's Club, was driven at once, in
+the automobile which he found awaiting him, to a large corner house in
+Belgrave Square, which he entered with the air of an habitu&eacute;. The
+waiting major-domo took him at once in charge and piloted him across the
+hall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His lordship is very much occupied, Mr. Nigel,&quot; he announced. &quot;He is
+not seeing any other callers. He left word, however, that you were to be
+shown in the moment you arrived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His lordship is quite well, I hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well in health, sir, but worried, and I don't wonder at it,&quot; the man
+replied, speaking with the respectful freedom of an old servant. &quot;I
+never thought I'd live to see such times as these.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A man in the early sixties, still good-looking, notwithstanding a
+somewhat worn expression, looked up from his seat at the library table
+on Kingley's entrance. He nodded, but waited until the door was closed
+behind the retreating servant before he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good of you to come, Nigel,&quot; he said. &quot;Bring your chair up here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bad news?&quot; the newcomer enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Damnable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief silence, during which Nigel, knowing his uncle's
+humours, leaned back in his chair and waited. Upon the table was a
+little pile of closely written manuscript, and by their side several
+black-bound code books, upon which the &quot;F.O.Private&quot; still remained,
+though almost obliterated with time. Lord Dorminster's occupation was
+apparent. He was decoding a message of unusual length. Presently he
+turned away from the table, however, and faced his nephew. His hands
+travelled to his waistcoat pocket. He drew out a cigarette from a thin
+gold case, lit it and began to smoke. Then he crossed his legs and
+leaned a little farther back in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; he said, &quot;we are living in strange times.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one denies that, sir,&quot; was the grave assent.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Dorminster glanced at the calendar which stood upon the desk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-day,&quot; he continued, &quot;is the twenty-third day of March, nineteen
+hundred and thirty-four. Fifteen years ago that terrible Peace Treaty
+was signed. Since then you know what the history of our country has
+been. I am not blowing my own trumpet when I say that nearly every man
+with true political insight has been cast adrift. At the present moment
+the country is in the hands of a body of highly respectable and
+well-meaning men who, as a parish council, might conduct the affairs of
+Dorminster Town with unqualified success. As statesmen they do not
+exist. It seems to me, Nigel, that you and I are going to see in reality
+that spectre which terrified the world twenty years ago. We are going to
+see the breaking up of a mighty empire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what has happened or is going to happen,&quot; Nigel begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, for one thing,&quot; his uncle replied, &quot;the Emperor of the East is
+preparing for a visit to Europe. He will be here probably next month.
+You know whom I mean, of course?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan!&quot; Nigel exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan of China,&quot; Lord Dorminster assented. &quot;His coming links up
+many things which had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what happens
+during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide the destinies of this
+country, and yet I wouldn't mind betting you a thousand to one that
+there isn't a single official of the Government who has the slightest
+idea as to why he is coming, or that he is coming at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan for the moment, Nigel. Now
+listen. You go about a great deal. What do people say about
+me&mdash;honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the light.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They call you a faddist and a scaremonger,&quot; Nigel confessed, &quot;yet there
+are one or two, especially at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and
+ambassadors whose place in the world has passed away, who think and
+believe differently. You know, sir, that I am amongst them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; he said, &quot;I fancy I am about to prove myself. Seven years ago,
+it was,&quot; he went on reminiscently, &quot;when the new National Party came
+into supreme power. You know one of their first battle cries&mdash;'Down with
+all secret treaties! Down with all secret diplomacy! Let nothing exist
+but an honest commercial understanding between the different countries
+of the world!' How Germany and Russia howled with joy! In place of an
+English statesman with his country's broad interests at heart, we have
+in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen representatives of the great
+industries, whose object, in their own words, is, I believe, to develop
+friendly commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between the nations.
+Not only our ambassadors but our secret service were swept clean out of
+existence. I remember going to Broadley, the day he was appointed
+Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple question. I asked him whether
+he did not consider it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of
+the other great nations, however friendly they might seem, to keep
+himself assured that all these expressions of good will were honourable,
+and that in the heart of the German nation that great craving for
+revenge which is the natural heritage of the present generation had
+really become dissipated. Broadley smiled at me. 'Lord Dorminster,' he
+said, 'the chief cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We look
+upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It is the people of Germany
+with whom we are in touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
+of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides, there is the League
+of Nations.' Those were Broadley's views then, and they are his views
+to-day. You know what I did?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel assented cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few of us,&quot; he observed. &quot;You
+have been running an unofficial secret service of your own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Precisely! I have had a few agents at work for over a year, and when I
+have finished decoding this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which
+will prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold of terrible
+events. The worst of it is&mdash;well, we have been found out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Nigel asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle's sensitive lips quivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You knew Sidwell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sidwell was found stabbed to the heart in a caf&eacute; in Petrograd, three
+weeks ago,&quot; Lord Dorminster announced. &quot;An official report of the
+enquiry into his death informs his relatives that his death was due to a
+quarrel with some Russian sailors over one of the women of the quarter
+where he was found.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Horrible!&quot; Nigel muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sidwell was one of those unnatural people, as you know,&quot; Lord
+Dorminster went on, &quot;who never touched wine or spirits and who hated
+women. To continue. Atcheson was a friend of yours, wasn't he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course! He was at Eton with me. It was I who first brought him here
+to dine. Don't tell me that anything has happened to Jim Atcheson!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This dispatch is from him,&quot; Lord Dorminster replied, indicating the
+pile of manuscript upon the table,&mdash;&quot;a dispatch which came into my hands
+in a most marvellous fashion. He died last week in a nursing home
+in&mdash;well, let us say a foreign capital. The professor in charge of the
+hospital sends a long report as to the unhappy disease from which he
+suffered. As a matter of fact, he was poisoned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel Kingley had been a soldier in his youth and he was a brave man.
+Nevertheless, the horror of these things struck a cold chill to his
+heart. He seemed suddenly to be looking into the faces of spectres, to
+hear the birth of the winds of destruction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is all I have to say to you for the moment,&quot; his uncle concluded
+gravely. &quot;In an hour I shall have finished decoding this dispatch, and I
+propose then to take you into my entire confidence. In the meantime, I
+want you to go and talk for a few minutes to the cleverest woman in
+England, the woman who, in the face of a whole army of policemen and
+detectives, crossed the North Sea yesterday afternoon with this in her
+pocket.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean Maggie?&quot; Nigel exclaimed eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will find her in the boudoir,&quot; he said. &quot;I told her that you were
+coming. In an hour's time, return here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Dorminster rose to his feet as his nephew turned to depart. He laid
+his hand upon the latter's shoulder, and Nigel always remembered the
+grave kindliness of his tone and expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; he sighed, &quot;I am afraid I shall be putting upon your shoulders
+a terrible burden, but there is no one else to whom I can turn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one else to whom you ought to turn, sir,&quot; the young man
+replied simply. &quot;I shall be back in an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_II'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Lady Maggie Trent, a stepdaughter of the Earl of Dorminster, was one of
+those young women who had baffled description for some years before she
+had commenced to take life seriously. She was neither fair nor dark,
+petite nor tall. No one could ever have called her nondescript, or have
+extolled any particular grace of form or feature. Her complexion had
+defied the ravages of sun and wind and that moderate indulgence in
+cigarettes and cocktails which the youth of her day affected. Her nose
+was inclined to be retrouss&eacute;, her mouth tender but impudent, her grey
+eyes mostly veiled in expression but capable of wonderful changes. She
+was curled up in a chair when Nigel entered, immersed in a fashion
+paper. She held out her left hand, which he raised to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Nigel, dear,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;what do you think of my new
+profession?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hate it,&quot; he answered frankly.</p>
+
+<p>She sighed and laid down the fashion paper resignedly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You always did object to a woman doing anything in the least useful. Do
+you realise that if anything in the world can save this stupid old
+country, I have done it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I realise that you've been running hideous risks,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him petulantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What of it?&quot; she demanded. &quot;We all run risks when we do anything worth
+while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not quite the sort that you have been facing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know exactly where I have been?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No idea,&quot; he confessed. &quot;What my uncle has just told me was a complete
+revelation, so far as I was concerned. I believed, with the rest of the
+world, what the newspapers announced&mdash;that you were visiting Japan and
+China, and afterwards the South Sea Islands, with the Wendercombes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dad wanted to tell you,&quot; she said, &quot;but it was I who made him promise
+not to. I was afraid you would be disagreeable about it. We arranged it
+all with the Wendercombes, but as a matter of fact I did not even start
+with them. For the last eight months, I have been living part of the
+time in Berlin and part of the time in a country house near the Black
+Forest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a bit of it! I have been governess to the two daughters of Herr
+Essendorf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Essendorf, the President of the German Republic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lady Maggie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He isn't a bit like his pictures. He is a huge fat man and he eats a
+great deal too much. Oh, the horror of those meals!&quot; she added, with a
+little shudder. &quot;Think of me, dear Nigel, who never eat more than an
+omelette and some fruit for luncheon, compelled to sit down every day to
+a <i>mittagessen!</i> I wonder I have any digestion left at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you mean that you were there under your own name?&quot; he asked
+incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I secured some perfectly good testimonials before I left,&quot; she said.
+&quot;They referred to a Miss Brown, the daughter of Prebendary Brown. I was
+Miss Brown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great Heavens!&quot; Nigel muttered under his breath. &quot;You heard about
+Atcheson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor fellow, they got him all right. You talk about thrills, Nigel,&quot;
+she went on. &quot;Do you know that the last night before I left for my
+vacation, I actually heard that fat old Essendorf chuckling with his
+wife about how his clever police had laid an English spy by the heels,
+and telling her, also, of the papers which they had discovered and
+handed over. All the time the real dispatch, written by Atcheson when
+he was dying, was sewn into my corsets. How's that for an exciting
+situation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a man's job, anyhow,&quot; Nigel declared.</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders and abandoned the personal side of the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you been in Germany lately, Nigel?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for many years,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>She stretched herself out upon the couch and lit a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Germany of before the war of course I can't remember,&quot; she said
+pensively. &quot;I imagine, however, that there was a sort of instinctive
+jealous dislike towards England and everything English, simply because
+England had had a long start in colonisation, commerce and all the rest
+of it. But the feeling in Germany now, although it is marvellously
+hidden, is something perfectly amazing. It absolutely vibrates wherever
+you go. The silence makes it all the more menacing. Soon after I got to
+Berlin, I bought a copy of the Treaty of Peace and read it. Nigel, was
+it necessary to have been so bitterly cruel to a beaten enemy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Logically it would seem not,&quot; Nigel admitted. &quot;Actually, we cannot put
+ourselves back into the spirit of those days. You must remember that it
+was an unprovoked war, a war engineered by Germany for the sheer
+purposes of aggression. That is why a punitive spirit entered into our
+subsequent negotiations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I expect history will tell us some day,&quot; she continued, &quot;that we needed
+a great statesman of the Beaconsfield type at the Peace table. However,
+that is all ended. They sowed the seed at Versailles, and I think we are
+going to reap the harvest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all,&quot; Nigel observed thoughtfully, &quot;it is very difficult to see
+what practical interference there could be with the peace of the world.
+I can very well believe that the spirit is there, but when it comes to
+hard facts&mdash;well, what can they do? England can never be invaded. The
+war of 1914 proved that. Besides, Germany now has a representative on
+the League of Nations. She is bound to toe the line with the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked,&quot; Maggie reminded him.
+&quot;We seem somehow or other to have found our way into the bad books of
+every country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should attribute it,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;to the passing of our old
+school of ambassadors. After all, ambassadors are born, not made, and
+they should be&mdash;they very often were&mdash;men of rare tact and perceptions.
+We have no one now to inform us of the prejudices and humours of the
+nations. We often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many
+opportunities of a <i>rapprochement</i>. It is trade, trade, trade and
+nothing else, the whole of the time, and the men whom we sent to the
+different Courts to further our commercial interests are not the type to
+keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate matters which
+sometimes need adjustment between two countries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may be the explanation of all the bad feeling,&quot; Maggie admitted,
+&quot;and you may be right when you say that any practical move against us is
+almost impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is terribly
+exercised about the coming of Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must get him to talk to me,&quot; Nigel said. &quot;As a matter of fact, I
+don't think that we need fear Asiatic intervention over here. Prince
+Shan is too great a diplomatist to risk his country's new prosperity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan,&quot; Maggie declared, &quot;is the one man in the world I am
+longing to meet. He was at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For one year only. He went from there to Harvard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what he was like,&quot; she begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have only a hazy recollection of him,&quot; Nigel confessed. &quot;He was a
+most brilliant scholar and a fine horseman. I can't remember whether he
+did anything at games.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-looking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved, though, and even in those
+days he was far more exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
+thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he would become Asia's great
+man. I'll tell you all that I can remember about him another time,
+Maggie. I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson's. Have you any
+idea what it is about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None at all. It is in the old Foreign Office cipher and it looks like
+gibberish. I only know that the first few lines he transcribed gave dad
+the jumps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder if he has finished it by now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'll send for you when he has. How do you think I am looking, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wonderful,&quot; he answered, rising to his feet and standing with his elbow
+upon the mantelpiece, gazing down at her. &quot;But then you <i>are</i> wonderful,
+aren't you, Maggie? You know I always thought so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a mirror from the little bag by her side and scrutinized
+her features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It can't be my face,&quot; she decided, turning towards him with a smile. &quot;I
+must have charm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your face is adorable,&quot; he declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you going to flirt with me?&quot; she asked, with a faint smile at the
+corners of her lips. &quot;You always do it so well and so convincingly. And
+I hate foreigners. They are terribly in earnest but there is no finesse
+about them. You may kiss me just once, please, Nigel, the way I like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He held her for a moment in his arms, tenderly, but with a reserve to
+which she was accustomed from him. Presently she thrust him away. Her
+own colour had risen a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Delightful,&quot; she murmured. &quot;Think of the wasted months! No one has
+kissed me, Nigel, since we said good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you made up your mind to marry me yet?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear,&quot; she answered, patting his hand, &quot;do restrain your ardour. Do
+you really want to marry me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't love me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am awfully fond of you,&quot; he assured her, &quot;and I don't love any one
+else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't enough, Nigel,&quot; she declared, &quot;and, strange to say, it's
+exactly how I feel about you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see why it shouldn't be enough,&quot; he argued. &quot;Perhaps we have
+too much common sense for these violent feelings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be that,&quot; she admitted doubtfully. &quot;On the other hand, don't
+let's run any risk. I should hate to find an affinity, and all that sort
+of thing, after marriage&mdash;divorce in these days is such shocking bad
+form. Besides, honestly, Nigel, I don't feel frivolous enough to think
+about marriage just now. I have the feeling that even while the clock is
+ticking we are moving on to terrible things. I can't tell you quite what
+it is. I carried my life in my hands during those last few days abroad.
+I dare say this is the reaction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled reassuringly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all, you are safe at home now, dear,&quot; he reminded her, &quot;and I
+really am very fond of you, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I'm quite absurdly fond of you, Nigel,&quot; she acknowledged. &quot;It makes
+me feel quite uncomfortable when I reflect that I shall probably have to
+order you to make love to some one else before the week is out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall do nothing of the sort,&quot; he declared firmly. &quot;I am not good at
+that sort of thing. And who is she, anyhow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door&mdash;not the discreet
+tap of a well-bred domestic, but a flurried, almost an imperative
+summons. Before either of them could reply, the door was opened and
+Brookes, the elderly butler, presented himself upon the threshold. Even
+before he spoke, it was clear that he brought alarming news.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you step down to the library at once, sir?&quot; he begged, addressing
+Nigel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the matter, Brookes?&quot; Maggie demanded anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear that his lordship is not well,&quot; the man replied.</p>
+
+<p>They all hurried out together. Brookes was evidently terribly perturbed
+and went on talking half to himself without heeding their questions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought at first that his lordship must have fainted,&quot; he said. &quot;I
+heard a queer noise, and when I went in, he had fallen forward across
+the table. Parkins has rung for Doctor Wilcox.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What sort of a noise?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounded like a shot,&quot; the man faltered.</p>
+
+<p>They entered the library, Nigel leading the way. Lord Dorminster was
+lying very much as Brookes had described him, but there was something
+altogether unnatural in the collapse of his head and shoulders and his
+motionless body. Nigel spoke to him, touched him gently, raised him at
+last into a sitting position. Something on which his right hand seemed
+to have been resting clattered on to the carpet. Nigel turned around and
+waved Maggie back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't come,&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it a stroke?&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid that he is dead,&quot; Nigel answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>They went out into the hall and waited there in shocked silence until
+the doctor arrived. The latter's examination lasted only a few seconds.
+Then he pointed to the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is very terrible,&quot; he said. &quot;I am afraid you had better ring up
+Scotland Yard, Mr. Kingley. Lord Dorminster appears either to have shot
+himself, as seems most probable,&quot; he added, glancing at the revolver
+upon the carpet, &quot;or to have been murdered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is incredible!&quot; Nigel exclaimed. &quot;He was the sanest possible man,
+and the happiest, and he hadn't an enemy in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The physician pointed downwards to the revolver. Then he unfastened once
+more the dead man's waistcoat, opened his shirt and indicated a small
+blue mark just over his heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is how he died,&quot; he said. &quot;It must have been instantaneous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Time seemed to beat out its course in leaden seconds whilst they waited
+for the superintendent from Scotland Yard. Nigel at first stood still
+for some moments. From outside came the cheerful but muffled roar of the
+London streets, the hooting of motor horns, the rumbling of wheels, the
+measured footfall of the passing multitude. A boy went by, whistling;
+another passed, calling hoarsely the news from the afternoon papers. A
+muffin man rang his bell, a small boy clattered his stick against the
+area bailing. The whole world marched on, unmoved and unnoticing. In
+this sombre apartment alone tragedy reigned in sinister silence. On the
+sofa, Lord Dorminster, who only half an hour ago had seemed to be in
+the prime of life and health, lay dead.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel moved towards the writing-table and stood looking at it in wonder.
+The code book still remained, but there was not the slightest sign of
+any manuscript or paper of any sort. He even searched the drawers of the
+desk without result. Every trace of Atcheson's dispatch and Lord
+Dorminster's transcription of it had disappeared!</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_III'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>On a certain day some weeks after the adjourned inquest and funeral of
+Lord Dorminster, Nigel obtained a long-sought-for interview with the
+Right Honourable Mervin Brown, who had started life as a factory
+inspector and was now Prime Minister of England. The great man received
+his visitor with an air of good-natured tolerance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heard of you from Scotland Yard, haven't I, Lord Dorminster?&quot; he said,
+as he waved him to a seat. &quot;I gather that you disagreed very strongly
+with the open verdict which was returned at the inquest upon your
+uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The verdict was absolutely at variance with the facts,&quot; Nigel declared.
+&quot;My uncle was murdered, and a secret report of certain doings on the
+continent, which he was decoding at the time, was stolen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The medical evidence scarcely bears out your statement,&quot; Mr. Mervin
+Brown pointed out dryly, &quot;nor have the police been able to discover how
+any one could have obtained access to the room, or left it, without
+leaving some trace of their visit behind. Further, there are no
+indications of a robbery having been attempted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I happen to know more than any one else about this matter,&quot; Nigel
+urged,&mdash;&quot;more, even, than I thought it advisable to mention at the
+inquest&mdash;and I beg you to listen to me, Mr. Mervin Brown. I know that
+you considered my uncle to be in some respects a crank, because he was
+far-seeing enough to understand that under the seeming tranquillity
+abroad there is a universal and deep-seated hatred of this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I look upon that statement as misleading and untrue,&quot; the Minister
+declared. &quot;Your late uncle belonged to that mischievous section of
+foreign politicians who believed in secret treaties and secret service,
+and who fostered a state of nervous unrest between countries otherwise
+disposed to be friendly. We have turned over a new leaf, Lord
+Dorminster. Our efforts are all directed towards developing an
+international spirit of friendliness and trust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Utopian but very short-sighted,&quot; Nigel commented. &quot;If my uncle had
+lived to finish decoding the report upon which he was engaged, I could
+have offered you proof not only of the existence of the spirit I speak
+of, but of certain practical schemes inimical to this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The papers you speak of have disappeared,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown observed,
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They were taken away by the person who murdered my uncle,&quot; Nigel
+insisted.</p>
+
+<p>The Right Honourable gentleman nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you know my views about the affair,&quot; he said. &quot;I may add that
+they are confirmed by the police. I am in no way prejudiced, however,
+and am willing to listen to anything you may have to say which will not
+take you more than a quarter of an hour,&quot; he added, glancing at the
+clock upon his table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here goes, then,&quot; Nigel began. &quot;My uncle was a statesman of the old
+school who had no faith in the Utopian programme of the present
+Government of this country. When you abandoned any pretence of a
+continental secret service, he at his own expense instituted a small one
+of his own. He sent two men out to Germany and one to Russia. The one
+sent to Russia was the man Sidwell, whose murder in a Petrograd caf&eacute; you
+may have read of. Of the two sent to Germany, one has disappeared, and
+the other died in hospital, without a doubt poisoned, a few days after
+he had sent the report to England which was stolen from my uncle's desk.
+That report was brought over by Lady Maggie Trent, Lord Dorminster's
+stepdaughter, who was really the brains of the enterprise and under
+another name was acting as governess to the children of Herr Essendorf,
+President of the German Republic. Half an hour before his death, my
+uncle was decoding this dispatch in his library. I saw him doing it, and
+I saw the dispatch itself. He told me that so far as he had gone
+already, it was full of information of the gravest import; that a
+definite scheme was already being formulated against this country by an
+absolutely unique and dangerous combination of enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those enemies being?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I can only surmise,&quot; he replied. &quot;My uncle had only commenced to
+decode the dispatch when I last saw him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I gather, Lord Dorminster,&quot; the Minister said, &quot;that you connect
+your uncle's death directly with the supposed theft of this document?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the conclusion you arrive at, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is an absolutely logical one,&quot; Nigel declared firmly. &quot;I assert that
+other countries are not falling into line with our lamentable abnegation
+of all secret service defence, and that, in plain words, my uncle was
+murdered by an agent of one of these countries, in order that the
+dispatch which had come into his hands should not be decoded and passed
+on to your Government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Right Honourable gentleman smiled slightly. He was a man of some
+natural politeness, but he found it hard to altogether conceal his
+incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he promised, &quot;I will consider all that you have
+said. Is there anything more I can do for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Nigel replied boldly. &quot;Induce the Cabinet to re&euml;stablish our
+Intelligence Department and secret service, even on a lesser scale, and
+don't rest until you have discovered exactly what it is they are
+plotting against us somewhere on the continent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To carry out your suggestions, Lord Dorminster,&quot; the Minister pointed
+out, &quot;would be to be guilty of an infringement of the spirit of the
+League of Nations, the existence of which body is, we believe, a
+practical assurance of our safety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As man to man, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;I see you don't believe a word of what I
+have been telling you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As man to man,&quot; the other admitted pleasantly, as he touched the bell,
+&quot;I think you have been deceived.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Nigel, even as a prophet of woe, was a very human person and withal a
+philosopher. He strolled along Piccadilly and turned into Bond Street,
+thoroughly enjoying one of the first spring days of the season. Flower
+sellers were busy at every corner; the sky was blue, with tiny flecks of
+white clouds, there was even some dust stirred by the little puffs of
+west wind. He exchanged greetings with a few acquaintances, lingered
+here and there before the shop windows, and presently developed a fit of
+contemplation engendered by the thoughts which were all the time at the
+back of his mind. Bond Street was crowded with vehicles of all sorts,
+from wonderfully upholstered automobiles to the resuscitated victoria.
+The shop windows were laden with the treasures of the world, buyers were
+plentiful, promenaders multitudinous. Every one seemed to be cheerful
+but a little engrossed in the concrete act of living. Nigel almost ran
+into Prince Karschoff, at the corner of Grafton Street.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dreaming, my friend?&quot; the latter asked quietly, as he laid his hand
+upon Nigel's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Guilty,&quot; Nigel confessed. &quot;You are an observant man, Prince. Tell me
+whether anything strikes you about the Bond Street of to-day, compared
+with the Bond Street of, say, ten years ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Russian glanced around him curiously. He himself was a somewhat
+unusual figure in his distinctively cut morning coat, his carefully tied
+cravat, his silk hat, black and white check trousers and faultless white
+spats.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A certain decline of elegance,&quot; he murmured. &quot;And is it my fancy or has
+this country become a trifle Americanised as regards the headgear of its
+men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe our thoughts are moving in the same groove,&quot; he said. &quot;To me
+there seems to be a different class of people here, as though the
+denizens of West Kensington, suddenly enriched, had come to spend their
+money in new quarters. Not only that, but there is a difference in the
+wares set out in the shops, an absence of taste, if you can understand
+what I mean, as though the shopkeepers themselves understood that they
+were catering for a new class of people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the triumph of your <i>bourgeoisie</i>,&quot; the Russian declared. &quot;Your
+aristocrat is no longer able to survive. <i>Noblesse oblige</i> has no
+significance to the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he caters for
+the people who can write them. Let us pursue our reflections a little
+farther and in a different direction, my friend,&quot; he added, glancing at
+his watch. &quot;Lunch with me at the Ritz, and we will see whether the
+cookery, too, has been adapted to the new tastes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he
+many times afterwards remembered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two,&quot; he said
+doubtfully. &quot;Besides, I had half promised to be at the club.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not to-day,&quot; Karschoff insisted. &quot;To-day let us listen to the call of
+the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant
+will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps 'One for you and one for
+me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two
+men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many
+acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of
+mind, pointed out many of the habitu&eacute;s of the place to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age,&quot; he declared,
+a little bitterly. &quot;Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for
+a man without a country to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know everybody,&quot; Nigel replied, without reference to his
+companion's lament. &quot;Tell me who the woman is who has just entered?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff glanced in the direction indicated, and for a moment his
+somewhat saturnine expression changed. A smile played upon his lips, his
+eyes seemed to rest upon the figure of the girl half turned away from
+them with interest, almost with pleasure. She was of an unusual type,
+tall and dark, dressed in black with the simplicity of a nun, with only
+a little gleam of white at her throat. Her hair&mdash;so much of it as showed
+under her flower-garlanded hat&mdash;was as black as jet, and yet, where she
+stood in the full glare of the sunlight, the burnish of it was almost
+wine-coloured. Her cheeks were pale, her expression thoughtful. Her
+eyes, rather heavily lidded, were a deep shade of violet. Her mouth was
+unexpectedly soft and red.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, my friend, no wonder you ask!&quot; Karschoff declared with enthusiasm.
+&quot;That is a woman whom you must know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me her name,&quot; Nigel persisted with growing impatience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her name,&quot; Karschoff replied, &quot;is Naida Karetsky. She is the daughter
+of the man who will probably be the next President of the Russian
+Republic. You see, I can speak those words without a tremor. Her father
+at present represents the shipping interests of Russia and England. He
+is one of the authorised consuls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he of the party?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff scrutinised the approaching figures through his eyeglass and
+nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her father is the dark, broad-shouldered man with the square beard,&quot; he
+indicated. &quot;Immelan, as you can see, is the third. They are coming this
+way. We will speak of them afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida, with her father and Oscar Immelan, left some acquaintances with
+whom they had been talking and, preceded by a <i>ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel</i>, moved in
+the direction of the two men. The girl recognised the Prince with a
+charming little bow and was on the point of passing on when she
+appeared to notice his companion. For a moment she hesitated. The
+Prince, anticipating her desire to speak, rose at once to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mademoiselle,&quot; he said, bending over her hand, &quot;welcome back to
+England! You bring with you the first sunshine we have seen for many
+days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you being meteorological or complimentary?&quot; she asked, smiling.
+&quot;Will you present your companion? I have heard of Mr. Kingley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With the utmost pleasure,&quot; the Prince replied. &quot;Mr. Kingley, through
+the unfortunate death of a relative, is now the Earl of
+Dorminster&mdash;Mademoiselle Karetsky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel, as he made his bow, was conscious of an expression of something
+more than ordinary curiosity in the face of the girl who had herself
+aroused his interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are the son, then,&quot; she enquired, &quot;of Lord Dorminster who died
+about a month ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His nephew,&quot; Nigel explained. &quot;My uncle was unfortunately childless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met your uncle once in Paris,&quot; she said. &quot;It will give me great
+pleasure to make your better acquaintance. Will you and my dear friend
+here,&quot; she added, turning to the Prince, &quot;take coffee with us
+afterwards? I shall then introduce you to my father. Oscar Immelan you
+both know, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They murmured their delighted assent, and she passed on. Nigel watched
+her until she took her place at the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely that girl is well-born?&quot; he observed. &quot;I have never seen a more
+delightful carriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; Karschoff told him. &quot;Karetsky is a well-to-do man of
+commerce, but her mother was a Baroness Kolchekoff, a distant relative
+of my own. The Kolchekoffs lived on their estates, and as a matter of
+fact we never met. Naida has gone over to the people, though, body and
+soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is extraordinarily beautiful,&quot; Nigel remarked.</p>
+
+<p>His companion was swinging his eyeglass back and forth by its cord.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Many men have thought so,&quot; he replied. &quot;For myself, there is antagonism
+in my blood against her. I wonder whether I have done well or ill in
+making you two acquainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel felt a sudden desire to break through a certain seriousness which
+had come over his own thoughts and which was reflected in the other's
+tone. He shrugged his shoulders slightly and filled his glass with wine.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every man in the world is the better,&quot; he propounded, &quot;for adding to
+the circle of his acquaintances a beautiful woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sententious and a trifle inaccurate,&quot; the Prince objected, with a
+sudden flash of his white teeth. &quot;The beauty which is not for him has
+been many a man's undoing. But seriously, my quarrel with Naida is one
+of prejudice only. She is the confidante and the inspiration of
+Matinsky, and though one realises, of course, that so long as there is a
+Russian Republic there must be a Russian President, I suppose I should
+scarcely be human if I did not hate him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely,&quot; Nigel queried, &quot;she must be very much his junior?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky is forty-four,&quot; Karschoff said. &quot;Naida is twenty-six or
+twenty-seven. The disparity of years, you see, is not so great.
+Matinsky, however, is married to an invalid wife, and concerning Naida I
+have never heard one word of scandal. But this much is certain. Matinsky
+has the blandest confidence in her judgment and discretion. She has
+already been his unofficial ambassador in several capitals of Europe. I
+am convinced that she is here with a purpose. But enough of my
+country-people. We came here to be gay. Let us drink another bottle of
+wine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The joy of living seemed for a moment to reassert itself in Karschoff's
+face. His momentary fierceness, reminiscent of his Tartar ancestry, had
+passed, but it had left a shadow behind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At least one should be grateful,&quot; he conceded a moment later, &quot;for the
+distinction such a woman as Naida Karetsky brings into a room like this.
+Our Bond Street lament finds its proof here. Except for their
+clothes&mdash;so ill-worn, too, most of them&mdash;the women here remind one of
+Blackpool, and their men of Huddersfield. I am inclined to wish that I
+had taken you to Soho.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shook his head. His eyes had strayed to a distant corner of the
+room, where Naida and her two companions were seated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We cannot escape anywhere,&quot; he declared, &quot;from this overmastering wave
+of mediocrity. A couple of generations and a little intermarriage may
+put things right. A Chancellor of the Exchequer with genius, fifteen
+years ago, might even have prevented it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can claim, at any rate, a bloodless and unapparent revolution,&quot; the
+Prince observed. &quot;You chivied your aristocracy of birth out of existence
+with yellow papers, your aristocracy of mind with a devastating income
+tax. This is the class whom you left to gorge,&mdash;the war profiteers. I
+hope that whoever writes the history of these times will see that it is
+properly illustrated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the lounge, they had barely seated themselves before Naida, with her
+father and Immelan, appeared. The little party at once joined up, and
+Naida seated herself next to Nigel. She talked very slowly, but her
+accent amounted to little more than a prolongation of certain syllables,
+which had the effect of a rather musical drawl. Her father, after the
+few words of introduction had been spoken, strolled away to speak to
+some acquaintances, and Immelan and the Prince discussed with measured
+politeness one of the commonplace subjects of the moment. Naida and her
+companion became almost isolated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met your uncle once,&quot; Naida said, &quot;at a dinner party in Paris. I
+remember that he attracted me. He represented a class of Englishman of
+whom I had met very few, the thinking aristocrat with a sense for
+foreign affairs. It was some years ago, that. He remained outside
+politics, did he not, until his death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Outside all practical politics,&quot; Nigel assented. &quot;He had his interests,
+though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you inherited them?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He declined the challenge of her eyes. After all, she belonged to the
+Russia whose growing strength was the greatest menace to European peace,
+and whose attitude towards England was entirely uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My uncle and I were scarcely intimate,&quot; he said. &quot;I was never really in
+his confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so much so as Lady Maggie Trent? She would be your cousin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not a relationship of blood,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Lady Maggie was the
+daughter of my uncle's second wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is very charming,&quot; Naida murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find her delightful,&quot; Nigel agreed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is not only charming, but she has intelligence,&quot; Naida continued.
+&quot;I think that Lord Dorminster was very fond of her, that he trusted her
+with many of his secrets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had he secrets?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>She remained for a moment very thoughtful, smoking a thin cigarette
+through a long holder and watching the little rings of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; she said at last. &quot;I find your attitude the only
+correct one. Did you know that Maggie was a friend of mine, Lord
+Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can very well believe it,&quot; he answered, &quot;but I have never heard her
+speak of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! But she has been away for some months. You have not seen much of
+her, perhaps, since her return?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very little,&quot; he acquiesced. &quot;She only arrived in London just before my
+uncle's death, and since then I have had to spend some time at
+Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a matter of curiosity,&quot; Naida enquired, &quot;when do you expect to see
+her again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This afternoon, I hope,&quot; he replied,&mdash;&quot;directly I leave here, in fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you will give her a little message for me, please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With great pleasure!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell her from me&mdash;mind she understands this, if you please&mdash;that she
+is not to leave England again until we have met.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this a warning?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him searchingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder,&quot; she reflected, &quot;how much of you is Lord Dorminster's
+nephew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I, in my turn,&quot; he rejoined, with sudden boldness, &quot;wonder how much
+of you is Matinsky's envoy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She began to laugh softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster,&quot; she said. &quot;I should like
+to see more of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will permit me to call upon you,&quot; he begged eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for a little time. My father
+is trying to get a house. My sister is coming over to look after him. I
+am unfortunately only a bird of passage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shall not run the risk of missing you,&quot; he declared. &quot;I shall
+call very soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan intervened,&mdash;grim, suspicious, a little disturbed. For some
+reason or other, the meeting between these two young people seemed to
+have made him uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father has desired me to present his excuses to Lord Dorminster,&quot;
+he announced, &quot;and to escort you back to the Milan. He has been
+telephoned for from the Consulate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will not delay your call too long, Lord Dorminster?&quot; she enjoined,
+as she gave him her hand. &quot;I shall expect you the first afternoon you
+are free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not delay giving myself the pleasure,&quot; he assured her.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince. The two men stood together
+and watched her depart with her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really, one gains much through being an onlooker,&quot; the Prince
+reflected. &quot;There go the spirit of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You
+dabble in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you guess what they
+are met for&mdash;for whom they wait?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might guess,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;but I would rather be told.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They wait for the master spirit,&quot; Karschoff declared, taking his arm.
+&quot;They wait for the great Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_V'></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little room which the latter
+had used as a boudoir. They were discussing the question of her future
+residence there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid,&quot; he declared, &quot;that you will have to marry me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would have its advantages,&quot; she admitted thoughtfully. &quot;I am really
+so fond of you, Nigel. I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's,
+Kensington, and have the Annersley children for bridesmaids. Don't you
+think I should look sweet in old gold and orange blossoms?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't tantalise me,&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We really must decide upon something,&quot; she insisted. &quot;I hate giving up
+my rooms here, I should hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna,
+and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for us two to go on living
+here if I didn't. Are you quite sure that you love me, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not quite so sure as I was this morning,&quot; he confessed, holding
+out his cup for some more tea. &quot;I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day
+at luncheon at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest, most
+wonderful figure you ever saw!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who was the cat?&quot; Maggie enquired with asperity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karetsky. Karschoff introduced me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a trace of the one
+expression he had never before seen in her face&mdash;fear&mdash;lurking in her
+eyes, even asserting itself in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida Karetsky?&quot; she repeated. &quot;Tell me exactly how you met her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She was lunching with her father and Oscar Immelan. She stopped to
+speak to Karschoff and asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited
+us to take coffee in the lounge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She went out of her way to make your acquaintance, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I suppose she did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know who she is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over here, I understood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is more than that,&quot; Maggie declared nervously. &quot;She is the
+inspiration of the President himself. She is the most vital force in
+Russian politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to know, to whom I
+told you that I wished you to pay attentions. And now that you know her,
+I am afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where did you meet her?&quot; he asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We were at school together in Paris. She was two years older than I,
+but she stayed there until she was twenty. Afterwards we met in
+Florence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was greatly interested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell me about her surprises me,&quot;
+he admitted. &quot;She has the air of counting for great things in the world.
+She is very beautiful, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is beautiful enough,&quot; Maggie replied, &quot;to have turned the head of
+the great Paul Matinsky himself. They say that he would give his soul to
+be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned Tsarina of Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel frowned slightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't that going rather a long way?&quot; he objected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not when one remembers what manner of a man Matinsky is,&quot; Maggie
+replied. &quot;He may have his faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far
+as regards his private life. There has never been a word of scandal
+concerning him and Naida, nor will there ever be. But in his eyes, Naida
+has that most wonderful gift of all,&mdash;she has vision. He once told a man
+with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was the one person in the world
+to whom a mistake was impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at
+all what she was over here for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not as yet,&quot; he replied, &quot;but she has asked me to go and see her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did she seem interested in you personally, or was it because your name
+is Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot tell. She asked me
+whether I had inherited my uncle's hobby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What did you tell her?&quot; she asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after all she is in the enemy
+camp. She and Immelan seemed on particularly good terms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet,&quot; Maggie declared.
+&quot;She always used to speak so affectionately of England. Nigel, do you
+think that I have vision?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sure that you have,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then, I will tell you what I see,&quot; she continued. &quot;I see
+Naida Karetsky for Russia, Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and
+Sweden, and Prince Shan for Asia&mdash;here&mdash;meeting in London&mdash;within the
+next week or ten days, to take counsel together to decide whether the
+things which are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall not
+be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals it cleverly enough, but he
+hates England with all the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced.
+She is to be won. And Prince Shan&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, what about him?&quot; Nigel demanded, a little carried away by
+Maggie's earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know,&quot; she confessed. &quot;If the stories one hears about him are
+true, no man nor any woman could ever influence him. At least, though,
+one could watch and hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris, not to London,&quot; Nigel
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he goes to Paris,&quot; Maggie said, &quot;Naida and Immelan will go. So shall
+we. If he comes here, it will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the
+Prime Minister?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw him,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;but without the slightest result. He is
+clearly of the opinion that the open verdict was a merciful one. In
+other words, he believes that it was a case of suicide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How wicked!&quot; Maggie exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a little high,&quot; Nigel
+remarked, &quot;to ask him to believe that he was murdered in cold blood,
+here in the heart of London, by the secret service agent of a foreign
+Power. The strangest part of it all is that it is true. To think that
+those few pages of manuscript would have told us exactly what we have to
+fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I in my corsets!&quot; Maggie groaned.</p>
+
+<p>They were both silent for a moment. Then Nigel moved towards the door
+and opened it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come downstairs into the library, will you, Maggie?&quot; he begged. &quot;Let us
+go in for a little reconstruction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They found Brookes in the hall and took him with them. The blinds in
+the room had never been raised, and there was still that nameless
+atmosphere which lingers for long in an apartment which has become
+associated with tragedy. Instinctively they all moved quietly and spoke
+in hushed voices. Nigel sat in the chair where his uncle had been found
+dead and made a mental effort to reconstruct the events which must have
+immediately preceded the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that this was all thrashed out at the inquest, Brookes,&quot; he
+said, &quot;but I want you to tell me once more. You see how far it is from
+this table to the door. My uncle must have had abundant warning of any
+one approaching. Was there no other way by which any one could have
+entered the room?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was, your lordship,&quot; the man replied, &quot;and I have regretted
+several times since that I did not mention it at the inquest. The
+cleaners were here on the morning of that day, and the window at the
+farther end of the room was unfastened&mdash;I even believe that it was
+open.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel rose and examined the window in question. It was almost flush with
+the ground, and although there were iron railings separating it from the
+street, a little gate opening from the area entrance made ingress not
+only possible but easy. Nigel returned to his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't understand this not having been mentioned at the inquest,
+Brookes,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was waiting for the question to be asked, your lordship. It was
+perfectly clear to every one there, if your lordship will excuse my
+saying so, that both the coroner and the police seemed to have made up
+their minds that it was a case of suicide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had the same idea with reference to the coroner, at any rate,
+Brookes,&quot; he said. &quot;So long as the verdict was returned in the form it
+was, I am not sure that it was not better so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He dismissed the man with a little nod and sat turning over the code
+books which still stood upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You and I, at any rate, Maggie, know the truth,&quot; he said, &quot;and so long
+as we can get no help from the proper quarters, I think that we should
+do better to let the matter remain as it is. We don't want to direct
+people's attention to us. We want to lull suspicion so far as we can, to
+be free to watch the three.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telephone bell rang, and as Nigel moved his arm to take off the
+receiver, he knocked over one of the black, morocco-bound code books, A
+sheet of paper with a few words upon it came fluttering to the ground.
+Maggie picked it up, glanced at it carelessly at first and then with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;you see whose handwriting this is? Could it be
+part of the decoded dispatch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telephone enquiry had been unimportant. Nigel pushed the instrument
+away. They both looked eagerly at the page of manuscript paper. It was
+numbered &quot;8&quot; at the top, and the few words written upon it in Lord
+Dorminster's writing were obviously the continuation of a paragraph:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>The name of the middle one, then, of the three secret cities, into
+     which at all costs some one must find his way, is Kroten, and the
+     telephone number which is all the clue I have been able to get, up
+     to the present, to the London end of the affair, is Mayfair 146.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;This is just where he got to in the decoding!&quot; Nigel declared. &quot;I
+wonder whether it's any use looking for the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They searched through every page of the heavy code books in vain. Then
+they returned to their study of the single page. Nigel dragged down an
+atlas and studied it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kroten,&quot; he muttered. &quot;Here it is,&mdash;a small place about six hundred
+miles from Petrograd, apparently the centre of a barren, swampy
+district, population thirty thousand, birth rate declining, industries
+nil. Cheerful sort of spot it seems!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have more luck than you!&quot; Maggie cried, her finger tracing out a
+line in the open telephone book. &quot;Look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel glanced over her shoulder and read the entry to which she was
+pointing:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Immelan Oscar, 13 Clarges Street, W. Mayfair 146.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel played golf at Ranelagh, on the following Sunday morning, with
+Jere Chalmers, a young American in the Diplomatic Service, who had just
+arrived in London and brought a letter of introduction to him. They had
+a pleasant game and strolled off from the eighteenth green to the
+dressing rooms on the best of terms with each other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say, Dorminster,&quot; his young companion enjoined, &quot;let's get through this
+fixing-up business quickly. I've had a kind of feeling for a cocktail,
+these last four holes, which I can't exactly put into words. Besides, I
+want to have a word or two with you before the others come down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shan't be a minute,&quot; Nigel promised. &quot;I'm going to change into
+flannels after lunch&mdash;that is, if you don't mind playing a set or two at
+tennis. My cousin-in-law Maggie Trent, whom you'll meet at luncheon, is
+rather keen, and she doesn't care about golf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm game for anything,&quot; the other agreed, lifting his head spluttering
+from the basin. &quot;Gee, that's good! Get a move on, there's a good fellow.
+I have a fancy for just five minutes with you out on the lawn, with the
+ice chinking in our glasses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel finished smoothing his hair, and the two men strolled through the
+hall, gave an order to a red-coated attendant, and found a secluded
+table under a marvellous tree in the gardens on the other side. Chalmers
+had become a little thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dorminster,&quot; he declared, &quot;yours is a wonderful country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just how is it appealing to you at the moment?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll try and tell you,&quot; was the meditative reply. &quot;It's your
+extraordinary insouciance. It seems to me, as a budding diplomat, that
+you are running the most ghastly risks on earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In what direction?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young American shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you've got a thoroughly democratic Government&mdash;not such a bad
+Government, I should say, as things go. They've bled your <i>bourgeoisie</i>
+a bit, and serve 'em right, but with an empire to keep up you're losing
+all touch upon international politics. Your ambassadors have been
+exchanged for trade consuls, the whole of your secret service staff has
+been disbanded, you place your entire faith on this sacred League of
+Nations. Say, Dorminster, you're taking risks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mustn't forget,&quot; Dorminster replied, &quot;that it was your country who
+started the League of Nations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;President Wilson did,&quot; Chalmers grunted. &quot;You can't say that the
+country ever backed him up. That's the worst of us on the other side&mdash;we
+so seldom really get a common voice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The League of Nations was a thundering good idea,&quot; Nigel declared, &quot;but
+it belongs to Utopia and not to this vulgar planet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just so,&quot; Chalmers rejoined, &quot;and yet you are about the only nation who
+ever took it into her bosom and suckled it. To be perfectly frank with
+you, now, what other nation in the world is there, except yours, which
+is obeying the conventions strictly? I tell you frankly, we keep our eye
+on Japan, and we build a good many commercial ships which would astonish
+you if you examined them thoroughly. Our National Guard, too, know a bit
+more about soldiering than their grandfathers. You people, on the other
+hand, seem to have become infatuated pacifists. I can't tell tales out
+of school, but I don't like the way things are going on eastwards. Asia
+means something different now that that amazing fellow, Prince Shan, has
+made a great nation of China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am entirely in accord with you,&quot; Nigel agreed, &quot;but what is one to do
+about it? Our present Government has a big majority, trade at home and
+abroad is prosperous, the income tax is down to a shilling in the pound
+and looks like being wiped out altogether. Everybody is fat and happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just as they were in 1914,&quot; Chalmers remarked significantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More so,&quot; Dorminster asserted. &quot;In those days we had our alarmists.
+Nowadays, they too seem to have gone to sleep. My uncle&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your uncle was an uncommonly shrewd man,&quot; Chalmers interrupted. &quot;I was
+going to talk about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After lunch,&quot; Nigel suggested, rising to his feet. &quot;Here come my cousin
+and some of her tennis friends. Karschoff is lunching with us, too. You
+know him, don't you? Come along and I'll introduce you to the others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a very cheerful party who, after a few minutes under the trees,
+strolled into luncheon and took their places at the round table reserved
+for them at the end of the room. Maggie at once took possession of
+Chalmers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been so anxious to meet you, Mr. Chalmers,&quot; she said. &quot;They tell
+me that you represent the modern methods in American diplomacy, and that
+therefore you have been made first secretary over the heads of half a
+dozen of your seniors. How they must dislike you, and how clever you
+must be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know that I'm so much disliked,&quot; the young man answered, with a
+twinkle in his eyes, &quot;but I flatter myself that I have brought a new
+note into diplomacy. I was always taught that there were thirty-seven
+different ways of telling a lie, which is to state a diplomatic fact. I
+have swept them all away. I tell the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How daring,&quot; Maggie murmured, &quot;and how wonderfully original! What
+should you say, now, if I asked you if my nose wanted powdering?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should start by saying that the question was outside the sphere of my
+activities,&quot; he decided. &quot;I should then proceed to add, as a private
+person, that a little dab on the left side would do it no harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to believe,&quot; she confessed, &quot;that all I have heard of you is
+true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me exactly what you have heard,&quot; he begged. &quot;Leave out everything
+that isn't nice. I thrive on praise and good reports.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To begin with, then, that you are an extraordinarily shrewd young man,&quot;
+she replied, &quot;that you speak seven languages perfectly and know your way
+about every capital of Europe, and that you have ideas of your own as to
+what is going to happen during the next six or seven years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've been moving in well-informed circles,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Now shall I
+proceed to turn the tables upon you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't possibly know anything about me,&quot; she declared confidently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could tell you what I've discovered from personal observation,&quot; he
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That sounds like compliments or candour,&quot; she murmured. &quot;I'm terrified
+of both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I guess I'm not out to frighten you,&quot; he assured her. &quot;I'll keep
+the secrets of my heart hidden&mdash;until after luncheon, at any rate&mdash;-and
+just ask you&mdash;how you enjoyed your stay in Berlin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie's manner changed. She lowered her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Berlin?&quot; she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the household of the erstwhile leather manufacturer, the present
+President, Herr Essendorf. I hope you liked those fat children. They
+always seemed to me loathsome little brats.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you know about my stay in Berlin?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything there is to be known,&quot; he answered. &quot;To tell you the truth,
+our people there were a trifle anxious about you. I was the little angel
+watching from above.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are, without a doubt,&quot; Maggie pronounced, &quot;a most interesting young
+man. We will talk together presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A hint which sends me back to my mutton,&quot; the young man observed.
+&quot;Dorminster,&quot; he added, turning to his host, &quot;I heard the other day, on
+very good authority, that you were thinking of writing a novel. If you
+are, study the lady who has just entered. There is a type for you, an
+intelligence which might baffle even your attempts at analysis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida, escorted by her father and Immelan, took her place at an
+adjacent table. She bowed to Nigel and Karschoff before sitting down,
+and her eyes travelled over the rest of the party with interest. Then
+she recognised Maggie and waved her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan is a very constant admirer,&quot; Prince Karschoff remarked, a
+little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that her father?&quot; Maggie asked.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is one of the ambassadors of commerce from my country,&quot; he said. &quot;In
+place of diplomacy, he superintends the exchange of shipping cargoes and
+talks freights. I suppose Immelan and he are all the time comparing
+notes, but I scarcely see where my dear friend Naida comes in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is still the oldest interest in the world for her to fall back
+upon,&quot; Chalmers murmured. &quot;One hears that Immelan is devoted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Scandalmonger!&quot; the Prince declared severely. &quot;Young man from the New
+World,&quot; he proceeded, &quot;get on with your lunch and drink your iced water.
+Let the vision of those two remind you that it was your people who
+foisted the League of Nations upon us, and be humble, even sorrowful,
+when you view one of the sad results.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't be responsible, directly or indirectly, for a political
+flirtation,&quot; Chalmers grumbled. &quot;Besides, why should there be any
+politics about it at all? Mademoiselle Karetsky is quite attractive
+enough to turn the head even of a seasoned old boulevardier like you,
+Prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That young man,&quot; Karschoff said deliberately, &quot;will find himself before
+long face to face with a blighted career. He has no respect for age, and
+he is shockingly lacking in finesse. All the same, on one point I am
+agreed. I don't think there is a man breathing who could resist Naida if
+she wished to call him to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little party broke up presently and wandered out into the gardens.
+They sat for a while upon the lawn, drinking their coffee and exchanging
+greetings with acquaintances. In the distance, the orchestra was playing
+soft music, with a fine regard for the atmosphere of the pleasant,
+almost languorous spring afternoon. Everywhere were signs of
+contentment, even gaiety, and here the alien streak of unfamiliar
+newcomers was far less pronounced. When the time came for tennis,
+Chalmers led the way with Maggie. As soon as they were out of hearing of
+the others, she turned towards him a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me exactly what you know about my stay in Berlin,&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything,&quot; he answered gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean that the New World to-day has progressed where the Old World
+seems to have been stricken with a terrible blindness. Our
+secret-service system has never been better, and frankly I hear many
+things which I don't like. I am going to talk to Lord Dorminster this
+afternoon very seriously, but in the meantime I wanted to speak to you.
+I heard a rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know how you heard it, but the rumour is not altogether
+untrue,&quot; she admitted. &quot;I have not yet made up my mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't go,&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You think they really do know all about me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that they do. I don't mind telling you that you had the shave of
+your life on the Dutch frontier last time, and I don't mind telling you,
+also, that we had two of our men shadowing you. One of them acted on his
+own initiative, or you would never have crossed the frontier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I rather wondered why they let me out,&quot; she observed. &quot;Perhaps you can
+explain why Frau Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my pseudonym of
+'Miss Brown' and to my reputed address in Lincolnshire, begging me to
+return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could tell you that, too,&quot; he replied. &quot;They want you back in
+Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They really do know, then, that I brought over the dispatch from
+Atcheson?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They know it,&quot; he assured her. &quot;They know, too, that it was chiefly a
+wasted labour. Their London agents saw to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps,&quot; she suggested, &quot;you know who their London agents are?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sooner or later in our conversation,&quot; he remarked, &quot;we were bound to
+arrive at a point&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come along and let us make up a set then,&quot; she intervened.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a taxicab to take him back
+to the purlieus of Piccadilly and auction bridge, sauntered along at the
+back of the tennis nets until she arrived at the court where Nigel and
+his party were playing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to watch this game for a few minutes,&quot; she told her
+companion. &quot;The men are such opposite types and yet both so
+good-looking. And Lady Maggie fascinates me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down to watch the set.
+Nigel, with his clean, well-knit figure, looked his best in spotless
+white flannels. Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
+presented a fine appearance. The play was fast and sometimes brilliant.
+Nigel had Maggie for a partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
+set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned forward in her chair,
+following every stroke with interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find this most fascinating,&quot; she murmured. &quot;I hope that Lord
+Dorminster and his cousin will win. Your sympathies, of course, are on
+the other side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; Immelan assented. &quot;My sympathies are on the other
+side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a lull in the game for a moment or two. The sun was
+troublesome, and the players were changing courts. Naida turned towards
+her companion thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friend,&quot; she said, glancing around as though to be sure that they
+were not overheard, &quot;there are times when you move me to wonder. In the
+small things as well as the large, you are so unchanging. I think that
+you would see an Englishman die, whether he were your friend or your
+enemy, very much as you kick a poisonous snake out of your path.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is quite true,&quot; was the calm reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But America was once your enemy,&quot; she continued, watching Chalmers'
+powerful service.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With America we made peace,&quot; he explained. &quot;With England, never. If you
+would really appreciate and understand the reason for that undying
+hatred which I and millions of my fellow countrymen feel, it will cost
+you exactly one shilling. Go to any stationer's and buy a copy of the
+Treaty of Versailles. Read it word by word and line by line. It is the
+most brutal document that was ever printed. It will help you to
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Paul always declared,&quot; she said, &quot;that in those days England had no
+statesmen&mdash;no one who could feel what lay beyond the day-by-day
+horizon. When I think of that Treaty, my friend, I sympathise with you.
+It is not a great thing to forge chains of hate for a beaten enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you realise this, are you not then our friend?&quot; Immelan asked.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared for a few moments to be engrossed in the tennis. Her
+companion, however, waited for her answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a way,&quot; she acknowledged, &quot;I find something magnificent in your
+wonderfully conceived plans for vengeance, and in the spirit which has
+evolved and kept them alive through all these years. Then, on the other
+hand, I look at home, and I ask myself whether you do not make what they
+would call over here a cat's-paw of my country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ours is the most natural and most beneficial of all possible
+alliances,&quot; Immelan insisted. &quot;Germany and Russia, hand in hand, can
+dominate the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not sure that it is an equal bargain, though, which you seek to
+drive with us,&quot; she said. &quot;Germany aims, of course, at world power, but
+you are still fettered by the terms of that Treaty. You cannot build a
+great fleet of warships or &aelig;roplanes; you cannot train great armies; you
+cannot lay up for yourselves all the store that is necessary for a
+successful war. So you bring your brains to Russia, and you ask us to do
+these things; but Russia does not aim at world power. Russia seeks only
+for a great era of self-development. She, too, has a mighty neighbour
+at her gates. I am not sure that your bargain is a fair one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the first time that I have heard you talk like this,&quot; Immelan
+declared, with a little tremor in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been in England twice during the last few months,&quot; Naida said.
+&quot;You know very well at whose wish I came, I have been studying the
+conditions here, studying the people so far as I can. I find them such a
+kindly race. I find their present Government so unsuspicious, so
+genuinely altruistic. After all, that Treaty belongs to an England that
+has passed. The England of to-day would never go to war at all. They
+believe here that they have solved the problem of perpetual peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan smiled a little bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear lady,&quot; he said, &quot;if I lose your help, if you go back to Petrograd
+and talk to Paul Matinsky as you are talking to me, do you know that you
+will break the heart of a nation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Paul does not look upon me as infallible,&quot; she protested. &quot;Besides,
+there are other considerations. And now, please, we will talk of the
+tennis. I do not know whether it is my fancy, but that man there to your
+left, in grey, seems to me to be taking an interest in our conversation.
+He cannot possibly overhear, and he has not glanced once in our
+direction, yet I have an instinct for these things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan glanced in the direction of the stranger,&mdash;a quiet-looking,
+spare man dressed in a grey tweed suit, clean-shaven and of early
+middle-age. There was nothing about his appearance to distinguish him
+from a score or more of other loiterers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are quite right,&quot; her companion admitted. &quot;One should not talk of
+these things even where the birds may listen, but it is so difficult. As
+for that man, he could not possibly hear, but there might be others. One
+passes behind on the grass so noiselessly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They relapsed into silence. Naida, leaning a little forward, became once
+more engrossed in the play. Her eyes were fixed upon Nigel. It was his
+movements which she followed, his strokes which she usually applauded.
+Immelan sat by her side and watched.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are well matched,&quot; he remarked presently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Chalmers has a wonderful service,&quot; she declared, &quot;but Lord
+Dorminster has more skill. Oh, bravo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The set at that moment was finished by a backhanded return from Nigel,
+which skimmed over the net at a great pace, completely out of reach of
+the opposing couple. The players strolled across to the seats under the
+trees. Naida smiled at Nigel, and he came over to her side. Once again
+he was conscious of that peculiar sense of pleasure and well-being
+which he felt in her company.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You play tennis very well, Lord Dorminster,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I found inspiration,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In your partner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie is always charming to play with. I was thinking of the
+onlookers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Immelan is very interested in tennis,&quot; she remarked, with a smile
+which challenged him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even more so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me about games in Russia,&quot; he begged, seating himself on the grass
+by her side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have none,&quot; she replied. &quot;I learnt my tennis at Cannes, where,
+curiously enough, I saw you play three years ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were there then?&quot; he asked with interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a few days only. We were motoring from Spain to Monte Carlo. Cannes
+was very crowded, but you see I remembered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her voice seemed to have some lingering charm in it, some curiously
+potent suggestion of personal interest which stirred his pulses. He
+looked up and met her eyes. For a moment the world of tennis fields, of
+pleasant chatter and of holiday-makings, passed away. He rose abruptly
+to his feet. This time he avoided looking at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must come over and speak to Maggie,&quot; he begged. &quot;Perhaps Mr.
+Immelan will spare you for a few moments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan bowed, sphinxlike but coldly furious. The two strolled away
+together.</p>
+
+<p>When the next set was over, Naida, who had rejoined her companion, had
+disappeared. On one of their vacated chairs was seated the quiet-looking
+stranger in grey. Chalmers passed his arm through Nigel's and led him in
+that direction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you two to know each other,&quot; he said. &quot;Jesson, this is Lord
+Dorminster&mdash;Mr. Gilbert Jesson&mdash;Lord Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men shook hands, Nigel a little vaguely. He was at first unable
+to place this newcomer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Jesson,&quot; Chalmers explained, dropping his voice a little, &quot;was a
+highly privileged and very much valued member of our Intelligence
+Department, until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if you
+could spare an hour or two any time this evening, Dorminster, it would
+interest you very much to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's
+resignation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should be very pleased indeed,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Won't you both come
+and dine in Belgrave Square to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow,
+Chalmers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and my cousin will be
+hostess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will give me very great pleasure,&quot; Jesson acquiesced. &quot;You will
+understand,&quot; he added, &quot;that the information which Mr. Chalmers has
+just given you concerning myself is entirely confidential.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We three will have a little talk to ourselves afterwards,&quot; he
+suggested. &quot;At eight o'clock&mdash;Number 17, Belgrave Square.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jesson strolled away after a little desultory conversation. Chalmers
+looked after him thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Harmless-looking chap, isn't he?&quot; he observed. &quot;Yet I'll let you in on
+this, Dorminster: there isn't another living person who knows so much of
+what is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why has he chucked his job, then?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will tell you that to-night,&quot; was Chalmers' quiet reply.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think I shall marry you, after all,&quot; Maggie announced that
+evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors
+with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity,&quot; she declared. &quot;Your
+flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went
+out of your way to ask her to dine to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like that!&quot; Nigel complained. &quot;Supposing it were true, I should
+simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country,&quot; Maggie
+sighed. &quot;However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you
+admire her very much, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from
+self-consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I do,&quot; he admitted. &quot;She's a perfectly wonderful person,
+isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment,&quot; he added,
+looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of
+furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. &quot;We'll go into
+the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and
+cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received formally, and
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreciate the cosmopolitan note of our
+welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We do look a little too domestic, don't we?&quot; Maggie replied, as she
+passed through the porti&egrave;re which Nigel was holding up. &quot;I'm not at all
+sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or
+anything. I must think of my reputation. I may decide to marry Mr.
+Chalmers, and Americans are very particular about that sort of thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From what I have seen of him, I should think that Chalmers would make
+you an excellent husband,&quot; Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. &quot;You
+need a firm hand, and I should think he would be quite capable of using
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You take the matter far too calmly,&quot; she objected. &quot;I can assure you
+that I am getting peevish. I hate all Russian women with creamy
+complexions and violet-coloured eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are wonderful eyes,&quot; Nigel declared, after he had given Brookes an
+order.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is for your betters, sir,&quot; she reminded him. &quot;You must not forget
+that she is to rule over Russia some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just at present,&quot; Nigel observed, &quot;Paul Matinsky has a perfectly good
+wife of his own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An invalid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Invalids always live long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Presidents and emperors can always get divorces,&quot; Maggie insisted,
+&quot;especially in this irreligious age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky isn't that sort,&quot; Nigel said cheerfully. &quot;Even an old gossip
+like Karschoff calls him a purist, and you yourself have spoken of his
+principles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right,&quot; she remarked. &quot;If you are determined to rush into danger, I
+suppose you must. There is just one more point to be considered, though.
+I suppose you know that if you succeed any farther with Naida, you will
+introduce a personal note into our coming struggle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Nigel demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Immelan, of course,&quot; she replied. &quot;He's head over ears in love
+with Naida. Any one can see that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel laughed scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear child,&quot; he protested, &quot;can you imagine a woman like Naida
+thinking seriously of a fellow like Immelan?&mdash;a scheming, Teutonic
+adventurer, without even the breeding of his class!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie laughed softly for several moments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Nigel,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;what a luxury to get at the man of
+you! I haven't seen your eyes flash like that for ages. The cocktails,
+thank goodness! Shake one for me till it froths all the way up the
+glass, please, and then give me a cigarette.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel obeyed orders, helped himself, and glanced at the clock as Brookes
+left the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How nice of you to come half an hour early, Maggie!&quot; he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>She made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The first time you have noticed it,&quot; she said dolefully. &quot;Do you
+realise, Nigel, that it is nearly a week since you proposed to me? Apart
+from your penchant for Naida, don't you really want to marry me any
+more?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He came across the room and stood looking down at her thoughtfully. She
+was wearing a somewhat daringly fashioned black lace gown, which showed
+a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her brown hair was simply
+but artistically arranged. She was piquante, alluring, with a
+provocative smile at the corners of her lips and a challenging gleam in
+her eyes. The daintiness and femininity of her were enthralling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would make an adorable wife,&quot; he reflected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For some one else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An unspeakable proposition,&quot; he assured her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're very nice-looking, Nigel,&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're terribly attractive, Maggie!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why is it,&quot; she sighed, &quot;that we neither of us want to marry the
+other?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If a serious proposition would really be of interest to you,&quot; he
+began,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You heard them coming,&quot; she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>The three expected guests arrived almost together, bringing with them,
+at any rate so far as Chalmers and Naida were concerned, an atmosphere
+of light-heartedness which was later on to make the little dinner party
+a complete success. Naida, too, was in black, a gown simpler than
+Maggie's but full of distinction. She wore no jewellery except a
+wonderful string of pearls. Her black hair was brushed straight back
+from her forehead but drooped a little over her ears. She seemed to
+bring with her a larger share of girlishness than any of them had
+previously observed in her, as though she had made up her mind for this
+one evening to cast herself adrift from the graver cares of life and to
+indulge in the frivolities which after all were the heritage of her
+youth. She sat at Nigel's right hand and plied him with questions as to
+the lighter side of his life,&mdash;his favourite sport, books, and general
+occupation. She gave evidences of humour which delighted everybody, and
+Nigel, though he would at times have welcomed, and did his best to
+initiate, an incursion into more serious subjects, found himself
+compelled to admire the tact with which she continually foiled him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a mistake,&quot; she declared once, &quot;to believe that a woman is ever
+serious unless she is forced to be. All our natural proclivities are
+towards gaiety. We are really butterflies by instinct, and we are at our
+best when we are natural. Don't you agree with me, Maggie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From the bottom of my heart,&quot; Maggie assented. &quot;Nothing but conscience
+ever induces me to pull a long face and turn my thoughts to serious
+things. And I haven't a great deal of conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you see,&quot; Naida continued, smiling up at her host, &quot;when you try to
+get a woman to talk politics or sociology with you, you are brushing a
+little of the down off her wings. We really want to be told&mdash;other
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should imagine,&quot; he replied, &quot;that my sex frequently indulged you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so much as I should desire,&quot; she assured him. &quot;I have somehow or
+other acquired an undeserved reputation for brains. In Russia
+especially, when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my frock or
+the way my hair is done. They plunge instead into a subject of which I
+know nothing&mdash;philosophy or history, or international politics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know nothing of international politics?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A home thrust,&quot; she declared, laughing. &quot;I suppose that is a subject
+upon which I have some glimmerings of knowledge. Really not very much,
+though, but then I have a theory about that. I think sometimes that the
+clearest judgments are formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a
+subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling in it half their lifetime and
+acquired prejudices. Do you always provide strawberries for your guests,
+Lord Dorminster? If so, I should like to come and live here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you will promise to come and live here,&quot; he replied, &quot;I will provide
+strawberries if I have to start a nursery garden in Jersey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie,&quot; Naida announced across the table, &quot;Lord Dorminster has
+proposed to me. The matter of strawberries has brought us together. I
+don't think I shall accept him. There are no means of making him keep
+his bargain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'd make an awfully good husband,&quot; Maggie declared. &quot;If no one else
+wants me, I shall probably marry him myself some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster is more my type,&quot; she declared. &quot;Besides, you have had
+your chance if you really wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia
+who prophesies that I shall never marry. That does not please me. I
+think not to be married is the worst fate that can happen to any woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The remedy,&quot; Nigel told her, &quot;is in your own hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jesson, quieter than the others, was still an interesting personality,
+often intervening with a shrewd remark and listening to the sallies of
+the others with a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes. When at
+last the girls left them for a time, Nigel led the way at once into the
+library, where coffee and liqueurs were served.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I expect the others will find their way here in a few minutes,&quot; he
+said, as the door closed behind Brookes and his satellite. &quot;You had
+something to say to me, Chalmers, about Mr. Jesson here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All that I have to say is in the nature of a testimonial,&quot; the young
+American replied. &quot;Jesson was easily one of our best men in Europe. He
+resigned a few months ago simply because he wants a job with you
+fellows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't quite understand,&quot; Nigel began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me explain,&quot; Jesson begged. &quot;I spent the last three years poking
+about Europe, and so far as the United States is concerned, there's
+nothing doing. My reports aren't worth much more than the paper they are
+written on, and while I'm drawing my money from Washington, it's not my
+business to collect information that affects other countries. That's why
+I've sent in my resignation. There are great events brewing eastwards,
+Lord Dorminster, and I want to take a hand in the game.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you want to work for us?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;I guess that's how I've figured it
+out. You see, I'm one of those Americans who still consider themselves
+half English. Next to the United States, Great Britain is the country
+for me. I know what I'm talking about, Lord Dorminster, and I've come to
+the conclusion that there's a lot of trouble in store for you people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm pretty well convinced of that myself,&quot; Nigel agreed, &quot;but you know
+how things are with us. We have a democratic Government who have placed
+their whole faith in the League of Nations, and who are absolutely and
+entirely anti-militarist. On paper, the governments of Russia, Germany,
+and most of the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk. Some of
+us&mdash;my uncle was one&mdash;who have studied history and who know something of
+the science of international politics, realise perfectly well that no
+Empire can be considered secure under such conditions. This country
+swarms with foreign secret-service men. What they are planning against
+us, Heaven knows!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heaven and Naida Karetsky,&quot; Chalmers intervened softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You believe that she is our enemy?&quot; Nigel asked, with a look of trouble
+in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is Immelan's friend,&quot; Chalmers reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was a man named Atcheson,&quot; Jesson began quietly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The first one was stabbed in
+Petrograd. Jim Atcheson was poisoned and died in Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was rather a scare in a certain quarter about Atcheson,&quot; Jesson
+observed. &quot;He was supposed to have got a report through to the late Lord
+Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He got it through all right,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;My uncle was busy
+decoding it, seated in this room, at that table, when he died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His death was very sudden,&quot; Jesson ventured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not the faintest doubt but that he was murdered,&quot; Nigel
+declared. &quot;The document upon which he was working disappeared entirely
+except for one sheet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have that one sheet?&quot; Jesson asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed it cut, and laid it upon
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are two things worth noticing here,&quot; he pointed out. &quot;The first
+is that the actual name of a town in Russia is given, and a telephone
+number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It seems to be an
+unimportant place in a very desolate region. The telephone number is
+Oscar Immelan's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is interesting, though not surprising,&quot; Jesson declared. &quot;Immelan,
+as you of course know, is one of your enemies, one of those who are
+working in this country for purposes of his own. But as regards Kroten,
+may I ask where you obtained your information about the place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them the paragraph. Jesson read
+it with a faint smile upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy,&quot; he remarked, &quot;that this is a little out of date. I should
+like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good heavens! Why?&quot; Nigel exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can scarcely answer that question,&quot; Jesson said. &quot;I am like a man
+with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those
+pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here,&quot; he
+said, &quot;is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities,
+situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their
+way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have
+heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
+have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled.
+Kroten is the next, and of the third I have still to discover the
+whereabouts. Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act for you
+abroad? I require no salary or remuneration of any sort. I am a wealthy
+man, and investigations of this kind are my one hobby. I shall not move
+without your permission, although I recognise, of course, that your own
+position is entirely an unofficial one. If you will trust me, however, I
+promise that all my energies shall be devoted to the interests of this
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a pact,&quot; he decided. &quot;Before you leave, I will give you the whole
+of my uncle's brief correspondence with Sidwell. You may be able to
+gather from it what he was after. Sidwell, you remember, was stabbed in
+a caf&eacute; in the slums of Petrograd.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember quite well,&quot; Jesson admitted quietly. &quot;I knew Sidwell. He
+was a clever person in his way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I
+fancy that I hear the voices of the ladies coming. I shall just have
+time to tell you rather a curious coincidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men waited eagerly. Jesson touched with his forefinger the sheet
+of paper which he had been studying.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sidwell,&quot; he concluded, &quot;could not have been so far off the mark. The
+man with whom he was spending the evening in that caf&eacute; was a mechanic
+from Kroten.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a><h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Naida, early one afternoon, a few days after the dinner at Belgrave
+Square, raised herself on one elbow from the sofa on which she was
+resting, glanced at the roses and the card which the maid had presented
+for her inspection, and waved them impatiently away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gentleman waits,&quot; the woman reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>Naida glanced out of the window across a dull and apparently uninviting
+prospect of roofs and chimneys, to where in the background a faint line
+of silver and a wheeling flock of sea gulls became dimly visible through
+the branches of the distant trees. The window itself was flung wide
+open, but the slowly moving air had little of freshness in it. Sparrows
+twittered around the window-sill, and a little patch of green shone out
+from the Embankment Gardens. The radiance of spring here found few
+opportunities.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gentleman waits,&quot; the serving woman repeated stolidly, speaking in
+her native Russian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can show him up,&quot; her mistress replied a little wearily.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan entered, a few moments later, spruce and neat in a well-fitting
+grey suit, and carrying a grey Homburg hat. He was redolent of soaps
+and perfumes. His step was buoyant, almost jaunty, yet in his blue eyes,
+as he bent over the hand of the woman upon whom he had come to call,
+lurked something of the disquietude which, notwithstanding his most
+strenuous efforts, was beginning to assert itself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You make me very happy, my dear Naida,&quot; he began, &quot;that you receive me
+thus so informally. Your good father is smoking in the lounge. He bade
+me come up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She beckoned him to a seat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand thanks for your flowers, my friend,&quot; she said. &quot;Now tell me
+why you are possessed to see me at this untimely hour. I always rest for
+a time after luncheon, and I am only here because the sunshine filled my
+room and made me restless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a little matter of news,&quot; he announced slowly. &quot;I thought it
+might interest you. I hoped it would.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head and looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;News?&quot; she repeated. &quot;News from you means only one thing. Is it good or
+bad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is good,&quot; he replied, &quot;because it saves me a long and tedious
+journey, because it saves me also from a separation which I should have
+found detestable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your journey to China, then, is abandoned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is rendered unnecessary. Prince Shan has decided after all to
+adhere to his original plan and come to Europe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are sure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an official intimation,&quot; he replied. &quot;I may probably have to go
+to Paris, but no farther. It is even possible that I might leave
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was genuinely interested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one in the whole world,&quot; she declared, &quot;whom I have wanted
+to meet so much as Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will not be disappointed,&quot; he promised her. &quot;There is no one like
+him. When he enters the room, you know that you are in the presence of a
+great man. The three of us together! Naida, we will remake the map of
+the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She frowned a little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not take too much for granted, Oscar,&quot; she enjoined. &quot;Remember that
+I am here to watch and to report. It is not for me to make decisions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then for whom else?&quot; he demanded. &quot;Paul Matinsky himself wrote me that
+you had his entire confidence&mdash;that you possessed full powers for
+action. You will not be faint-hearted, Naida?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall never be false to my convictions,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief silence. He was not altogether satisfied, but he
+judged the moment unpropitious for any further reference to the coming
+of Prince Shan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My plans, as you see, are changed,&quot; he said at last, &quot;and for that
+reason a promise which I made to myself will not now be kept.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet a little uneasily, shook out her fluffy morning
+gown, and retreated towards the door leading to the apartments beyond.
+He watched her without movement. She picked up a pile of letters from a
+table in the middle of the room, glanced at them, and threw them down.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is as well,&quot; she warned him, &quot;to keep all promises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As for this one,&quot; he replied, &quot;I have no responsibility save to myself.
+I absolve myself. I give myself permission to speak. Your father is even
+wishful that I should do so. I crave from you, Naida, the happiness
+which only you can bring into my life. I ask you to become my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him without visible change of expression. Her lips,
+however, were a little parted. The air of aloofness with which she moved
+through the world seemed suddenly more marked. He would have been a
+brave man, or one entirely without perceptions, who would have advanced
+towards her at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is quite impossible,&quot; she pronounced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not admit it,&quot; he contended. &quot;No, I will never admit that. The
+fates brought us together. It will take something stronger than fate to
+drive us apart. I had not meant to speak yet. I had meant to wait until
+the great pact was sealed and the glory to come assured, but during
+these last few days I have suffered. A strange fancy has come to me. I
+seem to feel something between us, so I speak before it can grow. I
+speak because without you life for me would be a thing not worth having.
+You are my life and my soul. You will not send me away?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida was troubled but unhesitating. It was perhaps at that moment that
+a hidden characteristic of her features showed itself. Her mouth,
+sometimes almost too voluptuous in its softness, had straightened into a
+firm line of scarlet. The deeper violet of her eyes had gone. So a woman
+might have looked who watched suffering unmoved, the woman of the bull
+or prize fight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad that you have spoken, Oscar,&quot; she said. &quot;I know a thing now
+which has been a source of doubt and anxiety to me. What you ask is
+impossible. I do not love you. I shall never love you. A few days ago, I
+asked myself the very question you have just asked me, and I could not
+answer it. Now I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Pain and anger struggled in his face. He was suffering, without a doubt,
+but for a moment it seemed as though the anger would predominate. His
+great shoulders heaved, his hands were clenched until the signet ring on
+his left finger cut into the flesh, his eyes were like glittering points
+of fire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the old dream concerning Paul?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has nothing to do with Paul,&quot; she assured him. &quot;Concerning him I
+will admit that I have had my weak moments. I think that those have
+passed. It was such a wonderful dream,&quot; she went on reflectively, &quot;the
+dream of ruling the mightiest nation in the world, a nation that even
+now, after many years of travail, is only just finding its way through
+to the light. It seemed such a small thing that stood in the way. Since
+then I have met Paul's wife. She does not understand, but at least she
+loves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is a poor fool, no helpmate for any man,&quot; Immelan declared. &quot;Yet it
+is not his cause I plead, but mine. I, too, can minister to your
+ambitions. Be my wife, and I swear to you that before five years have
+passed I will be President of the German Republic. Germany is no strange
+country to you,&quot; he went on passionately. &quot;It is you who have helped in
+the great <i>rapprochement</i>. At times when Paul has been difficult, you
+have smoothed the way. I would not speak against your country, I would
+not speak against anything which lies close to your heart, but let me
+tell you that when the day of purification comes, the day when God gives
+us leave to pour out the vials of vengeance, there will be no prouder,
+no more glorious people than ours. Our triumph will be yours, Naida. You
+yourself will help to cement the great alliance of these years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a woman,&quot; she said simply. &quot;Incidentally, I am a politician and
+something of an altruist, but when it comes to marriage, I am a woman. I
+do not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a darker shade upon his face now. Unconsciously he had drawn a
+little nearer to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; he begged; &quot;it is perhaps possible that I have not been
+mistaken&mdash;that a certain change has crept up in you even within the last
+few days? Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way into your
+heart? No, I will not say heart! It could not be your heart in so short
+a time. Into your fancy? Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you are
+thinking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only,&quot; she answered haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>A weaker woman he would have bullied. His veins were filled with anger.
+His tongue ached to spend itself. Naida's bearing cowed him. She
+remained a dominating figure. The unnatural restraint imposed upon
+himself, however, made his voice sound hard and unfamiliar. There were
+little patches of white around his mouth; his teeth showed, when he
+spoke, more than usual.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If there were any one else,&quot; he declared, &quot;and that some one else
+should chance to be an Englishman, I would find a new hell for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one else,&quot; she answered calmly, &quot;but if there ever should
+be, Oscar Immelan, and if you ever interfered with him, either in this
+country or any other, my arm would follow you around the world. Remember
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She turned away for a moment, eager to gain a brief respite from his
+darkening face. When she looked around, he was gone. She heard his
+footsteps passing down the corridor, the bell ringing for the lift, the
+clank of the gates as he stepped in. Once more she gazed out over the
+uninspiring prospect. There was a little more sunshine upon the river;
+more of the dusty chimney-pots seemed bathed in its silvery radiance. As
+she stood there, she felt herself growing calmer. The tension passed
+from her nerves. Her eyes grew soft again. Then an impulse came to her.
+She stretched out her hand for the telephone book, turned over the pages
+restlessly, looked through the &quot;D's&quot; until she found the name for which
+she was searching. For a long time she hesitated. When at last she took
+up the receiver and asked for a number, she was conscious of a slight
+thrill, a sense of excitement which in moments of more complete
+self-control would at least have served as a warning to her.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_X'></a><h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The curtain fell upon the first act of &quot;Louise.&quot; The lights were turned
+up, the tenseness relaxed, men made dives for their hats, and the
+unmusical murmured the usual platitudes. Naida leaned forward from the
+corner of her box to the man who was her sole companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; she said, &quot;I am expecting a caller with whom I wish to
+speak&mdash;Lord Dorminster. If he comes, will you leave us alone? And if any
+one else should be here, please take them away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More mysteries,&quot; her father muttered, not unkindly. &quot;Who is this man
+Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida leaned back in her chair and fanned herself slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one I know very much about,&quot; she acknowledged. &quot;I have selected him
+in my mind, however as being a typical Englishman of his class. I wish
+to talk to him, to appreciate his point of view. You know what Paul said
+when he gave you the appointment and sent us over here: 'Find out for me
+what sort of men these Englishmen are.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky should know,&quot; her father observed. &quot;He was here twelve years
+ago. He came over with the first commission which established regular
+relations with the British Government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt,&quot; she said equably, &quot;he was able to gauge the official
+outlook, but this country, during the last ten years, has gone through
+great vicissitudes. Besides, it is not only the official outlook in
+which Paul is interested. He doesn't understand, and frankly I don't,
+the position of what they call over here 'the man in the street.' You
+see, he must be either a fool, or he must be grossly deceived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So far as my dealings with him go, I should never call the Englishman a
+fool,&quot; Karetsky confessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are degrees and conditions of fools,&quot; his daughter declared
+calmly. &quot;A man with a perfectly acute brain may have simply idiotic
+impulses towards credulity, and a credulous man is always a fool.
+Anyhow, I know what Paul wants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a knock at the door. Karetsky opened it and stood aside to let
+Nigel pass in. Naida held out her hand to the latter with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am so glad that you have come,&quot; she said, raising her eyes for a
+minute to his. &quot;Father, you remember Lord Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Then Karetsky reached
+for his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your arrival, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he observed, &quot;leaves me free to make a
+few calls myself. We shall, I trust, meet again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel murmured a few courteous words and watched the retreating figure
+with some curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father is very typical,&quot; he declared. &quot;He reminds me of your
+country itself. He is massive, has suggestions of undeveloped strength.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Add that he is a little ponderous,&quot; Naida said lightly, &quot;slow to make
+up his mind, but as obstinate as the Urals themselves, and you have
+described him. Now tell me what you think of a young woman who rings you
+up without the slightest encouragement and invites you to come to the
+Opera purposely to visit her box.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I deny the absence of encouragement, and I am very grateful for the
+opportunity of coming,&quot; Nigel answered. &quot;And if I were to tell you all
+that I think of you,&quot; he added, after a moment's pause, &quot;it would take
+me a great deal longer than this quarter of an hour's interval.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These were their first few moments absolutely alone. Neither of them was
+unduly emotional, neither wholly free from experience, yet they looked
+and spoke and felt as though the coming of new things was at hand. The
+atmosphere of music, still present, was a wonderful background to the
+intensified sensations of which both were conscious. Naida had the
+utmost difficulty in steadying her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wanted to talk to you seriously because you can help me very much if
+you will,&quot; she began. &quot;In a sense, I am over here upon a mission. Some
+of us in Russia feel that your nation is imperfectly understood there.
+We are bearing grudges against you which may not be wholly justified.
+You see, to speak very plainly, we are under the constant influence of a
+people which cherishes no feelings of friendship towards you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the personal element had disappeared. Nigel remembered who
+his companion was and all that she stood for. He drew his chair a little
+nearer to hers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are looking for a typical Englishman,&quot; he said, &quot;I fear that I
+shall be a disappointment to you. The typical Englishman of to-day is
+hiding his head in the sand. I am not disposed to do anything of the
+sort. I recognise a great coming danger, and I am afraid of your
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The attitude of the official Englishman I know,&quot; she declared, a little
+eagerly. &quot;What I want to find out is whether there are many like
+yourself, who are awake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid that I am in the minority,&quot; he confessed. &quot;I am trying to
+carry on the work which my uncle commenced. I am trying to secure firm
+and definite evidence of a certain plot which I believe to be brewing in
+your country and in Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me exactly what you know,&quot; she begged.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel looked at her for several moments in silence. She was wearing a
+Russian headdress, a low tiara of bound coils of pearls. A rope of
+pearls hung from her neck. Her white net gown was trimmed with ermine.
+At her first appearance in the front of the box she had created almost a
+sensation among those to whom she was visible. In these darker shadows
+the sensuous disturbance of which he had been conscious since his
+entrance swept over him once more with overmastering power.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very beautiful,&quot; he said, a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad you think so,&quot; she murmured, with a very sweet answering
+light in her eyes, &quot;but I am hoping that you have other things to tell
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are the friend of Immelan,&quot; he reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To some extent, yes,&quot; she assented, &quot;but I admit of no prejudices. The
+greatest friend I have in the world is Paul Matinsky, and it is at his
+wish that I am here. He is anxious above all things not to make a
+mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your country is very much under the dominance of Germany,&quot; he ventured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very much, I admit, but not utterly so. You must remember that after
+the cataclysm of 1917, Russia has been born again in travail and agony.
+No hand was outstretched to help her, save that of Germany alone, for
+her own sake ultimately, perhaps, but nevertheless with invaluable
+results to Russia. We had vast resources which Germany exploited,
+magnificent human material which Germany has educated and disciplined.
+The two nations have grown together for their common interest. At the
+same time, Paul Matinsky and very many others have always felt that
+there is one of Germany's great ambitions in which Russia ought not
+necessarily to become involved. I think&mdash;I hope that you understand me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In plain words,&quot; Nigel said, &quot;you refer to this projected plan of
+isolating England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In plain words, I do,&quot; she admitted. &quot;Russia's intentions concerning
+that are trembling in the balance. Germany is pressing her hard. Nothing
+will be finally decided until I return to Petrograd. You see, I speak to
+you quite openly, for I myself have had some experience of your present
+statesmen. I believe if you were to repeat this conversation to any one
+of them, if, even, you could open their eyes to what is happening, they
+would only shrug their shoulders and say that they relied for their
+protection on the League of Nations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are unhappily right,&quot; Nigel groaned, &quot;yet one perseveres, and after
+all there is an element of mystery about the whole affair. The French,
+as you know, have not imitated our blind credulity. Their frontier would
+seem to be impregnable, and the difficulties of invading England, even
+from the air, are very much as they were during the last war. It was
+these considerations which made my uncle persevere in his attempt at
+secret-service work on the Continent. Everything depends upon our
+knowing exactly what is in store for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And have you discovered that?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything that we have learnt so far has been of negative value,&quot; he
+replied. &quot;The German citizen army is large, but not threateningly so. So
+far as we have been able to discover, they do not seem to have any
+secret store of guns or ammunition. Their docks hold no secrets. Yet we
+know that there is something brewing. Both the men upon whom my uncle
+relied have been murdered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But one of them succeeded in getting a dispatch through, did he not?&quot;
+she asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he succeeded,&quot; Nigel acknowledged. &quot;My uncle was murdered,
+however, in the act of decoding it, and the dispatch itself was stolen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very frank,&quot; she said. &quot;I suppose I ought to feel flattered
+that you treat me with so little reserve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are a friend to Germany,&quot; he replied, &quot;you probably know all
+that I can tell you. If you are inclined towards friendship with us,
+then it is as well that you should know everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is reasonable,&quot; she admitted. &quot;Now listen. This conversation can
+only last a few minutes longer. It is true that Oscar Immelan is my
+father's old friend and also mine, but my judgment in all matters which
+relate to the welfare of my country is not influenced by that fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was a report once,&quot; Nigel said, taking his courage into both
+hands, &quot;that you were engaged to be married to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked him in the eyes. Against the whiteness of his skin, the
+colour of her own seemed more wonderful than ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not true,&quot; she replied. &quot;It will never be true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad,&quot; he declared fervently.</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief pause. Both seemed conscious of a renewal of that air
+of disturbance which had reigned between them during their first few
+moments alone. It was Naida who made an effort to restore their
+conversation to its former tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Germany has any scheme against this country,&quot; she said, &quot;believe me,
+it will not be so obvious as you seem to think. It will be a scheme
+which can only be carried out with the assistance of other countries,
+and that assistance is not yet wholly promised. I cannot betray to you
+my knowledge of certain things,&quot; she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, &quot;but I can at least give you this warning. It is not for his
+health alone that Prince Shan is flying from China to Paris. If there is
+a single member of your Government who has the least apprehension of
+world politics, now is the time for action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one,&quot; Nigel answered gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>The box was suddenly invaded. Karetsky reappeared with several other
+men. In the rear of the little procession came Immelan. His face
+darkened as he recognised Nigel. Naida looked across at him with a
+slight frown upon her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have changed your mind?&quot; she remarked. &quot;I thought you were for
+Paris to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fortunate chance intervened,&quot; Immelan replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fortunate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan watched Nigel's retreating figure with a menacing frown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find it so,&quot; he replied. &quot;Our wonderful prima donna is in great voice
+to-night&mdash;and I like to be prepared for all possible combinations.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Maggie came suddenly into the library at Belgrave Square, where Jesson,
+Chalmers and Nigel were talking together. She carried in her hand a
+note, which she handed to the latter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is a dear, after all,&quot; she declared. &quot;There is one person at
+least who does not wish to have me pass away in a German nursing home or
+fall a victim to Frau Essendorf's cooking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel read the note aloud. It consisted of only a sentence or two and
+was dated from the Milan Court that morning:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>Maggie dear, this is just a line of advice from your friend. You
+     must not go back to Germany.</p>
+
+<p>     Naida.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear,&quot; Maggie sighed, &quot;that my little expedition is scotched, even if
+I had been able to persuade you others to let me go. Every one seems to
+have made up their mind that I shall not go to Germany. It will be such
+a disappointment to those flaxen-haired atrocities, Gertrud and Bertha.
+Their so-much-loved Miss Brown can never return to them again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In any case, the game was scarcely worth the candle,&quot; Nigel observed.
+&quot;We have already all the evidence we require that some scheme inimical
+to this country is being proposed and fostered by Immelan. Our next move
+must be to find out the nature of this scheme&mdash;whether it be naval,
+military, or political. I don't think Essendorf would be at all likely
+to give away any more interesting information in the domestic circle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are we all going to do, then?&quot; Maggie asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are met here to discuss it,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Jesson is off to Russia
+this afternoon. I asked him to come round and have a few last words with
+us, in case there was anything to suggest for us stay-at-homes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall have to rely very largely upon luck,&quot; Jesson declared. &quot;There
+are three places, in any of which we might discover what we want to
+know. One is Kroten, another is Paris, provided that Prince Shan really
+goes there, and the third London.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;London?&quot; Maggie repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are two people in London,&quot; Jesson declared, &quot;who know everything
+we are seeking to discover. One is Immelan and the other Naida
+Karetsky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems to me,&quot; Maggie said, &quot;that if that is so, the place for us is
+where those two people are. What is the importance of Kroten, Mr.
+Jesson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kroten,&quot; Jesson replied, &quot;is the second of what I have seen referred
+to in a private diplomatic report, written in an enemy country, as the
+three mystery cities of the world. The first one is in Germany, and I
+have already explored it. I have information, but information which
+without its sequel is valueless. Kroten is the second. Ten years ago it
+was a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. To-day there are at least
+two hundred thousand people there, and it is growing all the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say, how can a town of that size,&quot; Chalmers enquired, &quot;be termed a
+mystery city in any sense of the word? Travelling's free in Russia. I
+guess any one that wanted could take a ticket to Kroten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good many do,&quot; Jesson assented calmly, &quot;and some never come back.
+America and Russia are on friendly terms, yet two men in my branch of
+the service&mdash;good fellows they were, too&mdash;started out from Washington
+for Kroten six months ago. Neither of them has been heard of since;
+neither ever will be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How's it done?&quot; Chalmers asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first place,&quot; Jesson explained, &quot;the city itself stands at the
+arm of the river, in a sort of cul-de-sac, with absolutely untraversable
+mountains on three sides of it. All the roads have to come around the
+plain and enter from eastwards. There is only one line of railway, so
+that all the approaches into the city are easily guarded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's all right geographically, of course,&quot; Nigel admitted, &quot;but what
+earthly excuse can any one make for keeping tourists or travellers out
+of the place if they want to go there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is perhaps the most ingenious thing of all,&quot; Jesson replied. &quot;You
+know that Russia is now practically a tranquil country, but there are
+certain bands of the extreme Bolshevistic faction who never gave in to
+authority and who practically exist in the little-known places by means
+of marauding expeditions. The mountains about Kroten are supposed to
+have been infested by these nomadic companies. Whether the outrages set
+down to them are really committed or not, I don't suppose any one knows,
+but my point of view is that the presence of these people is absolutely
+encouraged by the Government, to give them an excuse for the most
+extraordinary precautions in issuing passports or allowing any one from
+the outside world to pass into the city. If you get in, I understand you
+are waited upon by the police within half an hour and have to tell them
+the story of your past life and your future intentions. After that you
+are allowed to go about on parole. If you get too inquisitive, you are
+discovered to be in touch with the robber bands, and&mdash;well&mdash;that's an
+end of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A nice, salubrious spot,&quot; Nigel murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds most interesting,&quot; Maggie declared. &quot;I think a woman would
+be less likely to cause suspicion,&quot; she added hopefully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Utterly out of the question,&quot; Jesson pronounced. &quot;Kroten is the one
+place that must be left in my hands. I know more about the getting there
+than any of you, and I know the tricks of changing my identity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should rather like to go with you,&quot; Nigel confessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impossible!&quot; was the brief reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jesson smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be perfectly frank,&quot; he said, &quot;because you are developing an
+interest in the one person in the world who might give success over into
+our hands. It is necessary for you to remain where you can encourage
+that interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was a little staggered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friendship with Mademoiselle Karetsky,&quot; he protested, &quot;is scarcely
+likely to influence her political views.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a somewhat close observer,&quot; Jesson continued. &quot;You will not ask me
+to believe that your conversation with mademoiselle in her box at the
+Opera last night related all the time to&mdash;well, shall we say music?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel, you never told me you were at the Opera,&quot; Maggie intervened.
+&quot;What made you go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that it was a message from Mademoiselle Karetsky,&quot; Jesson
+suggested quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon my word, I think you're going to be a success, Jesson,&quot; he
+declared. &quot;Perhaps you can tell me what we did talk about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe I almost could,&quot; was the calm reply. &quot;In any case, I think I
+see the situation as it exists. Mademoiselle Karetsky is a wonderful
+woman. She has a great, open mind. To a certain extent, of course, she
+has seen things from the point of view of Paul Matinsky, Immelan, and
+that little coterie of Russo-Germans who see a future for both countries
+only in an alliance of the old-fashioned order. Matinsky, however, has
+always had his doubts. That is why he sent over here the one person whom
+he trusted. Presently she will make a report, and the whole issue will
+remain with her. Immelan knows this and pays her ceaseless court. My
+impression, however, is that his influence is waning. I believe that
+to-day he is terrified at the bare reflection of how much Naida Karetsky
+knows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You believe that she does know exactly what is intended?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am perfectly certain of it,&quot; Jesson replied. &quot;If she could be induced
+to tell us everything, my journey to Kroten might just as well be
+abandoned. Yet somehow I do not think she will go so far as that. The
+most that we can hope for is that she will advise Matinsky to reject
+Immelan's proposals, and that she will perhaps bring some influence to
+bear in the same direction upon Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am inclined to agree with Jesson,&quot; Nigel pronounced, &quot;inasmuch as I
+believe that Mademoiselle Karetsky is disposed to change or modify her
+views concerning us. You see, after all, this threatened blow against
+England is purely a private affair of Germany's. There is really no
+reason why Russia or any other country should be dragged into it. She is
+the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for her most dangerous
+rival.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky might be brought to think that way,&quot; Chalmers observed, &quot;but
+they say half the members of his Cabinet are under German influence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Matinsky believed that,&quot; Nigel declared, &quot;he is quite strong enough
+to clear them all out and make a fresh start.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the meantime,&quot; Maggie interposed, &quot;I should like to know in what way
+you propose to use poor little me? I am not to go to Germany, the man
+whom I at one time seriously thought of marrying is told off to engage
+the attentions of another woman, Mr. Jesson here is going to Kroten, and
+he doesn't show the slightest inclination to take me with him. Am I to
+sit here and do nothing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There remains for you the third enterprise,&quot; Jesson replied, &quot;one in
+which, so far as I can see,&quot; he continued, with a smile, &quot;you have not
+the faintest chance of success.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what it is, at least?&quot; she begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The conversion of Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't you trying me a little high?&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very high indeed,&quot; Jesson acknowledged. &quot;Prince Shan, for all his
+wonderful statesmanship and his grip upon world affairs, is reputed to
+be almost an anchorite in his daily life. No woman has ever yet been
+able to boast of having exercised the slightest influence over him. At
+the same time, he is an extraordinarily human person, and success with
+him would mean the end of your enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds a bit of a forlorn hope,&quot; Maggie remarked cheerfully, &quot;but
+I'll do my little best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan has abandoned his idea of landing at Paris,&quot; Jesson
+continued. &quot;He is coming direct to London. I have to thank Chalmers for
+that information. Immelan will meet him directly he arrives, and their
+first conversations will make history. Afterwards, if things go well,
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will join the conference.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear,&quot; Maggie sighed, &quot;that there will be difficulties in the way of
+my establishing confidential relations with Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There will be difficulties,&quot; Jesson assented, &quot;but the thing is not so
+impossible as it would be in Paris. Prince Shan has a very fine house
+in Curzon Street, which is kept in continual readiness for him. He will
+probably entertain to some extent. You will without doubt have
+opportunities of meeting him socially.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie glanced at herself in the glass.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Chinaman!&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess that doesn't mean what it did,&quot; Chalmers pointed out. &quot;Prince
+Shan is an aristocrat and a born ruler. He has every scrap of culture
+that we know anything about and something from his thousand-year-old
+family that we don't quite know how to put into words. Don't you worry
+about Prince Shan, Lady Maggie. Ask Dorminster here what they called him
+at Oxford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The first gentleman of Asia,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;I think he deserves the
+title.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>On the morning following the conclave in Belgrave Square, the Right
+Honourable Mervin Brown received two extremely distinguished visitors in
+Downing Street. It was doubtful whether the Prime Minister was
+altogether at his best. There was a certain amount of irritability
+rankling beneath his customary air of bonhommie. He motioned his callers
+to take chairs, however, and listened attentively to the few words of
+introduction which his secretary thought necessary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is General Dumesnil, sir, of the French Staff, and Monsieur
+Pouilly of the French Cabinet. They have called according to
+appointment, on Government business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very glad to see you, gentlemen,&quot; was the Prime Minister's brisk
+welcome. &quot;Sorry I can't talk French to you. Politics, these last ten
+years, haven't left us much time for the outside graces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pouilly at once took the floor. He was a thin, dark man with a
+beautifully trimmed black beard, flashing black eyes, and thoughtful,
+delicate features. He was attired in the frock coat and dark trousers of
+diplomatic usage, and he appeared to somewhat resent the brown tweed
+suit and soft collar of the man who was receiving him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot; he began, &quot;you will kindly look upon our visit as
+official. We are envoys from Monsieur le Pr&eacute;sident and the French
+Government. General Dumesnil has accompanied me, in case our
+conversation should turn upon military matters here or at the War
+Office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The General saluted. The Prime Minister bowed a little awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So far as I am concerned,&quot; the latter declared, &quot;I will be perfectly
+frank with you from the start. I know nothing whatever about military
+affairs. My job is to govern this country, to make the most of its
+resources, and to bring prosperity to its citizens from the English
+Channel to the North Sea. We don't need soldiers and never shall, that I
+can see. I am firmly convinced that the days of wars are over. The
+government of every country in the world is getting into the hands of
+the democracy, and the democracy don't want war and never did. If any of
+the more quarrelsome folk on the continent get scrapping, well, my
+conception of my duty is to keep out of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pouilly restrained himself. To judge from his appearance,
+however, it was not altogether an easy matter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You belong, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;to a type of statesman whose rise to power
+in this country some of us have watched with a certain amount of
+concern, for although it is not my mission here to-day to talk politics,
+I am yet bound to remind you that you do not stand alone. The very
+League of Nations upon which you rely imposes certain obligations upon
+you, some actual, some understood. It is to discuss the situation
+arising from your neglect to make the provisions called for in that
+agreement that I am here to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown glanced at some figures which his secretary had laid
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You complain, I presume, of the reduction of our standing army?&quot; he
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We complain of that,&quot; Monsieur Pouilly replied, &quot;and we complain also
+of the gradually decreasing interest shown by your Government in matters
+of &aelig;ronautics, artillery, and naval construction. We learnt our lesson
+in 1914. If trouble should come again, our country would once more be
+the sufferer. You would no doubt do everything that was expected of you,
+in time. Before you were ready, however, France would be ruined. You
+entered into certain obligations under the League of Nations. My
+Government begs to call your attention to the fact that you are not
+fulfilling them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my intention within the course of the next few months,&quot; Mervin
+Brown declared, &quot;to lay before the League of Nations a scheme for total
+disarmament.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pouilly was staggered. A little exclamation escaped the
+General.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about those nations,&quot; the latter enquired, &quot;who were left outside
+the League? What of Russia, for instance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Russia is a great and peaceful republic,&quot; Mervin Brown replied. &quot;All
+her efforts are devoted towards industrial development. No nation would
+have less to gain by a return to militarism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon, monsieur, but how do you know anything about Russia?&quot; Monsieur
+Pouilly asked. &quot;You have not a single secret service agent there, and
+your ambassadors are ambassadors of commerce.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know what every one else knows,&quot; Mervin Brown declared. &quot;Our
+commercial travellers are our secret service agents. They travel where
+they please in Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Germany?&quot; the General queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I defy you to say that there is the slightest indication of any
+militarism in Germany,&quot; the Prime Minister insisted. &quot;I was there myself
+only a few months ago. The country is quiet and moving on now to a new
+prosperity. I am absolutely and entirely convinced that the world has
+nothing to fear from either Russia or Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you any theory, sir,&quot; General Dumesnil enquired, &quot;as to why Russia
+refused to join the League of Nations?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None whatever,&quot; was the genial acknowledgment. &quot;Russia was left out at
+the start through jealous statesmanship, and afterwards she preferred
+her independence. I have every sympathy with her attitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One more question,&quot; the soldier begged. &quot;Are you aware, sir, that since
+Japan left the League of Nations on the excuse of her isolation, she has
+been building &aelig;roplanes and battleships on a new theory, instigated, if
+you please, by China?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And look at her last balance sheet as a result of it,&quot; was the prompt
+retort. &quot;If a nation chooses to make herself a bankrupt by building war
+toys, no one in the world can help her. Legislation of that sort is
+foolish and simply an incitement to revolution. Look at the difference
+in our country. Our income tax is practically abolished, our industrial
+troubles are over. Our credit never stood so high, the wealth of the
+country was never so great. We are satisfied. A peaceful nation makes
+for peace. The rattling of the sabre incites military disturbance. Do
+not ask us, gentlemen, to train armies or build ships.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We ask you only to keep your covenant,&quot; Monsieur Pouilly pronounced
+stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who does keep it?&quot; the Prime Minister demanded. &quot;The world is governed
+now by common sense and humanity. I look upon a war of aggression on the
+part of any country as a sheer impossibility.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about a war of revenge?&quot; the General enquired quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can search Germany from end to end,&quot; Mervin Brown declared, &quot;and
+find no trace of any spirit of the sort. I am sorry if I am a
+disappointment to you, gentlemen, but the present Government views your
+attitude without sympathy. General Richardson is expecting a visit from
+you this morning at the War Office, and he will give you any information
+you desire. An appointment has also been made for you this afternoon at
+the Admiralty. You are doing me the honour of dining with me here
+to-morrow night to meet certain members of my Cabinet, and we will, if
+you choose, discuss the matter further then. I have thought it best to
+place my views clearly before you, however, at the outset of your visit
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Frenchmen rose a few minutes later and took their leave,
+ceremoniously but with obvious discontent. The Prime Minister leaned
+back in his chair and awaited his secretary's return with a
+well-satisfied smile. In a few minutes the latter presented himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Franklin,&quot; the great man said, &quot;I've let them hear the truth for
+once. Plain speaking, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young man bowed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They certainly know your views, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Minister glanced at his subordinate sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the matter with you this morning, Franklin?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is nothing the matter with me, thank you, sir,&quot; was the quiet
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not going to tell me that you disapprove of my attitude?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By no means, sir,&quot; the young man assured his Chief hastily,&mdash;&quot;not
+altogether, that is to say. At the same time, one wonders how far those
+two men represent the feeling of France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His Chief shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The military spirit is hard to kill,&quot; he said. &quot;It is in the blood of
+most Frenchmen. They are not big enough to understand that the world is
+moving on to greater things. What did they say to you before they left?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing much, sir. The General just asked me whether I thought you
+would soon be content to leave London unpoliced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What rubbish! Any one else for me to see this morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You promised to give Lord Dorminster ten minutes,&quot; the young man
+reminded him. &quot;He is in the anteroom now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister frowned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dorminster,&quot; he repeated. &quot;He is a nephew of the man who was always
+worrying the Government to re&euml;stablish the secret service. I remember he
+came to see me the other day, declared that his uncle had been
+murdered, and a secret dispatch from Germany stolen. I wonder he didn't
+wind up with a report that the Chinese were on their way to seize
+Ireland!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the same man, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I suppose I'd better see him and get it over,&quot; his Chief declared
+irritably. &quot;If only one could make these people realize how far behind
+the times they are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was shown in, a few minutes later. Mr. Mervin Brown was gracious
+but terse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't had the opportunity of congratulating you upon becoming one
+of our hereditary legislators, Lord Dorminster, since you took your seat
+in the House of Lords,&quot; he said. &quot;Pray let me do so now. I hope that we
+may count upon your support.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My support, sir,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;will be given to any Party which will
+take the urgent necessary steps to protect this country against a great
+danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God bless my soul!&quot; the Prime Minister exclaimed. &quot;Another of you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can only guess who my predecessors were,&quot; Nigel continued, smiling,
+&quot;but I will frankly confess that the object of my visit is to beg you to
+re&euml;stablish our secret service in Germany, Russia and China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; the other declared, &quot;would induce me to do anything of the
+sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you aware,&quot; Nigel enquired, &quot;that there is a considerable foreign
+secret service at work in this country at the present moment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not aware of it, and I don't believe it,&quot; was the blunt retort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have absolute proof,&quot; Nigel insisted. &quot;Not only that, but two
+ex-secret service men whom my uncle sent out to Germany and Russia on
+his own account were murdered there as soon as they began to get on the
+track of certain things which had been kept secret. A report from one of
+these men got through and was stolen from my uncle's library in Belgrave
+Square on the day he was murdered. You will remember that I placed all
+these facts before you on the occasion of a previous visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mervin Brown nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything else?&quot; he asked patiently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know that a special envoy from China is on his way here at the
+present moment to meet Immelan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oscar Immelan, the German Commissioner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same,&quot; Nigel assented.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A most delightful fellow,&quot; the Prime Minister declared warmly, &quot;and a
+great friend to this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must take the liberty of disagreeing with you,&quot; Nigel rejoined,
+&quot;because I know very well that he is our bitter enemy. Prince Shan, who
+is on his way from China to meet him, is the envoy of the one country
+outside Europe whom we might fear. We sit still and do nothing. We have
+no means of knowing what may be plotted against us here in London. At
+least a polite request might be sent to Prince Shan to ask him to pay
+you a visit and disclose the nature of his conference with Immelan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he cares to come, we shall be glad to see him,&quot; Mervin Brown
+replied, &quot;but I for one shall not go out of my way to talk politics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know what politics are, sir?&quot; Nigel asked, in a sudden fury.</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister's eyes flashed for a moment. He controlled himself,
+however, and rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an idea that I do,&quot; he answered. &quot;A few millions of my fellow
+countrymen believe the same thing, or I should not be here. I think that
+you know what my principles are, Lord Dorminster. I am here to govern
+this country for the benefit of the people. We don't want to govern any
+one else's country, we don't want to meddle in any one else's affairs.
+Least of all do we want to revert to the times when your uncle was a
+young man, and every country in Europe was sitting with drawn sword,
+trusting nobody, fearing everybody, living in a state of nerves, with
+the roll of the drum always in their ears. The best preventative of war,
+in my opinion, is not to believe in it. Good morning, Lord Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a dismissal against which there was no appeal. Nigel followed the
+secretary from the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You found the Chief a little bit ratty this morning, I expect, Lord
+Dorminster,&quot; the latter remarked. &quot;We've had the French Mission here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Mervin Brown has at least the virtue of knowing his own mind,&quot;
+Nigel replied dryly.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The automobile turned in through the great entrance gates of the South
+London Aeronautic Terminus and commenced a slow ascent along the broad
+asphalted road to what, a few years ago, had been esteemed a new wonder
+of the world. Maggie rose to her feet with a little exclamation of
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know I have never been here at night before?&quot; she exclaimed.
+&quot;Isn't it wonderful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marvellous!&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;It's the largest aeronautic station in the
+world&mdash;bigger, they say, than all our railway termini put together. Look
+at the flares, Maggie! No wonder the sky from the housetop at Belgrave
+Square seems always to be on fire at night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were approaching now the first of the huge sheds which were
+arranged in circular fashion around an immense stretch of perfectly
+level asphalted ground. Every shed was as big as an ordinary railway
+station, its arched opening framed with electric illuminations. Inside
+could be seen the crowds of people waiting on the platforms; in many of
+them, the engine of a great airship was already throbbing, waiting to
+start. In the background was a huge wireless installation, and around,
+at regular intervals, enormous pillars, on the top of which flares of
+different-coloured fire were burning. The automobile came to a
+standstill before a large electrically illuminated time chart. Nigel
+alighted for a moment and spoke to one of the inspectors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which station for the <i>Black Dragon</i>, private ship from China?&quot; he
+enquired.</p>
+
+<p>The man glanced at the chart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Number seven, on the other side,&quot; he replied. &quot;You can drive around.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How is she for time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She crossed the North Sea punctually,&quot; he replied. &quot;We should see her
+violet lights in ten minutes. Mind the traffic as you pass number three.
+The North ship from Norway is just in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel addressed a word of caution to the chauffeur, and they drove on.
+From the first shed they passed a stream of vehicles was pouring
+out,&mdash;porters with luggage, jostling throngs of newly arrived passengers
+on their way to the Electric Underground. They drove into number seven
+shed, left the car, and walked to the end of the long platform. The
+great arc of glass-covered roof above them was brilliantly illuminated,
+throwing a queer downward light upon the long line of waiting porters,
+the refreshment rooms, the kiosks and newspaper stalls. In the far end,
+a huge airship, bound for the East, was already filling up. Maggie and
+her companion stood for a few minutes gazing into the huge void of
+space.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me about Naida,&quot; the former begged, a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is a wonderful woman,&quot; Nigel declared enthusiastically. &quot;We
+lunched at Ciro's. She wore a black and white muslin gown which arrived
+this morning from Paris. Afterwards we went down to Ranelagh and sat
+under the trees.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Throwing yourself thoroughly into your little job, aren't you!&quot; Maggie
+sniffed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll have a chance to catch me up before long,&quot; he replied. &quot;Naida
+has promised that she will arrange a meeting with the Prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder what Oscar Immelan will have to say about it,&quot; Maggie
+reflected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To tell you the truth,&quot; Nigel said hopefully, &quot;I believe that Immelan
+is losing ground. His whole scheme is too selfish. Of course, Naida
+won't discuss these things with me in plain words, but she gives me a
+hint now and then. Amongst her gifts, she has a marvellous sense of
+justice and a hatred of any form of bribery. That is where I feel
+convinced that she and Immelan will never come together. Immelan could
+never see more than the selfish side, even of a world upheaval. Naida
+searches everywhere for motive. She has the altruistic instinct. I
+wonder no longer at Matinsky. She is a born ruler herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad you are getting along with her,&quot; Maggie remarked. &quot;Look!&quot; she
+broke off, catching at his arm. &quot;The violet lights!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>High up in the sky outside, two violet specks of light suddenly rose and
+fell like airballs. A crowd of mechanics appeared through subterranean
+doors and stood about in the vast arena. Very soon the airship came into
+sight, her cars brilliantly illuminated. She circled slowly round and
+came noiselessly to the ground, and with the mechanics running by her
+side, and her engines now scarcely audible, came slowly into the shed
+and to a standstill by the side of the platform. Maggie and her
+companion stood well in the background.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There he is,&quot; the latter whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan, suddenly appeared as though from the bowels of the earth, was
+shaking hands warmly with a tall, slender man who was one of the first
+to descend from the airship. They talked rapidly together for a few
+minutes. Then they disappeared, walking down towards the
+luggage-clearing station. Maggie watched the retreating figures
+earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He doesn't look in the least Chinese,&quot; she declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I told you he didn't,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;He was considered the
+best-looking man of his year up at Oxford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was unusually silent on their way back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was perhaps scarcely worth our while, this little expedition of
+ours,&quot; Maggie said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not sorry that we came?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. &quot;I think not,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why only 'think'?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She roused herself with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know, Nigel,&quot; she confessed. &quot;I can't imagine what is wrong
+with me. I feel shivery&mdash;nervous&mdash;as though something were going to
+happen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie whom he scarcely
+recognised.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Presentiments?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absurd, isn't it!&quot; she replied, with a weak smile. &quot;I'll get over it
+directly. I don't think I am going to like Prince Shan, Nigel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you haven't been long making up your mind,&quot; he observed. &quot;I
+shouldn't have thought you had been able even to see his face.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it,&quot; she reflected. &quot;To me it
+seemed as though it were carved out of granite, and as though all that
+was human about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he hadn't been
+looking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you flattering yourself that he will recognise you?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that he will,&quot; she answered simply.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at the Ritz on the
+following evening, Prince Shan and Immelan dined t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te, Immelan in
+the best of spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world,
+drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities; Prince Shan, his
+features and expression unchanging, and his face as white as the
+perfectly fitting shirt he wore. His clothes were fashionable and
+distinctive, his black pearls unobtrusive but wonderful, his smoothly
+brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger nails, his skilfully tied tie
+all indicative of his close touch with western civilization. There was
+nothing, in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly
+unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air of personal
+detachment, to denote the Oriental. He drank water, he ate sparingly, he
+preserved an almost unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one giving
+courteous attention to everything which his companion said and finding
+interest in it. Only once he asked a question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are well acquainted here, my host,&quot; he said. &quot;You know the trio at
+the table just behind the entrance&mdash;the attractive young lady with her
+chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must be an old college
+acquaintance whose name I have forgotten. Tell me some more about them
+in their private capacity, and not as saviours of their country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is not much to tell,&quot; he answered, without enthusiasm. &quot;The young
+lady is, as you know, Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white
+hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their escort is Lord
+Dorminster. You would probably know him by the name of Kingley&mdash;he has
+only just succeeded to the title.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan was looking straight across the room, his eyes travelling
+over the heads of the many brilliant little groups of diners to rest
+apparently upon an empty space in the white-and-gold walls. He had been
+a great traveller, but always his first evening, when he came once more
+into touch with a civilisation more meretricious but more poignant than
+his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His
+companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is
+only gossip, however.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His
+eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully <i>soign&eacute;e</i>, very
+alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not
+actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more
+he felt the disturbance of the West.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we should chance to come together naturally,&quot; he said, &quot;it would
+gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XIV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very
+naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that
+evening, and the table towards which an attentive <i>ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel</i>
+conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by
+Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was
+bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently,
+to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after
+the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to
+offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie,&quot; he said. &quot;I am
+fortunate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted her unspoken invitation
+and seated himself on the lounge by her side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We who come from the self-contained countries of the world,&quot; he
+explained, &quot;and China is one of them, come always with the desire and
+longing for new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite for these
+is insatiable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And am I a new sensation?&quot; Maggie asked, glancing up at him innocently
+enough, but with a faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are,&quot; he answered placidly. &quot;You reveal&mdash;or rather you suggest&mdash;the
+things of which in my country we know nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised over there,&quot; Maggie
+observed. &quot;Please tell me at once what it is that I possess which your
+womenkind do not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I answered all that your question implies,&quot; he said, &quot;I should make
+use of speech too direct for the conventions of the world in which you
+live. I would simply remind you that whereas we men in China may claim,
+I think, to have reached the same standard of culture and civilisation
+as Europeans, we have left our womenkind far behind in that respect. The
+Chinese woman, even the noble lady, does not care for serious affairs.
+The God of the Mountains, as they call him, made her a flower to pluck,
+a beautiful plaything for her chosen mate. She remains primitive. That
+is why, in time, man wearies of her, why the person of imagination looks
+sometimes westward, finds a new joy and a strange new fascination in a
+wholly different type of femininity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you have many European women now living in China,&quot; Maggie reminded
+him,&mdash;&quot;American women, too, and they are so much admired everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chinese, especially we of the nobility,&quot; Prince Shan replied, &quot;are
+born with racial prejudices. An individual may forgive an affront, a
+nation never. The days of retaliation by force of arms may indeed have
+passed, but the gentleman of China, even of these days, is not likely to
+take to his heart the woman of America.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear me,&quot; Maggie murmured, &quot;isn't it rather out of date to persevere in
+these ancient feuds?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Feeling of all sorts is out of date,&quot; he admitted patiently, &quot;yet there
+are some things which endure. I should be honoured by your friendship,
+Lady Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is very sudden,&quot; she laughed. &quot;I am very flattered&mdash;but what does
+it mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Permission to call upon you&mdash;and your aunt,&quot; he added, glancing around
+the little circle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall be delighted,&quot; Maggie replied, &quot;but you won't like my aunt.
+She is a little deaf, and she has no sense of humour. She has come to
+live with us because Lord Dorminster and I are not really related,
+although we call ourselves cousins, and I should hate to leave Belgrave
+Square. You shall take me out to tea to-morrow afternoon instead, if you
+like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A smouldering fire burned for a moment in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will make me very happy,&quot; he said. &quot;I shall attend you at four
+o'clock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thenceforward, conversation became general. Prince Shan, with the air
+of one who has achieved his immediate object, left his place by Maggie's
+side and talked with grave courtesy to her aunt. Presently the little
+party broke up, bound, it seemed, for the same theatre. Nigel had become
+a little serious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you've made a good start, Maggie,&quot; he remarked, leaning forward
+in his place in the limousine.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have I?&quot; Maggie answered thoughtfully. &quot;I wonder!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish we could get at him in some different fashion,&quot; her companion
+observed uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear man, I'm hardened to these enterprises,&quot; Maggie assured him. &quot;I
+even let the President of the German Republic hold my hand once when his
+wife wasn't looking. Nothing came of it,&quot; she added, with a little sigh.
+&quot;These Germans are terribly sentimental when it doesn't cost them
+anything. They've no idea of a fair exchange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By a 'fair exchange' you mean,&quot; her aunt suggested, a little
+censoriously, &quot;that you expected him to barter his country's secrets for
+a touch of your fingers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or my lips, perhaps,&quot; Maggie added, with a little grimace. &quot;Please
+don't look so serious, Aunt. I'm not really in love with Prince Shan,
+you know, and to-night I rather feel like marrying Nigel, if I can get
+him back again. I like his waistcoat buttons, and the way he has tied
+his tie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too late, my dear,&quot; Nigel warned her. &quot;I give you formal notice. I
+have transferred my affections.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That decides me,&quot; Maggie declared firmly. &quot;I shall collect you back
+again. I hate to lose an admirer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The nonsense you young people talk!&quot; Mrs. Bollington Smith observed, as
+they reached the theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers joined them soon after they had reached their box. He sank into
+the empty place by Maggie's side which Nigel had just vacated and leaned
+forward confidentially.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you've started the campaign,&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you know?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was at the Ritz to-night,&quot; he told her, &quot;at the far end of the room
+with my Chief and two other men. We were behind you in the lounge
+afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was so engrossed,&quot; Maggie murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers paused for a moment to watch the performance. When he spoke
+again, his voice, was, for him, unusually serious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Young lady,&quot; he said, &quot;I told you on our first meeting my idea of
+diplomacy. Truth! No beating about the bush&mdash;just the plain, unvarnished
+truth! I have conceived an affection for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Goodness gracious!&quot; Maggie exclaimed softly. &quot;Are you going to
+propose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; he assured her, &quot;is farther from my thoughts. Lest I should
+be misunderstood, let me substitute the term 'affectionate interest' for
+'affection.' I have felt uneasy ever since I saw Prince Shan watching
+you across the restaurant to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he really watch me?&quot; Maggie asked complacently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He not only watched you,&quot; Chalmers assured her, &quot;but he thought about
+you&mdash;and very little else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Congratulate me, then,&quot; she replied. &quot;I am on the way to success.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers frowned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not quite so sure,&quot; he said. &quot;You'll think I'm an illogical sort of
+person, but I've changed my mind about your r&ocirc;le in this little affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I am afraid of Prince Shan,&quot; he answered deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him from behind her fan. Her eyes sparkled with interest.
+If there were any other feeling underneath, she showed no trace of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a queer word for you to use!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it. I would back you, Lady Maggie, to hold your own against any
+male creature breathing, of your own order and your own race, but Prince
+Shan plays the game differently. He possesses every gift which women and
+men both admire, but he hasn't our standards. Life for him means power.
+A wish for him entails its fulfilment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are afraid,&quot; Maggie suggested, still with the laughter in her eyes,
+&quot;that he will trifle with my affections?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something like that,&quot; he admitted bluntly. &quot;Prince Shan will be here
+for a week&mdash;perhaps a fortnight. When he goes, he goes a very long
+distance away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I may decide to marry him,&quot; Maggie said. &quot;One gets rather tired here of
+the regular St. George's, Hanover Square, business, and all that comes
+afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear Lady Maggie,&quot; Chalmers replied, &quot;that is the trouble. Prince Shan
+would never marry you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; she asked simply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First of all,&quot; Chalmers went on, after a moment's hesitation, &quot;because
+Prince Shan, broad-minded though he seems to be and is on all the great
+questions of the world, still preserves something of what we should call
+the superstition of his country and order. I believe, in his own mind,
+he looks upon himself as being one of the few elect of the earth. He
+travels, he is gracious everywhere, but though his manner is the
+perfection of form, in his heart he is still aloof. He rides through the
+clouds from Asia, and he leaves always something of himself over there
+on the other side. Let me tell you this, Lady Maggie. I have never
+forgotten it. He was at Harvard in my year, and so far as he unbent to
+any one, he sometimes unbent to me. I asked him once whether he were
+ever going to marry. He shook his head and sighed. 'I can never marry,'
+he replied. 'Why not?' I asked him. 'Because there are no women of the
+Shan line alive,' he answered. Later, he took pity on my bewilderment.
+He let me understand. For two thousand years, no Shan has married, save
+one of his own line. To ally himself with a princess of the royal house
+of England would be a m&eacute;salliance which would disturb his ancestors in
+their graves. Of course, this sounds to us very ridiculous, but to him
+it isn't. It is part of the religion of his life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not very encouraging, are you?&quot; Maggie remarked. &quot;Perhaps he
+has changed since those days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her companion shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should say not,&quot; he replied, &quot;the Prince is not of the order of those
+who change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it matrimony alone,&quot; she asked, &quot;which he denies himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers glanced towards Mrs. Bollington Smith, whose eyes were closed.
+Then he nodded towards the stage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see the woman who has just come upon the stage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie glanced downwards. A very wonderful little figure in white satin,
+lithe and sinuous as a cat, Chinese in the subtlety of her looks,
+European in her almost sinister over-civilisation, stood smiling
+blandly at the applauding audience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Belle Nita,&quot; Maggie murmured. &quot;I thought she was in Paris. Well,
+what of her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is reputed to be a prot&eacute;g&eacute;e of Prince Shan. You see how she looks
+up at his box.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was conscious of a queer and almost incomprehensible stab at the
+heart. She answered without hesitation or change of expression, however.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Prince must be kind to a fellow countrywoman,&quot; she declared
+indulgently. &quot;You are talking terrible scandal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita danced wonderfully, sang like a linnet, danced again and
+disappeared, notwithstanding the almost wild calls for an encore. With
+the end of her turn came a selection from the orchestra and a general
+emptying of the boxes. Presently Chalmers went in search of Nigel. A few
+moments later there was a knock at the door. Maggie gripped the sides of
+her chair tightly. She was moved almost to fury by the turmoil in which
+she found herself. Her invitation to enter was almost inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am deserted,&quot; Prince Shan explained, as he made his bow and took the
+chair to which Maggie pointed. &quot;My friend Immelan has left me to visit
+acquaintances, and I chance to be unattended this evening. I trust that
+I do not intrude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very welcome here,&quot; Maggie replied. &quot;Will you listen to the
+orchestra, or talk to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will talk, if I may,&quot; he answered. &quot;Lord Dorminster is not with
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel went to look up a friend whom he wants to bring to supper. He is
+one of those people who seem to discover friends and acquaintances in
+every quarter of the globe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to that fortunate chance,&quot; her visitor continued, dropping his
+voice a little, &quot;I owe the happiness of finding you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie glanced towards her aunt, who was leaning back in her seat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't,&quot; she declared. &quot;She is really a
+very efficient chaperon. Talk to me about China, please, and tell me
+about your <i>Dragon</i> airship. Is it true that you have silver baths, and
+that Gauteron painted the walls of your dining salon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One is in the air five days on the way over,&quot; he answered
+indifferently. &quot;It is necessary that one's surroundings should be
+agreeable. Perhaps some day I may have the honour of showing it to you.
+In the darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to be seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You knew that I was there, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yours was the first face I saw when I descended from the car,&quot; he told
+her. &quot;You stood apart, watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that
+you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I came there. As a rule,
+I do not dine in public.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could you possibly know that I was going to be there?&quot; Maggie asked
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through the names of those who
+had booked tables,&quot; he answered. &quot;It was very simple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was only a chance that the table was reserved in my name,&quot; she
+reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was chance which brought us together,&quot; he rejoined. &quot;It is chance
+under another name to which I trust in life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in her life, in her relations with the other sex,
+Maggie felt a queer sensation which was almost fear. She felt herself
+losing poise, her will governed, her whole self dominated. Unconsciously
+she drew herself a little away. Her eyes travelled around the crowded
+house and suddenly rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
+Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly forward, her eyes fixed
+intently upon Prince Shan, was La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown
+around her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure in the
+semi-obscurity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have some one waiting for you in your box,&quot; Maggie told him.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his feet. She gave him
+credit for the adroitness of mind which rejected the obvious
+explanation of her presence there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must go,&quot; he said simply, &quot;but I have many things which I desire to
+say to you. You will not forget to-morrow afternoon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not forget,&quot; she answered, in a low tone.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince Shan's eyes as he sat
+back in the dim recesses of his box and scrutinised his visitor. La
+Belle Nita had learnt all that Paris and London could teach her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very beautiful, Nita,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Many men tell me so,&quot; she answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Life has gone well with you since we met last?&quot; he asked reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The months have passed,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have been faithful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fidelity is of the soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, as though pondering over her answer. A famous French comedian
+was holding the stage, and the house rocked with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have the same apartment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She pressed the clasp of a black velvet bag which rested on the edge of
+the box, opened it, and passed him a key.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He held the key in his fingers for a moment, but he had the air of a man
+to whom the action had no significance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have enough money?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have saved a million francs,&quot; she told him. &quot;I am waiting for my
+lord to speak of things that matter. The woman in the box over
+there&mdash;who is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An English spy,&quot; he answered calmly.</p>
+
+<p>She lowered her eyes for a moment, as though to conceal the sudden soft
+flash.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An English spy,&quot; she repeated. &quot;My rival in espionage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no rival, Nita,&quot; he replied, &quot;and she is in the opposite
+camp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her two red lips were distorted into a pout.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it over, my task?&quot; she asked. &quot;I am weary of Paris. I love it over
+here better. I am weary of French officers, of these solemn officials
+who come to my room like guilty schoolboys, and who speak of themselves
+and their importance with bated breath, as though their whisper would
+rock the world. My master has enough information?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More than enough,&quot; he assured her. &quot;You have done your work
+wonderfully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I now deal with her?&quot; she continued, with a slight, eager
+movement of her head towards the opposite box.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is harmless, she and her entourage,&quot; he replied. &quot;Some stroke of
+good fortune brought them word of the meeting between myself and
+Immelan, and beyond that they guessed at its significance. They were at
+the shed to watch my arrival. Now, with their mouths open, they sit and
+wait for the information which they hope will drop in. They are very
+ingenuous, these Anglo-Saxons, but they are not diplomats.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head and looked across the auditorium. Maggie was talking
+to a man whom Nigel had just brought in, and who was bending over her in
+obvious admiration. Nita, with her wealth of cosmetics, her over-red
+lips, stared curiously at this possible rival, with her clear skin, her
+beautiful neck and shoulders, her hair dressed close to her head, her
+air of quiet, almost singular distinction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The young lady,&quot; she confessed, &quot;wears her clothes well for an English
+woman. She is <i>bien soign&eacute;e</i>, but she looks a little difficult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes followed the direction of hers, and her object was achieved.
+She read correctly the light that gleamed in them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I may come to-night?&quot; she asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not again,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>A violinist now held the stage, a Pole newly come to London. La Belle
+Nita closed her eyes. For a few minutes her sorrow seemed to throb to
+the minor music to which she was listening.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For all my work, then,&quot; she said presently, &quot;for the suffering and the
+risk, there is to be nothing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it nothing for you to be invited to live in whatsoever manner you
+choose?&quot; he remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is little,&quot; she replied steadily. &quot;There are a dozen who would do
+this for me, who pray every day that they may do so. What are all these
+things beside the love of my master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her a little sadly, yet without any sign of real feeling.
+To him she represented nothing more than a doll with brains, from whose
+intelligence he had profited, but of whose beauty he was weary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know what our poet says, Nita,&quot; he reminded her. &quot;'Love is like the
+rustling of the wind in the almond trees before dawn.' We cannot command
+it. It comes to us or leaves us without reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked across the auditorium once more and spoke with her head
+turned away from her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one in the East,&quot; she said, &quot;because those who write me
+weekly send news of my lord's doings. There is no one in the East,
+because there they give the body who know nothing of the soul. And so my
+Prince is safe amongst them. But here&mdash;these western women have other
+gifts. Is that she, master of my life and soul?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met her this evening for the first time,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed drearily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eyes may meet in the street without speech, a glance may burn its way
+into the soul. Once I thought that I might love again, because a
+stranger smiled at me in the Bois, and he had grey eyes, and that look
+about his mouth which a woman craves for. He passed on, and I forgot.
+You see, my lord was still there.&mdash;So this is the woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who knows?&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan came into the box a little abruptly. There was a cloud upon his
+face which he did his best to conceal. Almost simultaneously, a
+messenger from behind the scenes arrived for Nita. She rose to her feet
+and wrapped her green cloak closely around her lissom figure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a quarter of an hour,&quot; she said, &quot;I have to appear again. It is to
+be good-night, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the appeal which knows no
+nationality shone out of their velvety depths. She stood before him
+simply, like a slave who pleads. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face
+moved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is to be good-night, Nita,&quot; he answered calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Her head drooped, and she passed out. She had the air of a flower whose
+petals have been bruised. Immelan looked after her curiously, almost
+compassionately.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is finished, then, with the little one, Prince?&quot; he enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is finished,&quot; was the calm reply.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan stroked his short moustache thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it wise?&quot; he ventured. &quot;She has been faithful and assiduous. She
+knows many things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's eyes were filled with mild wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has had some years of my occasional companionship,&quot; he said. &quot;It is
+surely as much as she could hope for or expect. We are not like you
+Westerners, Immelan,&quot; he went on. &quot;Our women are the creatures of our
+will. We call them, or we send them away. They know that, and they are
+prepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems a little brutal,&quot; Immelan muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You prefer your method?&quot; his companion asked. &quot;Yet you practise deceit.
+Your fancy wanders, and you lie about it. You lose your dignity, my
+friend. No woman is worth a man's lie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was leaning back in his chair, gazing steadfastly across the
+crowded theatre.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your principles,&quot; he said, &quot;are suited to your own womenkind. La Belle
+Nita has become westernised. Are you sure that she accepts the situation
+as she would if she dwelt with you in Pekin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am her master,&quot; Prince Shan declared calmly. &quot;I have made no promises
+that I have not fulfilled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The promise between a man and a woman is an unspoken one,&quot; Immelan
+persisted. &quot;You have not been in Europe for five months. All that time
+she has awaited you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something else has happened,&quot; Prince Shan said deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since your arrival in London?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since my arrival in London, since I stepped out of my ship last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was frankly incredulous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean Lady Maggie Trent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly! I have always felt that some day or other my thoughts would
+turn towards one of these strange, western women. That time has come.
+Lady Maggie possesses those charms which come from the brain, yet which
+appeal more deeply than any other to the subtle desires of the poet, the
+man of letters and the philosopher. She is very wonderful, Immelan. I
+thank you for your introduction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan ceased to caress his moustache. He leaned back in his chair and
+gazed at his companion. For many years he and the Prince had been
+associates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even begun to
+understand him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you forget, Prince,&quot; he said, &quot;that Lady Maggie and her friends are
+in the opposite camp. When our agreement is concluded and known to the
+world, she will look upon you as an enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As yet,&quot; Prince Shan answered calmly, &quot;our agreement is not concluded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat
+prevented an expression of anger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, Prince,&quot; he expostulated, &quot;apart from political considerations,
+you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you
+and Lady Maggie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; was the cool reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie is of the English nobility,&quot; Immelan pointed out. &quot;Neither
+she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in
+the nature of a morganatic alliance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would not be necessary,&quot; Prince Shan declared. &quot;It is in my mind to
+offer her marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his
+pocket. He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marriage?&quot; he muttered. &quot;You are not serious!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am entirely serious,&quot; the Prince insisted. &quot;I can understand your
+amazement, Immelan. When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it
+as I would at a weed. But we who have studied in the West have learnt
+certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.
+All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.
+From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity: devotion to our country
+and singleness of purpose. Over here, though, one has also learnt
+something. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the Shans must seek not
+for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate. If
+their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of
+his life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was speechless. There was something final and convincing in his
+companion's measured words. His own protest, when at last he spoke,
+sounded paltry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But supposing it is true that she is already engaged to Lord
+Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That,&quot; he said, &quot;can easily be disposed of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But do you seriously believe that you would be able to induce her to
+return with you to Pekin?&quot; Immelan persisted.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment it chanced that Maggie turned her head and looked across
+at the two men. Prince Shan leaned a little forward to meet her gaze.
+His face was expressionless. The lines of his mouth were calm and
+restful, yet in his eyes there glowed for a single moment the fire of a
+man who looks upon the thing he covets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I seriously believe it,&quot; he answered under his breath.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XVI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Maggie leaned back in her chair with a little sigh of content. The
+scarlet-coated waiter had just removed their tea tray, a pleasant breeze
+was rustling through the leaves of the trees under which she and Prince
+Shan were seated. From the distance came the low strains of a military
+band. Everywhere on the lawns and along the paths men and women were
+promenading.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confess that this is better than Rumpelmayer's or the Ritz,&quot; she
+murmured lazily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is better,&quot; he admitted. &quot;It is a very wonderful place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have nothing like it in China?&quot; she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would not be possible,&quot; he answered. &quot;Democracy there is confined to
+politics. In other respects, our class prejudices are far more rigid
+than yours. But then I see a great change in this country since I was
+here as a student.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have lost your affection for it, perhaps?&quot; she ventured, looking at
+him through half-closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On the contrary,&quot; he assured her, &quot;my gratitude towards her was never
+so great as at this moment. Your country has given me nothing I prize
+so much, Lady Maggie, as my knowledge of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked away from his very earnest eyes, and the light retort died
+away upon her lips. The men and women whom she watched so steadfastly
+seemed like puppets, the flowers artificial, the music unreal. Already
+she was beginning to resent the influence which he was establishing over
+her. The art of badinage in which she was so proficient stood her in no
+stead. Words, even the power of light speech, had deserted her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me about the changes that you see,&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps,&quot; he replied, after a moment's hesitation, &quot;it is because I am
+an occasional visitor that differences seem so marked to me, but look at
+the tables there. That is the Duke of Illinton, is it not? At the next
+table, the man in the strange clothes and uncomfortable hat&mdash;it seems to
+me that I have seen him somewhere under different circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Life is a terrible hotchpotch nowadays,&quot; she admitted. &quot;After the war,
+our gentry and aristocracy who were not wealthy were taxed out of
+existence. The profiteers, and the men who had made fortunes during the
+war, took their place. It has made the country prosperous but less
+picturesque.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You put things very clearly,&quot; he said. &quot;To-day in England is certainly
+the day of the shopkeeper's triumph. Wealth is a great thing, but it is
+great only for what it leads to. I think your philosopher of the
+streets, your new school of politicians, have alike forgotten that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have lost sympathy with England, have you not, Prince Shan?&quot; Maggie
+asked him.</p>
+
+<p>He turned towards her, a faint but kindly smile upon his lips, a light
+in his eyes which she did not altogether understand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie,&quot; he said quietly, &quot;they tell me that you are interested in
+the political side of my visit to this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who tells you that?&quot; she demanded. &quot;What have I to do with politics?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have been gifted with great intelligence,&quot; he continued, &quot;and you
+are the confidante of your connection, Lord Dorminster. Lord Dorminster
+is one of those few Englishmen who realise the ill direction of the
+destinies of this country. You would like to help him in his present
+very strenuous efforts to ascertain the truth as to certain movements
+directed against the British Empire. That is so, is it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In plain words, you are accusing me of being a spy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, no!&quot; he protested gently. &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She knew better than to make the mistake of denial. After all, it was an
+absurdly unequal contest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not the only reason,&quot; she assured him, a little tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you see,&quot; he continued, after a moment's pause, &quot;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&mdash;you will not be
+offended?&mdash;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,&quot; he declared, rising to his feet. &quot;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,&quot; he
+went on, as they moved away together, &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie walked dutifully by his side, answering his frequent questions
+about flowers and shrubs, listening while he told her about his white
+peacocks 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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel so like a precocious child,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He seemed suddenly to become younger, to meet her upon her own ground.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please do not be angry,&quot; he begged. &quot;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&mdash;go on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught at his wrist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please not,&quot; she begged breathlessly. &quot;Be content with this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They had paused by the side of an arbour. She suddenly felt the
+pressure of his fingers upon her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be content,&quot; he said, in a low tone, the passion of which
+seemed to throw her senses into complete turmoil, &quot;only when I have what
+my heart desires. But I will wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any luck, Lady Maggie?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him, and to his amazement her eyes were swimming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that Prince Shan will be on our side,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XVII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will accept, I trust, sir,&quot; the latter begged, &quot;this assurance 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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very welcome,&quot; the Prime Minister assured him. &quot;As for the
+purpose of your mission, I assure 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 passed into the hands of the democracy,
+and that democracies will not tolerate war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There I join issue with you, sir,&quot; the Frenchman replied. &quot;These are
+the obvious and expressed views of other European countries, yet month
+by month come rumours of the training of great masses 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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Russian Government have certainly given us cause for complaint in
+that direction,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown admitted. &quot;Strong representations are
+being made to them at the present moment. On the other hand, the reason
+for their attitude 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 attitude is
+reasonable, although I am free to admit that she is carrying her
+legislation against foreigners too far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the number of men she has under arms every year?&quot; Monsieur
+Senn enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Russia has always a possible danger to fear from China, the new
+Colossus of Asia,&quot; the Prime Minister pointed out. &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must tell you before we part, Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot; he said gravely,
+&quot;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 class 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&mdash;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 gods could offer me, see France in the same
+helpless state as England is in to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister rose also to his feet. He wore an air of offended
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monsieur Senn,&quot; he declared, &quot;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 God that that sound
+is represented in our country by the roar of machinery and the blaze of
+furnaces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Frenchman bowed and accepted the hand which the Prime Minister
+offered him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I present to you once more, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;the compliments and
+infinite regrets of Monsieur le Pr&eacute;sident.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A chapter of English history ended with the quiet passing of Monsieur
+Senn into the sunlit street. The latter entered his waiting automobile
+and drove at once to the French Embassy. The Ambassador listened in
+silence to his report.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the Press?&quot; was his only question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monsieur le Pr&eacute;sident insists upon the truth being known,&quot; the emissary
+announced. &quot;France has pledged her word against secret treaties.
+Besides, the honour of France must never afterwards be called in
+question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Ambassador sighed. He was new to his present post, but he had grown
+grey in the service of his country.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the end of a one-sided arrangement,&quot; he declared. &quot;It is
+incredible that these people do not realise that it is against their own
+country&mdash;against themselves&mdash;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well said Carlyle that 'History is philosophy teaching by examples',&quot;
+the former expounded. &quot;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 <i>bourgeoisie</i>
+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!&mdash;Let
+us lunch, my friends. The cuisine is still good here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel excused himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am engaged,&quot; he said. &quot;We may meet afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something tells me, my dear Nigel,&quot; Karschoff declared, &quot;that you are
+bent on frivolity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If to lunch with a woman is frivolous, I plead guilty,&quot; Nigel replied.</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff's face was suddenly grave. He seemed on the point of saying
+something but checked himself and turned away with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Each one to his taste,&quot; he murmured. &quot;For my aperitif, a dash of
+absinthe in my cocktail; for Dorminster here, the lure of a woman's
+smile. Perhaps he gains. Who knows?&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XVIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel waited for his luncheon companion in the crowded vestibule of
+London's most famous club restaurant. He was to a certain extent out of
+the picture among the crowd of this new generation of pleasure seekers,
+on the faces of whom opulence and acquisitiveness had already laid its
+branding hand. The Mecca alike of musical comedy and the Stock Exchange,
+the place, however, still preserved a curious attraction for the foreign
+element in London, so that when at last Naida appeared, she was
+exchanging courtesies with an Italian Duchess on one side and a
+celebrated Russian dancer on the other. Nigel led her at once to the
+table which he had selected in the balcony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have obeyed your wishes to the letter,&quot; he said, &quot;and I think that
+you are right. Up here we are entirely alone, and, as you see, they have
+had the sense to place the tables a long way apart. Am I to blame, I
+wonder, for asking you to do so unconventional a thing as to lunch here
+again alone with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She drew off her gloves and smiled across the table at him. Her plain,
+tailor-made gown, with its high collar, was the last word in elegance.
+The simplicity of her French hat was to prove the despair of a
+well-known modiste seated downstairs, who made a sketch of it on the
+menu and tried in vain to copy it. Even to Nigel's exacting taste she
+was flawless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it unconventional?&quot; she asked carelessly. &quot;I do not study those
+things. I lunch or dine with a party, generally, because it happens so.
+I lunch alone with you because it pleases me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And for this material side of our entertainment?&quot; he enquired, smiling,
+as he handed her the menu card.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A grapefruit, a quail with white grapes, and some asparagus,&quot; she
+replied promptly. &quot;You see, in one respect I am an easy companion. I
+know exactly what I want. A mixed vermouth, if you like, yes. And now,
+tell me your news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is news,&quot; he announced, &quot;which the whole world will know of
+before many hours are past. France has broken her pact with England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my opinion,&quot; she said deliberately, &quot;that France has been very
+patient with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And mine,&quot; he acknowledged. &quot;We have now to see what will become of a
+fat and prosperous country with a semi-obsolete fleet and a comic opera
+army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Must we talk of serious things?&quot; she asked softly. &quot;I am weary of the
+clanking wheels of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet for you,&quot; he said, &quot;they are not grinding out the fate of your
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless, I too hear them all the time,&quot; she rejoined. &quot;And I hate
+them. They make one lose one's sense of proportion. After all, it is our
+own individual and internal life which counts. I can understand Nero
+fiddling while Rome burned, if he really had no power to call up fire
+engines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you an individualist?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not fundamentally,&quot; she replied, &quot;but I am caught up in the throes of a
+great reaction. I have been studying events, which it is quite true may
+change the destinies of the world, so intently that I have almost
+forgotten that, after all, the greatest thing in the world, my world, is
+the happiness or ill-content of Naida Karetsky. It is really of more
+importance to me to-day that my quail should be cooked as I like it than
+that England has let go her last rope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not an Englishwoman,&quot; he reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is of minor importance. We are all so much immersed in great
+affairs just now that we forget it is the small ones that count. I want
+my luncheon to be perfect, I want you to seem as nice to me as I have
+fancied you, and I want you to chase completely away the idea that you
+are cultivating my acquaintance for interested motives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I can assure you from the bottom of my heart is not the case,&quot; he
+replied. &quot;Whatever other interests I may feel in you,&quot; he added, after
+a moment's hesitation, &quot;my first and foremost is a personal one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes for his understanding.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A woman in my position,&quot; she complained, &quot;is out of place. A man ought
+to come over and study your deservings or your undeservings and pore
+over the problem of the future of Europe. I am a woman, and I am not big
+enough. I am too physical. I have forgotten how to enjoy myself, and I
+love pleasure. Now am I a revelation to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have always been that,&quot; he told her. &quot;You are so truthful
+yourself,&quot; he went on boldly, &quot;that I shall run the risk of saying the
+most banal thing in the world, just because it happens to be the truth.
+I have felt for you since our first meeting what I have felt for no
+other woman in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like that, and I am glad you said it,&quot; she declared lightly enough,
+although her lips quivered for a moment. &quot;And they have put exactly the
+right quantity of Maraschino in my grapefruit. I feel that I am on the
+way to happiness. I am going to enjoy my luncheon.&mdash;Tell me about
+Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw her yesterday,&quot; he answered. &quot;We have arranged for her to come
+and live at Belgrave Square, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My terrible altruism once more,&quot; she sighed. &quot;I had meant not to speak
+another serious word, and yet I must. Maggie is very clever, amazingly
+clever, I sometimes think, but if she had the brains of all of her sex
+rolled into one, she would still be facing now an impossible situation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what do you mean?&quot; he asked cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie seems determined to measure her wits with those of Prince Shan,&quot;
+she said. &quot;Believe me, that is hopeless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him and laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, my dear friend,&quot; she went on, &quot;that wooden expression is wonderful.
+You do not quite know where I stand, except&mdash;may I flatter myself?&mdash;as
+regards your personal feelings for me. Am I for Immelan and his schemes,
+or for your own foolish country? You do not know, so you make for
+yourself a face of wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where do you stand?&quot; he asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sufficiently devoted to your interests to beg you this,&quot; she replied.
+&quot;Do not let your little cousin think that she can deal with a man like
+Prince Shan. There can be only one end to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel moved a little uneasily in his place.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan is only an ordinary human being, after all,&quot; he protested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is just where you are mistaken,&quot; she declared. &quot;Prince Shan is one
+of the most extraordinary human beings who ever lived. He is one of the
+most farseeing men in the world, and he is absolutely the most
+powerful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But China,&quot; Nigel began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His power extends far beyond China,&quot; she interrupted, &quot;and there is no
+brain in the world to match his to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he were a god wielding thunderbolts,&quot; Nigel observed, &quot;he could
+scarcely do much harm to Maggie here in London.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was an artist once,&quot; she said reflectively, &quot;who drew a
+caricature of Prince Shan and sent it to the principal comic paper in
+America. It was such a success that a little time later on he followed
+it up with another, which included a line of Prince Shan's ancestors.
+Within a month's time the artist was found murdered. Prince Shan was in
+China at the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you suggesting that the artist was murdered through Prince Shan's
+contrivance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I a fool?&quot; she answered. &quot;Do you not know that to speak
+disrespectfully of the ancestors of a Chinaman is unforgivable? To all
+appearances Prince Shan never moved from his wonderful palace in Pekin,
+many thousands of miles away. Yet he lifted his little finger and the
+man died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't this a little melodramatic?&quot; Nigel murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Melodrama is often nearer the truth than people think,&quot; she said.
+&quot;Shall I give you another instance? I know of several.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One more, then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incognito,&quot; she continued.
+&quot;There was at the time a small but very fashionable restaurant in the
+Bois, close to the Pr&eacute; Catelan. He presented himself one night there for
+dinner, accompanied, I believe, by La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who
+is in London to-day. As you know, there is little in Prince Shan's
+appearance to denote the Oriental, but for some reason or other the
+proprietor refused him a table. Prince Shan made no scene. He left and
+went elsewhere. Three nights later, the caf&eacute; was burnt to the ground,
+and the proprietor was ruined.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything else?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only one thing more,&quot; she replied. &quot;I have known him slightly for
+years. In Asia he ranks to all men as little less than a god. His
+palaces are filled with priceless treasures. He has the finest
+collection of jewels in the world. His wealth is simply inexhaustible.
+His appearance you appreciate. Yet I have never seen him look at a woman
+as he looked at your cousin the first time he met her. I was at the Ritz
+with my father, and I watched. I know you think that I am being foolish.
+I am not. I am a person with a very great deal of common sense, and I
+tell you that Prince Shan has never desired a thing in life to which he
+has not helped himself. Maggie is a clever child, but she cannot toss
+knives with a conjuror.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was impressed and a little worried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems absurd to think that anything could happen to Maggie here in
+London,&quot; he said, &quot;after&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused abruptly. Naida smiled at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After her escape from Germany, I suppose you were going to say? You
+see, I know all about it. There was no Prince Shan in Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders slightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; he admitted, &quot;I don't quite bring myself to believe in your
+terrible ogre, so I shall not worry. Tell me what news you have from
+Russia?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Political?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I notice,&quot; she said, &quot;that English people are changing their attitude
+towards my country. A few years ago she seemed negligible to them. Now
+they are beginning to have&mdash;shall I call them fears? Even my kind host,
+I think, would like to know what is in Paul Matinsky's heart as he hears
+the friends of Oscar Immelan plead their cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I admit it,&quot; he told her frankly. &quot;I will go farther. I would give a
+great deal to know what is in your own mind to-day concerning us and our
+destiny. But these things are not for the moment. It was not to discuss
+or even to think of them that I asked you here to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why did you invite me, then?&quot; she asked, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I wanted the pleasure of having you opposite me,&quot; he
+replied,&mdash;&quot;because I wanted to know you better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And are you progressing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indifferently well,&quot; he acknowledged. &quot;I seem to gain a little and
+slide back again. You are not an easy person to know well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing that is worth having is easy,&quot; she answered, &quot;and I can assure
+you, when my friendship is once gained, it is a rare and steadfast
+thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And your affection?&quot; he ventured.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes rested upon his for a moment and then suddenly drooped. A
+little tinge of colour stole into her cheeks. For a moment she seemed to
+have lost her admirable poise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not easily disturbed,&quot; she told him quietly. &quot;I think that I
+must have an unfortunate temperament, there are so few people for whom I
+really care.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He took his courage into both hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard it rumoured,&quot; he said, &quot;that Matinsky is the only man who
+has ever touched your heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not the truth. Paul Matinsky cares for me in his strange way,
+and he has a curiously exaggerated appreciation of my brain. There have
+been times,&quot; she went on, after a moment's hesitation, &quot;when I myself
+have been disturbed by fancies concerning him, but those times have
+passed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad,&quot; he said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>His fingers, straying across the tablecloth, met hers. She did not
+withdraw them. He clasped her hand, and it remained for a moment passive
+in his. Then she withdrew it and leaned back in her chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that meant to introduce a more intimate note into our conversation?&quot;
+she asked, with a slight wrinkling of the forehead and the beginnings of
+a smile upon her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I dared, I would answer 'yes',&quot; he assured her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They tell me,&quot; she continued pensively, &quot;that Englishmen more than any
+other men in the world have the flair for saying convincingly the things
+which they do not mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In my case, that would not be true,&quot; he answered. &quot;My trouble is that I
+dare not say one half of what I feel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked across the table at him, and Nigel suddenly felt a great
+weight of depression lifted from his heart. He forgot all about his
+country's peril. Life and its possibilities seemed somehow all
+different. He was carried away by a rare wave of emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were soft and expectant. Something of the gravity had gone from
+her face. She was like a girl, suddenly young with new thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know what I am going to say to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not say it yet, please,&quot; she begged. &quot;Somehow it seems to me that
+the time has not come, though the thought of what may be in your heart
+is wonderful. I want to dream about it first,&quot; she went on. &quot;I want to
+think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, a strange sound almost to his own ears, for Nigel, since his
+uncle's death, had tasted the very depths of depression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I obey,&quot; he agreed. &quot;It is well to dally with the great things.
+Meanwhile, they grow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled across at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope that they may,&quot; she answered. &quot;And you will ask me to lunch
+again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lunch or dine or walk or motor&mdash;whatever you will,&quot; he promised.</p>
+
+<p>She reflected for a moment and then laughed. She was drawing on her
+gloves now, and Nigel was paying the bill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are some people who will not like this,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And one,&quot; he declared, &quot;for whom it is going to make life a Paradise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They passed out into the street and strolled leisurely westwards. As
+they crossed Trafalgar Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
+spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion seemed suddenly
+surrounded by placards, all with the same headlines. They paused to
+read:</p>
+
+<center><i>TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR</i><br />
+<i>HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT</i><br />
+<i>TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX</i></center>
+
+<p>They walked on. Naida said nothing, although she shook her head a little
+sorrowfully. Nigel glanced across the Square and down towards
+Westminster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will shout themselves hoarse there this afternoon,&quot; he groaned.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of coming events.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is amazing,&quot; she whispered, &quot;for the writing on the wall is already
+there.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XIX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert Hall, in the
+gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff officer in the Russian Imperial
+Forces, Prince Karschoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
+other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene below and around.
+The greatest city the world has ever known seemed in those days to have
+entered upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in history. Every box
+and every yard of dancing space on the floor beneath was crowded with
+men and women in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked with
+jewels which eager merchants had brought together from every market of
+the world; even the men, in their silks and velvets and ruffles,
+carrying out the dominant note of wealth. It was a ball given for
+charity and under royal patronage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All our friends seem to be here to-night,&quot; the Prince remarked,
+glancing around. &quot;I saw Naida with her father and the eternal Oscar
+Immelan. Chalmers is here with an exceedingly gay party, and yonder sits
+his Imperial Highness, looking very much the barbaric prince.&mdash;By the
+by,&quot; he added, glancing towards Maggie, &quot;I thought that he was not
+coming?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie, who seemed a little tired, nodded quietly. It was a week or ten
+days later, and an early season was now in full swing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He told me that he was not coming,&quot; she said. &quot;I suppose the temptation
+to wear that gorgeous raiment was too much for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Apropos of that, there is one curious thing to be noted here with
+regard to clothes,&quot; the Prince continued. &quot;Amongst the men, you find
+Venetian Doges, Chancellors, gallants of every age, but scarcely a
+single uniform. In a way, this seems typical of the passing of the
+militarism of your country. You are beginning to remind me of Venice in
+the Middle Ages. There is a new type of brain dominant here, fat instead
+of muscle, a citizen aristocracy instead of the lean, clear-eyed,
+athletic type.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie moved in her place a little irritably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am tired of warnings,&quot; she declared. &quot;I wish some one could do
+something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible,&quot; the Prince pronounced solemnly. &quot;Napoleon earned for
+himself a greater claim to immortality when he christened the English a
+nation of shopkeepers than when he won the Battle of Austerlitz. If the
+Englishman of to-day saw his material prosperity slipping away from him,
+then indeed he would be nervous and restless, ready to lean towards
+every wind that blew, to listen to every disquieting rumour. To-day his
+bank balance is prodigious, and all's well with the world.&mdash;How
+wonderfully Prince Shan lives up to his part to-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They looked across towards the opposite box, whose single occupant, in
+the bright green robes of a mandarin, sat looking down upon the gay
+throng with an absolutely immovable expression. There was something
+almost regal about his air of detachment, his solitude amidst such a gay
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is one of the strangest and most consistent figures in history,&quot;
+Karschoff, who was in a talkative frame of mind, went on reflectively.
+&quot;I honestly believe that Prince Shan considers himself to be of
+celestial descent, to carry in his person the honour of countless
+generations of Manchus. He has no intimates. Even Immelan usually has to
+seek an audience. What his pleasures may be, who knows?&mdash;because
+everything that happens with him happens behind closed walls. To-night,
+the door of his box is guarded as though he were more than royalty. No
+one is allowed to enter unless he has special permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is some one entering now,&quot; Maggie pointed out, &quot;for the first
+time. Watch!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita stood for a moment in the front of the box. She was
+dressed in the gala costume of a Chinese lady, in a cherry-coloured robe
+with wide sleeves, her hair, with its many jewelled ornaments, like a
+black pool of night, her face ghastly white with a superabundance of
+powder. Prince Shan turned his head slightly towards her, and though no
+muscle of his face moved, it was obvious that her coming was unwelcome.
+She began to talk. He listened with the face of a sphinx. Presently she
+drew back into the shadows of the box. She had thrown herself into a
+chair, and her face was hidden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Belle Nita has made a mistake,&quot; Maggie observed. &quot;His Serene
+Highness evidently had no wish to be disturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff's eyes rested upon the figure in green silk, and they were
+filled with an unwilling admiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That man is magnificent,&quot; he declared. &quot;Watch his face now that he is
+speaking. Not a muscle moves, not a flash in his eyes, yet one has the
+fancy that he is saying terrible things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious, a moment later, that La Belle Nita had left the box.
+Maggie sprang up. Her colour was a little heightened. There was a rare
+nervousness in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us walk around and find some of the others,&quot; she suggested, turning
+to Nigel. &quot;I want to dance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They all three passed out and mingled with the dancers. Maggie put on
+her mask and deliberately glided into the crowd as though with the
+intention of losing herself. It was not until she was underneath Prince
+Shan's box and out of sight of its occupant that she paused. Her
+thoughts were in a turmoil. His presence there, after his deliberate
+assurance to her that he had no intention of coming, his calm and
+unnoticing regard of her and every one else, seemed to confirm in every
+way the wave of pessimism which she as well as Nigel was experiencing.
+She had passed Immelan in the entrance, and there was something
+ominously disturbing in his cool, triumphant smile. She pictured to
+herself the agreement signed, some nameless terror already launched. She
+remembered that Nigel had complained of Naida's inaccessibility during
+the last few days. She herself had been surprised at Prince Shan's
+apparent withdrawal, temporary though it might be, from the peculiar but
+impressive position which he had taken up with regard to her.</p>
+
+<p>She stood back against the wall, in a dark corner, striving to collect
+her thoughts, thankful for the brief respite from conversation. A man in
+the costume of a monk, who had followed her across the room, touched her
+on the shoulder. He spoke in a quiet, unfamiliar voice with a foreign
+accent,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Lady Maggie Trent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you please go to box number fourteen, on the second tier? There is
+some one there who waits for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is it?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>The monk had glided away. Maggie, after a few minutes' reflection,
+slipped out into the corridor, mounted one flight of stairs, and passed
+along the semicircular balcony. The door of box number fourteen was
+ajar. She pushed it gently open and glanced in. Seated so as to be out
+of sight of the whole house was La Belle Nita. For a moment the two
+looked at each other. Then the Chinese girl sprang to her feet, made a
+quaint little bow, and, gliding around, closed the door behind her
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down, please,&quot; she invited. &quot;I will tell you things you may like to
+hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A sudden thought flashed into Maggie's mind. She began to see light. She
+obeyed at once. The two women sat well back and out of sight of the
+house. La Belle Nita held the handle of the door in her hand while she
+spoke, as though to prevent any one entering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an enemy who was once a friend,&quot; she said, &quot;and I wish to do him
+evil. He is not only my enemy, but he is yours. He is the enemy of all
+you English people, because it is a great disaster which he plans to
+bring upon you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You speak of Prince Shan?&quot; Maggie exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Even at the mention of his name, the girl shook. She looked around as
+though fearing the shadows. She rattled the door to make sure that it
+was closed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For him whom you call Prince Shan I have worked many years, first of
+all in Paris, now here. I was content with small reward. That reward he
+now takes from me. It is my wish to betray him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you send for me?&quot; Maggie asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you have been an English spy,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;It may
+surprise you that I know that, but I do know. I have been a spy for
+Prince Shan in Paris. You were a spy for England in Berlin. You were a
+spy for your country's sake; I was a spy for love. Now I betray for
+hate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan came this time to Europe with two schemes in his mind,&quot; the
+girl continued. &quot;One concerned France. That one he has discarded.
+Through me he learned of the military strength of France, her secret
+resources, of her tireless watch upon the Rhine. So he listens to
+Immelan, and Immelan and he together, oh, English lady, they have made a
+wonderful plan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you going to tell me what it is?&quot; Maggie asked, her eyes bright
+with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot tell you because I do not know,&quot; was the unwilling admission,
+&quot;but I will make it so that you can discover for yourself. A few hours
+ago, the plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the third drawer
+of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the left-hand side of the hall after
+you have entered his house in Curzon Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But no one can enter it!&quot; Maggie exclaimed. &quot;The place is like a fort.
+No stranger may pass the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
+that he receives no visitors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita smiled. From a pocket somewhere within the folds of her
+flowing gown, she produced two small keys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; she said. &quot;The house in Curzon Street has been called the
+House of Silence. There are many servants there, but they come only from
+beneath and when they are summoned. There is what no other person has
+ever possessed&mdash;the key of the front door. There is also the key of the
+cabinet. Prince Shan has ordered his automobile for two o'clock. It is
+now barely midnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The keys lay in the palm of Maggie's hand. Her heart had begun to beat
+quickly. Somehow or other, she was conscious of a thrill of excitement
+which she had never before experienced, even when she had sat back in
+her corner of the railway carriage, watching for the frontier, knowing
+that the wires were busy with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
+were on her track.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the servants should hear me?&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say only 'I await the Prince',&quot; La Belle Nita murmured. &quot;That key
+never leaves his own person save for one in great favour. They will
+believe that he gave it to you. You will be unmolested.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A queer sensation suddenly assailed Maggie. She felt extraordinarily
+primitive, ridiculously feminine. She looked at the girl opposite to
+her, the girl whose body was draped in perfumed silks, whose face was
+thick with rice powder, whose eyes were sad. She felt no pity. What
+feeling she had, she did not care to analyse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this your key?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was mine once, but its use has been forbidden to me,&quot; the girl
+replied. &quot;Prince Shan is a changed man. Something has come into his life
+of which I know nothing, but as it has come, so must I go. I give you
+your chance, lady, but already I weaken. Go quickly, if you go at all.
+Please leave me, for I am very unhappy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie stole quietly out and made her way through the jostling throng
+back to her own box, which for the moment was empty. She slipped on her
+cloak, and from the hidden spaces where she stood she looked across the
+auditorium. The silent figure in green silk robes was still seated in
+his place, his eyes following the movements of the dancers, his head a
+little thrown back, a slight weariness in his face. He was still alone.
+He still had the air of being alone because it was his desire. Once he
+looked up towards the box in which she was, and Maggie, although she
+knew she was invisible, shrank back against the wall. She set her teeth
+hard and looked back through the slightly misty space. An unfamiliar
+feeling for a moment almost choked her. She waited until she had
+vanquished it, then adjusted her mask and left the box.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>From the moment when the taxicab drove away and left her in the deserted
+street, Maggie was conscious of a strange sense of suppressed
+excitement, something more poignant and mysterious, even, than the
+circumstances of her adventure might account for. It was exciting
+enough, in its way, to play the part of a marauding thief, to find
+herself unexpectedly face to face with a possible solution of the great
+problem of Prince Shan's intentions. But beneath all this there was
+another feeling, more entirely metaphysical, which in a sense steadied
+her nerves because it filled her with a strange impression that she had
+lost her own identity, that she was playing somebody else's part in a
+novel and thrilling drama.</p>
+
+<p>The street was empty when she inserted the little key in the front door.
+There was not a soul there to see her step in as it swung open and then
+softly, noiselessly, but without any conscious effort of hers, closed
+again behind her. She held her breath and looked around.</p>
+
+<p>The hall was round, painted white and dimly lit by an overhead electric
+globe. In the centre was a huge green vase filled with great branches of
+some sort of blossoms. Not a picture hung upon the walls, nor was there
+any hall stand, chest, closet for coats or hats, or any of the usual
+furbishings of such a place. There were three rugs upon the polished
+floor and nothing else except a yawning stairway and closed doors.
+Whatever servants might be in attendance were evidently in a distant
+part of the building. Not a sound was to be heard. Still without any
+lack of courage, but oppressed with that curious sense of unreality, she
+turned almost automatically towards the door on the left and opened it.
+Again it closed behind her noiselessly. She realised that she was in one
+of the principal reception rooms of the house, dimly lit as the hall
+from a dome-shaped globe set into the ceiling. She moved a yard or two
+across the threshold and stood looking about her. Here again there was
+an almost singular absence of furniture. The walls were hung with
+apple-green silk, richly embroidered. There were some rugs upon the
+polished floor, a few quaintly carved chairs set with their backs
+against the wall, and opposite to her the ebony cabinet of which La
+Belle Nita had spoken. She moved towards it. Somehow or other, she found
+herself with the other key in her hand, stooping down. She counted the
+drawers&mdash;one, two three&mdash;fitted in the key, turned it, and realised with
+a little start the presence in the drawer of a roll of parchment, tied
+around with tape and sealed with a black seal. She laid her hand upon
+it, but even at that moment she felt a shiver pass through her body.
+There had been no sound in the room, which she could have sworn had been
+empty when she entered it, yet she had now a conviction that she was not
+alone. She turned slowly around, her lips parted, breathing quickly.
+Standing in the middle of the room, a grim, commanding figure in his
+flowing green robes, the dim light flashing upon the great diamonds in
+his belt, stood Prince Shan.</p>
+
+<p>To Maggie at that moment came a great throbbing in her ears, a sense of
+remoteness from this terrible happening, followed by an intense and
+vital consciousness of danger. The man who had brought new things into
+her life, the polished gentleman of the world, with his fascinating
+brain and gentle courtesy, had gone. It was Prince Shan of China who
+stood there. She felt the chill of his contempt and disapproval in her
+heart. She had forfeited her high estate. She was a convicted thief,&mdash;an
+adventuress!</p>
+
+<p>She gripped at the side of the cabinet. Her poise had gone. She had the
+air of a trapped animal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;How did you get here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He answered her without change of expression. A sense of crisis seemed
+to have made his tone more level, his face stony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my house,&quot; he said. &quot;I do not often leave it. I sat in my
+sleeping chamber behind&quot;&mdash;he pointed to the silken curtains through
+which he had passed&mdash;&quot;I heard your entrance and guessed with pain and
+regret at your mission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But a quarter of an hour ago you were at the ball!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are mistaken,&quot; he replied. &quot;I do not attend such gatherings. I had
+given you my word that I should not be there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I saw you,&quot; she persisted, &quot;in that same costume!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely not,&quot; he dissented. &quot;The person whom you saw was a gentleman
+from my suite, who wore the dress of an inferior mandarin. He is
+sometimes supposed to resemble me. I should have believed that your
+apprehension of such things would have informed you that no Prince of my
+line would wear the garments of his order for a public show.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her fingers had left the drawer now. She stood upright, pale and
+desperate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That woman of your country, then&mdash;La Belle Nita&mdash;did she lie to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I tell?&quot; he answered coldly, &quot;because I do not know what she
+said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made an effort to test her position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came here as a thief,&quot; she confessed. &quot;I am detected. What are your
+intentions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He moved very slowly a little closer to her. Maggie felt her sense of
+excitement grow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came here as a thief,&quot; he repeated, &quot;as a spy. Why did you not ask
+me for the information you desired?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you would not have told me,&quot; she replied, &quot;at least you would
+not have told me the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a price,&quot; he said, &quot;the truth would have been yours for the asking.
+For a different price it is yours now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again without noticeable movement he seemed to have drawn nearer. The
+edge of that cool ebony cabinet seemed to be burning her fingers. Try
+however hard, she could not frame the question which had risen to her
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The price,&quot; he continued, &quot;is you&mdash;yourself. A few hours ago it was
+your love I craved for. Now it is yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so near to her now that she faced the steady radiance of his
+wonderful eyes, so near that she could trace the faint lines about his
+mouth, the strong, stern immobility of his perfectly shaped,
+olive-tinted features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are too wonderful,&quot; he went on, &quot;to remain a daughter of the crude
+West. I want to take you back with me to the land where life still moves
+to poetry, to the land where one can live in a world unknown by these
+struggling hordes. You shall live in a palace where the perfume of
+flowers lingers always, with the sound of running water in your ears, a
+palace from which all sordid things and all manner of ugliness are
+banished because we alone have found the key to the garden of
+happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He raised his hand, and it seemed as though unseen eyes watched them
+from every quarter. The silken curtains through which he had issued were
+drawn back by invisible hands, and the inner apartment was disclosed.
+Its faint illumination was obscured with purple shades. There was a high
+lacquer bedstead, with little ivory ladders on either side, a bedstead
+hung with silks of black and purple and mauve. There was a huge couch, a
+shrine opposite the bed, in which was a kneeling figure of black marble.
+A faint odour, as though from thousand-year-old sachets, very faint
+indeed and yet with its mead of intoxication, seemed to steal out from
+the room, which had borrowed from its curious hangings, its marvellous
+adornments, its strangely attuned atmosphere, all the mysticism of a
+fabled world.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have come,&quot; he said. &quot;Will you stay?&quot; The inertia seemed suddenly
+to leave her limbs. She threw up her head as though gasping for air,
+escaped, somehow or other, from the thrall of his eyes, and passed
+across the smooth floor with flying footsteps. Her fingers seized the
+handle of the door and turned it, only to find it held by some invisible
+fastening. She shook it passionately. There was not even sound. She
+turned back once more. Prince Shan had only slightly changed his
+position. He stood upon the threshold of the inner room, and his arms
+were outstretched in invitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I a prisoner?&quot; she sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came of your own free will,&quot; he replied. &quot;You will stay for my
+pleasure and for the joy of my being. As for these things,&quot; he went on,
+moving slowly to the cabinet, picking up the pile of papers and throwing
+them on one side contemptuously, &quot;these are only one's amusements. I
+pass my lighter hours with them. They interest me in the same manner as
+a chess problem. We do not care, we in the mighty East, which of you
+holds your head highest this side of Suez. All you western nations are
+to us a peck of dust outside our palace gates. Listen, dear one. We can
+leave, if you will, to-night, and top the clouds before sunrise. And I
+promise you this,&quot; he went on, &quot;when you pass from the greyness of these
+sordid lands into the everlasting sunshine of the East, you will not
+care any longer about these people who go about the world on all fours.
+Day by day you will know what life and love mean. You will find the
+cloying weight of material things pass from your brain and body, and the
+joy of holy and wonderful living take their place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her whole being was in a turmoil. She drew nearer to the papers upon the
+table. She was now within a yard of Prince Shan himself. He made no
+effort to intercept her, no movement of any sort to stop her. Only his
+eyes never left her face, and she felt a madness which seemed to be
+choking the life out of her, a pounding of her heart against her ribs, a
+strange and wonderful joy, a joy in which there was no fear, a joy of
+new things and new hopes. With the papers for which she had come only a
+few yards away, she forgot them. She turned her head slowly. His arms
+seemed to steal out from those long, silken sleeves. She suddenly felt
+herself held in a wonderful embrace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear lady of all my desires,&quot; he whispered in her ear, &quot;you shall make
+me happy and find the secret of happiness yourself in giving, in
+suffering, in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a long and wonderful moment she lay in his arms. She felt the soft
+burning of his kisses, the call of the room with its intoxicating, yet
+strangely ascetic perfume, the room to which all the time he seemed to
+be gently leading her. And then a flood of strange, alien recollections
+and realisations seemed to bring her from a better place back to a
+worse,&mdash;the sound of a passing taxicab, the distant booming of Big Ben,
+sounds of the world outside, the actual day-by-day world, with its
+day-by-day code of morals, the world in which she lived, and her
+friends, and all that had made life for her. She drew away, and he
+watched the change in her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want to go!&quot; she cried. &quot;Let me go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are no prisoner,&quot; he assured her sadly.</p>
+
+<p>He clapped his hands. She had reached the door by now and found the
+handle yield to her fingers. Outside in the hall, the front door stood
+open, and a heavy rain was beating in on the white flags. She looked
+around. She was in her own atmosphere here. Their eyes met, and his were
+very sorrowful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My servants are assembling,&quot; he said. &quot;You will find a car at your
+service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even then she hesitated. There was a strange return of the wonderful
+emotion of a few minutes ago. She hoped almost painfully that he would
+call. Instead, he lifted the silk hangings and passed out of sight.
+Somehow or other, she made her way down the hall. A butler stood upon
+the steps, another servant was holding open the door of a limousine just
+drawn up. She had no distinct recollection of giving any address. She
+simply threw herself back amongst the cushions. It was not until they
+were in Piccadilly that she suddenly remembered that she had left upon
+the table the papers he had scornfully offered her. Then she began to
+laugh.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>It chanced that the box was empty when Maggie, with flying footsteps,
+hastened down the corridor and pushed open the door. She sank into a
+chair, her knees trembling, her senses still dazed. Deliberately,
+although with hot and trembling fingers, she folded over and tore into
+small pieces a programme of the dances, which she had picked up from an
+adjoining chair. The action, insignificant though it was, seemed to
+bring her back into touch with the real and actual world, the world of
+music and wild gayety, of swiftly moving feet, of laughter and
+languorous voices. For a brief space of time she had escaped, she had
+wandered a little way into an unknown country, a country from whose
+thrilling dangers she had emerged with a curious feeling that life would
+never be altogether the same again. She glanced at the clock at the back
+of the box. She had been absent from the Hall altogether only about an
+hour and twenty minutes. There was still at least an hour before it
+would be possible for her to plead weariness and escape. And opposite,
+in the shadows of the distant box, the mock Prince Shan seemed always to
+be gazing at her with that cryptic smile upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the door was stealthily opened. A face as pale as death, with
+black eyes like pieces of coal, was framed for a moment in the shadowed
+slit. A little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle Nita, her
+flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she recognised the sole occupant
+of the box, crept through the opening and closed the door again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are here?&quot; she exclaimed incredulously. &quot;Your courage failed you?
+You did not go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been and returned,&quot; Maggie answered. &quot;Now tell me what I have
+done that you should have plotted this thing against me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a moment hummed the refrain
+of a sad chant, as she rocked slowly backwards and forwards.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What have you done?' the rose asked the butterfly. 'What have you
+done?' the mimosa blossom asked the little blue bird, whose wings
+fluttered amongst her leaves. 'You have taken love from me, love which
+is the blossom of life.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds very picturesque,&quot; Maggie said coldly, &quot;but I do not follow
+your allegory. What I want to know is why you lied to me, why you sent
+me to that house to meet Prince Shan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did I lie to you?&quot; Nita demanded. &quot;The papers you sought were
+there. Were they not yours for the asking, or was the price too great?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The papers were there, certainly,&quot; Maggie acquiesced, &quot;but you knew
+very well&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stopped short. Slowly the Oriental idea of it all was beginning to
+frame itself in her mind. She dimly understood the bewilderment in the
+other's face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The papers were there, and he, the most wonderful of all men, was
+there,&quot; Nita murmured, &quot;yet you leave him while the night is yet young,
+you return here without them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie rose from her chair, moved to the side table and poured herself
+out a glass of wine, which she drank hastily. Anything to escape from
+the scornful wonder of those questioning eyes!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not go there,&quot; she said, &quot;to make bargains with Prince Shan. I
+believed as you wished me to believe, that he was here in that box. I
+believed that I should have found the house empty, should have found
+what I wanted and have escaped with it. Why did you do this thing? Why
+did you send me on that errand when you knew that Prince Shan was
+there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was my desire that he should know that you are no different from
+other women,&quot; was the calm reply. &quot;I was a spy for him. You are a
+spy&mdash;against him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a deliberate plot, then!&quot; Maggie exclaimed, trying to feel the
+anger which she imparted to her tone.</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a bird.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You very, very foolish Englishwoman,&quot; she said. &quot;A hand leaned down
+from Heaven, and you liked better to stay where you were, but I am
+glad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I have been his slave,&quot; the girl continued. &quot;At odd, strange
+moments he has shown me a little love, he has let me creep into a small
+corner of his heart. Now I am cast out, and there is no more life for me
+because there is no more love, and there is no more love because, having
+felt his, no other can come after. Here have I sat with all the tortures
+of Hell burning in my blood because I knew that you and he were there
+alone, because I was never sure that, after all, I was not doing my
+lord's will. And now I know that I suffered in vain. You did not
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie looked across at her visitor reflectively. She was beginning to
+regain her poise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; she said, &quot;did you seriously expect me to accept Prince Shan
+as a lover?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl's eyes were round with wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be your great good fortune,&quot; she murmured, &quot;if he should offer
+you so wonderful a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie laughed,&mdash;persisted in her laugh, although it sounded a little
+hard and the mirth a little forced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot reason with you,&quot; she declared, &quot;because you would not
+understand. If you love him so much, why not go back to him? You will
+find him quite alone. I dare say you know the secrets of his lockless
+doors and hordes of unseen servants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita rose to her feet. About her lips there flickered the
+faintest smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Young English lady,&quot; she said, &quot;I shall not go, because I am shut for
+ever out of his heart. But listen; would you have me go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Maggie's poise was gone again. A strange uncertainty was
+once more upon her. She was terrified at her own feelings. The smile on
+the other's lips deepened and then passed away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; she murmured, as with a little bow she turned towards the door,
+&quot;you are not all snow and ice, then! There is something of the woman in
+you. He must have known that. I am better content.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Alone in the box, Maggie was confronted once more with spectres. She
+felt all the fear and the sweetness of this new awakening. The old
+dangers and problems, the danger of life and death, the problem of her
+well-ordered days, fell away from her as trifles. There was wilder music
+in the world than any to which she had yet listened,&mdash;music which seemed
+to be awakening vibrant melodies in her terrified heart. The curtain
+which hung about the forbidden world had been suddenly lifted. Little
+shivers of fear convulsed her. Her standards were confused, her whole
+sense of values disturbed. Her primal virginity, left to itself because
+it had never needed a guard, had suddenly become a questioning thing.
+She sat there face to face with this new phase in her life. She was not
+even conscious of the abrupt pause in the music, the agitated murmur of
+voices, the sudden cessation of that rhythmical sweep of footsteps on
+the floor below.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the box was once more opened. Naida, attired as a lady of
+the Russian Court, entered, followed by Nigel. Both were obviously
+disturbed. Nigel, who was in ordinary evening dress, carrying his
+discarded mask in his hand, was paler than usual and exceedingly grave.
+Naida's dark eyes, too, seemed filled with a sense of awesome things.
+Almost at the same moment, Maggie realised for the first time that the
+music had ceased, that there was a hush outside, curiously perceptible,
+almost audible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What has happened?&quot; she asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel had poured out a glass of wine and was holding it to Naida's lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something very terrible,&quot; he said quietly. &quot;Prince Shan was murdered in
+his box there a few minutes ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie half rose to her feet. The walls seemed spinning round. Then she
+looked across the great empty space. The still figure in the apple-green
+coat had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan was murdered in that box,&quot; she repeated, &quot;a few minutes
+ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Nigel assented gravely. &quot;He seems to have feared something of the
+sort, for he had two servants on guard outside and announced that he
+was not receiving visitors to-night. No one knows any particulars, but a
+number of people in the auditorium saw him fall sideways from his chair.
+When he was picked up, there was a small dagger through his heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Through Prince Shan's heart?&quot; Maggie persisted wildly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she began to laugh. It was a strange, hysterical ebullition of
+feeling, frankly horrifying. Naida gazed at her with distended eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan has never been here!&quot; Maggie explained brokenly. &quot;He has
+never left his house in Curzon Street! He is there now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the matter with you, Maggie?&quot; he demanded. &quot;Every one has seen
+Prince Shan here. You spoke of him yourself. He was in the box exactly
+opposite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was one of his suite,&quot; she cried. &quot;I know! I tell you I know!&quot; she
+went on, her voice rising a little. &quot;Prince Shan is safe in his house in
+Curzon Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can you possibly know this, Maggie?&quot; Naida intervened eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I left him there half an hour ago,&quot; was the tremulous reply.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>There is in the Anglo-Saxon temperament an almost feverish desire to
+break away from any condition of strain, a sort of shamefaced impulse to
+discard emotionalism. The strange hush which had lent a queer sensation
+of unreality to all that was passing in the great building was without
+any warning brought to an end. Whispers swelled into speech, and speech
+into almost a roar of voices. Then the music struck up, although at
+first there were few who cared to dance. There were many who, like
+Maggie and her companions, silently left their places and hurried
+homewards.</p>
+
+<p>In the limousine scarcely a word was spoken. Maggie leaned back in her
+seat, her face dazed and expressionless. Opposite to her, Nigel sat with
+set, grim face, looking with fixed stare out of the window at the
+deserted streets. Of the three, Naida seemed more on the point of giving
+way to emotion. They had passed Hyde Park Corner, however, before a word
+was spoken. Then it was she who broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where do we go to first?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the Milan Court,&quot; Nigel replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are taking me home first, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for a moment. Then she leaned forward and touched the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pull that down, please,&quot; she directed. &quot;I am stifling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed, and the rush of cold, wet air had a curiously quietening
+effect upon the nerves of all of them. Raindrops hung from the leaves of
+the lime trees and still glittered upon the windowpane. On the way
+towards the river, the masses of cloud were tinged with purple, and
+faintly burning stars shone out of unexpectedly clear patches of sky.
+The night of storm was over, but the wind, dying away before the dawn,
+seemed to bring with it all the sweetness of the cleansed places, to be
+redolent even of the budding trees and shrubs,&mdash;the lilac bushes,
+drooping with their weight of moisture, and the pink and white chestnut
+blossoms, dashed to pieces by the rain but yielding up their lives with
+sweetness. The streets, in that single hour between the hurrying
+homewards of the belated reveller and the stolid tramp of the early
+worker, were curiously empty and seemed to gain in their loneliness a
+new dignity. Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the
+background, became almost classical; Whitehall the passageway for
+heroes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What does it all mean?&quot; Naida asked, almost pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>It was Maggie who answered. Her tone was lifeless, but her manner
+almost composed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It means that the attempt to assassinate Prince Shan has failed,&quot; she
+said. &quot;Prince Shan told me himself that he had no intention of going to
+the ball. He kept his word. The man who was murdered was one of his
+suite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how do you know this?&quot; Naida persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You heard what I told you in the box,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;I shall
+explain&mdash;as much as I can explain&mdash;to Nigel when we get home. He can
+tell you everything later on to-day at lunch-time, if you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has been one of the strangest nights I ever remember,&quot; Naida
+declared, after a brief pause. &quot;Oscar Immelan, who was dining with us,
+arrived half an hour late. I have never seen him in such a condition
+before. He had the air of a broken man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you any idea of what had happened?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only this,&quot; Naida replied. &quot;We saw Prince Shan last night. He spent
+several hours with us. I may be wrong, but I came to the conclusion then
+that he had at any rate modified his views about the whole situation
+since his arrival in England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a brief silence. The minds of all three of them were
+busy with the same thought. Prince Shan's word had been spoken and
+Immelan's hopes dashed to the ground,&mdash;and within a few hours, this
+murder! They nursed the thought, but no one put it into words.</p>
+
+<p>A sleepy-eyed porter opened the door of the car outside the Milan Court.
+Naida gathered herself together with a little shiver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that after to-night,&quot; she said quietly, &quot;there need be no
+secrets between any of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel held her hand in his. Their eyes met, and both of them were
+conscious, in that moment, of closer personal relations, of the passing
+of a certain sense of strain. She even smiled as she turned away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow,&quot; she concluded, &quot;there must be a great exchange of
+confidences. I am lunching at Belgrave Square, if Maggie has not
+forgotten, and I shall tell you then what I have written to Paul
+Matinsky. I showed it to Prince Shan yesterday. Good night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She patted Maggie's hand affectionately and flitted away. The revolving
+doors closed behind her, and the car swung out once more into the
+Strand, glided down the Mall, past Buckingham Palace, and stopped at
+last before the great, lifeless house in Belgrave Square. Nigel opened
+the front door with a latchkey and turned on the light.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You won't mind sparing me a few minutes?&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose not,&quot; she answered, shivering.</p>
+
+<p>He led the way to the study. She threw off her cloak and sank into the
+depths of one of the big easy-chairs. She looked very frail and rather
+pathetic as she leaned her head against the chair back. Now that the
+excitement was over, the strain of the emotion she had experienced
+showed in the violet shadows under her eyes and in the droop of her
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am tired,&quot; she said plaintively.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel came over and sat on the arm of her chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what happened to-night, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The little Chinese girl sent for me to go to her box,&quot; she explained.
+&quot;She told me where in Prince Shan's house were hidden the papers which
+revealed the understanding between Immelan and himself. She gave me a
+key of the house and a key of the cabinet. We could both see the man
+whom I believed to be Prince Shan seated in his box. She assured me that
+he would be there for the next two hours. I went to the house in Curzon
+Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His monosyllable was sharp and incisive. His face was grey and anxious.
+She herself remained lifeless. All that there was of emotion between
+them seemed to have become vested in his searching eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I found what I believe to have been the papers. They were in the
+cabinet, just where she had told me. Then I turned around and found
+Prince Shan watching me. He had been there all the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At first he said little, but I knew that he was very angry. I have
+never felt so ashamed in my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must tell me the rest, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stirred uneasily in her chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is very difficult,&quot; she confessed frankly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember,&quot; he persisted, &quot;that in a way, Maggie, I am your guardian. I
+am responsible, too, for anything which may happen to you whilst you are
+engaged in work for the good of our cause. You seem to have walked into
+a trap. Did he threaten you, or what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was nothing definite,&quot; she answered, &quot;and yet&mdash;he made me
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Made you understand what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His wishes,&quot; she replied, looking up coolly. &quot;He offered me the
+papers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That damned Chinaman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a cold light in her eyes which Nigel had met with before and
+dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forget yourself, Nigel,&quot; she said. &quot;Prince Shan is a great
+nobleman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The rest? Tell me the rest,&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am here,&quot; she reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the papers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came away without them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned, and, walking to the window, threw it open. The dawn had
+become almost silvery, and the leaves of the overhanging trees were
+rustling in the faintest of breezes. Presently he came back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What exactly are your feelings for this man, Maggie?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time he was struck with a certain pathos in her immobile
+face. She looked up at him, and there was a gleam almost of fear in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know, Nigel,&quot; she confessed.</p>
+
+<p>He moved restlessly about the room, seemed to notice for the first time
+the whisky and soda set out upon the sideboard and the open box of
+cigarettes. He helped himself and came back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you read the papers?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had no chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know for certain what they were about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I do,&quot; she replied. &quot;I believe they contained the text of the
+agreement between Immelan and Prince Shan. I believe they would have
+shown us exactly what we have to fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stood there for a moment thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-night,&quot; he said, &quot;I find it difficult to concentrate upon these
+things. Naida was extraordinarily hopeful. She has seen Prince Shan, and
+between them I believe that they have decided to let Oscar Immelan's
+scheme alone. Karschoff, too, has heard rumours. He is of the same
+opinion. Somehow or other, though, I seem to have lost my sense of
+perspective. A greater fear has come into my heart, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet and laid her hands upon his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; she whispered, &quot;I cannot answer you. I cannot say what you
+would like me to say, although, on the other hand, there is no surety of
+what you seem to fear. I am going to bed. I am very tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A feeble shaft of sunlight stole into the room, flickered and passed
+away, then suddenly reappeared. Nigel turned and opened the door, and
+she passed out, curiously silent and absorbed. He looked after her,
+perplexed and worried. Suddenly a strangely commonplace, yet&mdash;in the
+silence of the house and the great hall&mdash;an almost dramatic sound
+startled him. The front doorbell rang sharply. After a moment's
+hesitation, he hurried to it himself. Karschoff stood upon the steps,
+still in his evening clothes, his face a little drawn and haggard in the
+bright light.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could not resist coming in, Nigel,&quot; he said. &quot;I saw the light in the
+study from outside. Is there any definite news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel drew him inside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are indications,&quot; he replied cautiously, &quot;that the present danger
+is passing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gathered so from Naida,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Prince Shan, though, is the
+pivot upon which the whole thing turns. You have heard nothing final
+from him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing! Tell me, was any one arrested at the Albert Hall?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one. The murdered man, as I suppose you have heard, was Sen Lu, one
+of the Prince's secretaries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole thing seems strange,&quot; Nigel remarked. &quot;Do you suppose Prince
+Shan knew that an attempt upon his life was likely to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff shook his head doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is difficult to say. These Orientals contrive to surround themselves
+with such an atmosphere of mystery. But from what I know of Prince
+Shan,&quot; he went on, &quot;I do not think that he is one to shirk danger&mdash;even
+from the assassin's dagger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A milk cart drew up with a clatter outside. There was the sound of the
+area gate being opened. Karschoff put on his hat. He looked Nigel in the
+face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie,&quot; he began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded understandingly as he threw open the front door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you about it to-morrow,&quot; he promised, &quot;or rather later on
+to-day. She's a little overwrought. Otherwise&mdash;there's nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff turned away with a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad,&quot; he said. &quot;Prince Shan is the soul of honour according to
+his own standard, but these Orientals&mdash;one never knows. I am glad,
+Nigel.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>In his spacious reception room, with its blue walls, the high vases of
+flowers, the faint odour of incense, its indefinable ascetic charm,
+Prince Shan sat in his high-backed chair whilst Li Wen, his trusted
+secretary talked. Li Wen was very eloquent. His tone was never raised,
+he never forgot that he was speaking to a being of a superior world. He
+had a great deal to say, however, and he was eager to say it. Prince
+Shan, as he listened, smoked a long cigarette in a yellow tube. He wore
+a ring in which was set an uncut green stone on the fourth finger of his
+left hand. Although the hour was barely nine o'clock, he was shaved and
+dressed as though for a visit of ceremony. He listened to Li Wen gravely
+and critically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry about the little one,&quot; he said, looking through the cloud of
+tobacco smoke up towards the ceiling. &quot;Nita has been very useful. She
+has been as faithful, too, as is possible for a woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen bowed and waited. He knew better than to interrupt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was through the information which Nita brought me,&quot; his master went
+on, &quot;that I have been able to check the truth of Immelan's statement as
+to the French dispositions and the <i>rapprochement</i> with Italy. Nita has
+served me very well indeed. What she has done in this matter, she has
+done in a moment of caprice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord,&quot; Li Wen ventured, &quot;a woman is of no account in the plans of
+the greatest. She is like a leaf blown hither or thither on the winds of
+love or jealousy. She may be used, but she must be discarded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a strange world, this western world,&quot; Prince Shan mused. &quot;In our
+own country, Li Wen, we plot or we fight, we build the great places,
+climb to the lofty heights, and when we rest we pluck flowers, and women
+are our flowers. But here, while one builds, the women are there; while
+one climbs, the women are in the way. They jostle the thoughts, they
+disturb the emotions, not only of the poet and the pleasure seeker, but
+of the man who hews his way upwards to the goal he seeks. And it is very
+deliberate, Li Wen. An Englishman eats and drinks in public and places
+opposite him a flower he has plucked or hopes to pluck. He drugs himself
+deliberately. Half the time when he should be soaring in his thoughts,
+he descends of deliberate intent. Instead of his flower, he makes his
+woman the partner of his grossness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The master speaks,&quot; Li Wen murmured. &quot;But what of the woman? She awaits
+your pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall hear what she has to say,&quot; Prince Shan decided.</p>
+
+<p>Walking backwards as nimbly as a cat, his head drooped, his hands in
+front of him, Li Wen left his master's presence. A moment later he
+reappeared, ushering in La Belle Nita. Prince Shan waved him away. The
+girl came slowly forward, pale and trembling, smouldering fires in her
+narrow eyes. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face moved. He watched her
+approach in silence. She sank on to the floor by the side of his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is my master's will?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan looked downwards at her, and she began to tremble again.
+There was nothing threatening in his eyes, nothing menacing in his
+expression. Nevertheless, she felt the chill of death.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have done me many good and faithful services, Nita,&quot; he said. &quot;What
+evil spirit has put it into your brain that it would be a good thing to
+deceive me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her scarlet lips opened and closed again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How have I deceived?&quot; she faltered. &quot;I gave the keys to the woman with
+the blue eyes, and I sent her to my lord. It was a hard thing to do
+that, but I did it. Was there any risk of evil? My lord was here to deal
+with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why did you do this thing, Nita?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord knows,&quot; she answered simply. &quot;I did it to bring evil upon this
+English woman whom he has preferred. I did it that he might understand.
+It was my lord himself who told me that she was a spy. Now it is
+proved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's fingers stole into the pocket of his coat. He held out a
+crumpled sheet of paper, on which was written a single sentence. The
+girl began to shiver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have been very anxious indeed, Nita,&quot; he said, &quot;to bring evil upon
+this woman. This is the message you sent to Immelan. Do you recognise
+your words? Listen, these are your words:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The greatest of all will desert you, if the Englishwoman whom he loves
+is not speedily removed. Even to-night he may give papers into her hand,
+and your secret will be known.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl sat transfixed. She seemed to have lost all power of speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is a copy of the message which you sent to Immelan,&quot; he told her
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the terrible Li Wen,&quot; she faltered. &quot;He has the second sight. The
+devil walks with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil is sometimes a useful confederate,&quot; her companion continued
+equably. &quot;You warned Immelan that it was in my mind to refuse his terms
+and to open my heart to the Englishwoman, and you seduced Sen Lu to
+carry your message. Yet your judgment was at fault. The hand of Immelan
+was stretched out against me, and me alone. But for my knowledge of
+these things, I might have sat in the place of Sen Lu, who rightly died
+in my stead. What have you to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet. He made no movement, but his eyes watched her, and
+the muscles of his body stiffened. He watched the white hand which stole
+irresolutely towards the loose folds of her coat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ask me why I have done this,&quot; she cried, &quot;but you already know. It
+is because you have taken this woman with the blue eyes into your
+heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that were true,&quot; he answered, &quot;of what concern is it to others? I am
+Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You sent me here to breathe this cursed western atmosphere,&quot; she
+moaned, &quot;to drink in their thoughts and see with their eyes. I see and
+know the folly of it all, but who can escape? Jealousy with us is a
+disease. Over there one creeps away like a hurt animal because there is
+nothing else. Here it is different. The Frenchwoman, the Englishwoman,
+who loses her lover&mdash;she does not fold her hands. She strikes, she is a
+wronged creature. I too have felt that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her master sat for long in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; he pronounced. &quot;I shall try to be just. You are a
+person of small understanding. You have never made any effort to live
+with your head in the clouds. Let that be so. The fault was mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not wish to live,&quot; she cried.</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Live or die&mdash;what does it matter?&quot; he answered indifferently. &quot;With
+life there is pain, and with death there is none, but if you choose
+life, remember this. The woman with the blue eyes, as you call her, has
+become the star of my life. If harm should come to her, not only you,
+but every one of your family and race, in whatsoever part of the world
+they may be, will leave this life in agony.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl stood and wondered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord thinks so much of a plaything?&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan frowned. His finely shaped, silky eyebrows almost met. She
+covered her eyes and drooped her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We of the East,&quot; he said, &quot;although we are the mightier race, progress
+slowly, because the love of new things is not with us. Something of
+western ways I have learned, and the love of woman. It is not for a
+plaything I desire her whom we will not name. She shall sit by my side
+and rule. I shall wed her with my brain as with my body. Our minds will
+move together. We shall feel the same shivering pleasure when we rule
+the world with great thoughts as when our bodies touch. I shall teach
+her to know her soul, even as my own has been revealed to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No woman is worthy of this, my lord,&quot; the girl faltered.</p>
+
+<p>He waved his hand and she stole away. At the door he stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you go to life or death, Nita?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with a great sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a worthless thing,&quot; she replied. &quot;I go where my lord's words have
+sent me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen reappeared presently for an appointed audience. He brought
+messages.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness,&quot; he announced, &quot;there is a code dispatch here from Ki-Chou.
+An American gained entrance to the City last week. Yesterday he left by
+&aelig;roplane for India. He was overtaken and captured. It is feared,
+however, that he has agents over the frontier, for no papers were found
+upon him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a great achievement,&quot; Prince Shan said thoughtfully. &quot;No other
+foreigner has ever passed into our secret city. Is there word as to how
+he got there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He came as a Russian artificer from that city in Russia of which we do
+not speak,&quot; Li Wen replied. &quot;He brought letters, and his knowledge was
+great.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His name?&quot; the Prince asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gilbert Jesson, Highness. His passport and papers refer to Washington,
+but his message, if he sent one, is believed to have come to London.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man must die,&quot; the Prince said calmly. &quot;That, without doubt, he
+expects. Yet the news is not serious. My heart has spoken for peace, Li
+Wen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen bowed low. His master watched him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I had asked it, Li Wen, where would your counsel have led?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Towards peace, Highness. I do not trust Immelan. It is not in such a
+manner that China's Empire shall spread. There are ancestors of mine who
+would turn in their graves to find China in league with a western
+Power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a wise man, Li Wen,&quot; his master declared. &quot;We hold the mastery
+of the world. What shall we do with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mightiest sword is that which enforces peace,&quot; was the calm reply.
+&quot;Highness, the lady whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who was ushered in a moment or
+two later, with rather more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy,
+leading her himself to a chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wondered,&quot; she confessed, &quot;if I were ever to be allowed to see inside
+your wonderful house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my misfortune to be compelled to pay so brief a visit to this
+country,&quot; he replied. &quot;As a rule, it gives me great pleasure to open my
+rooms three evenings and entertain those who care to come and see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of your entertainments,&quot; she said, smiling. &quot;Prima donnas
+sing. You rob the capitals of Europe to find your music. Then the great
+Monsieur Auguste is lured from Paris to prepare your supper, and not a
+lady leaves without some priceless jewel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I entertain so seldom,&quot; he reminded her. &quot;I fear that the fame of my
+feasts has been exaggerated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When do you leave, Prince?&quot; she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Within a few days,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I come for your last word,&quot; she announced. &quot;All that I have written to
+Paul Matinsky you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The last word is not yet to be spoken,&quot; he said. &quot;This, however, you
+may tell Matinsky. The scheme of Oscar Immelan has been laid before me.
+I have rejected it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In what other way, then, would you use your power?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer. She watched him with a great and growing curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince,&quot; she said, &quot;they tell me that you are a great student of
+history.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have read what is known of the history of most of the countries of
+the world,&quot; he admitted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There have been men,&quot; she persisted, &quot;who have dealt in empires for the
+price of a woman's smile.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such men have loved,&quot; he said, &quot;as I love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet for you life has always been a great and lofty thing,&quot; she reminded
+him. &quot;You could not stand where you do if you had not realised the
+beauty and wonder of sacrifice. Fate has given the peace of the world
+into your keeping. You will not juggle with the trust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rose to his feet. A servant stood almost immediately at the open
+door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fate and an American engineer,&quot; he remarked with a smile. &quot;I thank you,
+dear lady, for your visit. You will hear my news before I leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked into his eyes for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a great decision,&quot; she said, &quot;which rests with you!&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXIV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>An hour or so later, Prince Shan left his house in Curzon Street and,
+followed at a discreet distance by two members of his household,
+strolled into the Park. It had pleased him that morning to conform
+rigorously to the mode of dress adopted by the fashionable citizens of
+the country which he was visiting. Few people, without the closest
+observation, would have taken him for anything but a well-turned-out,
+exceedingly handsome and distinguished-looking Englishman. He carried
+himself with a faint air of aloofness, as though he moved amongst scenes
+in which he had no actual concern, as though he were living, in thought
+at any rate, in some other world. The morning was brilliantly sunny, and
+both the promenade and the Row were crowded. Slightly hidden behind a
+tree, he stood and watched. A gay crowd of promenaders passed along the
+broad path, and the air was filled with the echo of laughter, the jargon
+of the day, intimate references to a common world, invitations lightly
+given and lightly accepted. It was Sunday morning, in a season when
+colour was the craze of the moment, and the women who swept by seemed to
+his rather mystical fancy like the flowers in some of the great open
+spaces he knew so well, stirred into movement by a soft wind. They were
+very beautiful, these western women; handsome, too, the men with whom
+they talked and flirted. Always they had that air, however, of absolute
+complacency, as though they felt nothing of the quest which lay like a
+thread of torture amongst the nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was
+no more distinguished figure among the men there than he himself, and
+yet the sense of alienation grew in his heart as he watched. There were
+many familiar faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one who would
+not have greeted him with interest, even with gratification. And yet he
+had never been so deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
+oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid self-assurance of
+these westerners, so well-content with the earth upon which their feet
+fell. He had judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held in
+their thoughts and estimation. He was something of a curiosity, his
+title half a joke, the splendour of his long race a thing unrealisable
+by these scions of a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
+new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan had been a shade
+more eloquent, had pleaded his cause upon a higher level, that Naida
+Karetsky also had formed a different impression of the world which he
+was studying so earnestly,&mdash;what a transformation he could have brought
+upon this light-hearted and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly
+balanced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious of a certain faint
+contempt for the almost bovine self-satisfaction of a nation without
+eyes. Literature and painting, art in all its far-flung branches, even
+science, were suffering in these days from a general and paralysing
+inertia. Life which demanded no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of
+everything in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the only
+incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long in this fat land the only
+brake upon an era of self-indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his
+own millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in their ears, and
+it seemed to his elastic fancy that he was inhaling a long breath of
+cooler and more vigorous life.</p>
+
+<p>The current of his reflections was broken. He had moved a little towards
+the rails, and he was instantly aware of the girl cantering towards
+him,&mdash;a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay horse. She
+wore a simple brown habit and bowler hat, and she sat her horse with
+that complete lack of self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
+horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she cantered towards him,
+with no thought of the crowds passing along the promenade. Yet, as she
+drew nearer, she suddenly glanced down, and their eyes met. As though
+obeying his unspoken wish, she reined in her horse and came close to the
+rails behind which he stood for a moment bareheaded. There was the
+faintest smile upon her lips. She was amazingly composed. She had asked
+herself repeatedly, almost in terror, how they should meet when the time
+came. Now that it had happened, it seemed the most natural thing in the
+world. She was scarcely conscious even of embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are demonstrating to the world,&quot; she remarked, &quot;that the reports of
+your death this morning were exaggerated?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had forgotten the incident,&quot; he assured her calmly.</p>
+
+<p>His callousness was so unaffected that she shivered a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet this Sen Lu, this man for whom you were mistaken, was an intimate
+member of your household, was he not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sen Lu was a very good friend,&quot; Prince Shan answered. &quot;He did his duty
+for many years. If he knows now that his life was taken for mine, he is
+happy to have made such atonement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She man&oelig;uvred her horse a little to be nearer to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why was Sen Lu murdered?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are those,&quot; he replied, &quot;of whom I myself shall ask that question
+before the day is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have an idea, then?&quot; she persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If,&quot; he said, &quot;you desire my whole confidence, it is yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat looking between her horse's ears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To tell you the truth,&quot; she confessed, &quot;I do not know what I desire.
+Your philosophy, I suppose, does not tolerate moods. I shall escape from
+them some time, I expect, but just now I seem to have found my way into
+a maze. The faces of these people don't even seem real to me, and as for
+you, I am perfectly certain that you have never been in China in your
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me the stimulant that is needed to raise you from your apathy,&quot; he
+asked. &quot;Will you find it in the rapid motion of your horse&mdash;a very noble
+animal&mdash;in the joy of this morning's sunshine and breeze, or in the
+toyland where these puppets move and walk?&quot; he added, glancing down the
+promenade. &quot;Dear Lady Maggie, I beg permission to pay you a visit of
+ceremony. Will you receive me this afternoon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She knew then what it was that she had been hoping for. She looked down
+at him and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At four o'clock,&quot; she invited.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, touched her horse lightly with the whip, and cantered off.
+Prince Shan found himself suddenly accosted by a dozen acquaintances,
+all plying him with questions. He listened to them with an amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole affair is a very simple one,&quot; he said. &quot;A member of my
+household was assassinated last night. It was probably a plot against my
+own life. Those things are more common with us, perhaps, than over
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jolly country, China, I should think,&quot; one of the younger members of
+the group remarked. &quot;You can buy a man's conscience there for
+ninepence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The market value here,&quot; he observed, &quot;seems a little higher, but the
+supply greater.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Touch&eacute;!</i>&quot; Karschoff laughed. &quot;There is another point of view, too. The
+further east you go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes an
+absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag it out to its
+furthermost span. The American millionaire, for example, has a resident
+physician attached to his household and is likely to spend the aftermath
+of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose condition. And in the East,
+who cares? If not to-day&mdash;to-morrow! Inevitability, which is the
+nightmare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By the by,
+Prince,&quot; he added, &quot;have you any theory as to last night's attempt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is just the question,&quot; Prince Shan replied, &quot;which two very
+intelligent gentlemen from Scotland Yard asked me this morning. Theory?
+Why should I have a theory?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The attempt was without a doubt directed against you,&quot; Karschoff
+observed. &quot;Do you imagine that it was personal or political?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I tell?&quot; the Prince rejoined carelessly. &quot;Why should any one
+desire my death? These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
+Immelan!&quot; he went on. &quot;Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not
+one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the
+world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My own or another's?&quot; Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust,&quot; was the bland reply, &quot;that you are, as I have always esteemed
+you, an altruist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a very agreeable figure in
+the centre of the little group of men, the hands which held his malacca
+cane behind his back, the smile which parted his lips benign yet
+cryptic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because,&quot; he explained, &quot;it is a great thing to have more regard for
+the lives of others than for one's own, and there are times,&quot; he added,
+&quot;when it is certainly one's own life which is in the more precarious
+state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus of congratulations
+and farewells. Immelan and Prince Shan were left alone. The former
+seemed to have turned paler. The sun was warm, and yet he shivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what do you mean by that, Prince?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall walk with me to my house, and I will tell you,&quot; was the quiet
+reply.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose,&quot; Immelan suggested, as the two men reached the house in
+Curzon Street, &quot;it would be useless to ask you to break your custom and
+lunch with me at the Ritz or at the club?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His companion smiled deprecatingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have adopted so many of your western customs,&quot; he said
+apologetically. &quot;To this lunching or dining in public, however, I shall
+never accustom myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan laughed good-naturedly. The conversation of the two men on their
+way from the Park had been without significance, and some part of his
+earlier nervousness seemed to be leaving him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We all have our foibles,&quot; he admitted. &quot;One of mine is to have a pretty
+woman opposite me when I lunch or dine, music somewhere in the distance,
+a little sentiment, a little promise, perhaps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not artistic,&quot; Prince Shan pronounced calmly. &quot;It is not when the
+wine mounts to the head, and the sense of feeding fills the body, that
+men speak best of the things that lie near their hearts. Still, we will
+let that pass. Each of us is made differently. There is another thing,
+Immelan, which I have to say to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They passed into the reception room, with its shining floor, its
+marvellous rugs, its silken hangings, and its great vases of flowers.
+Prince Shan led his companion into a recess, where the light failed to
+penetrate so completely as into the rest of the apartment. A wide
+settee, piled with cushions, protruded from the wall in semicircular
+shape. In front of it was a round ebony table, upon which stood a great
+yellow bowl filled with lilies. Prince Shan gave an order to one of the
+servants who had followed them into the room and threw himself at full
+length among the cushions, his head resting upon his hand, his face
+turned towards his guest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will bring you the aperitif of which you are so fond,&quot; he said,
+&quot;also cigarettes. Mine, I know, are too strong for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They taste too much of opium,&quot; Immelan remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's eyes grew dreamy as he gazed through a little cloud of
+odorous smoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is opium in them,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Believe me, they are very
+wonderful, but I agree with you that they are not for the ordinary
+person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The soft-footed butler presented a silver tray, upon which reposed a
+glassful of amber liquid. Immelan took it, sipped it appreciatively, and
+lit a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your man, Prince,&quot; he acknowledged, &quot;mixes his vermouths wonderfully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad that what he does meets with your approval,&quot; was the
+courteous reply. &quot;He came to me from one of your royal palaces. I simply
+told him that I wished my guests to have of the best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet you never touch this sort of drink yourself,&quot; Immelan observed
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes I take wine,&quot; he said. &quot;That is generally at night. A few
+evenings ago, for instance,&quot; he went on, with a reminiscent smile, &quot;I
+drank Chateau Yquem, smoked Egyptian cigarettes, ate some muscatel
+grapes, and read 'Pippa Passes.' That was one of my banquets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a matter of fact,&quot; Immelan remarked thoughtfully, &quot;you are far more
+western in thought than in habit. The temperance of the East is in your
+blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find that my manner of life keeps the brain clear,&quot; Prince Shan said
+slowly. &quot;I can see the truth sometimes when it is not very apparent. I
+saw the truth last night, Immelan, when I sent Sen Lu to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan's expression was indescribable. He sat with his mouth wide open.
+The hand which held his glass shook. He stared across the bowl of lilies
+to where his host was looking up through the smoke towards the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sen Lu was a traitor,&quot; the latter went on, &quot;a very foolish man who with
+one act of treachery wiped out the memory of a lifetime of devotion. In
+the end he told the truth, and now he has paid his debt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Immelan demanded, in a voice which he attempted in
+vain to control. &quot;How was Sen Lu a traitor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sen Lu,&quot; the Prince explained, &quot;was in the pay of those who sought to
+know more of my business than I chose to tell&mdash;who sought, indeed, to
+anticipate my own judgment. When they gathered from him, and, alas! from
+my sweet but frail little friend Nita, that the chances were against my
+signing a certain covenant, they came to what, even now, seems to me a
+strange decision. They decided that I must die. There I fail wholly to
+follow the workings of your mind, Immelan. How was my death likely to
+serve your purpose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was absolutely speechless. Three times he opened his lips, only
+to close them again. Some instinct seemed to tell him that his companion
+had more to say. He sat there as though mesmerised. Meanwhile, the
+Prince lit another cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A blunder, believe me, Immelan,&quot; he continued thoughtfully. &quot;Death will
+not lower over my path till my task is accomplished. I am young&mdash;many
+years younger than you, Immelan&mdash;and the greatest physicians marvel at
+my strength. Against the assassin's knife or bullet I am secure. You
+have been brought up and lived, my terrified friend, in a country where
+religion remains a shell and a husk, without comfort to any man. It is
+not so with me, I live in the spirit as in the body, and my days will
+last until the sun leans down and lights me to the world where those
+dwell who have fulfilled their destiny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan drained the contents of the glass which his unsteady hand was
+holding. Then he rose to his feet. The veins on his forehead were
+standing out, his blue eyes were filled with rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blast Sen Lu!&quot; he muttered. &quot;The man was a double traitor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has atoned,&quot; his companion said calmly. &quot;He made his peace and he
+went to his death. It seems very fitting that he should have received
+the dagger which was meant for my heart. Now what about you, Oscar
+Immelan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan laughed harshly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Sen Lu told you that I was in this plot against your life, he lied!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prince inclined his head urbanely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such a man as Sen Lu goes seldom to his death with a lie upon his
+lips,&quot; he said. &quot;Yet I confess that I am puzzled. Why should you plan
+this thing, Immelan? You cannot know what is in my mind concerning your
+covenant. I have not yet refused to sign it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have not refused to sign it,&quot; Immelan replied, &quot;but you will
+refuse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed?&quot; the Prince murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are even now trifling with the secrets confided to you,&quot; Immelan
+went on. &quot;You know very well that the woman who came to you last night
+is a spy whose whole time is spent in seeking to worm our secret from
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your agents keep themselves well informed,&quot; was the calm comment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yours still have the advantage of us,&quot; Immelan answered bitterly. &quot;Now
+listen to me. I have heard it said of you&mdash;I have heard that you claim
+yourself&mdash;that you have never told a falsehood. We have been allies.
+Answer me this question. Have you parted with any of our secrets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not one,&quot; the Prince assured him. &quot;A certain lady visited this house
+last night, not, as you seem to think, at my invitation, but on her own
+initiative. She was not successful in her quest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She would not pay the price, eh?&quot; Immelan sneered. &quot;By the gods of your
+ancestors, Prince Shan, are there not women enough in the world for you
+without bartering your honour, and the great future of your country, for
+a blue-eyed jade of an Englishwoman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prince sat slowly up. His appearance was ominous. His face had
+become set as marble; there was a look in his eyes like the flashing of
+a light upon black metal. He contemplated his visitor across the lilies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man so near to death, Immelan,&quot; he enjoined, &quot;might choose his words
+more carefully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan laughed scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not to be bullied,&quot; he declared. &quot;Your doors with their patent
+locks have no fears for me. When you walk abroad, you are followed by
+members of your household. When you come to my rooms, they attend you. I
+am not a prince, but I, too, have a care for my skin. Three of my secret
+service men never let me out of their sight. They are within call at
+this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His host smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is very interesting,&quot; he said, &quot;but you should know me better,
+Immelan, than to imagine that mine are the clumsy methods of the dagger
+or the bullet. The man whom I will to die&mdash;drinks with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed a long forefinger at the empty glass. Immelan gazed at it,
+and the sweat stood out upon his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My God!&quot; he muttered. &quot;There was a queer taste! I thought that it was
+aniseed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was nothing in that glass,&quot; the Prince declared, &quot;which the
+greatest chemist who ever breathed could detect as poison, yet you will
+die, my friend Immelan, without any doubt. Shall I tell you how? Would
+you know in what manner the pains will come? No? But, my friend, you
+disappoint me! You showed so much courage an hour ago. Listen. Feel for
+a swelling just behind&mdash;Ah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was already across the room. The Prince touched a bell, the
+doors were opened. Ghastly pale, his head swimming, the tortured man
+dashed out into the street. The Prince leaned back amongst his cushions,
+untied a straw-fastened packet of his long cigarettes, lit one, and
+closed his eyes.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXVI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel was just arriving at Dorminster House when Maggie returned from
+her ride. He assisted her to dismount and entered the house with her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is something here I should like to show you, Maggie,&quot; he said, as
+he drew a dispatch from his pocket. &quot;It was sent round to me half an
+hour ago by Chalmers, from the American Embassy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's about Gilbert Jesson!&quot; Maggie exclaimed, holding out her hand for
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's a note inside, and an enclosure,&quot; he said. &quot;You had better read
+both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie opened out the former:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>MY DEAR DORMINSTER,
+
+<p>     I am afraid there is rather bad news about Jesson. One of our
+     regular line of airships, running from San Francisco to
+     Vladivostok, has picked up a wireless which must have come from
+     somewhere in the South of China. They kept it for a few days, worse
+     luck, thinking it was only nonsense, as it was in code. Washington
+     got hold of it, however, and cabled it to us last night. I enclose
+     a copy, decoded.</p>
+
+<p>     Sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p>     JERE CHALMERS.</p></div>
+
+<p>The copy was brief enough. Maggie felt her heart sink as she glanced
+through the few lines:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>Report dispatched London. Fear escape impossible. Good-by.
+
+<p>     JESSON.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Horrible!&quot; Maggie exclaimed, with a shiver. &quot;I thought he was in
+Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So did we all,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;He must have come to the conclusion
+that the key to the riddle he was trying to solve was in China, and gone
+on there. Look here, Maggie,&quot; he continued, after a moment's hesitation,
+&quot;do you think anything could be done for Jesson with Prince Shan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was silent. They were standing in a shaded corner of the hall,
+but a fleck of sunshine shone in her hair. She was still a little out of
+breath with the exercise, her cheeks full of healthy colour, her eyes
+bright. She tapped her skirt with her riding whip. Nigel watched her a
+little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan is calling here this afternoon,&quot; Maggie announced. &quot;I hope
+you don't mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you going to say to him?&quot; Nigel asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a short, tense silence. Even at the thought of the crisis
+which she knew to be so close at hand, Maggie felt herself unnerved and
+in dubious straits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not know,&quot; she said at last. &quot;For one thing, I do not know what he
+wants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What he wants seems perfectly plain to me,&quot; Nigel replied gravely. &quot;He
+wants you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made a desperate effort to regain the lightheartedness of a few
+weeks ago.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you believe that,&quot; she said, &quot;your composure is most unflattering.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a ring at the front doorbell, and a familiar voice was heard
+outside. Maggie turned away to the staircase with a little sigh of
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;I remember now I asked her for a quarter past
+one instead of half-past. You must entertain her, Nigel. I'll change
+into something quickly. And of course I'll speak to Prince Shan. We
+mustn't lose a minute about that. I'll telephone from my room in a few
+minutes, Naida. Nigel will look after you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida came down the hall, cool and exquisitely gowned in a creation of
+shimmering white. Nigel led her into the rarely used drawing-room and
+found a chair for her between the open window and the conservatory. At
+first they exchanged but few words. The sense of her near presence
+affected Nigel as nothing of the sort had ever done before. She for her
+part seemed quite content with a silence which had in it many of the
+essentials of eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the history of these days is ever written by an irascible German
+historian,&quot; Naida remarked at length, &quot;he will probably declare that the
+destinies of the world have been affected during this last month by an
+outburst of primitivism. Do you know that I have written quite nice
+things to Paul about you English people? Honest things, of course, but
+still things which you helped me to discover. And Prince Shan, too. I
+think that when he rode here through the clouds, he believed in his
+heart that he was coming as a harbinger of woe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You really think, then, that the crisis is past?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am almost sure of it. Prince Shan returns to China within the course
+of the next few days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have lived so long,&quot; Nigel observed, &quot;in dread of the unknown. I
+wonder whether we shall ever understand the exact nature of the danger
+with which we were faced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It depends upon Prince Shan,&quot; she replied. &quot;The terms were Immelan's,
+but the method was his.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you believe,&quot; he asked a little abruptly, &quot;that the attempt on
+Prince Shan's life last night was made by Immelan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a touch, perhaps, of her Muscovite ancestry in the cool
+indifference with which she considered the matter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should think it most likely,&quot; she decided. &quot;Prince Shan never changes
+his mind, and I believe that he has decided against Immelan's scheme.
+Immelan's only chance would be in Prince Shan's successor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why is China so necessary?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>She turned and smiled at her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas!&quot; she sighed, &quot;we have reached an <i>impasse</i>. The great English
+diplomat asks too many questions of the simple Russian girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is unfortunate,&quot; he replied, in the same vein, &quot;because I feel like
+asking more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As, for example?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whether you would be content to live for the rest of your life in any
+other country except Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A woman is content to live anywhere, under certain circumstances,&quot; she
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff, discreetly announced, entered the room with flamboyant ease.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is well to be young!&quot; he exclaimed, as he bent over Naida's fingers.
+&quot;You look, my far-away but much beloved cousin, as though you had slept
+peacefully through the night and spent the morning in this soft, sunlit
+air, with perhaps, if one might suggest such a thing, an hour at a Bond
+Street beauty parlour. Here am I with crow's-feet under my eyes and
+ghosts walking by my side. Yet none the less,&quot; he added, as the door
+opened and Maggie appeared, &quot;looking forward to my luncheon and to hear
+all the news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no news,&quot; Naida declared, as the butler announced the service
+of the meal. &quot;We have reached the far end of the ways. The next
+disclosures, if ever they are made, will come from others. At luncheon
+we are going to talk of the English country, the seaside, the meadows,
+and the quiet places. The time arrives when I weary, weary, of the
+brazen ticking of the clock of fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall tell you,&quot; Nigel declared, &quot;of a small country house I have in
+Devonshire. There are rough grounds stretching down to the sea and
+crawling up to the moors behind. My grandfather built it when he was
+Chancellor of England, or rather he added to an old farmhouse. He called
+it the House of Peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father built a house very much in the same spirit,&quot; Naida told them.
+&quot;He called it after an old Turkish inscription, engraven on the front of
+a villa in Stamboul&mdash;'The House of Thought and Flowers.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie smiled across the table approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like the conversation,&quot; she said. &quot;Naida and I are, after all, women
+and sentimentalists. We claim a respite, an armistice&mdash;call it what you
+will. Prince Karschoff, won't you tell me of the most beautiful house
+you ever dwelt in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Always the house I am hoping to end my days in,&quot; he answered. &quot;But let
+me tell you about a villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People
+used to speak of it as one of the world's treasures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When the two men were seated alone over their coffee, Nigel passed
+Chalmers' note and the enclosure across to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You remember I told you about Chalmers' friend, Jesson, the secret
+service man who came over to us?&quot; he said. &quot;Chalmers has just sent me
+round this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff nodded and studied the message through his great horn-rimmed
+eyeglass.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought that he was going to Russia for you,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So he did. He must have gone on from there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the message comes from Southern China,&quot; Prince Karschoff reflected.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Germany! Prince Shan in
+England, negotiating with Immelan! And behind, sinister, menacing,
+mysterious&mdash;Japan!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Supposing,&quot; he propounded at last, &quot;there really does exist a secret
+treaty between China and Japan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If there is,&quot; Prince Karschoff observed, &quot;one can easily understand
+what Immelan has been at. Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I
+know they are afraid of something of the sort in the States. An American
+who was in the club yesterday told us they had spent over a hundred
+millions on their west coast fortifications in the last two years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One can understand, too, in that case,&quot; Nigel continued, &quot;why Japan
+left the League of Nations. That stunt of hers about being outside the
+sphere of possible misunderstandings never sounded honest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was unfortunate,&quot; Prince Karschoff said, &quot;that America was dominated
+for those few months by an honest but impractical idealist. He had the
+germ of an idea, but he thrust it on the world before even his own
+country was ready for it. In time the nations would certainly have
+elaborated something more workable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You cannot keep a full-blooded man from clenching his fist if he's
+insulted,&quot; Nigel pointed out, &quot;and nations march along the same lines as
+individuals. Its existence has never for a single moment weakened
+Germany's hatred of England, and the stronger she grows, the more she
+flaunts its conditions. France guards her frontiers, night and day, with
+an army ten times larger than she is allowed. Russia has become the
+country of mysteries, with something up her sleeve, beyond a doubt, and
+there are cities in modern China into which no European dare penetrate.
+Japan quite frankly maintains an immense army, the United States is
+silently following suit&mdash;and God help us all if a war does come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; Karschoff assented gloomily. &quot;The last glamour of
+romance has gone from fighting. There were remnants of it in the last
+war, especially in Palestine and Egypt and when we first overran
+Austria. To-day, science would settle the whole affair. The war would be
+won in the laboratory, the engine room and the workshop. I doubt
+whether any battleship could keep afloat for a week, and as to the
+fighting in the air, if a hundred airships were in action, I do not
+suppose that one of them would escape. Then they say that France has a
+gun which could carry a shell from Amiens to London, and more mysterious
+than all, China has something up her sleeve which no one has even a
+glimmering of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Except Jesson,&quot; Nigel muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Jesson's gleam of knowledge, or suspicion,&quot; Prince Karschoff
+remarked, &quot;seems to have brought him to the end of his days. Can
+anything be done with Prince Shan about him, do you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only indirectly, I am afraid,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Maggie is seeing him
+this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I believe she telephoned to him
+before luncheon, but I haven't heard anything yet. When a man goes out
+on that sort of a job, he burns his boats. And Jesson isn't the first
+who has turned eastwards, during the last few months. I heard only
+yesterday that France has lost three of her best men in China&mdash;one who
+went as a missionary and two as merchants. They've just disappeared
+without a word of explanation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telephone extension bell rang. Nigel walked over to the sideboard
+and took down the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that Lord Dorminster?&quot; a man's voice asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speaking,&quot; Nigel replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am David Franklin, private secretary to Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot; the voice
+continued. &quot;Mr. Mervin Brown would be exceedingly obliged if you would
+come round to Downing Street to see him at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will be there in ten minutes,&quot; Nigel promised.</p>
+
+<p>He laid down the receiver and turned to Karschoff.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Prime Minister,&quot; he explained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What does he want you for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;that the trouble cloud is about to burst.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXVII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown on this occasion did not beat about the bush. His old
+air of confident, almost smug self-satisfaction, had vanished. He
+received Nigel with a new deference in his manner, without any further
+sign of that good-natured tolerance accorded by a busy man to a kindly
+crank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster,&quot; he began, &quot;I have sent for you to renew a
+conversation we had some little time since. I will be quite frank with
+you. Certain circumstances have come to my notice which lead me to
+believe that there may be more truth in some of the arguments you
+brought forward than I was willing at the time to believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must confess that I am relieved to hear you say so,&quot; Nigel replied.
+&quot;All the information which I have points to a crisis very near at hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister leaned a little across the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The immediate reason for my sending for you,&quot; he explained, &quot;is this.
+My friend the American Ambassador has just sent me a copy of a wireless
+dispatch which he has received from China from one of their former
+agents. The report seems to have been sent to him for safety, but the
+sender of it, of whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
+pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China by you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jesson!&quot; Nigel exclaimed. &quot;I have heard of this already, sir, from a
+friend in the American Embassy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The dispatch,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown went on, &quot;is in some respects a little
+vague, but it is, on the other hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It
+gives specific details as to definite military preparations on the part
+of China and Russia, associated, presumably, with a third Power whose
+name you will forgive my not mentioning. These preparations appear to
+have been brought almost to completion in the strictest secrecy, but the
+headquarters of the whole thing, very much to my surprise, I must
+confess, seems to be in southern China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case,&quot; Nigel pointed out, &quot;if you will permit me to make a
+suggestion, sir, you have a very simple course open to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Send for Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan,&quot; the Prime Minister replied, with knitted brows, &quot;is not
+over in this country officially. He has begged to be excused from
+accepting or returning any diplomatic courtesies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless,&quot; Nigel persisted, &quot;I should send for Prince Shan. If it
+had not been,&quot; he went on slowly, &quot;for the complete abolition of our
+secret service system, you would probably have been informed before now
+that Prince Shan has been having continual conferences in this country
+with one of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
+shores&mdash;Oscar Immelan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan has no official position in this country,&quot; the Prime Minister
+objected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fact which makes him none the less dangerous,&quot; Nigel insisted. &quot;He is
+one of those free lances of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
+ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious wave of altruism
+which is responsible for the League of Nations. Immelan was one of the
+first to see how his country might benefit by the new r&eacute;gime. It is he
+who has been pulling the strings in Russia and China, and, I fear,
+another country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What I want to arrive at,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently,
+&quot;is something definite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me put it my own way,&quot; Nigel begged. &quot;A very large section of our
+present-day politicians&mdash;you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
+Brown&mdash;have believed this country safe against any military dangers,
+because of the connections existing between your unions of working men
+and similar bodies in Germany. This is a great fallacy for two reasons:
+first because Germany has always intended to have some one else pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for her, and second because we cannot
+internationalise labour. English and German workmen may come together
+on matters affecting their craft and the conditions of their labour, but
+at heart one remains a German and one an Englishman, with separate
+interests and a separate outlook.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, at the end of it all,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown said, &quot;the bogey is war.
+What sort of a war? An invasion of England is just as impossible to-day
+as it was twenty years ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot answer your question,&quot; he admitted. &quot;I was looking to Jesson's
+report to give us an idea as to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall see it to-morrow,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown promised. &quot;It is round at
+the War Office at the present moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without seeing it,&quot; Nigel went on, &quot;I expect I can tell you one
+startling feature of its contents. It suggested, did it not, that the
+principal movers against us would be Russian and China and&mdash;a country
+which you prefer just now not to mention?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But that country is our ally!&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel smiled a little sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has been,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Still, if you had been <i>au fait</i> with
+diplomatic history thirty years ago, Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know
+that she was on the point of ending her alliance with us and
+establishing one with Germany. It was only owing to the genius of one
+English statesman that at the last moment she almost reluctantly
+renewed her alliance with us. She is in the same state of doubt
+concerning our destiny to-day. She has seen our last two Governments
+forget that we are an Imperial Power and endeavour to apply the
+principles of sheer commercialism to the conduct of a great nation. She
+may have opened her eyes a thousand years later than we did, but she is
+awake enough now to know that this will not do. There is little enough
+of generosity amongst the nations; none amongst the Orientals. I have a
+conviction myself that there is a secret alliance between China and this
+other Power, a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in thought. Somehow or other
+his face had gained in dignity since the beginning of the conversation.
+The nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look of deep and
+solemn anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are right, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he pronounced presently, &quot;the world
+has rolled backwards these last ten years, and we who have failed to
+mark its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility thrust upon
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Politically, I am afraid I agree with you,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Only the
+idealist, and the prejudiced idealist, can ignore the primal elements in
+human nature and believe that a few lofty sentiments can keep the
+nations behind their frontiers. War is a terrible thing, but human life
+itself is a terrible thing. Its principles are the same, and force will
+never be restrained except by force. If the League of Nations had been
+established upon a firmer and less selfish basis, it certainly might
+have kept the peace for another thirty or forty years. As it is, I
+believe that we are on the verge of a serious crisis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;War for us is an impossibility,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown declared frankly,
+&quot;simply because we cannot fight. Our army consists of policemen; science
+has defeated the battleship; and practically the same conditions exist
+in the air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You sent for me, I presume, to ask for my advice,&quot; Nigel said. &quot;At any
+rate, let me offer it. I have reason to believe that the negotiations
+between Prince Shan and Oscar Immelan have not been entirely successful.
+Send for Prince Shan and question him in a friendly fashion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you be my ambassador?&quot; the Prime Minister asked.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel hesitated for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you wish it,&quot; he promised. &quot;Prince Shan is in some respects a
+strangely inaccessible person, but just at present he seems well
+disposed towards my household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Arrange, if you can,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown begged, &quot;to bring him here
+to-morrow morning. I will try to have available a copy of the dispatch
+from Jesson. It refers to matters which I trust Prince Shan will be able
+to explain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel lingered for a moment over his farewell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I might venture upon a suggestion, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;do not forget
+that Prince Shan is to all intents and purposes the autocrat of Asia. He
+has taught the people of the world to remodel their ideas of China and
+all that China stands for. And further than this, he is, according to
+his principles, a man of the strictest honour. I would treat him, sir,
+as a valued <i>confr&egrave;re</i> and equal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't look upon me as being too intensely parochial, Dorminster,&quot; he
+said. &quot;I know quite well that Prince Shan is a man of genius, and that
+he is a representative of one of the world's greatest families. I am
+only the servant of a great Power. He is a great Power in himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And believe me,&quot; Nigel concluded fervently, as he made his adieux, &quot;the
+greatest autocrat that ever breathed. If, when you exchange farewells
+with him, he says&mdash;'There will be no war'&mdash;we are saved, at any rate for
+the moment.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXVIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Maggie, very cool and neat, a vision of soft blue, a wealth of colouring
+in the deep brown of her closely braided hair, her lips slightly parted
+in a smile of welcome, felt, notwithstanding her apparent composure, a
+strange disturbance of outlook and senses as Prince Shan was ushered
+into her flower-bedecked little sitting room that afternoon. The unusual
+formality of his entrance seemed somehow to suit the man and his manner.
+He bowed low as soon as he had crossed the threshold and bowed again
+over her fingers as she rose from her easy-chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It makes me very happy that you receive me like this,&quot; he told her
+simply. &quot;It makes it so much easier for me to say the things that are in
+my heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't you sit down, please?&quot; Maggie invited. &quot;You are so tall, and I
+hate to be completely dominated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed at once, but he continued to talk with grave and purposeful
+seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish,&quot; he said, &quot;to bring myself entirely into accord, for these few
+minutes, with your western methods and customs. I address you,
+therefore, Lady Maggie, with formal words, while I keep back in my
+heart much that is struggling to express itself. I have come to ask you
+to do me the great honour of becoming my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie sat for a few moments speechless. The thing which she had half
+dreaded and half longed for&mdash;the low timbre of his caressing voice&mdash;was
+entirely absent. Yet, somehow or other, his simple, formal words were at
+least as disturbing. He leaned towards her, a quiet, dignified figure,
+anxious yet in a sense confident. He had the air of a man who has
+offered to share a kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your wife,&quot; Maggie repeated tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The thought is new to you, perhaps,&quot; he went on, with gentle tolerance.
+&quot;You have believed the stories people tell that in my youth I was vowed
+to celibacy and the priesthood. That is not true. I have always been
+free to marry, but although to-day we figure as a great progressive
+nation, many of the thousand-year-old ideas of ancient China have dwelt
+in my brain and still sit enshrined in my heart. The aristocracy of
+China has passed through evil times. There is no princess of my own
+country whom I could meet on equal terms. So, you see, although it
+develops differently, there is something of the snobbishness of your
+western countries reflected in our own ideas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am not a princess,&quot; Maggie murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are the princess of my soul,&quot; he answered, lowering his eyes for a
+moment almost reverently. &quot;I cannot quite hope to make you understand,
+but if I took for my wife a Chinese lady of unequal mundane rank, I
+should commit a serious offence against those who watch me from the
+other side of the grave, and to whom I am accountable for every action
+of my life. A lady of another country is a different matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am an Englishwoman,&quot; Maggie said, &quot;and I love my country. You
+know what that means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know very well,&quot; he admitted. &quot;I had not meant to speak of those
+things until later, but, for your country's sake, what greater alliance
+could you seek to-day than to become the wife of him who is destined to
+be the Ruler of Asia?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie caught hold of her courage. She looked into his eyes
+unflinchingly, though she felt the hot colour rise into her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did not speak to me of these things, Prince Shan, when I came to
+your house last night,&quot; she reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>His smile was full of composure. It was as though the truth which sat
+enshrined in the man's soul lifted him above all the ordinary emotions
+of fear of misunderstandings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For those few minutes,&quot; he confessed, &quot;I was very angry. It brings
+great pain to a man to see the thing he loves droop her wings, flutter
+down to earth, and walk the common highway. It is not for you, dear one,
+to mingle with that crowd who scheme and cheat, hide and deceive, for
+any reward in the world, whether it be money, fame, or the love of
+country. You were not made for those things, and when I saw you there,
+so utterly in my power, having deliberately taken your risk, I was
+angry. For a single moment I meant that you should realise the danger of
+the path you were treading. I think that I did make you realise it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes fell. He seemed to have established some compelling power over
+her. He had met her thoughts before they were uttered, and answered even
+her unspoken question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish you didn't make life so much like a kindergarten,&quot; she
+complained, with an almost pathetic smile at the corners of her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a very different place,&quot; he rejoined fervently, &quot;that I desire to
+make of life for you. Listen, please. I have spoken to you first the
+formal words which make all things possible between us, and now, if I
+may, I let my heart speak. Somewhere not far from Pekin I have a palace,
+where my lands slope to the river. For five months in the year my
+gardens are starred with blue and yellow flowers, sweet-smelling as the
+almond blossom, and there are little pagodas which look down on the blue
+water, pagodas hung with creepers, not like your English evergreens, but
+with blossoms, pink and waxen, which open as one looks at them and send
+out sweet perfumes. When you are there with me, dear one, then I shall
+speak to you in the language of my ancestors, which some day you will
+understand, and you shall know that love has its cradle in the East, you
+shall feel the flame of its birth, the furnace of its accomplishment.
+Here my tongue moves slowly, yet I stoop my knee to you, I show you my
+heart, and my lips tell you that I love. What that love is you shall
+learn some day, if you have the will and the confidence and the soul.
+Will you come back to China with me, Maggie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rested her fingers on his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a magician,&quot; she confessed. &quot;I am very English, and yet I want
+to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stood for a moment looking into her eyes. Then he stooped down and
+raised her hesitating fingers to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe that you will come,&quot; he said simply. &quot;I believe that you will
+ride over the clouds with me, back to the country of beautiful places.
+So now I speak to you of serious things. Of money there shall be what
+you wish, more than any woman even of your rank possesses in this
+country. I shall give you, too, the sister of my great <i>Black Dragon</i> so
+that in five days, if you wish, you can pass from any of my palaces to
+London. And further than that, behold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drew from his pocket a roll of papers. Maggie recognised it, and her
+heart beat faster. Curiously enough, just then she scarcely thought of
+its world importance. She remembered only those few moments of strange
+thrills, the wonder at finding him in that room, as he stood watching
+her, the horror and yet the thrill of his measured words. He laid the
+papers upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Read them,&quot; he invited. &quot;You will understand then the net that has been
+closing around your country. You will understand the better if I tell
+you this. China and Japan are one. It was my first triumph when
+patriotism urged me into the field of politics. We have a single motto,
+and upon that is based all that you may read there,&mdash;'<i>Europe for the
+Europeans, Asia for us</i>.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was conscious of a sudden sense of escape from her almost
+mesmeric state. The change in his tone, his calm references to things
+belonging to another and altogether different world, had dissolved a
+situation against the charm of which she had found herself powerless,
+even unwilling to struggle. Once more she was back in the world where
+for the last two years had lain her chief interests. She took the papers
+in her hand and began reading them quickly through. Every now and then a
+little exclamation broke from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will observe,&quot; her companion pointed out, looking over her
+shoulder, &quot;that on paper, at any rate, Japan is the great gainer. She
+takes Australia, New Zealand and India. China absorbs Thibet and
+re&euml;stablishes her empire of forty years ago. The arrangement is based
+very largely on racial conditions. China is a self-centered country. We
+have not the power of fusion of the Japanese. You will observe further,
+as an interesting circumstance, that the American foothold in Asia
+disappears as completely as the British.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But tell me,&quot; she demanded, &quot;how are these things to be brought about,
+and where does Immelan come in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan's position,&quot; he explained, &quot;is largely a sentimental one, yet
+on the other hand he saves his country from what might be a grave
+calamity. The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might
+seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.
+The point is this. He soothes his country of the pain which groans day
+by day in her limbs. He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great
+Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And France escapes,&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;France escapes,&quot; he assented. &quot;Rightly or wrongly, the whole of
+Germany's post-war animosity was directed against England. She
+considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen. She may have
+been right or wrong. I myself find the evidence conflicting. At this
+moment the matter does not concern us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And is Great Britain, then,&quot; Maggie asked, &quot;believed to be so helpless
+that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the
+will of China and Japan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great Britain,&quot; he reminded her, &quot;has taken the League of Nations to
+her heart. It was a very dangerous thing to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still,&quot; Maggie persisted, &quot;there remains the great thing which you have
+not told me. These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart
+of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I had signed the agreement,&quot; he replied, &quot;they could very easily
+have been carried into effect. You have heard already, have you not,
+through some of your agents, of the three secret cities? In the
+eastern-most of them is the answer to your question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that a challenge to me to come out and discover for myself all that
+I want to know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you come,&quot; he answered, &quot;you shall certainly know everything. There
+is another little matter, too, which waits for your decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me of it at once, please,&quot; she begged, with a sudden conviction of
+his meaning.</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I spoke just now,&quot; he reminded her, &quot;of the three secret cities. They
+are secret because we have taken pains to keep them so. One is in
+Germany, one in Russia, and one in China. A casual traveller could
+discover little in the German one, and little more, perhaps, in the
+Russian one. Enough to whet his curiosity, and no more. But in China
+there is the whole secret at the mercy of a successful spy. A man named
+Jesson, Lady Maggie&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I telephoned you about him before luncheon to-day,&quot; she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had your message,&quot; he replied, &quot;and the man is safe for the moment.
+At the same time, Lady Maggie, let me remind you that this is a game the
+rules of which are known the world over. Jesson has now in his
+possession the secret on which I might build, if I chose, plans to
+conquer the world. He knew the penalty if he was discovered, and he was
+discovered. To spare his life is sentimentalism pure and simple, yet if
+it is your will, so be it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very good to me,&quot; she declared gratefully, &quot;all the more good
+because half the time I can see that you scarcely understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I do not admit,&quot; he protested. &quot;I understand even where I do not
+sympathise. You make of life the greatest boon on earth. We of my race
+and way of thinking are taught to take it up or lay it down, if not with
+indifference, at any rate with a very large share of resignation.
+However, Jesson's life is spared. From what I have heard of the man, I
+imagine he will be very much surprised.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have given me a great deal of your confidence,&quot; she said
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it not clear,&quot; he answered, &quot;why I have done so? I ask of you the
+greatest boon a woman has to give. I do not seek to bribe, but if you
+can give me the love that will make my life a dream of happiness, then
+will it not be my duty to see that no shadow of misfortune shall come to
+you or yours? China stands between Japan and Russia, and I am China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gave him her hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very wonderful,&quot; she declared. &quot;Remember that at a time like
+this, it is not a woman's will alone that speaks. It is her soul which
+lights the way. Prince Shan, I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I leave,&quot; he told her, &quot;on Friday, soon after dawn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She found herself trembling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a very short time,&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>They had both risen to their feet. He was close to her now, and she felt
+herself caught up in a passionate wave of inertia, an absolute inability
+to protest or resist. His arms were clasped around her lightly and with
+exceeding gentleness. He leaned down. She found herself wondering, even
+in that tumultuous moment, at the strange clearness of his complexion,
+the whiteness of his firm, strong teeth, the soft brilliance of his
+eyes, which caressed her even before his lips rested upon hers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that you will come,&quot; he whispered. &quot;I think that you will be
+very happy.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXIX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the following morning, to a
+state of intense activity. Taxi-cabs and motor-cars were lined along the
+street; a stream of callers came and went. That part of the
+establishment of which little was seen by the casual caller, the rooms
+where half a dozen secretaries conducted an immense correspondence,
+presided over by Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In his
+reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few of the callers, mostly
+journalists and politicians, to whom Li Wen gave the entr&eacute;e. One visitor
+even this most astute of secretaries found it hard to place. He took the
+card in to his master, who glanced at it thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Earl of Dorminster,&quot; he repeated. &quot;I will see him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet with a certain
+aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his favourite chair of plain black oak
+heaped with green silk cushions and held out his hand a little
+tentatively.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he said. &quot;I trust that
+you come to wish me fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;depends upon how you choose to seek it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am answered,&quot; was the prompt acknowledgment. &quot;One thing in your
+country I have at least learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of
+candour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have you come to speak to
+me as an ambassador from your cousin, or in any way on her behalf?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My business has nothing to do with Lady Maggie,&quot; Nigel assured him
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop,&quot; he begged. &quot;Do not explain your business. If it is a personal
+request, it is granted. If, on the other hand, you seek my advice on
+matters of grave importance, it is yours. Before other words are spoken,
+however, I myself desire to address you on the subject of Lady Maggie
+Trent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you please,&quot; Nigel answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not the custom of my country, or of my life,&quot; Prince Shan
+continued, &quot;to covet or steal the things which belong to another. If
+fate has made me a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady
+Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It is my great desire that
+she should become my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There was something in the
+other's measured speech, so fateful, so assured, that it seemed almost
+as though he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that had seemed
+to him impossible and unnatural in such an idea disappeared from that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You tell me this,&quot; Nigel began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I announce it to you as the head of the family,&quot; Prince Shan
+interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You tell it to me also,&quot; Nigel persisted, &quot;because you have heard the
+rumours which were at one time very prevalent&mdash;that Lady Maggie and I
+were or were about to become engaged to be married.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard such a rumour only very indirectly,&quot; Prince Shan
+confessed, &quot;and I cannot admit that it has made any difference in my
+attitude. I think, in my land and yours, we have at least one common
+convention. The woman who touches our heart is ours if we may win her.
+Love is unalterably selfish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for
+those who may suffer by our victory, we may have pity but no
+consideration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I to understand,&quot; Nigel asked bluntly, &quot;that Lady Maggie has
+consented to be your wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her alone with her thoughts.
+Every hour it is my hope to hear from her. She knows that I leave for
+China early to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So at the present moment you are in suspense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am in suspense,&quot; Prince Shan admitted, &quot;and perhaps,&quot; he went on,
+with one of his rare smiles, &quot;it occurred to me that it would be in one
+sense a relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears that are
+in my heart. You are the one person to whom I could speak, Lord
+Dorminster. You have not wished my suit well, but at least you have been
+clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you that a prince of
+China might venture to compete with a peer of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On the contrary,&quot; Nigel assented, &quot;I have the greatest admiration for
+the few living descendants of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a
+right to enter the lists, a right to win if you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what do you think of my prospects, if I may ask such a delicate
+question?&quot; Prince Shan enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot estimate them,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;I only know that Maggie is
+deeply interested.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; his companion continued softly, &quot;that she will become my
+Princess. You have never visited China, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he went on,
+&quot;so you have little idea, perhaps, as to the manner of our lives. Some
+day I will hope to be your host, so until then, as I may not speak of my
+own possessions, may I go just so far as this? Your cousin will be very
+happy in China. This is a great country, but the very air you breathe is
+cloyed with your national utilitarianism. Mine is a country of beautiful
+thoughts, of beautiful places, of quiet-living and sedate people. I can
+give your cousin every luxury of which the world has ever dreamed,
+wrapped and enshrined in beauty. No person with a soul could be unhappy
+in the places where she will dwell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are at least confident,&quot; Nigel remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is because I am convinced,&quot; was the calm rejoinder. &quot;I shall take
+your cousin's happiness into my keeping without one shadow of misgiving.
+The last word, however, is with her. It remains to be seen whether her
+courage is great enough to induce her to face such a complete change in
+the manner of her life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will not be her lack of courage which will keep her in England,&quot;
+Nigel declared.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan bowed, with a graceful little gesture of the hands. The
+subject was finished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall now, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he said, &quot;take advantage of your kindly
+presence here to speak to you on a very personal matter, only this time
+it is you who are the central figure, and I who am the dummy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not follow you,&quot; Nigel confessed, with a slight frown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I speak in tones of apology,&quot; Prince Shan went on, &quot;but you must
+remember that I am one of reflective disposition; Nature has endowed me
+with some of the gifts of my great ancestors, philosophers famed the
+world over. It seems very clear to me that, if I had not come, from
+sheer force of affectionate propinquity you would have married Lady
+Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel's frown deepened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan!&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p>Again the outstretched hand seemed as though the fingers were pressed
+against his mouth. He broke off abruptly in his protest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would have lived a contented life, because that is your province,&quot;
+his companion continued. &quot;You would have felt yourself happy because you
+would have been a faithful husband. But the time would have come when
+you would both have realised that you had missed the great things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is idle prophecy,&quot; Nigel observed, a little impatiently. &quot;I came
+to see you upon another matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humour me,&quot; the Prince begged. &quot;I am going to speak to you even more
+intimately. I shall venture to do so because, after all, she is better
+known to me than to you. I am going to tell you that of all the women in
+the world, Naida Karetsky is the most likely to make you happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel drew himself up a little stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One does not discuss these things,&quot; he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I call that a touch of insularity?&quot; Prince Shan pleaded, &quot;because
+there is nothing else in the world so wonderful to discuss, in all
+respect and reverence, as the women who have made us feel. One last
+word, Lord Dorminster. The days of matrimonial alliances between the
+reigning families of Europe have come to an end under the influence of a
+different form of government, but there is a certain type of alliance,
+the utility of which remains unimpaired. I venture to say that you could
+not do your country a greater service, apart from any personal feelings
+you might have, than by marrying Mademoiselle Karetsky. There, you see,
+now I have finished. This is for your reflection, Lord Dorminster&mdash;just
+the measured statement of one who wears at least the cloak of philosophy
+by inheritance. Time passes. Your own reason for coming to see me has
+not yet been expounded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have come to ask you to visit the Prime Minister before you leave
+England,&quot; Nigel announced.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan changed his position slightly. His forehead was a little
+wrinkled. He was silent for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I pay more than a farewell visit of ceremony,&quot; he said, &quot;that is to
+say, if I speak with Mr. Mervin Brown on things that count, I must
+anticipate a certain decision at which I have not yet wholly arrived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel had a sudden inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are seeking to bribe Maggie!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not true,&quot; was the dignified reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then please explain,&quot; Nigel persisted.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan rose to his feet. He walked to the heavy silk curtains which
+led into his own bedchamber, pushed them apart, and looked for a moment
+at the familiar objects in the room. Then he came back, glancing on his
+way at the ebony cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One does not repeat one's mistakes,&quot; he said slowly, &quot;and although you
+and I, Lord Dorminster, breathe the common air of the greater world, my
+instinct tells me that of certain things which have passed between your
+cousin and myself it is better that no mention ever be made. I wish to
+tell you this, however. There is in existence a document, my signature
+to which would, without a doubt, have a serious influence upon the
+destinies of this country. That document, unsigned, would be one of my
+marriage gifts to Lady Maggie&mdash;and as you know I have not yet had her
+answer. However, if you wish it, I will go to the Prime Minister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen came silently in. He spoke to his master for a few minutes in
+Chinese. A faint smile parted the latter's lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can tell the person at the telephone that I will call within the
+next few minutes,&quot; he directed. &quot;You will not object,&quot; he added, turning
+courteously to Nigel, &quot;if I stop for a moment, on the way to Downing
+Street, at a small private hospital? An acquaintance of mine lies sick
+there and desires urgently to see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am entirely at your service,&quot; Nigel assured him.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan, with many apologies, left Nigel alone in the car outside a
+tall, grey house in John Street, and, preceded by the white-capped nurse
+who had opened the door, climbed the stairs to the first floor of the
+celebrated nursing home, where, after a moment's delay, he was shown
+into a large and airy apartment. Immelan was in bed, looking very ill
+indeed. He was pale, and his china-blue eyes, curiously protruding, were
+filled with an expression of haunting fear. A puzzled doctor was
+standing by the bedside. A nurse, who was smoothing the bedclothes,
+glanced around at Prince Shan's entrance. The invalid started
+convulsively, and, clutching the pillows with his right hand, turned
+towards his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you've come!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Stay where yon are! Don't go!
+Doctor&mdash;nurse&mdash;leave us alone for a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The nurse went at once. The doctor hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My patient is a good deal exhausted,&quot; he said. &quot;There are no dangerous
+symptoms at present, but&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will promise not to distress him,&quot; Prince Shan interrupted. &quot;I am
+myself somewhat pressed for time, and it is probable that your patient
+will insist upon speaking to me in private.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The doctor followed the nurse from the room. Prince Shan stood looking
+down upon the figure of quondam associate. There was a leaven of mild
+wonder in his clear eyes, a faintly contemptuous smile about the corners
+of his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you are afraid of death, my friend,&quot; he observed, &quot;afraid of the
+death you planned so skilfully for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a lie!&quot; Immelan declared excitedly. &quot;Sen Lu was never killed by
+my orders. Listen! You have nothing against me. My death can do you no
+good. It is you who have been at fault. You&mdash;Prince Shan&mdash;the great
+diplomatist of the world&mdash;are gambling away your future and the future
+of a mighty empire for a woman's sake. You have treated me badly enough.
+Spare my life. Call in the doctor here and tell him what to do. He can
+find nothing in my system. He is helpless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile upon the Prince's lips became vaguer, his expression more
+bland and indeterminate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Immelan,&quot; he murmured, &quot;you are without doubt delirious.
+Compose yourself, I beg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A light that was almost tragic shone in the man's face. He sat up with a
+sudden access of strength.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the love of God, don't torture me!&quot; he groaned. &quot;The pains grow
+worse, hour by hour. If I die, the whole world shall know by whose
+hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The expression on Prince Shan's face remained unchanged. In his eyes,
+however, there was a little glint of something which seemed almost like
+foreknowledge,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you die,&quot; he pronounced calmly, &quot;it will be by your own hand&mdash;not
+mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For some reason or other, Immelan accepted these measured words of
+prophecy as a total reprieve. The relief in his face was almost piteous.
+He seized his visitor's hand and would have fawned upon it. Prince Shan
+withdrew himself a little farther from the bed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan,&quot; he said, &quot;during my stay in England I have studied you and
+your methods, I have listened to all you have had to say and to propose,
+I have weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of the scheme you
+have outlined to me, and I only arrived at my decision after the most
+serious and unbiassed reflection. Your scheme itself was bold and almost
+splendid, but, as you yourself well know at the back of your mind, it
+would lay the seeds of a world tumult. I have studied history, Immelan,
+perhaps a little more deeply than you, and I do not believe in
+conquests. For the restoration to China of such lands as belong
+geographically and rightly to the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans.
+You, it seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to gratify your
+hatred of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A cat's-paw!&quot; Immelan gasped. &quot;Australia, New Zealand and India for
+Japan, new lands for her teeming population; Thibet for you, all
+Manchuria, and the control of the Siberian Railway!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These are dazzling propositions,&quot; Prince Shan admitted, &quot;and yet&mdash;what
+about the other side of the Pacific?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;America would be powerless,&quot; Immelan insisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you said before, in 1917,&quot; was the dry reminder. &quot;I did not come
+here, however, to talk world politics with you. Those things for the
+moment are finished. I came in answer to your summons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You meant what you said?&quot; he demanded, with hoarse anxiety. &quot;There was
+no poison? Swear that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan moved towards the door. His backward glance was coldly
+contemptuous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What I said, I meant,&quot; he replied. &quot;Extract such comfort from it as you
+may.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Immelan stared
+after him, hollow-eyed and anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing
+upon him once more.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove off to Downing Street.
+The former was silent for the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
+towards his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man Immelan is a coward,&quot; he declared. &quot;It is he whom I have just
+visited.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So many men are brave enough in a fight,&quot; he remarked, &quot;who lose their
+nerve on a sick bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bravery in battle,&quot; Prince Shan pronounced, &quot;is the lowest form of
+courage. The blood is stirred by the excitement of slaughter as by
+alcohol. With Immelan I shall have no more dealings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speaking politically as well as personally?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>The other smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I might go so far as to agree,&quot; he acquiesced, &quot;but in a sense,
+there are conditions. You shall hear what they are. I will speak before
+you to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign of my departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which hung down, here and
+there, from the blue sky, came the <i>Black Dragon</i>, her engines purring
+softly, her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched her for a
+moment in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start,&quot; Prince Shan announced. &quot;My
+pilot tells me that the weather conditions are wonderful, all the way
+from here to Pekin. We shall be there on Wednesday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You travel alone?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have passengers,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;I am taking the English
+chaplain to your Church in Pekin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the two men met.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is an ingenious idea,&quot; Nigel admitted dryly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish to be prepared,&quot; his companion answered. &quot;It may be that he is
+my only companion. In that case, I go back to a life lonelier than I
+have ever dreamed of. It is on the knees of the gods. So far there has
+come no word, but although I am not by nature an optimist, my
+superstitions are on my side. All the way over on my last voyage, when I
+lay in my berth, awake and we sailed over and through the clouds, my
+star, my own particular star, seemed leaning always down towards me, and
+for that reason I have faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel glanced at his companion curiously but without speech. The car
+pulled up in Downing Street. The two men descended and found everything
+made easy for them. In two minutes they were in the presence of the
+Prime Minister.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a
+matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation. He received
+Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an
+earlier visit. To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to
+be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation,&quot; he said,
+&quot;bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have found his lordship,&quot; Prince Shan declared, &quot;one of the few
+Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside
+his own country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan,&quot; he
+said. &quot;They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the
+promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
+friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities. Lord
+Dorminster would have me believe that there is a still more terrible
+price for us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole outlook,
+abandon our belief in the League of Nations, and once more acknowledge
+the supremacy of force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster is right,&quot; Prince Shan pronounced. &quot;I have come here to
+tell you so, Mr. Mervin Brown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You come here as a friend of England?&quot; the latter asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I come here as one who hesitates to become her enemy,&quot; was the measured
+reply. &quot;I will be perfectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
+to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of China and Japan,
+would have resulted in the humiliation of your country and the
+gratification of Germany's eagerly desired revenge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You believe in the existence of that sentiment, then?&quot; the Prime
+Minister enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any one short of a very insular Englishman,&quot; the Prince replied, &quot;would
+have realised it long ago. There is a great society in Germany, scarcely
+even a secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations of the last
+great war. Lord Dorminster tells me that you are to-day without a secret
+service. For that reason you have remained in ignorance of the mines
+beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans well and carefully. Her
+first and greatest weapon has been your sense of security. She has seen
+you contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious satisfaction,
+invincible France, regaining her wealth more slowly than you for the
+simple reason that half the man power of the country is absorbed by her
+military preparations. France is impregnable. A direct invasion of your
+country is in all probability impossible. Those two facts have seemed to
+you all-sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may say so, sir,
+very short-sighted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Germany has no power to transport troops in other directions,&quot; Mr.
+Mervin Brown observed.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have another enemy besides Germany,&quot; he pointed out, &quot;a great
+democracy who has never forgiven your lack of sympathy at her birth,
+your attempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne in agony and
+shame, yet containing the germs of worthy things which your statesmen in
+those days failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Russia stands
+hand in hand with Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But surely,&quot; the Prime Minister protested, &quot;you speak in the language
+of the past? The League of Nations still exists. Any directly predatory
+expedition would bring the rest of the world to arms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the first necessities of a tribunal,&quot; he expounded, &quot;is that
+that tribunal should have the power to punish. You yourself are one of
+the judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With what weapon will
+you chastise him? The culprit has grown mightier than the judge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;America&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;America,&quot; Prince Shan interrupted, &quot;can, when she chooses, strike a
+weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
+proceed outside her own sphere of influence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But she must protect her trade,&quot; the Prime Minister insisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
+instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
+mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
+as anxious to buy as she is to sell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am to figure to myself, then,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, &quot;a
+combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
+Great Britain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned,&quot; Prince Shan
+assured him gravely. &quot;If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
+would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
+treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
+would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
+be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
+knowledge of this scheme,&quot; the Prime Minister confessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Official Germany would probably deny it,&quot; Prince Shan answered dryly.
+&quot;Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
+but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
+have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
+cities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales,&quot; Mr.
+Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless, they exist,&quot; Prince Shan continued, &quot;and they exist for
+the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
+have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
+The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
+design to conquer any country in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Armoured airships?&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air,&quot; Prince
+Shan explained. &quot;On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
+ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
+to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
+these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
+Government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember something of the sort,&quot; the Prime Minister assented. &quot;The
+inventor himself was an American, I believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Precisely! I believe he told you in plain words that whoever possessed
+his model might, if they chose, dominate the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But who wants to dominate the world by force?&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown
+demanded passionately. &quot;We have passed into a new era, an era of peace
+and the higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and money to
+create these horrible instruments of destruction. The League of Nations
+has decreed that they shall not be built.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless,&quot; Prince Shan declared, with portentous gravity, &quot;a
+thousand of these engines of destruction are now ready in a certain city
+of China. Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota of work
+in the shape of providing parts. China alone has put them together. I
+bought the secret, and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
+world remains at peace or moves on to war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You cannot hesitate, then?&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed anxiously. &quot;You
+yourself are an apostle of civilisation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is because we are strong,&quot; he said, &quot;that we love peace. It is
+because you are weak that you fear war. I am not here to teach you
+statesmanship. It is not for me to point out to you the means by which
+you can make your country safe and keep her people free. Call a meeting
+of what remains of the League of Nations and compare your strength with
+that of the nations who have crept outside and lie waiting. Then take
+the advice of experts and set your house in order. You sacrifice
+everything to-day to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dorminster
+here into your councils. You are not a nation of fools. Speak the truth
+at the next meeting of the League of Nations and see that it is properly
+reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dorminster?&quot; the Prime Minister
+invited, turning to Nigel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you will recreate the post of Minister for War, I will do so with
+pleasure,&quot; was the prompt reply.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is great responsibility upon your shoulders, Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot;
+he said. &quot;You will never know how near you have been to disaster. Try
+and wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call together your
+writers, your thinking men, your historians. Encourage the flagging
+spirit of patriotism in your public schools and universities. Is this
+presumption on my part that I give so much advice? If so, forgive me.
+Truth that sits in the heart will sometimes demand to be heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained behind. They both looked
+at the door through which Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown
+metaphorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a little dazed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that man real flesh and blood?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is as real and as near the truth,&quot; Nigel replied solemnly, &quot;as the
+things of which he has told us.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXXI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>That night, Nigel gave a dinner party on Maggie's account at the
+fashionable London hotel of the moment. Invitations had been sent out by
+telephone, by hurried notes, in one or two cases were delivered by word
+of mouth. On the whole, the acceptances, considering the season was in
+full swing, were a little remarkable. Every one was anxious to come,
+because, as one of her girl friends put it, no one ever knew what Maggie
+was going to be up to next. One of the few refusals came from Prince
+Shan, and even he made use of compromise:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p><i>My dear Lord Dorminster, will you forgive me if in this instance I
+     do not break a custom to which I have perhaps a little too rigidly
+     adhered. The Prime Minister telephoned, a few minutes after we left
+     him, asking me to meet two of his colleagues from the Foreign
+     Office to-night, and I doubt whether our conference will have
+     concluded at the hour you name.</i></p>
+
+<p>     <i>However, if you will permit me, I will give myself the pleasure of
+     joining you later in the evening, to make my adieux to those of my
+     friends whom I am quite sure I shall find amongst your company.</i></p>
+
+<p>     <i>Sincerely yours</i>,</p>
+
+<p>     SHAN.</p></div>
+
+<p>Maggie passed the note back with a little smile. She made no comment
+whatever. Nigel watched her thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have carried out your orders,&quot; he observed. &quot;Everything has been
+attended to, even to the colour of your table decorations. Now tell me
+what it all means?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked him in the face quite frankly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I?&quot; she answered. &quot;I do not know myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this by way of being a farewell party?&quot; he persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not know that,&quot; she assured him. &quot;The only thing is that if I do
+decide&mdash;to go&mdash;well, I shall have had a last glimpse of most of my
+friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As your nearest male relative, in fact your guardian,&quot; Nigel went on,
+with a touch of his old manner, &quot;I feel myself deeply interested in your
+present situation. If a little advice from one who is considerably your
+senior would be acceptable&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It wouldn't,&quot; Maggie interrupted quietly. &quot;There are just two things in
+life no girl accepts advice upon&mdash;the way she does her hair and the man
+she means to marry. You see, both are decided by instinct. I shall know
+before dawn to-morrow what I mean to do, but until then nothing that
+anybody could say would make any difference. Besides, your mind ought to
+be full of your own matrimonial affairs. I hear that Naida is talking
+of going back to Russia next week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My own affairs are less complex,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;I am going to ask
+Naida to marry me&mdash;to-night if I have the opportunity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There goes my second string!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;Nigel, you are horribly
+callous. I have never been in the least sure that I haven't wanted to
+marry you myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel lit a cigarette and pushed the box across to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've frequently felt the same way,&quot; he confessed. &quot;The trouble of it is
+that when the really right person comes along, one hasn't any doubt
+about it whatever. I should have made you a stodgy husband, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sniffed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that considering the way you've flirted with me,&quot; she declared,
+&quot;you ought at least to have given me the opportunity of refusing you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Naida refuses me,&quot; he began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I decide that Asia is too far away,&quot; she interrupted&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We may come together, after all,&quot; he said, with a resigned little sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Glib tongue and empty heart,&quot; she quoted. &quot;Nigel, I would never trust
+you. I believe you're in love with Naida.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I'm not quite so sure about you,&quot; he observed, watching the colour
+rise quickly in her cheeks. &quot;Off with you to dress, young woman. It's
+past seven, and we must be there early. I still have the wine to order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dinner party was in its way a complete success. Prince Karschoff was
+there, benign and distinguished; Chalmers and one or two other young men
+from the American Embassy. There was a sprinkling of Maggie's girl
+friends, a leaven of the older world in Nigel's few intimates,&mdash;and
+Naida, very pale but more beautiful than ever in a white velvet gown,
+her hair brushed straight back, and with no jewellery save one long rope
+of pearls. Nigel who in his capacity as host had found little time for
+personal conversation during the service of dinner, deliberately led her
+a little apart when they passed out into the lounge for coffee and to
+watch the dancing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My duties are over for a time,&quot; he said. &quot;Do you realise that I have
+not had a word with you alone since our luncheon at Ciro's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have all been a little engrossed, have we not?&quot; she murmured. &quot;I
+hope that you are satisfied with the way things have turned out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing shall induce me to talk politics or empire-saving to-night,&quot; he
+declared, with a smile. &quot;I have other things to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me why you asked us all to dine so suddenly,&quot; she enquired. &quot;I do
+not know whether it is my fancy, but there seems to be an air of
+celebration about. Is there any announcement to be made?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None. The party was just a whim of Maggie's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They both looked across towards the ballroom, where she was dancing with
+Chalmers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie is very beautiful to-night,&quot; Naida said. &quot;I could scarcely
+listen to my neighbour's conversation at dinner time for looking at her.
+Yet she has the air all the time of living in a dream, as though
+something had happened which had lifted her right away from us all. I
+began to wonder,&quot; she added, &quot;whether, after all, Oscar Immelan had not
+told me the truth, and whether we should not be drinking her health and
+yours before the evening was over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You could scarcely believe that,&quot; he whispered, &quot;if you have any memory
+at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint touch of pink in her cheeks, a tinge of colour as
+delicate as the passing of a gleam of sunshine over a sea-glistening
+shell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Englishmen are so unfaithful,&quot; she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I at least am an exception,&quot; Nigel answered swiftly. &quot;The words
+which you checked upon my lips the last time we were alone together
+still live in my heart. I think, Naida, the time has come to say them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Their immediate neighbours had deserted them. He leaned a little
+towards her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know so well that I love you, Naida,&quot; he said. &quot;Will you be my
+wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him, half laughing, yet with tears in her eyes. With an
+impulsive little gesture, she caught his hand in hers for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How horribly sure you must have felt of me,&quot; she complained, &quot;to have
+spoken here, with all these people around! Supposing I had told you that
+my life's work lay amongst my own people, or that I had made up my mind
+to marry Oscar Immelan, to console him for his great disappointment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't have believed you,&quot; he answered, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Conceit!&quot; she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a sense, of course, I am conceited,&quot; he replied. &quot;I am the happiest
+and proudest man here. I really think that after all we ought to turn it
+into a celebration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The band was playing a waltz. Naida's head moved to the music, and
+presently Nigel rose to his feet with a smile, and they passed into the
+ballroom. Karschoff and Mrs. Bollington Smith watched them with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is looking very wonderful to-night,&quot; the latter remarked. &quot;And
+Nigel, too; I wonder if there is anything between them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The days of foreign alliances are past,&quot; Karschoff replied, &quot;but a few
+intermarriages might be very good for this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you serious?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely! I would not suggest anything of the sort with Germany, but
+with this new Russia, the Russia of which Naida Karetsky is a daughter,
+why not? Although they will not have me back there, Russia is some day
+going to lay down the law to Europe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder whether Maggie has any ideas of the sort in her mind,&quot; Mrs.
+Bollington Smith observed. &quot;She seems curiously abstracted to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers came grumblingly up to Mrs. Bollington Smith, with whom he was
+an established favourite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie is treating me disgracefully,&quot; he complained. &quot;She will
+scarcely dance at all. She goes around talking to every one as though it
+were a sort of farewell party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps it may be,&quot; Karschoff remarked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She isn't going away, is she?&quot; Chalmers demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who knows?&quot; the Prince replied. &quot;Lady Maggie is one of those strange
+people to whom one may look with every confidence for the unexpected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She herself came across to them, a few moments later.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something tells me,&quot; she declared, &quot;that you are talking about me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are always a very much discussed young lady,&quot; Karschoff rejoined,
+with a little bow.</p>
+
+<p>She made a grimace and sank into a chair by her aunt. She talked on
+lightly enough, but all the time with that slight suggestion of
+superficiality which is a sign of strain. She glanced often towards the
+entrance of the lounge, yet no one seemed less disturbed when at a few
+minutes before eleven Prince Shan came quietly in. He made his way at
+once to Mrs. Bollington Smith and bent over her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is so kind of you and Lord Dorminster,&quot; he said, &quot;to give me this
+opportunity of saying good-by to a few friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are leaving us so soon, Prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow, soon after dawn,&quot; he replied, his eyes wandering around the
+little circle. &quot;I wish to be in Pekin, if possible, by Wednesday, so my
+<i>Dragon</i> must spread his wings indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He said a few words to almost everybody. Last of all he came to Maggie,
+and no one heard what he said to her. There was no change in his face as
+he bent low over her fingers, no sign of anything which might have
+passed between them, as a few minutes later he turned to one side with
+Nigel. Maggie held out her hand to Chalmers. The strain seemed to have
+passed. Her lips were parted in a wonderful smile, her feet moved to the
+music.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come and dance,&quot; she invited.</p>
+
+<p>They moved a few steps away together, when Maggie came to an abrupt
+standstill. The two stood for a moment as though transfixed, their eyes
+upon the arched entrance which led from the restaurant into the lounge.
+A man was standing there, looking around, a strange, menacing figure, a
+man dressed in the garb of fashion but with the face of a savage, with
+eyes which burned in his head like twin dots of fire, with drawn, hollow
+cheeks and mouth a little open like a mad dog's. As his eyes fell upon
+the group and he recognised them, a look of horrible satisfaction came
+into his face. He began to approach quite deliberately. He seemed to
+take in by slow degrees every one who stood there,&mdash;Maggie herself and
+Chalmers, Naida, Nigel and Prince Shan. He moved forward. All the time
+his right hand was behind him, concealed underneath the tails of his
+dress coat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be careful!&quot; Maggie cried out. &quot;It is Oscar Immelan! He is mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Some of the party and many of the bystanders had shrunk away from the
+menacing figure. Naida stepped out from among the little group of those
+who were left.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oscar,&quot; she said firmly, &quot;what is the matter with you? You are not well
+enough to be here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He came to a standstill. At close quarters his appearance was even more
+terrible. Although by some means he had gotten into his evening clothes,
+he was only partly shaven, and there were gashes in his face where the
+hand which had held his razor had slipped. The pupils of his eyes were
+distended, and the eyes themselves seemed to have shrunk back into their
+sockets. His whole frame seemed to have suddenly lost vigour, even
+substance. He had the air of a man in clothes too large for him. Even
+his voice was shriller,&mdash;shriller and horrible with the slow and bestial
+satisfaction of his words.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So here you are, the whole nest of you together, eh?&quot; he exclaimed.
+&quot;Good! Very good indeed! Prince Shan, the poisoner! Dorminster, enjoying
+your brief triumph, eh? And you, Naida Karetsky, traitress to your
+country&mdash;deceiver&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will do, Immelan,&quot; Nigel interrupted sharply. &quot;We are all here.
+What do you want with us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That comes,&quot; Immelan replied. &quot;Soon you shall all know why I have come!
+Let me speak to my friend Shan for a moment. I carry your poison in my
+veins, but there is a chance&mdash;just a chance,&quot; he added slowly, with a
+horrible smile upon his lips, &quot;that you may go first, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel made a stealthy but rapid movement forward, drawing Naida gently
+out of the way. Immelan was too quick, however. He swung around, showing
+the revolver which he had been concealing behind him, and moved to one
+side until his back was against one of the pillars. By this time, most
+of the other occupants of the ballroom had either rushed screaming away
+altogether, or were hiding, peering out in fascinated horror from the
+different recesses. The chief ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel bravely held his ground and
+came to within a few paces of Immelan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can't have any brawling here,&quot; he said. &quot;Put that revolver away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan took no notice of the intervener, except that for a single
+moment the muzzle yawned in the latter's face. The ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel was a
+brave man, but he had a wife and family, and after all, it was not his
+affair. There were other men there to look after the ladies. He hurried
+off to call for the police. Almost as he went, Prince Shan stepped into
+the foreground. His voice was calm and expressionless. His eyes, in
+which there shone no shadow of fear, were steadily fixed upon Immelan.
+He spoke without flurry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you carry your own weapons to-night, Immelan,&quot; he said. &quot;That at
+least is more like a man. You seem to have a grievance against every
+one. Start with me. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were some of them who wondered why, at this juncture when he so
+clearly dominated his assailant, Prince Shan, whose courage was superb
+and whose <i>sang froid</i> absolutely unshaken did not throw himself upon
+this intruder and take his chance of bringing the matter to an end at
+the moment when the man's nerve was undoubtedly shaken. Then they looked
+towards the entrance, and they understood. Creeping towards the little
+gathering came Li Wen and another of the Prince's suite, a younger and
+even more active man. The two came on tiptoe, crouching and moving
+warily, with the gleam of the tiger in their anxious eyes. Maggie caught
+a warning glance from Nigel and looked away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are my murderer!&quot; Immelan cried hoarsely. &quot;It is through you I
+suffer these pains! I am dying of your accursed poison!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that were true,&quot; Prince Shan replied, with the air of one willing to
+discuss the subject impartially, &quot;might I remind you of Sen Lu, who died
+in my box at the Albert Hall? For whom was that dagger thrust meant,
+Immelan? Not for the man whom you had bought to betray me, the only one
+of my suite who has ever been tempted with gold. That dagger thrust was
+meant for me, and the assassin was one of your creatures. So even if
+your words were true, Immelan, and the poison which you imagine to be in
+your body were planted there by me, are we less than quits?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan's lie was unconvincing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know nothing of Sen Lu's death,&quot; he declared. &quot;I employ no assassins.
+When there is killing to be done, I can do it myself. I am here to-night
+for that purpose. You have deserted me at the last moment, Prince
+Shan&mdash;played me and my country false for the sake of the English woman
+whom you think to carry back with you to China. And you,&quot; he added,
+turning with a sudden furious glance at Naida, &quot;you have deceived the
+man who trusted you, the man who sent you here for one purpose, and one
+purpose only. You have done your best to ruin my scheme. Not only that,
+but you have given the love which was mine&mdash;mine, I say&mdash;to another&mdash;an
+Englishman! I hate you all! That is why I, a dying man, have crawled
+here to reap my little harvest of vengeance.&mdash;You, Naida&mdash;you shall be
+first&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida was suddenly swung on one side, and the shot which rang out passed
+through Nigel's coat sleeve, grazing his wrist,&mdash;the only shot that was
+fired. Prince Shan, watching for his moment, as his two attendants threw
+themselves upon the madman from behind, himself sprang forward, knocked
+Immelan's right hand up with a terrible blow, and sent the revolver
+crashing to the ground. It was a matter of a few seconds. Immelan, when
+he felt himself seized, scarcely struggled. The courage of his madness
+seemed to pass, the venom died out of his face, he shook like a man in
+an ague. Prince Shan kicked the revolver on one side and looked
+scornfully down upon him, now a nerveless wreck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan,&quot; he said, &quot;it is a pity that you did not wait until to-morrow
+morning. You would then have known the truth. You are no more poisoned
+than I am. If you had been in China&mdash;well, who knows? In England there
+is so much prejudice against the taking of a worthless life that as a
+guest I subscribed to it and mixed a little orris-root tooth powder
+with your vermouth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The man's eyes suddenly opened. He was feverishly, frantically anxious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me that again,&quot; he shrieked. &quot;You mean it? Swear that you mean
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's gesture as he turned away was one of supreme contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Shan,&quot; he said, &quot;never needs to repeat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was the bustle of arriving police, the story of a revolver which
+had gone off by accident, a very puzzling contretemps expounded for
+their benefit. The situation, and the participants in it, seemed to
+dissolve with such facility that it was hard for any one to understand
+what had actually happened. Prince Shan, with Maggie on his arm, was
+talking to the leader of the orchestra, who had suddenly reappeared. The
+former turned to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not my custom to dance,&quot; he said, &quot;but the waltz that they were
+beginning to play seemed to me to have a little of the lure of our own
+music. Will you do me the honour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They moved away to the music. Chalmers stood and watched them, with one
+hand in his pocket and the other on Nigel's shoulder. He turned to
+Naida, who was on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing like a touch of melodrama for the emotions,&quot; he grumbled. &quot;Look
+at Lady Maggie! Her head might be touching the clouds, and I never saw
+her eyes shine like that when she danced with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't dance as well as Prince Shan, old fellow,&quot; Nigel told him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the Prince sails for China at dawn,&quot; Naida murmured.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXXII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Prince Shan stood in the tiny sitting room of his suite upon the <i>Black
+Dragon</i> and looked around him critically. The walls were of black oak,
+with white inlaid plaques on which a great artist had traced little
+fanciful figures,&mdash;a quaint Chinese landscape, a temple, a flower-hung
+pagoda. There were hangings of soft, blue silk tapestry, brought from
+one of his northern palaces. The cloth which covered the table was of
+the finest silk. There were several bowls of flowers, a couch, and two
+comfortable chairs. Through the open doors of the two bedchambers came a
+faint glimpse of snow-white linen, a perfume reminiscent at once of
+almond blossom, green tea, and crushed lavender, and in the little room
+beyond glistened a silver bath. Already attired for the voyage, his
+pilot stood on the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is all well, your Highness?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything is in order,&quot; Prince Shan replied. &quot;Ching Su is a perfect
+steward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reverend gentleman is in his room, your Highness,&quot; the pilot went
+on. &quot;All the supplies have arrived, and the crew are at their stations.
+At what hour will it please your Highness to start?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan looked through the open window, along the wooden platform,
+out to the broad stretch of road which led to London.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I announced the hour of my departure as six o'clock,&quot; he replied. &quot;I
+cannot leave before in case of any farewell message. Is the woman of
+whom I spoke to you here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is in attendance, your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She understands that she will not be required unless my other passenger
+should desire to accompany us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She understands perfectly, your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan stepped through his private exit on to the narrow wooden
+platform. Already the mighty engines had started, purring softly but
+deeply, like the deep-throated murmurings of a giant soon to break into
+a roar. It was a light, silvery morning, with hidden sunshine
+everywhere. On the other side of the vast amphitheatre of flat,
+cinder-covered ground, the Downs crept upwards, rolling away to the
+blue-capped summit of a distant range of hills. Northwards, the pall of
+London darkened the horizon. An untidy medley of houses and factories
+stretched almost to the gates of the vast air terminus. Listening
+intently, one could catch the faint roar of the city's awakening
+traffic, punctuated here and there by the shrill whistling of tugs in
+the river, hidden from sight by a shroud of ghostly mist. The dock on
+which Prince Shan stood was one apportioned to foreign royalty and
+visitors of note. A hundred yards away, the Madrid boat was on the point
+of starting, her whistles already blowing, and her engines commencing to
+beat. Presently the great machinery which assisted her flight from the
+ground commenced its sullen roar. There was a chorus of farewell shouts
+and she glided up into the air, a long row of people waving farewells
+from the windows. Prince Shan glanced at his watch,&mdash;twenty minutes to
+six. He paced the wooden boards and looked again,&mdash;ten minutes to six.
+Then he stopped suddenly. Along that gleaming stretch of private road
+came a car, driven at a rapid pace. Prince Shan stood and watched it,
+and as he watched, it seemed almost as though the hidden sun had caught
+his face and transfigured it. He stood as might stand a man who feels
+his feet upon the clouds. His lips trembled. There was no one there to
+see&mdash;his attendants stood respectfully in the background&mdash;but in his
+eyes was a rare moisture, and for a single moment a little choking at
+his throat. The car turned in under the arched roof. Prince Shan's
+servants, obeying his gesture, hurried forward and threw open the gates.
+The heavily laden limousine came to a standstill. Three people
+descended. Nigel and Naida lingered, watching the luggage being
+unloaded. Maggie came forward alone.</p>
+
+<p>They met a few yards from the entrance to the platform. Prince Shan was
+bare-headed, and Maggie, at least, saw those wonderful things in his
+face. He bent down and took her hands in his.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear and sweet soul,&quot; he whispered, as his lips touched her fingers,
+&quot;may my God and yours grant that you shall find happiness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her own eyes were wet as she smiled up at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been so long making up my mind,&quot; she said, &quot;and yet I knew all
+the time. I am so glad&mdash;so happy that I have come. Think, too, how
+wonderful a start! We leave the earth for the clouds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a wonderful allegory,&quot; he answered, smiling. &quot;We will take it
+into our hearts, dear one. It rests within the power of every human
+being to search for happiness and, in searching, to find it. I am
+fortunate because I can take you to beautiful places. I can spell out
+for you the secrets of a new art and a new beauty. We can walk in fairy
+gardens. I can give you jewels such as Europe has never seen, but I can
+give you, Maggie, nothing so strange and wonderful, even to me who know
+myself, as the love which fills my heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her laugh was like music.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am going to be so happy,&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>The other two approached and they all shook hands. They looked over the
+amazing little rooms, watched the luggage stowed away in some marvellous
+manner, saw the crew, every one at his station like a motionless figure.
+Then a whistle was blown, and once more they all clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very soon,&quot; Prince Shan promised, as he and Maggie leaned from the
+window of the car, &quot;I shall send the <i>Black Dragon</i> for you, Lord
+Dorminster, and for the one other whom I think you may wish to bring.
+Asia is not so far off, these days, and Maggie will love to see her
+friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Almost imperceptibly the giant airship floated away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Watch, both of you,&quot; Maggie cried. &quot;I am sending you down a farewell
+present.&quot; She whispered to Prince Shan, who handed her something from
+his pocket, smiled, and gave an order. The great ship passed in a
+semicircle and hovered almost exactly above their heads. A little shower
+of small scraps of paper came floating down. Nigel picked one up,
+examined it, and understood. He waved his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is Maggie's farewell gift to England,&quot; he said, &quot;the treaty which
+Prince Shan never signed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They stood side by side, watching. With incredible speed, the <i>Black
+Dragon</i> passed into the clouds and out again. Then, as it roared away
+eastwards, the sun suddenly disclosed itself. The airship mounted
+towards it, shimmering and gleaming in every part. Naida passed her hand
+a little shyly through her companion's arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't that rather a wonderful way to depart in search of happiness?&quot;
+she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled down at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not think that we shall find the search very difficult, dear,&quot; he
+said, &quot;though our feet may remain upon the earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida's lip quivered for a moment. Then she caught a glimpse of his face
+and gave a little sigh of content.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is heaven everywhere,&quot; she whispered.</p>
+<br />
+<br>
+<br>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13123 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Prince Shan, by E. Phillips
+Oppenheim
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Great Prince Shan
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: August 6, 2004  [eBook #13123]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN
+
+by
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+1922
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"A club for diplomats and gentlemen," Prince Karschoff remarked, looking
+lazily through a little cloud of tobacco smoke around the spacious but
+almost deserted card room. "The classification seems comprehensive
+enough, yet it seems impossible to get even a decent rubber of bridge."
+
+Sir Daniel Harker, a many years retired plenipotentiary to one of the
+smaller Powers, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Personally, I have come to the conclusion," he declared, "that the
+_raison d'�tre_ for the club seems to be passing. There is no diplomacy,
+nowadays, and every man who pays his taxes is a gentleman. Kingley, you
+are the youngest. Ransack the club and find a fourth."
+
+The Honourable Nigel Kingley smiled lazily from the depths of his
+easy-chair. He was a young Englishman of normal type, long-limbed,
+clean-shaven, with good features, a humorous mouth and keen grey eyes.
+
+"In actual years," he admitted, "I may have the advantage of you two,
+but so far as regards the qualities of youth, Karschoff is the youngest
+man here. Besides, no one could refuse him anything."
+
+"It is a subterfuge," the Prince objected, "but if I must go, I will go
+presently. We will wait five minutes, in case Providence should be kind
+to us."
+
+The three men relapsed into silence. They were seated in a comfortable
+recess of the card room of the St. Philip's Club. The atmosphere of the
+apartment seemed redolent with suggestions of faded splendour. There was
+a faint perfume of Russian calf from the many rows of musty volumes
+which still filled the stately bookcases. The oil paintings which hung
+upon the walls belonged to a remote period. In a distant corner, four
+other men were playing bridge, speechless and almost motionless, the
+white faces of two of them like cameos under the electric light and
+against the dark walls. There was no sound except the soft patter of the
+cards and the subdued movements of a servant preparing another bridge
+table by the side of the three men. Then the door of the room was
+quietly opened and closed. A man of youthful middle-age, carefully
+dressed, with a large, clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and fair hair
+sprinkled with grey, came towards them. He was well set up, almost
+anxiously ingratiating in manner.
+
+"You see now what Providence has sent," Sir Daniel Harker observed under
+his breath.
+
+"It is enough to make an atheist of one, this!" the Prince muttered.
+
+"Any bridge?" the newcomer enquired, seating himself at the table and
+shuffling one of the packs of cards.
+
+The three men rose to their feet with varying degrees of unwillingness.
+
+"Immelan is too good for us," Sir Daniel grumbled. "He always wins."
+
+"I am lucky," the newcomer admitted, "but I may be your partner; in
+which case, you too will win."
+
+"If you are my partner," the Prince declared, "I shall play for five
+pounds a hundred. I desire to gamble. London is beginning to weary me."
+
+"Mr. Kingley is a better player, though not so lucky," Immelan
+acknowledged, with a little bow.
+
+"Never believe it, with all due respect to our young friend here," Sir
+Daniel replied, as he cut a card. "Kingley plays like a man with brain
+but without subtlety. In a duel between you two, I would back Immelan
+every time."
+
+Kingley took his place at the table with a little gesture of
+resignation. He looked across the table to where Immelan sat displaying
+the card which he had just cut. The eyes of the two men met. A few
+seconds of somewhat significant silence followed. Then Immelan gathered
+up the cards.
+
+"I have the utmost respect for Mr. Kingley as an adversary," he said.
+
+The latter bowed a little ironically.
+
+"May you always preserve that sentiment! To-day, chance seems to have
+made us partners. Your deal, Mr. Immelan."
+
+"What stakes?" the Prince enquired, settling himself down in his chair.
+
+"They are for you to name," Immelan declared.
+
+The Prince laughed shortly.
+
+"I believe you are as great a gambler at heart as I am," he observed.
+
+"With Mr. Kingley for my partner, and the game one of skill," was the
+courteous reply, "I do not need to limit my stakes."
+
+A servant crossed the room, bringing a note upon a tray. He presented it
+to Kingley, who opened and read it through without change of
+countenance. When he had finished it, however, he laid his cards face
+downwards upon the table.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I owe you my most profound apologies. I am called
+away at once on a matter of urgent business."
+
+"But this is most annoying," the Prince declared irritably.
+
+"Here comes my saviour," Kingley remarked, as another man entered the
+card room. "Henderson will take my place. Glad I haven't to break you
+up, after all. Henderson, will you play a rubber?"
+
+The newcomer assented. Nigel Kingley made his adieux and crossed the
+room. Immelan watched him curiously.
+
+"What is our friend Kingley's profession?" he enquired.
+
+"He has no profession," Sir Daniel replied. "He has never come into
+touch with the sordid needs of these money-grubbing days. He is the
+nephew and heir of the Earl of Dorminster."
+
+Immelan looked away from the retreating figure.
+
+"Lord Dorminster," he murmured. "The same Lord Dorminster who was in the
+Government many years ago?"
+
+"He was Foreign Secretary when I was Governor of Jamaica," Sir Daniel
+answered. "A very brilliant man he was in those days."
+
+Immelan nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"I remember," he said.
+
+Nigel Kingley, on leaving the St. Philip's Club, was driven at once, in
+the automobile which he found awaiting him, to a large corner house in
+Belgrave Square, which he entered with the air of an habitu�. The
+waiting major-domo took him at once in charge and piloted him across the
+hall.
+
+"His lordship is very much occupied, Mr. Nigel," he announced. "He is
+not seeing any other callers. He left word, however, that you were to be
+shown in the moment you arrived."
+
+"His lordship is quite well, I hope?"
+
+"Well in health, sir, but worried, and I don't wonder at it," the man
+replied, speaking with the respectful freedom of an old servant. "I
+never thought I'd live to see such times as these."
+
+A man in the early sixties, still good-looking, notwithstanding a
+somewhat worn expression, looked up from his seat at the library table
+on Kingley's entrance. He nodded, but waited until the door was closed
+behind the retreating servant before he spoke.
+
+"Good of you to come, Nigel," he said. "Bring your chair up here."
+
+"Bad news?" the newcomer enquired.
+
+"Damnable!"
+
+There was a brief silence, during which Nigel, knowing his uncle's
+humours, leaned back in his chair and waited. Upon the table was a
+little pile of closely written manuscript, and by their side several
+black-bound code books, upon which the "F.O.Private" still remained,
+though almost obliterated with time. Lord Dorminster's occupation was
+apparent. He was decoding a message of unusual length. Presently he
+turned away from the table, however, and faced his nephew. His hands
+travelled to his waistcoat pocket. He drew out a cigarette from a thin
+gold case, lit it and began to smoke. Then he crossed his legs and
+leaned a little farther back in his chair.
+
+"Nigel," he said, "we are living in strange times."
+
+"No one denies that, sir," was the grave assent.
+
+Lord Dorminster glanced at the calendar which stood upon the desk.
+
+"To-day," he continued, "is the twenty-third day of March, nineteen
+hundred and thirty-four. Fifteen years ago that terrible Peace Treaty
+was signed. Since then you know what the history of our country has
+been. I am not blowing my own trumpet when I say that nearly every man
+with true political insight has been cast adrift. At the present moment
+the country is in the hands of a body of highly respectable and
+well-meaning men who, as a parish council, might conduct the affairs of
+Dorminster Town with unqualified success. As statesmen they do not
+exist. It seems to me, Nigel, that you and I are going to see in reality
+that spectre which terrified the world twenty years ago. We are going to
+see the breaking up of a mighty empire."
+
+"Tell me what has happened or is going to happen," Nigel begged.
+
+"Well, for one thing," his uncle replied, "the Emperor of the East is
+preparing for a visit to Europe. He will be here probably next month.
+You know whom I mean, of course?"
+
+"Prince Shan!" Nigel exclaimed.
+
+"Prince Shan of China," Lord Dorminster assented. "His coming links up
+many things which had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what happens
+during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide the destinies of this
+country, and yet I wouldn't mind betting you a thousand to one that
+there isn't a single official of the Government who has the slightest
+idea as to why he is coming, or that he is coming at all."
+
+"Do you know?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan for the moment, Nigel. Now
+listen. You go about a great deal. What do people say about
+me--honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the light."
+
+"They call you a faddist and a scaremonger," Nigel confessed, "yet there
+are one or two, especially at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and
+ambassadors whose place in the world has passed away, who think and
+believe differently. You know, sir, that I am amongst them."
+
+Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.
+
+"Well," he said, "I fancy I am about to prove myself. Seven years ago,
+it was," he went on reminiscently, "when the new National Party came
+into supreme power. You know one of their first battle cries--'Down with
+all secret treaties! Down with all secret diplomacy! Let nothing exist
+but an honest commercial understanding between the different countries
+of the world!' How Germany and Russia howled with joy! In place of an
+English statesman with his country's broad interests at heart, we have
+in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen representatives of the great
+industries, whose object, in their own words, is, I believe, to develop
+friendly commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between the nations.
+Not only our ambassadors but our secret service were swept clean out of
+existence. I remember going to Broadley, the day he was appointed
+Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple question. I asked him whether
+he did not consider it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of
+the other great nations, however friendly they might seem, to keep
+himself assured that all these expressions of good will were honourable,
+and that in the heart of the German nation that great craving for
+revenge which is the natural heritage of the present generation had
+really become dissipated. Broadley smiled at me. 'Lord Dorminster,' he
+said, 'the chief cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We look
+upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It is the people of Germany
+with whom we are in touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
+of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides, there is the League
+of Nations.' Those were Broadley's views then, and they are his views
+to-day. You know what I did?"
+
+Nigel assented cautiously.
+
+"I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few of us," he observed. "You
+have been running an unofficial secret service of your own."
+
+"Precisely! I have had a few agents at work for over a year, and when I
+have finished decoding this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which
+will prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold of terrible
+events. The worst of it is--well, we have been found out."
+
+"What do you mean?" Nigel asked quickly.
+
+His uncle's sensitive lips quivered.
+
+"You knew Sidwell?"
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"Sidwell was found stabbed to the heart in a caf� in Petrograd, three
+weeks ago," Lord Dorminster announced. "An official report of the
+enquiry into his death informs his relatives that his death was due to a
+quarrel with some Russian sailors over one of the women of the quarter
+where he was found."
+
+"Horrible!" Nigel muttered.
+
+"Sidwell was one of those unnatural people, as you know," Lord
+Dorminster went on, "who never touched wine or spirits and who hated
+women. To continue. Atcheson was a friend of yours, wasn't he?"
+
+"Of course! He was at Eton with me. It was I who first brought him here
+to dine. Don't tell me that anything has happened to Jim Atcheson!"
+
+"This dispatch is from him," Lord Dorminster replied, indicating the
+pile of manuscript upon the table,--"a dispatch which came into my hands
+in a most marvellous fashion. He died last week in a nursing home
+in--well, let us say a foreign capital. The professor in charge of the
+hospital sends a long report as to the unhappy disease from which he
+suffered. As a matter of fact, he was poisoned."
+
+Nigel Kingley had been a soldier in his youth and he was a brave man.
+Nevertheless, the horror of these things struck a cold chill to his
+heart. He seemed suddenly to be looking into the faces of spectres, to
+hear the birth of the winds of destruction.
+
+"That is all I have to say to you for the moment," his uncle concluded
+gravely. "In an hour I shall have finished decoding this dispatch, and I
+propose then to take you into my entire confidence. In the meantime, I
+want you to go and talk for a few minutes to the cleverest woman in
+England, the woman who, in the face of a whole army of policemen and
+detectives, crossed the North Sea yesterday afternoon with this in her
+pocket."
+
+"You don't mean Maggie?" Nigel exclaimed eagerly.
+
+His uncle nodded.
+
+"You will find her in the boudoir," he said. "I told her that you were
+coming. In an hour's time, return here."
+
+Lord Dorminster rose to his feet as his nephew turned to depart. He laid
+his hand upon the latter's shoulder, and Nigel always remembered the
+grave kindliness of his tone and expression.
+
+"Nigel," he sighed, "I am afraid I shall be putting upon your shoulders
+a terrible burden, but there is no one else to whom I can turn."
+
+"There is no one else to whom you ought to turn, sir," the young man
+replied simply. "I shall be back in an hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Lady Maggie Trent, a stepdaughter of the Earl of Dorminster, was one of
+those young women who had baffled description for some years before she
+had commenced to take life seriously. She was neither fair nor dark,
+petite nor tall. No one could ever have called her nondescript, or have
+extolled any particular grace of form or feature. Her complexion had
+defied the ravages of sun and wind and that moderate indulgence in
+cigarettes and cocktails which the youth of her day affected. Her nose
+was inclined to be retrouss�, her mouth tender but impudent, her grey
+eyes mostly veiled in expression but capable of wonderful changes. She
+was curled up in a chair when Nigel entered, immersed in a fashion
+paper. She held out her left hand, which he raised to his lips.
+
+"Well, Nigel, dear," she exclaimed, "what do you think of my new
+profession?"
+
+"I hate it," he answered frankly.
+
+She sighed and laid down the fashion paper resignedly.
+
+"You always did object to a woman doing anything in the least useful. Do
+you realise that if anything in the world can save this stupid old
+country, I have done it?"
+
+"I realise that you've been running hideous risks," he replied.
+
+She looked at him petulantly.
+
+"What of it?" she demanded. "We all run risks when we do anything worth
+while."
+
+"Not quite the sort that you have been facing."
+
+She smiled thoughtfully.
+
+"Do you know exactly where I have been?" she asked.
+
+"No idea," he confessed. "What my uncle has just told me was a complete
+revelation, so far as I was concerned. I believed, with the rest of the
+world, what the newspapers announced--that you were visiting Japan and
+China, and afterwards the South Sea Islands, with the Wendercombes."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Dad wanted to tell you," she said, "but it was I who made him promise
+not to. I was afraid you would be disagreeable about it. We arranged it
+all with the Wendercombes, but as a matter of fact I did not even start
+with them. For the last eight months, I have been living part of the
+time in Berlin and part of the time in a country house near the Black
+Forest."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Not a bit of it! I have been governess to the two daughters of Herr
+Essendorf."
+
+"Essendorf, the President of the German Republic?"
+
+Lady Maggie nodded.
+
+"He isn't a bit like his pictures. He is a huge fat man and he eats a
+great deal too much. Oh, the horror of those meals!" she added, with a
+little shudder. "Think of me, dear Nigel, who never eat more than an
+omelette and some fruit for luncheon, compelled to sit down every day to
+a _mittagessen_! I wonder I have any digestion left at all."
+
+"Do you mean that you were there under your own name?" he asked
+incredulously.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I secured some perfectly good testimonials before I left," she said.
+"They referred to a Miss Brown, the daughter of Prebendary Brown. I was
+Miss Brown."
+
+"Great Heavens!" Nigel muttered under his breath. "You heard about
+Atcheson?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Poor fellow, they got him all right. You talk about thrills, Nigel,"
+she went on. "Do you know that the last night before I left for my
+vacation, I actually heard that fat old Essendorf chuckling with his
+wife about how his clever police had laid an English spy by the heels,
+and telling her, also, of the papers which they had discovered and
+handed over. All the time the real dispatch, written by Atcheson when
+he was dying, was sewn into my corsets. How's that for an exciting
+situation?"
+
+"It's a man's job, anyhow," Nigel declared.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and abandoned the personal side of the
+subject.
+
+"Have you been in Germany lately, Nigel?" she enquired.
+
+"Not for many years," he answered.
+
+She stretched herself out upon the couch and lit a cigarette.
+
+"The Germany of before the war of course I can't remember," she said
+pensively. "I imagine, however, that there was a sort of instinctive
+jealous dislike towards England and everything English, simply because
+England had had a long start in colonisation, commerce and all the rest
+of it. But the feeling in Germany now, although it is marvellously
+hidden, is something perfectly amazing. It absolutely vibrates wherever
+you go. The silence makes it all the more menacing. Soon after I got to
+Berlin, I bought a copy of the Treaty of Peace and read it. Nigel, was
+it necessary to have been so bitterly cruel to a beaten enemy?"
+
+"Logically it would seem not," Nigel admitted. "Actually, we cannot put
+ourselves back into the spirit of those days. You must remember that it
+was an unprovoked war, a war engineered by Germany for the sheer
+purposes of aggression. That is why a punitive spirit entered into our
+subsequent negotiations."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I expect history will tell us some day," she continued, "that we needed
+a great statesman of the Beaconsfield type at the Peace table. However,
+that is all ended. They sowed the seed at Versailles, and I think we are
+going to reap the harvest."
+
+"After all," Nigel observed thoughtfully, "it is very difficult to see
+what practical interference there could be with the peace of the world.
+I can very well believe that the spirit is there, but when it comes to
+hard facts--well, what can they do? England can never be invaded. The
+war of 1914 proved that. Besides, Germany now has a representative on
+the League of Nations. She is bound to toe the line with the rest."
+
+"It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked," Maggie reminded him.
+"We seem somehow or other to have found our way into the bad books of
+every country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or what?"
+
+"I should attribute it," Nigel replied, "to the passing of our old
+school of ambassadors. After all, ambassadors are born, not made, and
+they should be--they very often were--men of rare tact and perceptions.
+We have no one now to inform us of the prejudices and humours of the
+nations. We often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many
+opportunities of a _rapprochement_. It is trade, trade, trade and
+nothing else, the whole of the time, and the men whom we sent to the
+different Courts to further our commercial interests are not the type to
+keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate matters which
+sometimes need adjustment between two countries."
+
+"That may be the explanation of all the bad feeling," Maggie admitted,
+"and you may be right when you say that any practical move against us is
+almost impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is terribly
+exercised about the coming of Prince Shan."
+
+"I must get him to talk to me," Nigel said. "As a matter of fact, I
+don't think that we need fear Asiatic intervention over here. Prince
+Shan is too great a diplomatist to risk his country's new prosperity."
+
+"Prince Shan," Maggie declared, "is the one man in the world I am
+longing to meet. He was at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel?"
+
+"For one year only. He went from there to Harvard."
+
+"Tell me what he was like," she begged.
+
+"I have only a hazy recollection of him," Nigel confessed. "He was a
+most brilliant scholar and a fine horseman. I can't remember whether he
+did anything at games."
+
+"Good-looking?"
+
+"Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved, though, and even in those
+days he was far more exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
+thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he would become Asia's great
+man. I'll tell you all that I can remember about him another time,
+Maggie. I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson's. Have you any
+idea what it is about?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"None at all. It is in the old Foreign Office cipher and it looks like
+gibberish. I only know that the first few lines he transcribed gave dad
+the jumps."
+
+"I wonder if he has finished it by now."
+
+"He'll send for you when he has. How do you think I am looking, Nigel?"
+
+"Wonderful," he answered, rising to his feet and standing with his elbow
+upon the mantelpiece, gazing down at her. "But then you _are_ wonderful,
+aren't you, Maggie? You know I always thought so."
+
+She picked up a mirror from the little bag by her side and scrutinized
+her features.
+
+"It can't be my face," she decided, turning towards him with a smile. "I
+must have charm."
+
+"Your face is adorable," he declared.
+
+"Are you going to flirt with me?" she asked, with a faint smile at the
+corners of her lips. "You always do it so well and so convincingly. And
+I hate foreigners. They are terribly in earnest but there is no finesse
+about them. You may kiss me just once, please, Nigel, the way I like."
+
+He held her for a moment in his arms, tenderly, but with a reserve to
+which she was accustomed from him. Presently she thrust him away. Her
+own colour had risen a little.
+
+"Delightful," she murmured. "Think of the wasted months! No one has
+kissed me, Nigel, since we said good-bye."
+
+"Have you made up your mind to marry me yet?" he asked.
+
+"My dear," she answered, patting his hand, "do restrain your ardour. Do
+you really want to marry me?"
+
+"Of course I do!"
+
+"You don't love me."
+
+"I am awfully fond of you," he assured her, "and I don't love any one
+else."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It isn't enough, Nigel," she declared, "and, strange to say, it's
+exactly how I feel about you."
+
+"I don't see why it shouldn't be enough," he argued. "Perhaps we have
+too much common sense for these violent feelings."
+
+"It may be that," she admitted doubtfully. "On the other hand, don't
+let's run any risk. I should hate to find an affinity, and all that sort
+of thing, after marriage--divorce in these days is such shocking bad
+form. Besides, honestly, Nigel, I don't feel frivolous enough to think
+about marriage just now. I have the feeling that even while the clock is
+ticking we are moving on to terrible things. I can't tell you quite what
+it is. I carried my life in my hands during those last few days abroad.
+I dare say this is the reaction."
+
+He smiled reassuringly.
+
+"After all, you are safe at home now, dear," he reminded her, "and I
+really am very fond of you, Maggie."
+
+"And I'm quite absurdly fond of you, Nigel," she acknowledged. "It makes
+me feel quite uncomfortable when I reflect that I shall probably have to
+order you to make love to some one else before the week is out."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the sort," he declared firmly. "I am not good at
+that sort of thing. And who is she, anyhow?"
+
+They were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door--not the discreet
+tap of a well-bred domestic, but a flurried, almost an imperative
+summons. Before either of them could reply, the door was opened and
+Brookes, the elderly butler, presented himself upon the threshold. Even
+before he spoke, it was clear that he brought alarming news.
+
+"Will you step down to the library at once, sir?" he begged, addressing
+Nigel.
+
+"What is the matter, Brookes?" Maggie demanded anxiously.
+
+"I fear that his lordship is not well," the man replied.
+
+They all hurried out together. Brookes was evidently terribly perturbed
+and went on talking half to himself without heeding their questions.
+
+"I thought at first that his lordship must have fainted," he said. "I
+heard a queer noise, and when I went in, he had fallen forward across
+the table. Parkins has rung for Doctor Wilcox."
+
+"What sort of a noise?" Nigel asked.
+
+"It sounded like a shot," the man faltered.
+
+They entered the library, Nigel leading the way. Lord Dorminster was
+lying very much as Brookes had described him, but there was something
+altogether unnatural in the collapse of his head and shoulders and his
+motionless body. Nigel spoke to him, touched him gently, raised him at
+last into a sitting position. Something on which his right hand seemed
+to have been resting clattered on to the carpet. Nigel turned around and
+waved Maggie back.
+
+"Don't come," he begged.
+
+"Is it a stroke?" she faltered.
+
+"I am afraid that he is dead," Nigel answered simply.
+
+They went out into the hall and waited there in shocked silence until
+the doctor arrived. The latter's examination lasted only a few seconds.
+Then he pointed to the telephone.
+
+"This is very terrible," he said. "I am afraid you had better ring up
+Scotland Yard, Mr. Kingley. Lord Dorminster appears either to have shot
+himself, as seems most probable," he added, glancing at the revolver
+upon the carpet, "or to have been murdered."
+
+"It is incredible!" Nigel exclaimed. "He was the sanest possible man,
+and the happiest, and he hadn't an enemy in the world."
+
+The physician pointed downwards to the revolver. Then he unfastened once
+more the dead man's waistcoat, opened his shirt and indicated a small
+blue mark just over his heart.
+
+"That is how he died," he said. "It must have been instantaneous."
+
+Time seemed to beat out its course in leaden seconds whilst they waited
+for the superintendent from Scotland Yard. Nigel at first stood still
+for some moments. From outside came the cheerful but muffled roar of the
+London streets, the hooting of motor horns, the rumbling of wheels, the
+measured footfall of the passing multitude. A boy went by, whistling;
+another passed, calling hoarsely the news from the afternoon papers. A
+muffin man rang his bell, a small boy clattered his stick against the
+area bailing. The whole world marched on, unmoved and unnoticing. In
+this sombre apartment alone tragedy reigned in sinister silence. On the
+sofa, Lord Dorminster, who only half an hour ago had seemed to be in
+the prime of life and health, lay dead.
+
+Nigel moved towards the writing-table and stood looking at it in wonder.
+The code book still remained, but there was not the slightest sign of
+any manuscript or paper of any sort. He even searched the drawers of the
+desk without result. Every trace of Atcheson's dispatch and Lord
+Dorminster's transcription of it had disappeared!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+On a certain day some weeks after the adjourned inquest and funeral of
+Lord Dorminster, Nigel obtained a long-sought-for interview with the
+Right Honourable Mervin Brown, who had started life as a factory
+inspector and was now Prime Minister of England. The great man received
+his visitor with an air of good-natured tolerance.
+
+"Heard of you from Scotland Yard, haven't I, Lord Dorminster?" he said,
+as he waved him to a seat. "I gather that you disagreed very strongly
+with the open verdict which was returned at the inquest upon your
+uncle?"
+
+"The verdict was absolutely at variance with the facts," Nigel declared.
+"My uncle was murdered, and a secret report of certain doings on the
+continent, which he was decoding at the time, was stolen."
+
+"The medical evidence scarcely bears out your statement," Mr. Mervin
+Brown pointed out dryly, "nor have the police been able to discover how
+any one could have obtained access to the room, or left it, without
+leaving some trace of their visit behind. Further, there are no
+indications of a robbery having been attempted."
+
+"I happen to know more than any one else about this matter," Nigel
+urged,--"more, even, than I thought it advisable to mention at the
+inquest--and I beg you to listen to me, Mr. Mervin Brown. I know that
+you considered my uncle to be in some respects a crank, because he was
+far-seeing enough to understand that under the seeming tranquillity
+abroad there is a universal and deep-seated hatred of this country."
+
+"I look upon that statement as misleading and untrue," the Minister
+declared. "Your late uncle belonged to that mischievous section of
+foreign politicians who believed in secret treaties and secret service,
+and who fostered a state of nervous unrest between countries otherwise
+disposed to be friendly. We have turned over a new leaf, Lord
+Dorminster. Our efforts are all directed towards developing an
+international spirit of friendliness and trust."
+
+"Utopian but very short-sighted," Nigel commented. "If my uncle had
+lived to finish decoding the report upon which he was engaged, I could
+have offered you proof not only of the existence of the spirit I speak
+of, but of certain practical schemes inimical to this country."
+
+"The papers you speak of have disappeared," Mr. Mervin Brown observed,
+with a smile.
+
+"They were taken away by the person who murdered my uncle," Nigel
+insisted.
+
+The Right Honourable gentleman nodded.
+
+"Well, you know my views about the affair," he said. "I may add that
+they are confirmed by the police. I am in no way prejudiced, however,
+and am willing to listen to anything you may have to say which will not
+take you more than a quarter of an hour," he added, glancing at the
+clock upon his table.
+
+"Here goes, then," Nigel began. "My uncle was a statesman of the old
+school who had no faith in the Utopian programme of the present
+Government of this country. When you abandoned any pretence of a
+continental secret service, he at his own expense instituted a small one
+of his own. He sent two men out to Germany and one to Russia. The one
+sent to Russia was the man Sidwell, whose murder in a Petrograd caf� you
+may have read of. Of the two sent to Germany, one has disappeared, and
+the other died in hospital, without a doubt poisoned, a few days after
+he had sent the report to England which was stolen from my uncle's desk.
+That report was brought over by Lady Maggie Trent, Lord Dorminster's
+stepdaughter, who was really the brains of the enterprise and under
+another name was acting as governess to the children of Herr Essendorf,
+President of the German Republic. Half an hour before his death, my
+uncle was decoding this dispatch in his library. I saw him doing it, and
+I saw the dispatch itself. He told me that so far as he had gone
+already, it was full of information of the gravest import; that a
+definite scheme was already being formulated against this country by an
+absolutely unique and dangerous combination of enemies."
+
+"Those enemies being?"
+
+Nigel shook his head.
+
+"That I can only surmise," he replied. "My uncle had only commenced to
+decode the dispatch when I last saw him."
+
+"Then I gather, Lord Dorminster," the Minister said, "that you connect
+your uncle's death directly with the supposed theft of this document?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"And the conclusion you arrive at, then?"
+
+"Is an absolutely logical one," Nigel declared firmly. "I assert that
+other countries are not falling into line with our lamentable abnegation
+of all secret service defence, and that, in plain words, my uncle was
+murdered by an agent of one of these countries, in order that the
+dispatch which had come into his hands should not be decoded and passed
+on to your Government."
+
+The Right Honourable gentleman smiled slightly. He was a man of some
+natural politeness, but he found it hard to altogether conceal his
+incredulity.
+
+"Well, Lord Dorminster," he promised, "I will consider all that you have
+said. Is there anything more I can do for you?"
+
+"Yes!" Nigel replied boldly. "Induce the Cabinet to re�stablish our
+Intelligence Department and secret service, even on a lesser scale, and
+don't rest until you have discovered exactly what it is they are
+plotting against us somewhere on the continent."
+
+"To carry out your suggestions, Lord Dorminster," the Minister pointed
+out, "would be to be guilty of an infringement of the spirit of the
+League of Nations, the existence of which body is, we believe, a
+practical assurance of our safety."
+
+Nigel rose to his feet.
+
+"As man to man, sir," he said, "I see you don't believe a word of what I
+have been telling you."
+
+"As man to man," the other admitted pleasantly, as he touched the bell,
+"I think you have been deceived."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nigel, even as a prophet of woe, was a very human person and withal a
+philosopher. He strolled along Piccadilly and turned into Bond Street,
+thoroughly enjoying one of the first spring days of the season. Flower
+sellers were busy at every corner; the sky was blue, with tiny flecks of
+white clouds, there was even some dust stirred by the little puffs of
+west wind. He exchanged greetings with a few acquaintances, lingered
+here and there before the shop windows, and presently developed a fit of
+contemplation engendered by the thoughts which were all the time at the
+back of his mind. Bond Street was crowded with vehicles of all sorts,
+from wonderfully upholstered automobiles to the resuscitated victoria.
+The shop windows were laden with the treasures of the world, buyers were
+plentiful, promenaders multitudinous. Every one seemed to be cheerful
+but a little engrossed in the concrete act of living. Nigel almost ran
+into Prince Karschoff, at the corner of Grafton Street.
+
+"Dreaming, my friend?" the latter asked quietly, as he laid his hand
+upon Nigel's shoulder.
+
+"Guilty," Nigel confessed. "You are an observant man, Prince. Tell me
+whether anything strikes you about the Bond Street of to-day, compared
+with the Bond Street of, say, ten years ago?"
+
+The Russian glanced around him curiously. He himself was a somewhat
+unusual figure in his distinctively cut morning coat, his carefully tied
+cravat, his silk hat, black and white check trousers and faultless white
+spats.
+
+"A certain decline of elegance," he murmured. "And is it my fancy or has
+this country become a trifle Americanised as regards the headgear of its
+men?"
+
+Nigel smiled.
+
+"I believe our thoughts are moving in the same groove," he said. "To me
+there seems to be a different class of people here, as though the
+denizens of West Kensington, suddenly enriched, had come to spend their
+money in new quarters. Not only that, but there is a difference in the
+wares set out in the shops, an absence of taste, if you can understand
+what I mean, as though the shopkeepers themselves understood that they
+were catering for a new class of people."
+
+"It is the triumph of your _bourgeoisie_," the Russian declared. "Your
+aristocrat is no longer able to survive. _Noblesse oblige_ has no
+significance to the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he caters for
+the people who can write them. Let us pursue our reflections a little
+farther and in a different direction, my friend," he added, glancing at
+his watch. "Lunch with me at the Ritz, and we will see whether the
+cookery, too, has been adapted to the new tastes."
+
+Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he
+many times afterwards remembered.
+
+"I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two," he said
+doubtfully. "Besides, I had half promised to be at the club."
+
+"Not to-day," Karschoff insisted. "To-day let us listen to the call of
+the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant
+will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps 'One for you and one for
+me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat."
+
+The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two
+men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many
+acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of
+mind, pointed out many of the habitu�s of the place to his companion.
+
+"I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age," he declared,
+a little bitterly. "Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for
+a man without a country to do?"
+
+"You know everybody," Nigel replied, without reference to his
+companion's lament. "Tell me who the woman is who has just entered?"
+
+Karschoff glanced in the direction indicated, and for a moment his
+somewhat saturnine expression changed. A smile played upon his lips, his
+eyes seemed to rest upon the figure of the girl half turned away from
+them with interest, almost with pleasure. She was of an unusual type,
+tall and dark, dressed in black with the simplicity of a nun, with only
+a little gleam of white at her throat. Her hair--so much of it as showed
+under her flower-garlanded hat--was as black as jet, and yet, where she
+stood in the full glare of the sunlight, the burnish of it was almost
+wine-coloured. Her cheeks were pale, her expression thoughtful. Her
+eyes, rather heavily lidded, were a deep shade of violet. Her mouth was
+unexpectedly soft and red.
+
+"Ah, my friend, no wonder you ask!" Karschoff declared with enthusiasm.
+"That is a woman whom you must know."
+
+"Tell me her name," Nigel persisted with growing impatience.
+
+"Her name," Karschoff replied, "is Naida Karetsky. She is the daughter
+of the man who will probably be the next President of the Russian
+Republic. You see, I can speak those words without a tremor. Her father
+at present represents the shipping interests of Russia and England. He
+is one of the authorised consuls."
+
+"Is he of the party?"
+
+Karschoff scrutinised the approaching figures through his eyeglass and
+nodded.
+
+"Her father is the dark, broad-shouldered man with the square beard," he
+indicated. "Immelan, as you can see, is the third. They are coming this
+way. We will speak of them afterwards."
+
+Naida, with her father and Oscar Immelan, left some acquaintances with
+whom they had been talking and, preceded by a _ma�tre d'h�tel_, moved in
+the direction of the two men. The girl recognised the Prince with a
+charming little bow and was on the point of passing on when she
+appeared to notice his companion. For a moment she hesitated. The
+Prince, anticipating her desire to speak, rose at once to his feet.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said, bending over her hand, "welcome back to
+England! You bring with you the first sunshine we have seen for many
+days."
+
+"Are you being meteorological or complimentary?" she asked, smiling.
+"Will you present your companion? I have heard of Mr. Kingley."
+
+"With the utmost pleasure," the Prince replied. "Mr. Kingley, through
+the unfortunate death of a relative, is now the Earl of
+Dorminster--Mademoiselle Karetsky."
+
+Nigel, as he made his bow, was conscious of an expression of something
+more than ordinary curiosity in the face of the girl who had herself
+aroused his interest.
+
+"You are the son, then," she enquired, "of Lord Dorminster who died
+about a month ago?"
+
+"His nephew," Nigel explained. "My uncle was unfortunately childless."
+
+"I met your uncle once in Paris," she said. "It will give me great
+pleasure to make your better acquaintance. Will you and my dear friend
+here," she added, turning to the Prince, "take coffee with us
+afterwards? I shall then introduce you to my father. Oscar Immelan you
+both know, of course."
+
+They murmured their delighted assent, and she passed on. Nigel watched
+her until she took her place at the table.
+
+"Surely that girl is well-born?" he observed. "I have never seen a more
+delightful carriage."
+
+"You are right," Karschoff told him. "Karetsky is a well-to-do man of
+commerce, but her mother was a Baroness Kolchekoff, a distant relative
+of my own. The Kolchekoffs lived on their estates, and as a matter of
+fact we never met. Naida has gone over to the people, though, body and
+soul."
+
+"She is extraordinarily beautiful," Nigel remarked.
+
+His companion was swinging his eyeglass back and forth by its cord.
+
+"Many men have thought so," he replied. "For myself, there is antagonism
+in my blood against her. I wonder whether I have done well or ill in
+making you two acquainted."
+
+Nigel felt a sudden desire to break through a certain seriousness which
+had come over his own thoughts and which was reflected in the other's
+tone. He shrugged his shoulders slightly and filled his glass with wine.
+
+"Every man in the world is the better," he propounded, "for adding to
+the circle of his acquaintances a beautiful woman."
+
+"Sententious and a trifle inaccurate," the Prince objected, with a
+sudden flash of his white teeth. "The beauty which is not for him has
+been many a man's undoing. But seriously, my quarrel with Naida is one
+of prejudice only. She is the confidante and the inspiration of
+Matinsky, and though one realises, of course, that so long as there is a
+Russian Republic there must be a Russian President, I suppose I should
+scarcely be human if I did not hate him."
+
+"Surely," Nigel queried, "she must be very much his junior?"
+
+"Matinsky is forty-four," Karschoff said. "Naida is twenty-six or
+twenty-seven. The disparity of years, you see, is not so great.
+Matinsky, however, is married to an invalid wife, and concerning Naida I
+have never heard one word of scandal. But this much is certain. Matinsky
+has the blandest confidence in her judgment and discretion. She has
+already been his unofficial ambassador in several capitals of Europe. I
+am convinced that she is here with a purpose. But enough of my
+country-people. We came here to be gay. Let us drink another bottle of
+wine."
+
+The joy of living seemed for a moment to reassert itself in Karschoff's
+face. His momentary fierceness, reminiscent of his Tartar ancestry, had
+passed, but it had left a shadow behind.
+
+"At least one should be grateful," he conceded a moment later, "for the
+distinction such a woman as Naida Karetsky brings into a room like this.
+Our Bond Street lament finds its proof here. Except for their
+clothes--so ill-worn, too, most of them--the women here remind one of
+Blackpool, and their men of Huddersfield. I am inclined to wish that I
+had taken you to Soho."
+
+Nigel shook his head. His eyes had strayed to a distant corner of the
+room, where Naida and her two companions were seated.
+
+"We cannot escape anywhere," he declared, "from this overmastering wave
+of mediocrity. A couple of generations and a little intermarriage may
+put things right. A Chancellor of the Exchequer with genius, fifteen
+years ago, might even have prevented it."
+
+"You can claim, at any rate, a bloodless and unapparent revolution," the
+Prince observed. "You chivied your aristocracy of birth out of existence
+with yellow papers, your aristocracy of mind with a devastating income
+tax. This is the class whom you left to gorge,--the war profiteers. I
+hope that whoever writes the history of these times will see that it is
+properly illustrated."
+
+In the lounge, they had barely seated themselves before Naida, with her
+father and Immelan, appeared. The little party at once joined up, and
+Naida seated herself next to Nigel. She talked very slowly, but her
+accent amounted to little more than a prolongation of certain syllables,
+which had the effect of a rather musical drawl. Her father, after the
+few words of introduction had been spoken, strolled away to speak to
+some acquaintances, and Immelan and the Prince discussed with measured
+politeness one of the commonplace subjects of the moment. Naida and her
+companion became almost isolated.
+
+"I met your uncle once," Naida said, "at a dinner party in Paris. I
+remember that he attracted me. He represented a class of Englishman of
+whom I had met very few, the thinking aristocrat with a sense for
+foreign affairs. It was some years ago, that. He remained outside
+politics, did he not, until his death?"
+
+"Outside all practical politics," Nigel assented. "He had his interests,
+though."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully.
+
+"Have you inherited them?" she asked.
+
+He declined the challenge of her eyes. After all, she belonged to the
+Russia whose growing strength was the greatest menace to European peace,
+and whose attitude towards England was entirely uncertain.
+
+"My uncle and I were scarcely intimate," he said. "I was never really in
+his confidence."
+
+"Not so much so as Lady Maggie Trent? She would be your cousin?"
+
+"It is not a relationship of blood," Nigel replied. "Lady Maggie was the
+daughter of my uncle's second wife."
+
+"She is very charming," Naida murmured.
+
+"I find her delightful," Nigel agreed.
+
+"She is not only charming, but she has intelligence," Naida continued.
+"I think that Lord Dorminster was very fond of her, that he trusted her
+with many of his secrets."
+
+"Had he secrets?" Nigel asked.
+
+She remained for a moment very thoughtful, smoking a thin cigarette
+through a long holder and watching the little rings of smoke.
+
+"You are right," she said at last. "I find your attitude the only
+correct one. Did you know that Maggie was a friend of mine, Lord
+Dorminster?"
+
+"I can very well believe it," he answered, "but I have never heard her
+speak of you."
+
+"Ah! But she has been away for some months. You have not seen much of
+her, perhaps, since her return?"
+
+"Very little," he acquiesced. "She only arrived in London just before my
+uncle's death, and since then I have had to spend some time at
+Dorminster."
+
+"As a matter of curiosity," Naida enquired, "when do you expect to see
+her again?"
+
+"This afternoon, I hope," he replied,--"directly I leave here, in fact."
+
+"Then you will give her a little message for me, please?"
+
+"With great pleasure!"
+
+"Tell her from me--mind she understands this, if you please--that she
+is not to leave England again until we have met."
+
+"Is this a warning?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him searchingly.
+
+"I wonder," she reflected, "how much of you is Lord Dorminster's
+nephew."
+
+"And I, in my turn," he rejoined, with sudden boldness, "wonder how much
+of you is Matinsky's envoy."
+
+She began to laugh softly.
+
+"We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster," she said. "I should like
+to see more of you."
+
+"You will permit me to call upon you," he begged eagerly.
+
+"Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for a little time. My father
+is trying to get a house. My sister is coming over to look after him. I
+am unfortunately only a bird of passage."
+
+"Then I shall not run the risk of missing you," he declared. "I shall
+call very soon."
+
+Immelan intervened,--grim, suspicious, a little disturbed. For some
+reason or other, the meeting between these two young people seemed to
+have made him uneasy.
+
+"Your father has desired me to present his excuses to Lord Dorminster,"
+he announced, "and to escort you back to the Milan. He has been
+telephoned for from the Consulate."
+
+Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluctance.
+
+"You will not delay your call too long, Lord Dorminster?" she enjoined,
+as she gave him her hand. "I shall expect you the first afternoon you
+are free."
+
+"I shall not delay giving myself the pleasure," he assured her.
+
+She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince. The two men stood together
+and watched her depart with her companion.
+
+"Really, one gains much through being an onlooker," the Prince
+reflected. "There go the spirit of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You
+dabble in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you guess what they
+are met for--for whom they wait?"
+
+"I might guess," Nigel replied, "but I would rather be told."
+
+"They wait for the master spirit," Karschoff declared, taking his arm.
+"They wait for the great Prince Shan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little room which the latter
+had used as a boudoir. They were discussing the question of her future
+residence there.
+
+"I am afraid," he declared, "that you will have to marry me."
+
+"It would have its advantages," she admitted thoughtfully. "I am really
+so fond of you, Nigel. I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's,
+Kensington, and have the Annersley children for bridesmaids. Don't you
+think I should look sweet in old gold and orange blossoms?"
+
+"Don't tantalise me," he begged.
+
+"We really must decide upon something," she insisted. "I hate giving up
+my rooms here, I should hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna,
+and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for us two to go on living
+here if I didn't. Are you quite sure that you love me, Nigel?"
+
+"I am not quite so sure as I was this morning," he confessed, holding
+out his cup for some more tea. "I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day
+at luncheon at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest, most
+wonderful figure you ever saw!"
+
+"Who was the cat?" Maggie enquired with asperity.
+
+"She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karetsky. Karschoff introduced me."
+
+Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a trace of the one
+expression he had never before seen in her face--fear--lurking in her
+eyes, even asserting itself in her tone.
+
+"Naida Karetsky?" she repeated. "Tell me exactly how you met her?"
+
+"She was lunching with her father and Oscar Immelan. She stopped to
+speak to Karschoff and asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited
+us to take coffee in the lounge."
+
+"She went out of her way to make your acquaintance, then?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose she did."
+
+"You know who she is?"
+
+"The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over here, I understood."
+
+"She is more than that," Maggie declared nervously. "She is the
+inspiration of the President himself. She is the most vital force in
+Russian politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to know, to whom I
+told you that I wished you to pay attentions. And now that you know her,
+I am afraid."
+
+"Where did you meet her?" he asked curiously.
+
+"We were at school together in Paris. She was two years older than I,
+but she stayed there until she was twenty. Afterwards we met in
+Florence."
+
+Nigel was greatly interested.
+
+"Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell me about her surprises me,"
+he admitted. "She has the air of counting for great things in the world.
+She is very beautiful, too."
+
+"She is beautiful enough," Maggie replied, "to have turned the head of
+the great Paul Matinsky himself. They say that he would give his soul to
+be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned Tsarina of Russia."
+
+Nigel frowned slightly.
+
+"Isn't that going rather a long way?" he objected.
+
+"Not when one remembers what manner of a man Matinsky is," Maggie
+replied. "He may have his faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far
+as regards his private life. There has never been a word of scandal
+concerning him and Naida, nor will there ever be. But in his eyes, Naida
+has that most wonderful gift of all,--she has vision. He once told a man
+with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was the one person in the world
+to whom a mistake was impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at
+all what she was over here for?"
+
+"Not as yet," he replied, "but she has asked me to go and see her."
+
+"Did she seem interested in you personally, or was it because your name
+is Dorminster?"
+
+Nigel sighed.
+
+"I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot tell. She asked me
+whether I had inherited my uncle's hobby."
+
+"What did you tell her?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after all she is in the enemy
+camp. She and Immelan seemed on particularly good terms."
+
+"Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet," Maggie declared.
+"She always used to speak so affectionately of England. Nigel, do you
+think that I have vision?"
+
+"I am sure that you have," he answered.
+
+"Very well, then, I will tell you what I see," she continued. "I see
+Naida Karetsky for Russia, Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and
+Sweden, and Prince Shan for Asia--here--meeting in London--within the
+next week or ten days, to take counsel together to decide whether the
+things which are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall not
+be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals it cleverly enough, but he
+hates England with all the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced.
+She is to be won. And Prince Shan--"
+
+"Well, what about him?" Nigel demanded, a little carried away by
+Maggie's earnestness.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I don't know," she confessed. "If the stories one hears about him are
+true, no man nor any woman could ever influence him. At least, though,
+one could watch and hope."
+
+"Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris, not to London," Nigel
+remarked.
+
+"If he goes to Paris," Maggie said, "Naida and Immelan will go. So shall
+we. If he comes here, it will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the
+Prime Minister?"
+
+"I saw him," Nigel replied, "but without the slightest result. He is
+clearly of the opinion that the open verdict was a merciful one. In
+other words, he believes that it was a case of suicide."
+
+"How wicked!" Maggie exclaimed.
+
+"I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a little high," Nigel
+remarked, "to ask him to believe that he was murdered in cold blood,
+here in the heart of London, by the secret service agent of a foreign
+Power. The strangest part of it all is that it is true. To think that
+those few pages of manuscript would have told us exactly what we have to
+fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand."
+
+"And I in my corsets!" Maggie groaned.
+
+They were both silent for a moment. Then Nigel moved towards the door
+and opened it.
+
+"Come downstairs into the library, will you, Maggie?" he begged. "Let us
+go in for a little reconstruction."
+
+They found Brookes in the hall and took him with them. The blinds in
+the room had never been raised, and there was still that nameless
+atmosphere which lingers for long in an apartment which has become
+associated with tragedy. Instinctively they all moved quietly and spoke
+in hushed voices. Nigel sat in the chair where his uncle had been found
+dead and made a mental effort to reconstruct the events which must have
+immediately preceded the tragedy.
+
+"I know that this was all thrashed out at the inquest, Brookes," he
+said, "but I want you to tell me once more. You see how far it is from
+this table to the door. My uncle must have had abundant warning of any
+one approaching. Was there no other way by which any one could have
+entered the room?"
+
+"There was, your lordship," the man replied, "and I have regretted
+several times since that I did not mention it at the inquest. The
+cleaners were here on the morning of that day, and the window at the
+farther end of the room was unfastened--I even believe that it was
+open."
+
+Nigel rose and examined the window in question. It was almost flush with
+the ground, and although there were iron railings separating it from the
+street, a little gate opening from the area entrance made ingress not
+only possible but easy. Nigel returned to his chair.
+
+"I can't understand this not having been mentioned at the inquest,
+Brookes," he said.
+
+"I was waiting for the question to be asked, your lordship. It was
+perfectly clear to every one there, if your lordship will excuse my
+saying so, that both the coroner and the police seemed to have made up
+their minds that it was a case of suicide."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"I had the same idea with reference to the coroner, at any rate,
+Brookes," he said. "So long as the verdict was returned in the form it
+was, I am not sure that it was not better so."
+
+He dismissed the man with a little nod and sat turning over the code
+books which still stood upon the table.
+
+"You and I, at any rate, Maggie, know the truth," he said, "and so long
+as we can get no help from the proper quarters, I think that we should
+do better to let the matter remain as it is. We don't want to direct
+people's attention to us. We want to lull suspicion so far as we can, to
+be free to watch the three."
+
+The telephone bell rang, and as Nigel moved his arm to take off the
+receiver, he knocked over one of the black, morocco-bound code books, A
+sheet of paper with a few words upon it came fluttering to the ground.
+Maggie picked it up, glanced at it carelessly at first and then with
+interest.
+
+"Nigel," she exclaimed, "you see whose handwriting this is? Could it be
+part of the decoded dispatch?"
+
+The telephone enquiry had been unimportant. Nigel pushed the instrument
+away. They both looked eagerly at the page of manuscript paper. It was
+numbered "8" at the top, and the few words written upon it in Lord
+Dorminster's writing were obviously the continuation of a paragraph:
+
+     The name of the middle one, then, of the three secret cities, into
+     which at all costs some one must find his way, is Kroten, and the
+     telephone number which is all the clue I have been able to get, up
+     to the present, to the London end of the affair, is Mayfair 146.
+
+"This is just where he got to in the decoding!" Nigel declared. "I
+wonder whether it's any use looking for the rest."
+
+They searched through every page of the heavy code books in vain. Then
+they returned to their study of the single page. Nigel dragged down an
+atlas and studied it.
+
+"Kroten," he muttered. "Here it is,--a small place about six hundred
+miles from Petrograd, apparently the centre of a barren, swampy
+district, population thirty thousand, birth rate declining, industries
+nil. Cheerful sort of spot it seems!"
+
+"I have more luck than you!" Maggie cried, her finger tracing out a
+line in the open telephone book. "Look!"
+
+Nigel glanced over her shoulder and read the entry to which she was
+pointing:
+
+"_Immelan Oscar, 13 Clarges Street, W. Mayfair 146._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Nigel played golf at Ranelagh, on the following Sunday morning, with
+Jere Chalmers, a young American in the Diplomatic Service, who had just
+arrived in London and brought a letter of introduction to him. They had
+a pleasant game and strolled off from the eighteenth green to the
+dressing rooms on the best of terms with each other.
+
+"Say, Dorminster," his young companion enjoined, "let's get through this
+fixing-up business quickly. I've had a kind of feeling for a cocktail,
+these last four holes, which I can't exactly put into words. Besides, I
+want to have a word or two with you before the others come down."
+
+"I shan't be a minute," Nigel promised. "I'm going to change into
+flannels after lunch--that is, if you don't mind playing a set or two at
+tennis. My cousin-in-law Maggie Trent, whom you'll meet at luncheon, is
+rather keen, and she doesn't care about golf."
+
+"I'm game for anything," the other agreed, lifting his head spluttering
+from the basin. "Gee, that's good! Get a move on, there's a good fellow.
+I have a fancy for just five minutes with you out on the lawn, with the
+ice chinking in our glasses."
+
+Nigel finished smoothing his hair, and the two men strolled through the
+hall, gave an order to a red-coated attendant, and found a secluded
+table under a marvellous tree in the gardens on the other side. Chalmers
+had become a little thoughtful.
+
+"Dorminster," he declared, "yours is a wonderful country."
+
+"Just how is it appealing to you at the moment?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"I'll try and tell you," was the meditative reply. "It's your
+extraordinary insouciance. It seems to me, as a budding diplomat, that
+you are running the most ghastly risks on earth."
+
+"In what direction?"
+
+The young American shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Well, you've got a thoroughly democratic Government--not such a bad
+Government, I should say, as things go. They've bled your _bourgeoisie_
+a bit, and serve 'em right, but with an empire to keep up you're losing
+all touch upon international politics. Your ambassadors have been
+exchanged for trade consuls, the whole of your secret service staff has
+been disbanded, you place your entire faith on this sacred League of
+Nations. Say, Dorminster, you're taking risks!"
+
+"You mustn't forget," Dorminster replied, "that it was your country who
+started the League of Nations."
+
+"President Wilson did," Chalmers grunted. "You can't say that the
+country ever backed him up. That's the worst of us on the other side--we
+so seldom really get a common voice."
+
+"The League of Nations was a thundering good idea," Nigel declared, "but
+it belongs to Utopia and not to this vulgar planet."
+
+"Just so," Chalmers rejoined, "and yet you are about the only nation who
+ever took it into her bosom and suckled it. To be perfectly frank with
+you, now, what other nation in the world is there, except yours, which
+is obeying the conventions strictly? I tell you frankly, we keep our eye
+on Japan, and we build a good many commercial ships which would astonish
+you if you examined them thoroughly. Our National Guard, too, know a bit
+more about soldiering than their grandfathers. You people, on the other
+hand, seem to have become infatuated pacifists. I can't tell tales out
+of school, but I don't like the way things are going on eastwards. Asia
+means something different now that that amazing fellow, Prince Shan, has
+made a great nation of China."
+
+"I am entirely in accord with you," Nigel agreed, "but what is one to do
+about it? Our present Government has a big majority, trade at home and
+abroad is prosperous, the income tax is down to a shilling in the pound
+and looks like being wiped out altogether. Everybody is fat and happy."
+
+"Just as they were in 1914," Chalmers remarked significantly.
+
+"More so," Dorminster asserted. "In those days we had our alarmists.
+Nowadays, they too seem to have gone to sleep. My uncle--"
+
+"Your uncle was an uncommonly shrewd man," Chalmers interrupted. "I was
+going to talk about him."
+
+"After lunch," Nigel suggested, rising to his feet. "Here come my cousin
+and some of her tennis friends. Karschoff is lunching with us, too. You
+know him, don't you? Come along and I'll introduce you to the others."
+
+It was a very cheerful party who, after a few minutes under the trees,
+strolled into luncheon and took their places at the round table reserved
+for them at the end of the room. Maggie at once took possession of
+Chalmers.
+
+"I have been so anxious to meet you, Mr. Chalmers," she said. "They tell
+me that you represent the modern methods in American diplomacy, and that
+therefore you have been made first secretary over the heads of half a
+dozen of your seniors. How they must dislike you, and how clever you
+must be!"
+
+"I don't know that I'm so much disliked," the young man answered, with a
+twinkle in his eyes, "but I flatter myself that I have brought a new
+note into diplomacy. I was always taught that there were thirty-seven
+different ways of telling a lie, which is to state a diplomatic fact. I
+have swept them all away. I tell the truth."
+
+"How daring," Maggie murmured, "and how wonderfully original! What
+should you say, now, if I asked you if my nose wanted powdering?"
+
+"I should start by saying that the question was outside the sphere of my
+activities," he decided. "I should then proceed to add, as a private
+person, that a little dab on the left side would do it no harm."
+
+"I begin to believe," she confessed, "that all I have heard of you is
+true."
+
+"Tell me exactly what you have heard," he begged. "Leave out everything
+that isn't nice. I thrive on praise and good reports."
+
+"To begin with, then, that you are an extraordinarily shrewd young man,"
+she replied, "that you speak seven languages perfectly and know your way
+about every capital of Europe, and that you have ideas of your own as to
+what is going to happen during the next six or seven years."
+
+"You've been moving in well-informed circles," he admitted. "Now shall I
+proceed to turn the tables upon you?"
+
+"You can't possibly know anything about me," she declared confidently.
+
+"I could tell you what I've discovered from personal observation," he
+replied.
+
+"That sounds like compliments or candour," she murmured. "I'm terrified
+of both."
+
+"Well, I guess I'm not out to frighten you," he assured her. "I'll keep
+the secrets of my heart hidden--until after luncheon, at any rate---and
+just ask you--how you enjoyed your stay in Berlin?"
+
+Maggie's manner changed. She lowered her voice.
+
+"In Berlin?" she repeated.
+
+"In the household of the erstwhile leather manufacturer, the present
+President, Herr Essendorf. I hope you liked those fat children. They
+always seemed to me loathsome little brats."
+
+"What do you know about my stay in Berlin?" she demanded.
+
+"Everything there is to be known," he answered. "To tell you the truth,
+our people there were a trifle anxious about you. I was the little angel
+watching from above."
+
+"You are, without a doubt," Maggie pronounced, "a most interesting young
+man. We will talk together presently."
+
+"A hint which sends me back to my mutton," the young man observed.
+"Dorminster," he added, turning to his host, "I heard the other day, on
+very good authority, that you were thinking of writing a novel. If you
+are, study the lady who has just entered. There is a type for you, an
+intelligence which might baffle even your attempts at analysis."
+
+Naida, escorted by her father and Immelan, took her place at an
+adjacent table. She bowed to Nigel and Karschoff before sitting down,
+and her eyes travelled over the rest of the party with interest. Then
+she recognised Maggie and waved her hand.
+
+"Immelan is a very constant admirer," Prince Karschoff remarked, a
+little uneasily.
+
+"Is that her father?" Maggie asked.
+
+The Prince nodded.
+
+"He is one of the ambassadors of commerce from my country," he said. "In
+place of diplomacy, he superintends the exchange of shipping cargoes and
+talks freights. I suppose Immelan and he are all the time comparing
+notes, but I scarcely see where my dear friend Naida comes in."
+
+"There is still the oldest interest in the world for her to fall back
+upon," Chalmers murmured. "One hears that Immelan is devoted."
+
+"Scandalmonger!" the Prince declared severely. "Young man from the New
+World," he proceeded, "get on with your lunch and drink your iced water.
+Let the vision of those two remind you that it was your people who
+foisted the League of Nations upon us, and be humble, even sorrowful,
+when you view one of the sad results."
+
+"I can't be responsible, directly or indirectly, for a political
+flirtation," Chalmers grumbled. "Besides, why should there be any
+politics about it at all? Mademoiselle Karetsky is quite attractive
+enough to turn the head even of a seasoned old boulevardier like you,
+Prince."
+
+"That young man," Karschoff said deliberately, "will find himself before
+long face to face with a blighted career. He has no respect for age, and
+he is shockingly lacking in finesse. All the same, on one point I am
+agreed. I don't think there is a man breathing who could resist Naida if
+she wished to call him to her."
+
+The little party broke up presently and wandered out into the gardens.
+They sat for a while upon the lawn, drinking their coffee and exchanging
+greetings with acquaintances. In the distance, the orchestra was playing
+soft music, with a fine regard for the atmosphere of the pleasant,
+almost languorous spring afternoon. Everywhere were signs of
+contentment, even gaiety, and here the alien streak of unfamiliar
+newcomers was far less pronounced. When the time came for tennis,
+Chalmers led the way with Maggie. As soon as they were out of hearing of
+the others, she turned towards him a little abruptly.
+
+"Tell me exactly what you know about my stay in Berlin," she demanded.
+
+"Everything," he answered gravely.
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"I mean that the New World to-day has progressed where the Old World
+seems to have been stricken with a terrible blindness. Our
+secret-service system has never been better, and frankly I hear many
+things which I don't like. I am going to talk to Lord Dorminster this
+afternoon very seriously, but in the meantime I wanted to speak to you.
+I heard a rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin."
+
+"I don't know how you heard it, but the rumour is not altogether
+untrue," she admitted. "I have not yet made up my mind."
+
+"Don't go," he begged.
+
+"You think they really do know all about me?"
+
+"I know that they do. I don't mind telling you that you had the shave of
+your life on the Dutch frontier last time, and I don't mind telling you,
+also, that we had two of our men shadowing you. One of them acted on his
+own initiative, or you would never have crossed the frontier."
+
+"I rather wondered why they let me out," she observed. "Perhaps you can
+explain why Frau Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my pseudonym of
+'Miss Brown' and to my reputed address in Lincolnshire, begging me to
+return."
+
+"I could tell you that, too," he replied. "They want you back in
+Berlin."
+
+"They really do know, then, that I brought over the dispatch from
+Atcheson?" she asked.
+
+"They know it," he assured her. "They know, too, that it was chiefly a
+wasted labour. Their London agents saw to that."
+
+"Perhaps," she suggested, "you know who their London agents are?"
+
+"Sooner or later in our conversation," he remarked, "we were bound to
+arrive at a point--"
+
+"Come along and let us make up a set then," she intervened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a taxicab to take him back
+to the purlieus of Piccadilly and auction bridge, sauntered along at the
+back of the tennis nets until she arrived at the court where Nigel and
+his party were playing.
+
+"I should like to watch this game for a few minutes," she told her
+companion. "The men are such opposite types and yet both so
+good-looking. And Lady Maggie fascinates me."
+
+Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down to watch the set.
+Nigel, with his clean, well-knit figure, looked his best in spotless
+white flannels. Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
+presented a fine appearance. The play was fast and sometimes brilliant.
+Nigel had Maggie for a partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
+set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned forward in her chair,
+following every stroke with interest.
+
+"I find this most fascinating," she murmured. "I hope that Lord
+Dorminster and his cousin will win. Your sympathies, of course, are on
+the other side."
+
+"You are right," Immelan assented. "My sympathies are on the other
+side."
+
+There was a lull in the game for a moment or two. The sun was
+troublesome, and the players were changing courts. Naida turned towards
+her companion thoughtfully.
+
+"My friend," she said, glancing around as though to be sure that they
+were not overheard, "there are times when you move me to wonder. In the
+small things as well as the large, you are so unchanging. I think that
+you would see an Englishman die, whether he were your friend or your
+enemy, very much as you kick a poisonous snake out of your path."
+
+"It is quite true," was the calm reply.
+
+"But America was once your enemy," she continued, watching Chalmers'
+powerful service.
+
+"With America we made peace," he explained. "With England, never. If you
+would really appreciate and understand the reason for that undying
+hatred which I and millions of my fellow countrymen feel, it will cost
+you exactly one shilling. Go to any stationer's and buy a copy of the
+Treaty of Versailles. Read it word by word and line by line. It is the
+most brutal document that was ever printed. It will help you to
+understand."
+
+She nodded slowly.
+
+"Paul always declared," she said, "that in those days England had no
+statesmen--no one who could feel what lay beyond the day-by-day
+horizon. When I think of that Treaty, my friend, I sympathise with you.
+It is not a great thing to forge chains of hate for a beaten enemy."
+
+"If you realise this, are you not then our friend?" Immelan asked.
+
+She appeared for a few moments to be engrossed in the tennis. Her
+companion, however, waited for her answer.
+
+"In a way," she acknowledged, "I find something magnificent in your
+wonderfully conceived plans for vengeance, and in the spirit which has
+evolved and kept them alive through all these years. Then, on the other
+hand, I look at home, and I ask myself whether you do not make what they
+would call over here a cat's-paw of my country."
+
+"Ours is the most natural and most beneficial of all possible
+alliances," Immelan insisted. "Germany and Russia, hand in hand, can
+dominate the world."
+
+"I am not sure that it is an equal bargain, though, which you seek to
+drive with us," she said. "Germany aims, of course, at world power, but
+you are still fettered by the terms of that Treaty. You cannot build a
+great fleet of warships or �roplanes; you cannot train great armies; you
+cannot lay up for yourselves all the store that is necessary for a
+successful war. So you bring your brains to Russia, and you ask us to do
+these things; but Russia does not aim at world power. Russia seeks only
+for a great era of self-development. She, too, has a mighty neighbour
+at her gates. I am not sure that your bargain is a fair one."
+
+"It is the first time that I have heard you talk like this," Immelan
+declared, with a little tremor in his tone.
+
+"I have been in England twice during the last few months," Naida said.
+"You know very well at whose wish I came, I have been studying the
+conditions here, studying the people so far as I can. I find them such a
+kindly race. I find their present Government so unsuspicious, so
+genuinely altruistic. After all, that Treaty belongs to an England that
+has passed. The England of to-day would never go to war at all. They
+believe here that they have solved the problem of perpetual peace."
+
+Immelan smiled a little bitterly.
+
+"Dear lady," he said, "if I lose your help, if you go back to Petrograd
+and talk to Paul Matinsky as you are talking to me, do you know that you
+will break the heart of a nation?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Paul does not look upon me as infallible," she protested. "Besides,
+there are other considerations. And now, please, we will talk of the
+tennis. I do not know whether it is my fancy, but that man there to your
+left, in grey, seems to me to be taking an interest in our conversation.
+He cannot possibly overhear, and he has not glanced once in our
+direction, yet I have an instinct for these things."
+
+Immelan glanced in the direction of the stranger,--a quiet-looking,
+spare man dressed in a grey tweed suit, clean-shaven and of early
+middle-age. There was nothing about his appearance to distinguish him
+from a score or more of other loiterers.
+
+"You are quite right," her companion admitted. "One should not talk of
+these things even where the birds may listen, but it is so difficult. As
+for that man, he could not possibly hear, but there might be others. One
+passes behind on the grass so noiselessly."
+
+They relapsed into silence. Naida, leaning a little forward, became once
+more engrossed in the play. Her eyes were fixed upon Nigel. It was his
+movements which she followed, his strokes which she usually applauded.
+Immelan sat by her side and watched.
+
+"They are well matched," he remarked presently.
+
+"Mr. Chalmers has a wonderful service," she declared, "but Lord
+Dorminster has more skill. Oh, bravo!"
+
+The set at that moment was finished by a backhanded return from Nigel,
+which skimmed over the net at a great pace, completely out of reach of
+the opposing couple. The players strolled across to the seats under the
+trees. Naida smiled at Nigel, and he came over to her side. Once again
+he was conscious of that peculiar sense of pleasure and well-being
+which he felt in her company.
+
+"You play tennis very well, Lord Dorminster," she said.
+
+"I found inspiration," he answered.
+
+"In your partner?"
+
+"Maggie is always charming to play with. I was thinking of the
+onlookers."
+
+"Mr. Immelan is very interested in tennis," she remarked, with a smile
+which challenged him.
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Even more so."
+
+"Tell me about games in Russia," he begged, seating himself on the grass
+by her side.
+
+"We have none," she replied. "I learnt my tennis at Cannes, where,
+curiously enough, I saw you play three years ago."
+
+"You were there then?" he asked with interest.
+
+"For a few days only. We were motoring from Spain to Monte Carlo. Cannes
+was very crowded, but you see I remembered."
+
+Her voice seemed to have some lingering charm in it, some curiously
+potent suggestion of personal interest which stirred his pulses. He
+looked up and met her eyes. For a moment the world of tennis fields, of
+pleasant chatter and of holiday-makings, passed away. He rose abruptly
+to his feet. This time he avoided looking at her.
+
+"You must come over and speak to Maggie," he begged. "Perhaps Mr.
+Immelan will spare you for a few moments."
+
+Immelan bowed, sphinxlike but coldly furious. The two strolled away
+together.
+
+When the next set was over, Naida, who had rejoined her companion, had
+disappeared. On one of their vacated chairs was seated the quiet-looking
+stranger in grey. Chalmers passed his arm through Nigel's and led him in
+that direction.
+
+"I want you two to know each other," he said. "Jesson, this is Lord
+Dorminster--Mr. Gilbert Jesson--Lord Dorminster."
+
+The two men shook hands, Nigel a little vaguely. He was at first unable
+to place this newcomer.
+
+"Mr. Jesson," Chalmers explained, dropping his voice a little, "was a
+highly privileged and very much valued member of our Intelligence
+Department, until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if you
+could spare an hour or two any time this evening, Dorminster, it would
+interest you very much to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's
+resignation."
+
+"I should be very pleased indeed," Nigel replied. "Won't you both come
+and dine in Belgrave Square to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow,
+Chalmers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and my cousin will be
+hostess."
+
+"It will give me very great pleasure," Jesson acquiesced. "You will
+understand," he added, "that the information which Mr. Chalmers has
+just given you concerning myself is entirely confidential."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"We three will have a little talk to ourselves afterwards," he
+suggested. "At eight o'clock--Number 17, Belgrave Square."
+
+Jesson strolled away after a little desultory conversation. Chalmers
+looked after him thoughtfully.
+
+"Harmless-looking chap, isn't he?" he observed. "Yet I'll let you in on
+this, Dorminster: there isn't another living person who knows so much of
+what is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man."
+
+"Why has he chucked his job, then?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"He will tell you that to-night," was Chalmers' quiet reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"I don't think I shall marry you, after all," Maggie announced that
+evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors
+with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.
+
+"Why not?" Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.
+
+"You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity," she declared. "Your
+flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went
+out of your way to ask her to dine to-night."
+
+"I like that!" Nigel complained. "Supposing it were true, I should
+simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to
+her."
+
+"The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country," Maggie
+sighed. "However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you
+admire her very much, Nigel?"
+
+He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from
+self-consciousness.
+
+"Of course I do," he admitted. "She's a perfectly wonderful person,
+isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment," he added,
+looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of
+furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. "We'll go into
+the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and
+cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received formally, and
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreciate the cosmopolitan note of our
+welcome."
+
+"We do look a little too domestic, don't we?" Maggie replied, as she
+passed through the porti�re which Nigel was holding up. "I'm not at all
+sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or
+anything. I must think of my reputation. I may decide to marry Mr.
+Chalmers, and Americans are very particular about that sort of thing."
+
+"From what I have seen of him, I should think that Chalmers would make
+you an excellent husband," Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. "You
+need a firm hand, and I should think he would be quite capable of using
+it."
+
+"You take the matter far too calmly," she objected. "I can assure you
+that I am getting peevish. I hate all Russian women with creamy
+complexions and violet-coloured eyes."
+
+"They are wonderful eyes," Nigel declared, after he had given Brookes an
+order.
+
+Maggie looked at him curiously.
+
+"Naida is for your betters, sir," she reminded him. "You must not forget
+that she is to rule over Russia some day."
+
+"Just at present," Nigel observed, "Paul Matinsky has a perfectly good
+wife of his own."
+
+"An invalid."
+
+"Invalids always live long."
+
+"Presidents and emperors can always get divorces," Maggie insisted,
+"especially in this irreligious age."
+
+"Matinsky isn't that sort," Nigel said cheerfully. "Even an old gossip
+like Karschoff calls him a purist, and you yourself have spoken of his
+principles."
+
+Maggie shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"All right," she remarked. "If you are determined to rush into danger, I
+suppose you must. There is just one more point to be considered, though.
+I suppose you know that if you succeed any farther with Naida, you will
+introduce a personal note into our coming struggle."
+
+"What do you mean?" Nigel demanded.
+
+"Why, Immelan, of course," she replied. "He's head over ears in love
+with Naida. Any one can see that."
+
+Nigel laughed scornfully.
+
+"My dear child," he protested, "can you imagine a woman like Naida
+thinking seriously of a fellow like Immelan?--a scheming, Teutonic
+adventurer, without even the breeding of his class!"
+
+Maggie laughed softly for several moments.
+
+"My dear Nigel," she exclaimed, "what a luxury to get at the man of
+you! I haven't seen your eyes flash like that for ages. The cocktails,
+thank goodness! Shake one for me till it froths all the way up the
+glass, please, and then give me a cigarette."
+
+Nigel obeyed orders, helped himself, and glanced at the clock as Brookes
+left the room.
+
+"How nice of you to come half an hour early, Maggie!" he remarked.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"The first time you have noticed it," she said dolefully. "Do you
+realise, Nigel, that it is nearly a week since you proposed to me? Apart
+from your penchant for Naida, don't you really want to marry me any
+more?"
+
+He came across the room and stood looking down at her thoughtfully. She
+was wearing a somewhat daringly fashioned black lace gown, which showed
+a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her brown hair was simply
+but artistically arranged. She was piquante, alluring, with a
+provocative smile at the corners of her lips and a challenging gleam in
+her eyes. The daintiness and femininity of her were enthralling.
+
+"You would make an adorable wife," he reflected.
+
+"For some one else?"
+
+"An unspeakable proposition," he assured her.
+
+"You're very nice-looking, Nigel," she murmured.
+
+"You're terribly attractive, Maggie!"
+
+"Then why is it," she sighed, "that we neither of us want to marry the
+other?"
+
+"If a serious proposition would really be of interest to you," he
+began,--
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"You heard them coming," she interrupted.
+
+The three expected guests arrived almost together, bringing with them,
+at any rate so far as Chalmers and Naida were concerned, an atmosphere
+of light-heartedness which was later on to make the little dinner party
+a complete success. Naida, too, was in black, a gown simpler than
+Maggie's but full of distinction. She wore no jewellery except a
+wonderful string of pearls. Her black hair was brushed straight back
+from her forehead but drooped a little over her ears. She seemed to
+bring with her a larger share of girlishness than any of them had
+previously observed in her, as though she had made up her mind for this
+one evening to cast herself adrift from the graver cares of life and to
+indulge in the frivolities which after all were the heritage of her
+youth. She sat at Nigel's right hand and plied him with questions as to
+the lighter side of his life,--his favourite sport, books, and general
+occupation. She gave evidences of humour which delighted everybody, and
+Nigel, though he would at times have welcomed, and did his best to
+initiate, an incursion into more serious subjects, found himself
+compelled to admire the tact with which she continually foiled him.
+
+"It is a mistake," she declared once, "to believe that a woman is ever
+serious unless she is forced to be. All our natural proclivities are
+towards gaiety. We are really butterflies by instinct, and we are at our
+best when we are natural. Don't you agree with me, Maggie?"
+
+"From the bottom of my heart," Maggie assented. "Nothing but conscience
+ever induces me to pull a long face and turn my thoughts to serious
+things. And I haven't a great deal of conscience."
+
+"So you see," Naida continued, smiling up at her host, "when you try to
+get a woman to talk politics or sociology with you, you are brushing a
+little of the down off her wings. We really want to be told--other
+things."
+
+"I should imagine," he replied, "that my sex frequently indulged you."
+
+"Not so much as I should desire," she assured him. "I have somehow or
+other acquired an undeserved reputation for brains. In Russia
+especially, when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my frock or
+the way my hair is done. They plunge instead into a subject of which I
+know nothing--philosophy or history, or international politics."
+
+"Do you know nothing of international politics?" Nigel asked.
+
+"A home thrust," she declared, laughing. "I suppose that is a subject
+upon which I have some glimmerings of knowledge. Really not very much,
+though, but then I have a theory about that. I think sometimes that the
+clearest judgments are formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a
+subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling in it half their lifetime and
+acquired prejudices. Do you always provide strawberries for your guests,
+Lord Dorminster? If so, I should like to come and live here."
+
+"If you will promise to come and live here," he replied, "I will provide
+strawberries if I have to start a nursery garden in Jersey."
+
+"Maggie," Naida announced across the table, "Lord Dorminster has
+proposed to me. The matter of strawberries has brought us together. I
+don't think I shall accept him. There are no means of making him keep
+his bargain."
+
+"He'd make an awfully good husband," Maggie declared. "If no one else
+wants me, I shall probably marry him myself some day."
+
+Naida shook her head.
+
+"Lord Dorminster is more my type," she declared. "Besides, you have had
+your chance if you really wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia
+who prophesies that I shall never marry. That does not please me. I
+think not to be married is the worst fate that can happen to any woman."
+
+"The remedy," Nigel told her, "is in your own hands."
+
+Jesson, quieter than the others, was still an interesting personality,
+often intervening with a shrewd remark and listening to the sallies of
+the others with a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes. When at
+last the girls left them for a time, Nigel led the way at once into the
+library, where coffee and liqueurs were served.
+
+"I expect the others will find their way here in a few minutes," he
+said, as the door closed behind Brookes and his satellite. "You had
+something to say to me, Chalmers, about Mr. Jesson here."
+
+"All that I have to say is in the nature of a testimonial," the young
+American replied. "Jesson was easily one of our best men in Europe. He
+resigned a few months ago simply because he wants a job with you
+fellows."
+
+"I don't quite understand," Nigel began.
+
+"Let me explain," Jesson begged. "I spent the last three years poking
+about Europe, and so far as the United States is concerned, there's
+nothing doing. My reports aren't worth much more than the paper they are
+written on, and while I'm drawing my money from Washington, it's not my
+business to collect information that affects other countries. That's why
+I've sent in my resignation. There are great events brewing eastwards,
+Lord Dorminster, and I want to take a hand in the game."
+
+"Do you want to work for us?" Nigel asked.
+
+"You're right," was the quiet reply. "I guess that's how I've figured it
+out. You see, I'm one of those Americans who still consider themselves
+half English. Next to the United States, Great Britain is the country
+for me. I know what I'm talking about, Lord Dorminster, and I've come to
+the conclusion that there's a lot of trouble in store for you people."
+
+"I'm pretty well convinced of that myself," Nigel agreed, "but you know
+how things are with us. We have a democratic Government who have placed
+their whole faith in the League of Nations, and who are absolutely and
+entirely anti-militarist. On paper, the governments of Russia, Germany,
+and most of the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk. Some of
+us--my uncle was one--who have studied history and who know something of
+the science of international politics, realise perfectly well that no
+Empire can be considered secure under such conditions. This country
+swarms with foreign secret-service men. What they are planning against
+us, Heaven knows!"
+
+"Heaven and Naida Karetsky," Chalmers intervened softly.
+
+"You believe that she is our enemy?" Nigel asked, with a look of trouble
+in his eyes.
+
+"She is Immelan's friend," Chalmers reminded him.
+
+"There was a man named Atcheson," Jesson began quietly--
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The first one was stabbed in
+Petrograd. Jim Atcheson was poisoned and died in Berlin."
+
+"There was rather a scare in a certain quarter about Atcheson," Jesson
+observed. "He was supposed to have got a report through to the late Lord
+Dorminster."
+
+"He got it through all right," Nigel replied. "My uncle was busy
+decoding it, seated in this room, at that table, when he died."
+
+"His death was very sudden," Jesson ventured.
+
+"I have not the faintest doubt but that he was murdered," Nigel
+declared. "The document upon which he was working disappeared entirely
+except for one sheet."
+
+"You have that one sheet?" Jesson asked eagerly.
+
+Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed it cut, and laid it upon
+the table.
+
+"There are two things worth noticing here," he pointed out. "The first
+is that the actual name of a town in Russia is given, and a telephone
+number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It seems to be an
+unimportant place in a very desolate region. The telephone number is
+Oscar Immelan's."
+
+"That is interesting, though not surprising," Jesson declared. "Immelan,
+as you of course know, is one of your enemies, one of those who are
+working in this country for purposes of his own. But as regards Kroten,
+may I ask where you obtained your information about the place?"
+
+Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them the paragraph. Jesson read
+it with a faint smile upon his lips.
+
+"I fancy," he remarked, "that this is a little out of date. I should
+like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week."
+
+"Good heavens! Why?" Nigel exclaimed.
+
+"I can scarcely answer that question," Jesson said. "I am like a man
+with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those
+pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here," he
+said, "is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities,
+situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their
+way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have
+heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
+have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled.
+Kroten is the next, and of the third I have still to discover the
+whereabouts. Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act for you
+abroad? I require no salary or remuneration of any sort. I am a wealthy
+man, and investigations of this kind are my one hobby. I shall not move
+without your permission, although I recognise, of course, that your own
+position is entirely an unofficial one. If you will trust me, however, I
+promise that all my energies shall be devoted to the interests of this
+country."
+
+Nigel held out his hand.
+
+"It is a pact," he decided. "Before you leave, I will give you the whole
+of my uncle's brief correspondence with Sidwell. You may be able to
+gather from it what he was after. Sidwell, you remember, was stabbed in
+a caf� in the slums of Petrograd."
+
+"I remember quite well," Jesson admitted quietly. "I knew Sidwell. He
+was a clever person in his way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I
+fancy that I hear the voices of the ladies coming. I shall just have
+time to tell you rather a curious coincidence."
+
+The two men waited eagerly. Jesson touched with his forefinger the sheet
+of paper which he had been studying.
+
+"Sidwell," he concluded, "could not have been so far off the mark. The
+man with whom he was spending the evening in that caf� was a mechanic
+from Kroten."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Naida, early one afternoon, a few days after the dinner at Belgrave
+Square, raised herself on one elbow from the sofa on which she was
+resting, glanced at the roses and the card which the maid had presented
+for her inspection, and waved them impatiently away.
+
+"The gentleman waits," the woman reminded her.
+
+Naida glanced out of the window across a dull and apparently uninviting
+prospect of roofs and chimneys, to where in the background a faint line
+of silver and a wheeling flock of sea gulls became dimly visible through
+the branches of the distant trees. The window itself was flung wide
+open, but the slowly moving air had little of freshness in it. Sparrows
+twittered around the window-sill, and a little patch of green shone out
+from the Embankment Gardens. The radiance of spring here found few
+opportunities.
+
+"The gentleman waits," the serving woman repeated stolidly, speaking in
+her native Russian.
+
+"You can show him up," her mistress replied a little wearily.
+
+Immelan entered, a few moments later, spruce and neat in a well-fitting
+grey suit, and carrying a grey Homburg hat. He was redolent of soaps
+and perfumes. His step was buoyant, almost jaunty, yet in his blue eyes,
+as he bent over the hand of the woman upon whom he had come to call,
+lurked something of the disquietude which, notwithstanding his most
+strenuous efforts, was beginning to assert itself.
+
+"You make me very happy, my dear Naida," he began, "that you receive me
+thus so informally. Your good father is smoking in the lounge. He bade
+me come up."
+
+She beckoned him to a seat.
+
+"A thousand thanks for your flowers, my friend," she said. "Now tell me
+why you are possessed to see me at this untimely hour. I always rest for
+a time after luncheon, and I am only here because the sunshine filled my
+room and made me restless."
+
+"There is a little matter of news," he announced slowly. "I thought it
+might interest you. I hoped it would."
+
+She turned her head and looked at him.
+
+"News?" she repeated. "News from you means only one thing. Is it good or
+bad?"
+
+"It is good," he replied, "because it saves me a long and tedious
+journey, because it saves me also from a separation which I should have
+found detestable."
+
+"Your journey to China, then, is abandoned?"
+
+"It is rendered unnecessary. Prince Shan has decided after all to
+adhere to his original plan and come to Europe."
+
+"You are sure?"
+
+"I have an official intimation," he replied. "I may probably have to go
+to Paris, but no farther. It is even possible that I might leave
+to-night."
+
+She was genuinely interested.
+
+"There is no one in the whole world," she declared, "whom I have wanted
+to meet so much as Prince Shan."
+
+"You will not be disappointed," he promised her. "There is no one like
+him. When he enters the room, you know that you are in the presence of a
+great man. The three of us together! Naida, we will remake the map of
+the world."
+
+She frowned a little uneasily.
+
+"Do not take too much for granted, Oscar," she enjoined. "Remember that
+I am here to watch and to report. It is not for me to make decisions."
+
+"Then for whom else?" he demanded. "Paul Matinsky himself wrote me that
+you had his entire confidence--that you possessed full powers for
+action. You will not be faint-hearted, Naida?"
+
+"I shall never be false to my convictions," she replied.
+
+There was a brief silence. He was not altogether satisfied, but he
+judged the moment unpropitious for any further reference to the coming
+of Prince Shan.
+
+"My plans, as you see, are changed," he said at last, "and for that
+reason a promise which I made to myself will not now be kept."
+
+She rose to her feet a little uneasily, shook out her fluffy morning
+gown, and retreated towards the door leading to the apartments beyond.
+He watched her without movement. She picked up a pile of letters from a
+table in the middle of the room, glanced at them, and threw them down.
+
+"It is as well," she warned him, "to keep all promises."
+
+"As for this one," he replied, "I have no responsibility save to myself.
+I absolve myself. I give myself permission to speak. Your father is even
+wishful that I should do so. I crave from you, Naida, the happiness
+which only you can bring into my life. I ask you to become my wife."
+
+She looked at him without visible change of expression. Her lips,
+however, were a little parted. The air of aloofness with which she moved
+through the world seemed suddenly more marked. He would have been a
+brave man, or one entirely without perceptions, who would have advanced
+towards her at that moment.
+
+"That is quite impossible," she pronounced.
+
+"I do not admit it," he contended. "No, I will never admit that. The
+fates brought us together. It will take something stronger than fate to
+drive us apart. I had not meant to speak yet. I had meant to wait until
+the great pact was sealed and the glory to come assured, but during
+these last few days I have suffered. A strange fancy has come to me. I
+seem to feel something between us, so I speak before it can grow. I
+speak because without you life for me would be a thing not worth having.
+You are my life and my soul. You will not send me away?"
+
+Naida was troubled but unhesitating. It was perhaps at that moment that
+a hidden characteristic of her features showed itself. Her mouth,
+sometimes almost too voluptuous in its softness, had straightened into a
+firm line of scarlet. The deeper violet of her eyes had gone. So a woman
+might have looked who watched suffering unmoved, the woman of the bull
+or prize fight.
+
+"I am glad that you have spoken, Oscar," she said. "I know a thing now
+which has been a source of doubt and anxiety to me. What you ask is
+impossible. I do not love you. I shall never love you. A few days ago, I
+asked myself the very question you have just asked me, and I could not
+answer it. Now I know."
+
+Pain and anger struggled in his face. He was suffering, without a doubt,
+but for a moment it seemed as though the anger would predominate. His
+great shoulders heaved, his hands were clenched until the signet ring on
+his left finger cut into the flesh, his eyes were like glittering points
+of fire.
+
+"It is the old dream concerning Paul?" he demanded.
+
+"It has nothing to do with Paul," she assured him. "Concerning him I
+will admit that I have had my weak moments. I think that those have
+passed. It was such a wonderful dream," she went on reflectively, "the
+dream of ruling the mightiest nation in the world, a nation that even
+now, after many years of travail, is only just finding its way through
+to the light. It seemed such a small thing that stood in the way. Since
+then I have met Paul's wife. She does not understand, but at least she
+loves."
+
+"She is a poor fool, no helpmate for any man," Immelan declared. "Yet it
+is not his cause I plead, but mine. I, too, can minister to your
+ambitions. Be my wife, and I swear to you that before five years have
+passed I will be President of the German Republic. Germany is no strange
+country to you," he went on passionately. "It is you who have helped in
+the great _rapprochement_. At times when Paul has been difficult, you
+have smoothed the way. I would not speak against your country, I would
+not speak against anything which lies close to your heart, but let me
+tell you that when the day of purification comes, the day when God gives
+us leave to pour out the vials of vengeance, there will be no prouder,
+no more glorious people than ours. Our triumph will be yours, Naida. You
+yourself will help to cement the great alliance of these years."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am a woman," she said simply. "Incidentally, I am a politician and
+something of an altruist, but when it comes to marriage, I am a woman. I
+do not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you."
+
+There was a darker shade upon his face now. Unconsciously he had drawn a
+little nearer to her.
+
+"Listen," he begged; "it is perhaps possible that I have not been
+mistaken--that a certain change has crept up in you even within the last
+few days? Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way into your
+heart? No, I will not say heart! It could not be your heart in so short
+a time. Into your fancy? Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you are
+thinking?"
+
+"That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only," she answered haughtily.
+
+A weaker woman he would have bullied. His veins were filled with anger.
+His tongue ached to spend itself. Naida's bearing cowed him. She
+remained a dominating figure. The unnatural restraint imposed upon
+himself, however, made his voice sound hard and unfamiliar. There were
+little patches of white around his mouth; his teeth showed, when he
+spoke, more than usual.
+
+"If there were any one else," he declared, "and that some one else
+should chance to be an Englishman, I would find a new hell for him."
+
+"There is no one else," she answered calmly, "but if there ever should
+be, Oscar Immelan, and if you ever interfered with him, either in this
+country or any other, my arm would follow you around the world. Remember
+that."
+
+She turned away for a moment, eager to gain a brief respite from his
+darkening face. When she looked around, he was gone. She heard his
+footsteps passing down the corridor, the bell ringing for the lift, the
+clank of the gates as he stepped in. Once more she gazed out over the
+uninspiring prospect. There was a little more sunshine upon the river;
+more of the dusty chimney-pots seemed bathed in its silvery radiance. As
+she stood there, she felt herself growing calmer. The tension passed
+from her nerves. Her eyes grew soft again. Then an impulse came to her.
+She stretched out her hand for the telephone book, turned over the pages
+restlessly, looked through the "D's" until she found the name for which
+she was searching. For a long time she hesitated. When at last she took
+up the receiver and asked for a number, she was conscious of a slight
+thrill, a sense of excitement which in moments of more complete
+self-control would at least have served as a warning to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The curtain fell upon the first act of "Louise." The lights were turned
+up, the tenseness relaxed, men made dives for their hats, and the
+unmusical murmured the usual platitudes. Naida leaned forward from the
+corner of her box to the man who was her sole companion.
+
+"Father," she said, "I am expecting a caller with whom I wish to
+speak--Lord Dorminster. If he comes, will you leave us alone? And if any
+one else should be here, please take them away."
+
+"More mysteries," her father muttered, not unkindly. "Who is this man
+Dorminster?"
+
+Naida leaned back in her chair and fanned herself slowly.
+
+"No one I know very much about," she acknowledged. "I have selected him
+in my mind, however as being a typical Englishman of his class. I wish
+to talk to him, to appreciate his point of view. You know what Paul said
+when he gave you the appointment and sent us over here: 'Find out for me
+what sort of men these Englishmen are.'"
+
+"Matinsky should know," her father observed. "He was here twelve years
+ago. He came over with the first commission which established regular
+relations with the British Government."
+
+"No doubt," she said equably, "he was able to gauge the official
+outlook, but this country, during the last ten years, has gone through
+great vicissitudes. Besides, it is not only the official outlook in
+which Paul is interested. He doesn't understand, and frankly I don't,
+the position of what they call over here 'the man in the street.' You
+see, he must be either a fool, or he must be grossly deceived."
+
+"So far as my dealings with him go, I should never call the Englishman a
+fool," Karetsky confessed.
+
+"There are degrees and conditions of fools," his daughter declared
+calmly. "A man with a perfectly acute brain may have simply idiotic
+impulses towards credulity, and a credulous man is always a fool.
+Anyhow, I know what Paul wants."
+
+There was a knock at the door. Karetsky opened it and stood aside to let
+Nigel pass in. Naida held out her hand to the latter with a smile.
+
+"I am so glad that you have come," she said, raising her eyes for a
+minute to his. "Father, you remember Lord Dorminster?"
+
+The two men exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Then Karetsky reached
+for his hat.
+
+"Your arrival, Lord Dorminster," he observed, "leaves me free to make a
+few calls myself. We shall, I trust, meet again."
+
+Nigel murmured a few courteous words and watched the retreating figure
+with some curiosity.
+
+"Your father is very typical," he declared. "He reminds me of your
+country itself. He is massive, has suggestions of undeveloped strength."
+
+"Add that he is a little ponderous," Naida said lightly, "slow to make
+up his mind, but as obstinate as the Urals themselves, and you have
+described him. Now tell me what you think of a young woman who rings you
+up without the slightest encouragement and invites you to come to the
+Opera purposely to visit her box."
+
+"I deny the absence of encouragement, and I am very grateful for the
+opportunity of coming," Nigel answered. "And if I were to tell you all
+that I think of you," he added, after a moment's pause, "it would take
+me a great deal longer than this quarter of an hour's interval."
+
+These were their first few moments absolutely alone. Neither of them was
+unduly emotional, neither wholly free from experience, yet they looked
+and spoke and felt as though the coming of new things was at hand. The
+atmosphere of music, still present, was a wonderful background to the
+intensified sensations of which both were conscious. Naida had the
+utmost difficulty in steadying her voice.
+
+"I wanted to talk to you seriously because you can help me very much if
+you will," she began. "In a sense, I am over here upon a mission. Some
+of us in Russia feel that your nation is imperfectly understood there.
+We are bearing grudges against you which may not be wholly justified.
+You see, to speak very plainly, we are under the constant influence of a
+people which cherishes no feelings of friendship towards you."
+
+For a moment the personal element had disappeared. Nigel remembered who
+his companion was and all that she stood for. He drew his chair a little
+nearer to hers.
+
+"If you are looking for a typical Englishman," he said, "I fear that I
+shall be a disappointment to you. The typical Englishman of to-day is
+hiding his head in the sand. I am not disposed to do anything of the
+sort. I recognise a great coming danger, and I am afraid of your
+country."
+
+"The attitude of the official Englishman I know," she declared, a little
+eagerly. "What I want to find out is whether there are many like
+yourself, who are awake."
+
+"I am afraid that I am in the minority," he confessed. "I am trying to
+carry on the work which my uncle commenced. I am trying to secure firm
+and definite evidence of a certain plot which I believe to be brewing in
+your country and in Germany."
+
+"Tell me exactly what you know," she begged.
+
+Nigel looked at her for several moments in silence. She was wearing a
+Russian headdress, a low tiara of bound coils of pearls. A rope of
+pearls hung from her neck. Her white net gown was trimmed with ermine.
+At her first appearance in the front of the box she had created almost a
+sensation among those to whom she was visible. In these darker shadows
+the sensuous disturbance of which he had been conscious since his
+entrance swept over him once more with overmastering power.
+
+"You are very beautiful," he said, a little abruptly.
+
+"I am glad you think so," she murmured, with a very sweet answering
+light in her eyes, "but I am hoping that you have other things to tell
+me."
+
+"You are the friend of Immelan," he reminded her.
+
+"To some extent, yes," she assented, "but I admit of no prejudices. The
+greatest friend I have in the world is Paul Matinsky, and it is at his
+wish that I am here. He is anxious above all things not to make a
+mistake."
+
+"Your country is very much under the dominance of Germany," he ventured.
+
+"Very much, I admit, but not utterly so. You must remember that after
+the cataclysm of 1917, Russia has been born again in travail and agony.
+No hand was outstretched to help her, save that of Germany alone, for
+her own sake ultimately, perhaps, but nevertheless with invaluable
+results to Russia. We had vast resources which Germany exploited,
+magnificent human material which Germany has educated and disciplined.
+The two nations have grown together for their common interest. At the
+same time, Paul Matinsky and very many others have always felt that
+there is one of Germany's great ambitions in which Russia ought not
+necessarily to become involved. I think--I hope that you understand me."
+
+"In plain words," Nigel said, "you refer to this projected plan of
+isolating England."
+
+"In plain words, I do," she admitted. "Russia's intentions concerning
+that are trembling in the balance. Germany is pressing her hard. Nothing
+will be finally decided until I return to Petrograd. You see, I speak to
+you quite openly, for I myself have had some experience of your present
+statesmen. I believe if you were to repeat this conversation to any one
+of them, if, even, you could open their eyes to what is happening, they
+would only shrug their shoulders and say that they relied for their
+protection on the League of Nations."
+
+"You are unhappily right," Nigel groaned, "yet one perseveres, and after
+all there is an element of mystery about the whole affair. The French,
+as you know, have not imitated our blind credulity. Their frontier would
+seem to be impregnable, and the difficulties of invading England, even
+from the air, are very much as they were during the last war. It was
+these considerations which made my uncle persevere in his attempt at
+secret-service work on the Continent. Everything depends upon our
+knowing exactly what is in store for us."
+
+"And have you discovered that?" she enquired.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Everything that we have learnt so far has been of negative value," he
+replied. "The German citizen army is large, but not threateningly so. So
+far as we have been able to discover, they do not seem to have any
+secret store of guns or ammunition. Their docks hold no secrets. Yet we
+know that there is something brewing. Both the men upon whom my uncle
+relied have been murdered."
+
+"But one of them succeeded in getting a dispatch through, did he not?"
+she asked quietly.
+
+"Yes, he succeeded," Nigel acknowledged. "My uncle was murdered,
+however, in the act of decoding it, and the dispatch itself was stolen."
+
+"You are very frank," she said. "I suppose I ought to feel flattered
+that you treat me with so little reserve."
+
+"If you are a friend to Germany," he replied, "you probably know all
+that I can tell you. If you are inclined towards friendship with us,
+then it is as well that you should know everything."
+
+"That is reasonable," she admitted. "Now listen. This conversation can
+only last a few minutes longer. It is true that Oscar Immelan is my
+father's old friend and also mine, but my judgment in all matters which
+relate to the welfare of my country is not influenced by that fact."
+
+"There was a report once," Nigel said, taking his courage into both
+hands, "that you were engaged to be married to him."
+
+She looked him in the eyes. Against the whiteness of his skin, the
+colour of her own seemed more wonderful than ever.
+
+"That is not true," she replied. "It will never be true."
+
+"I am glad," he declared fervently.
+
+There was a brief pause. Both seemed conscious of a renewal of that air
+of disturbance which had reigned between them during their first few
+moments alone. It was Naida who made an effort to restore their
+conversation to its former tone.
+
+"If Germany has any scheme against this country," she said, "believe me,
+it will not be so obvious as you seem to think. It will be a scheme
+which can only be carried out with the assistance of other countries,
+and that assistance is not yet wholly promised. I cannot betray to you
+my knowledge of certain things," she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, "but I can at least give you this warning. It is not for his
+health alone that Prince Shan is flying from China to Paris. If there is
+a single member of your Government who has the least apprehension of
+world politics, now is the time for action."
+
+"There is no one," Nigel answered gloomily.
+
+The box was suddenly invaded. Karetsky reappeared with several other
+men. In the rear of the little procession came Immelan. His face
+darkened as he recognised Nigel. Naida looked across at him with a
+slight frown upon her forehead.
+
+"You have changed your mind?" she remarked. "I thought you were for
+Paris to-night?"
+
+"A fortunate chance intervened," Immelan replied.
+
+"Fortunate?"
+
+Immelan watched Nigel's retreating figure with a menacing frown.
+
+"I find it so," he replied. "Our wonderful prima donna is in great voice
+to-night--and I like to be prepared for all possible combinations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Maggie came suddenly into the library at Belgrave Square, where Jesson,
+Chalmers and Nigel were talking together. She carried in her hand a
+note, which she handed to the latter.
+
+"Naida is a dear, after all," she declared. "There is one person at
+least who does not wish to have me pass away in a German nursing home or
+fall a victim to Frau Essendorf's cooking."
+
+Nigel read the note aloud. It consisted of only a sentence or two and
+was dated from the Milan Court that morning:
+
+     Maggie dear, this is just a line of advice from your friend. You
+     must not go back to Germany.
+
+     Naida.
+
+"I fear," Maggie sighed, "that my little expedition is scotched, even if
+I had been able to persuade you others to let me go. Every one seems to
+have made up their mind that I shall not go to Germany. It will be such
+a disappointment to those flaxen-haired atrocities, Gertrud and Bertha.
+Their so-much-loved Miss Brown can never return to them again."
+
+"In any case, the game was scarcely worth the candle," Nigel observed.
+"We have already all the evidence we require that some scheme inimical
+to this country is being proposed and fostered by Immelan. Our next move
+must be to find out the nature of this scheme--whether it be naval,
+military, or political. I don't think Essendorf would be at all likely
+to give away any more interesting information in the domestic circle."
+
+"What are we all going to do, then?" Maggie asked.
+
+"We are met here to discuss it," Nigel replied. "Jesson is off to Russia
+this afternoon. I asked him to come round and have a few last words with
+us, in case there was anything to suggest for us stay-at-homes."
+
+"We shall have to rely very largely upon luck," Jesson declared. "There
+are three places, in any of which we might discover what we want to
+know. One is Kroten, another is Paris, provided that Prince Shan really
+goes there, and the third London."
+
+"London?" Maggie repeated.
+
+"There are two people in London," Jesson declared, "who know everything
+we are seeking to discover. One is Immelan and the other Naida
+Karetsky."
+
+"It seems to me," Maggie said, "that if that is so, the place for us is
+where those two people are. What is the importance of Kroten, Mr.
+Jesson?"
+
+"Kroten," Jesson replied, "is the second of what I have seen referred
+to in a private diplomatic report, written in an enemy country, as the
+three mystery cities of the world. The first one is in Germany, and I
+have already explored it. I have information, but information which
+without its sequel is valueless. Kroten is the second. Ten years ago it
+was a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. To-day there are at least
+two hundred thousand people there, and it is growing all the time."
+
+"Say, how can a town of that size," Chalmers enquired, "be termed a
+mystery city in any sense of the word? Travelling's free in Russia. I
+guess any one that wanted could take a ticket to Kroten."
+
+"A good many do," Jesson assented calmly, "and some never come back.
+America and Russia are on friendly terms, yet two men in my branch of
+the service--good fellows they were, too--started out from Washington
+for Kroten six months ago. Neither of them has been heard of since;
+neither ever will be."
+
+"How's it done?" Chalmers asked curiously.
+
+"In the first place," Jesson explained, "the city itself stands at the
+arm of the river, in a sort of cul-de-sac, with absolutely untraversable
+mountains on three sides of it. All the roads have to come around the
+plain and enter from eastwards. There is only one line of railway, so
+that all the approaches into the city are easily guarded."
+
+"That's all right geographically, of course," Nigel admitted, "but what
+earthly excuse can any one make for keeping tourists or travellers out
+of the place if they want to go there?"
+
+"That is perhaps the most ingenious thing of all," Jesson replied. "You
+know that Russia is now practically a tranquil country, but there are
+certain bands of the extreme Bolshevistic faction who never gave in to
+authority and who practically exist in the little-known places by means
+of marauding expeditions. The mountains about Kroten are supposed to
+have been infested by these nomadic companies. Whether the outrages set
+down to them are really committed or not, I don't suppose any one knows,
+but my point of view is that the presence of these people is absolutely
+encouraged by the Government, to give them an excuse for the most
+extraordinary precautions in issuing passports or allowing any one from
+the outside world to pass into the city. If you get in, I understand you
+are waited upon by the police within half an hour and have to tell them
+the story of your past life and your future intentions. After that you
+are allowed to go about on parole. If you get too inquisitive, you are
+discovered to be in touch with the robber bands, and--well--that's an
+end of you."
+
+"A nice, salubrious spot," Nigel murmured.
+
+"It sounds most interesting," Maggie declared. "I think a woman would
+be less likely to cause suspicion," she added hopefully.
+
+"Utterly out of the question," Jesson pronounced. "Kroten is the one
+place that must be left in my hands. I know more about the getting there
+than any of you, and I know the tricks of changing my identity."
+
+"I should rather like to go with you," Nigel confessed.
+
+"Impossible!" was the brief reply.
+
+"Why?"
+
+Jesson smiled.
+
+"To be perfectly frank," he said, "because you are developing an
+interest in the one person in the world who might give success over into
+our hands. It is necessary for you to remain where you can encourage
+that interest."
+
+Nigel was a little staggered.
+
+"My friendship with Mademoiselle Karetsky," he protested, "is scarcely
+likely to influence her political views."
+
+"I am a somewhat close observer," Jesson continued. "You will not ask me
+to believe that your conversation with mademoiselle in her box at the
+Opera last night related all the time to--well, shall we say music?"
+
+"Nigel, you never told me you were at the Opera," Maggie intervened.
+"What made you go?"
+
+"I think that it was a message from Mademoiselle Karetsky," Jesson
+suggested quietly.
+
+Nigel smiled.
+
+"Upon my word, I think you're going to be a success, Jesson," he
+declared. "Perhaps you can tell me what we did talk about?"
+
+"I believe I almost could," was the calm reply. "In any case, I think I
+see the situation as it exists. Mademoiselle Karetsky is a wonderful
+woman. She has a great, open mind. To a certain extent, of course, she
+has seen things from the point of view of Paul Matinsky, Immelan, and
+that little coterie of Russo-Germans who see a future for both countries
+only in an alliance of the old-fashioned order. Matinsky, however, has
+always had his doubts. That is why he sent over here the one person whom
+he trusted. Presently she will make a report, and the whole issue will
+remain with her. Immelan knows this and pays her ceaseless court. My
+impression, however, is that his influence is waning. I believe that
+to-day he is terrified at the bare reflection of how much Naida Karetsky
+knows."
+
+"You believe that she does know exactly what is intended?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I am perfectly certain of it," Jesson replied. "If she could be induced
+to tell us everything, my journey to Kroten might just as well be
+abandoned. Yet somehow I do not think she will go so far as that. The
+most that we can hope for is that she will advise Matinsky to reject
+Immelan's proposals, and that she will perhaps bring some influence to
+bear in the same direction upon Prince Shan."
+
+"I am inclined to agree with Jesson," Nigel pronounced, "inasmuch as I
+believe that Mademoiselle Karetsky is disposed to change or modify her
+views concerning us. You see, after all, this threatened blow against
+England is purely a private affair of Germany's. There is really no
+reason why Russia or any other country should be dragged into it. She is
+the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for her most dangerous
+rival."
+
+"Matinsky might be brought to think that way," Chalmers observed, "but
+they say half the members of his Cabinet are under German influence."
+
+"If Matinsky believed that," Nigel declared, "he is quite strong enough
+to clear them all out and make a fresh start."
+
+"In the meantime," Maggie interposed, "I should like to know in what way
+you propose to use poor little me? I am not to go to Germany, the man
+whom I at one time seriously thought of marrying is told off to engage
+the attentions of another woman, Mr. Jesson here is going to Kroten, and
+he doesn't show the slightest inclination to take me with him. Am I to
+sit here and do nothing?"
+
+"There remains for you the third enterprise," Jesson replied, "one in
+which, so far as I can see," he continued, with a smile, "you have not
+the faintest chance of success."
+
+"Tell me what it is, at least?" she begged.
+
+"The conversion of Prince Shan."
+
+Maggie made a little grimace.
+
+"Aren't you trying me a little high?" she murmured.
+
+"Very high indeed," Jesson acknowledged. "Prince Shan, for all his
+wonderful statesmanship and his grip upon world affairs, is reputed to
+be almost an anchorite in his daily life. No woman has ever yet been
+able to boast of having exercised the slightest influence over him. At
+the same time, he is an extraordinarily human person, and success with
+him would mean the end of your enemies."
+
+"It sounds a bit of a forlorn hope," Maggie remarked cheerfully, "but
+I'll do my little best."
+
+"Prince Shan has abandoned his idea of landing at Paris," Jesson
+continued. "He is coming direct to London. I have to thank Chalmers for
+that information. Immelan will meet him directly he arrives, and their
+first conversations will make history. Afterwards, if things go well,
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will join the conference."
+
+"I fear," Maggie sighed, "that there will be difficulties in the way of
+my establishing confidential relations with Prince Shan."
+
+"There will be difficulties," Jesson assented, "but the thing is not so
+impossible as it would be in Paris. Prince Shan has a very fine house
+in Curzon Street, which is kept in continual readiness for him. He will
+probably entertain to some extent. You will without doubt have
+opportunities of meeting him socially."
+
+Maggie glanced at herself in the glass.
+
+"A Chinaman!" she murmured.
+
+"I guess that doesn't mean what it did," Chalmers pointed out. "Prince
+Shan is an aristocrat and a born ruler. He has every scrap of culture
+that we know anything about and something from his thousand-year-old
+family that we don't quite know how to put into words. Don't you worry
+about Prince Shan, Lady Maggie. Ask Dorminster here what they called him
+at Oxford."
+
+"The first gentleman of Asia," Nigel replied. "I think he deserves the
+title."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+On the morning following the conclave in Belgrave Square, the Right
+Honourable Mervin Brown received two extremely distinguished visitors in
+Downing Street. It was doubtful whether the Prime Minister was
+altogether at his best. There was a certain amount of irritability
+rankling beneath his customary air of bonhommie. He motioned his callers
+to take chairs, however, and listened attentively to the few words of
+introduction which his secretary thought necessary.
+
+"This is General Dumesnil, sir, of the French Staff, and Monsieur
+Pouilly of the French Cabinet. They have called according to
+appointment, on Government business."
+
+"Very glad to see you, gentlemen," was the Prime Minister's brisk
+welcome. "Sorry I can't talk French to you. Politics, these last ten
+years, haven't left us much time for the outside graces."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly at once took the floor. He was a thin, dark man with a
+beautifully trimmed black beard, flashing black eyes, and thoughtful,
+delicate features. He was attired in the frock coat and dark trousers of
+diplomatic usage, and he appeared to somewhat resent the brown tweed
+suit and soft collar of the man who was receiving him.
+
+"Mr. Mervin Brown," he began, "you will kindly look upon our visit as
+official. We are envoys from Monsieur le Pr�sident and the French
+Government. General Dumesnil has accompanied me, in case our
+conversation should turn upon military matters here or at the War
+Office."
+
+The General saluted. The Prime Minister bowed a little awkwardly.
+
+"So far as I am concerned," the latter declared, "I will be perfectly
+frank with you from the start. I know nothing whatever about military
+affairs. My job is to govern this country, to make the most of its
+resources, and to bring prosperity to its citizens from the English
+Channel to the North Sea. We don't need soldiers and never shall, that I
+can see. I am firmly convinced that the days of wars are over. The
+government of every country in the world is getting into the hands of
+the democracy, and the democracy don't want war and never did. If any of
+the more quarrelsome folk on the continent get scrapping, well, my
+conception of my duty is to keep out of it."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly restrained himself. To judge from his appearance,
+however, it was not altogether an easy matter.
+
+"You belong, sir," he said, "to a type of statesman whose rise to power
+in this country some of us have watched with a certain amount of
+concern, for although it is not my mission here to-day to talk politics,
+I am yet bound to remind you that you do not stand alone. The very
+League of Nations upon which you rely imposes certain obligations upon
+you, some actual, some understood. It is to discuss the situation
+arising from your neglect to make the provisions called for in that
+agreement that I am here to-day."
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown glanced at some figures which his secretary had laid
+before him.
+
+"You complain, I presume, of the reduction of our standing army?" he
+observed.
+
+"We complain of that," Monsieur Pouilly replied, "and we complain also
+of the gradually decreasing interest shown by your Government in matters
+of �ronautics, artillery, and naval construction. We learnt our lesson
+in 1914. If trouble should come again, our country would once more be
+the sufferer. You would no doubt do everything that was expected of you,
+in time. Before you were ready, however, France would be ruined. You
+entered into certain obligations under the League of Nations. My
+Government begs to call your attention to the fact that you are not
+fulfilling them."
+
+"It is my intention within the course of the next few months," Mervin
+Brown declared, "to lay before the League of Nations a scheme for total
+disarmament."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly was staggered. A little exclamation escaped the
+General.
+
+"What about those nations," the latter enquired, "who were left outside
+the League? What of Russia, for instance?"
+
+"Russia is a great and peaceful republic," Mervin Brown replied. "All
+her efforts are devoted towards industrial development. No nation would
+have less to gain by a return to militarism."
+
+"Pardon, monsieur, but how do you know anything about Russia?" Monsieur
+Pouilly asked. "You have not a single secret service agent there, and
+your ambassadors are ambassadors of commerce."
+
+"I know what every one else knows," Mervin Brown declared. "Our
+commercial travellers are our secret service agents. They travel where
+they please in Russia."
+
+"And Germany?" the General queried.
+
+"I defy you to say that there is the slightest indication of any
+militarism in Germany," the Prime Minister insisted. "I was there myself
+only a few months ago. The country is quiet and moving on now to a new
+prosperity. I am absolutely and entirely convinced that the world has
+nothing to fear from either Russia or Germany."
+
+"Have you any theory, sir," General Dumesnil enquired, "as to why Russia
+refused to join the League of Nations?"
+
+"None whatever," was the genial acknowledgment. "Russia was left out at
+the start through jealous statesmanship, and afterwards she preferred
+her independence. I have every sympathy with her attitude."
+
+"One more question," the soldier begged. "Are you aware, sir, that since
+Japan left the League of Nations on the excuse of her isolation, she has
+been building �roplanes and battleships on a new theory, instigated, if
+you please, by China?"
+
+"And look at her last balance sheet as a result of it," was the prompt
+retort. "If a nation chooses to make herself a bankrupt by building war
+toys, no one in the world can help her. Legislation of that sort is
+foolish and simply an incitement to revolution. Look at the difference
+in our country. Our income tax is practically abolished, our industrial
+troubles are over. Our credit never stood so high, the wealth of the
+country was never so great. We are satisfied. A peaceful nation makes
+for peace. The rattling of the sabre incites military disturbance. Do
+not ask us, gentlemen, to train armies or build ships."
+
+"We ask you only to keep your covenant," Monsieur Pouilly pronounced
+stiffly.
+
+"Who does keep it?" the Prime Minister demanded. "The world is governed
+now by common sense and humanity. I look upon a war of aggression on the
+part of any country as a sheer impossibility."
+
+"What about a war of revenge?" the General enquired quietly.
+
+"You can search Germany from end to end," Mervin Brown declared, "and
+find no trace of any spirit of the sort. I am sorry if I am a
+disappointment to you, gentlemen, but the present Government views your
+attitude without sympathy. General Richardson is expecting a visit from
+you this morning at the War Office, and he will give you any information
+you desire. An appointment has also been made for you this afternoon at
+the Admiralty. You are doing me the honour of dining with me here
+to-morrow night to meet certain members of my Cabinet, and we will, if
+you choose, discuss the matter further then. I have thought it best to
+place my views clearly before you, however, at the outset of your visit
+here."
+
+The Frenchmen rose a few minutes later and took their leave,
+ceremoniously but with obvious discontent. The Prime Minister leaned
+back in his chair and awaited his secretary's return with a
+well-satisfied smile. In a few minutes the latter presented himself.
+
+"Well, Franklin," the great man said, "I've let them hear the truth for
+once. Plain speaking, eh?"
+
+The young man bowed.
+
+"They certainly know your views, sir."
+
+The Minister glanced at his subordinate sharply.
+
+"What's the matter with you this morning, Franklin?" he demanded.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me, thank you, sir," was the quiet
+reply.
+
+"You're not going to tell me that you disapprove of my attitude?"
+
+"By no means, sir," the young man assured his Chief hastily,--"not
+altogether, that is to say. At the same time, one wonders how far those
+two men represent the feeling of France."
+
+His Chief shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The military spirit is hard to kill," he said. "It is in the blood of
+most Frenchmen. They are not big enough to understand that the world is
+moving on to greater things. What did they say to you before they left?"
+
+"Nothing much, sir. The General just asked me whether I thought you
+would soon be content to leave London unpoliced."
+
+"What rubbish! Any one else for me to see this morning?"
+
+"You promised to give Lord Dorminster ten minutes," the young man
+reminded him. "He is in the anteroom now."
+
+The Prime Minister frowned.
+
+"Dorminster," he repeated. "He is a nephew of the man who was always
+worrying the Government to re�stablish the secret service. I remember he
+came to see me the other day, declared that his uncle had been
+murdered, and a secret dispatch from Germany stolen. I wonder he didn't
+wind up with a report that the Chinese were on their way to seize
+Ireland!"
+
+"It is the same man, sir."
+
+"Well, I suppose I'd better see him and get it over," his Chief declared
+irritably. "If only one could make these people realize how far behind
+the times they are!"
+
+Nigel was shown in, a few minutes later. Mr. Mervin Brown was gracious
+but terse.
+
+"I haven't had the opportunity of congratulating you upon becoming one
+of our hereditary legislators, Lord Dorminster, since you took your seat
+in the House of Lords," he said. "Pray let me do so now. I hope that we
+may count upon your support."
+
+"My support, sir," Nigel replied, "will be given to any Party which will
+take the urgent necessary steps to protect this country against a great
+danger."
+
+"God bless my soul!" the Prime Minister exclaimed. "Another of you!"
+
+"I can only guess who my predecessors were," Nigel continued, smiling,
+"but I will frankly confess that the object of my visit is to beg you to
+re�stablish our secret service in Germany, Russia and China."
+
+"Nothing," the other declared, "would induce me to do anything of the
+sort."
+
+"Are you aware," Nigel enquired, "that there is a considerable foreign
+secret service at work in this country at the present moment?"
+
+"I am not aware of it, and I don't believe it," was the blunt retort.
+
+"I have absolute proof," Nigel insisted. "Not only that, but two
+ex-secret service men whom my uncle sent out to Germany and Russia on
+his own account were murdered there as soon as they began to get on the
+track of certain things which had been kept secret. A report from one of
+these men got through and was stolen from my uncle's library in Belgrave
+Square on the day he was murdered. You will remember that I placed all
+these facts before you on the occasion of a previous visit."
+
+Mervin Brown nodded.
+
+"Anything else?" he asked patiently.
+
+"You know that a special envoy from China is on his way here at the
+present moment to meet Immelan?"
+
+"Oscar Immelan, the German Commissioner?"
+
+"The same," Nigel assented.
+
+"A most delightful fellow," the Prime Minister declared warmly, "and a
+great friend to this country."
+
+"I must take the liberty of disagreeing with you," Nigel rejoined,
+"because I know very well that he is our bitter enemy. Prince Shan, who
+is on his way from China to meet him, is the envoy of the one country
+outside Europe whom we might fear. We sit still and do nothing. We have
+no means of knowing what may be plotted against us here in London. At
+least a polite request might be sent to Prince Shan to ask him to pay
+you a visit and disclose the nature of his conference with Immelan."
+
+"If he cares to come, we shall be glad to see him," Mervin Brown
+replied, "but I for one shall not go out of my way to talk politics."
+
+"Do you know what politics are, sir?" Nigel asked, in a sudden fury.
+
+The Prime Minister's eyes flashed for a moment. He controlled himself,
+however, and rang the bell.
+
+"I have an idea that I do," he answered. "A few millions of my fellow
+countrymen believe the same thing, or I should not be here. I think that
+you know what my principles are, Lord Dorminster. I am here to govern
+this country for the benefit of the people. We don't want to govern any
+one else's country, we don't want to meddle in any one else's affairs.
+Least of all do we want to revert to the times when your uncle was a
+young man, and every country in Europe was sitting with drawn sword,
+trusting nobody, fearing everybody, living in a state of nerves, with
+the roll of the drum always in their ears. The best preventative of war,
+in my opinion, is not to believe in it. Good morning, Lord Dorminster."
+
+It was a dismissal against which there was no appeal. Nigel followed the
+secretary from the room.
+
+"You found the Chief a little bit ratty this morning, I expect, Lord
+Dorminster," the latter remarked. "We've had the French Mission here."
+
+"Mr. Mervin Brown has at least the virtue of knowing his own mind,"
+Nigel replied dryly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The automobile turned in through the great entrance gates of the South
+London Aeronautic Terminus and commenced a slow ascent along the broad
+asphalted road to what, a few years ago, had been esteemed a new wonder
+of the world. Maggie rose to her feet with a little exclamation of
+wonder.
+
+"Do you know I have never been here at night before?" she exclaimed.
+"Isn't it wonderful!"
+
+"Marvellous!" Nigel replied. "It's the largest aeronautic station in the
+world--bigger, they say, than all our railway termini put together. Look
+at the flares, Maggie! No wonder the sky from the housetop at Belgrave
+Square seems always to be on fire at night!"
+
+They were approaching now the first of the huge sheds which were
+arranged in circular fashion around an immense stretch of perfectly
+level asphalted ground. Every shed was as big as an ordinary railway
+station, its arched opening framed with electric illuminations. Inside
+could be seen the crowds of people waiting on the platforms; in many of
+them, the engine of a great airship was already throbbing, waiting to
+start. In the background was a huge wireless installation, and around,
+at regular intervals, enormous pillars, on the top of which flares of
+different-coloured fire were burning. The automobile came to a
+standstill before a large electrically illuminated time chart. Nigel
+alighted for a moment and spoke to one of the inspectors.
+
+"Which station for the _Black Dragon_, private ship from China?" he
+enquired.
+
+The man glanced at the chart.
+
+"Number seven, on the other side," he replied. "You can drive around."
+
+"How is she for time?"
+
+"She crossed the North Sea punctually," he replied. "We should see her
+violet lights in ten minutes. Mind the traffic as you pass number three.
+The North ship from Norway is just in."
+
+Nigel addressed a word of caution to the chauffeur, and they drove on.
+From the first shed they passed a stream of vehicles was pouring
+out,--porters with luggage, jostling throngs of newly arrived passengers
+on their way to the Electric Underground. They drove into number seven
+shed, left the car, and walked to the end of the long platform. The
+great arc of glass-covered roof above them was brilliantly illuminated,
+throwing a queer downward light upon the long line of waiting porters,
+the refreshment rooms, the kiosks and newspaper stalls. In the far end,
+a huge airship, bound for the East, was already filling up. Maggie and
+her companion stood for a few minutes gazing into the huge void of
+space.
+
+"Tell me about Naida," the former begged, a little abruptly.
+
+"Naida is a wonderful woman," Nigel declared enthusiastically. "We
+lunched at Ciro's. She wore a black and white muslin gown which arrived
+this morning from Paris. Afterwards we went down to Ranelagh and sat
+under the trees."
+
+"Throwing yourself thoroughly into your little job, aren't you!" Maggie
+sniffed.
+
+"You'll have a chance to catch me up before long," he replied. "Naida
+has promised that she will arrange a meeting with the Prince."
+
+"I wonder what Oscar Immelan will have to say about it," Maggie
+reflected.
+
+"To tell you the truth," Nigel said hopefully, "I believe that Immelan
+is losing ground. His whole scheme is too selfish. Of course, Naida
+won't discuss these things with me in plain words, but she gives me a
+hint now and then. Amongst her gifts, she has a marvellous sense of
+justice and a hatred of any form of bribery. That is where I feel
+convinced that she and Immelan will never come together. Immelan could
+never see more than the selfish side, even of a world upheaval. Naida
+searches everywhere for motive. She has the altruistic instinct. I
+wonder no longer at Matinsky. She is a born ruler herself."
+
+"I'm glad you are getting along with her," Maggie remarked. "Look!" she
+broke off, catching at his arm. "The violet lights!"
+
+High up in the sky outside, two violet specks of light suddenly rose and
+fell like airballs. A crowd of mechanics appeared through subterranean
+doors and stood about in the vast arena. Very soon the airship came into
+sight, her cars brilliantly illuminated. She circled slowly round and
+came noiselessly to the ground, and with the mechanics running by her
+side, and her engines now scarcely audible, came slowly into the shed
+and to a standstill by the side of the platform. Maggie and her
+companion stood well in the background.
+
+"There he is," the latter whispered.
+
+Immelan, suddenly appeared as though from the bowels of the earth, was
+shaking hands warmly with a tall, slender man who was one of the first
+to descend from the airship. They talked rapidly together for a few
+minutes. Then they disappeared, walking down towards the
+luggage-clearing station. Maggie watched the retreating figures
+earnestly.
+
+"He doesn't look in the least Chinese," she declared.
+
+"I told you he didn't," Nigel replied. "He was considered the
+best-looking man of his year up at Oxford."
+
+Maggie was unusually silent on their way back.
+
+"It was perhaps scarcely worth our while, this little expedition of
+ours," Maggie said thoughtfully.
+
+"You're not sorry that we came?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head. "I think not," she replied.
+
+"Why only 'think'?"
+
+She roused herself with an effort.
+
+"I don't know, Nigel," she confessed. "I can't imagine what is wrong
+with me. I feel shivery--nervous--as though something were going to
+happen."
+
+He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie whom he scarcely
+recognised.
+
+"Presentiments?" he asked.
+
+"Absurd, isn't it!" she replied, with a weak smile. "I'll get over it
+directly. I don't think I am going to like Prince Shan, Nigel."
+
+"Well, you haven't been long making up your mind," he observed. "I
+shouldn't have thought you had been able even to see his face."
+
+"I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it," she reflected. "To me it
+seemed as though it were carved out of granite, and as though all that
+was human about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he hadn't been
+looking."
+
+"Are you flattering yourself that he will recognise you?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I know that he will," she answered simply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at the Ritz on the
+following evening, Prince Shan and Immelan dined t�te-�-t�te, Immelan in
+the best of spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world,
+drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities; Prince Shan, his
+features and expression unchanging, and his face as white as the
+perfectly fitting shirt he wore. His clothes were fashionable and
+distinctive, his black pearls unobtrusive but wonderful, his smoothly
+brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger nails, his skilfully tied tie
+all indicative of his close touch with western civilization. There was
+nothing, in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly
+unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air of personal
+detachment, to denote the Oriental. He drank water, he ate sparingly, he
+preserved an almost unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one giving
+courteous attention to everything which his companion said and finding
+interest in it. Only once he asked a question.
+
+"You are well acquainted here, my host," he said. "You know the trio at
+the table just behind the entrance--the attractive young lady with her
+chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must be an old college
+acquaintance whose name I have forgotten. Tell me some more about them
+in their private capacity, and not as saviours of their country."
+
+Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across the room.
+
+"There is not much to tell," he answered, without enthusiasm. "The young
+lady is, as you know, Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white
+hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their escort is Lord
+Dorminster. You would probably know him by the name of Kingley--he has
+only just succeeded to the title."
+
+Prince Shan was looking straight across the room, his eyes travelling
+over the heads of the many brilliant little groups of diners to rest
+apparently upon an empty space in the white-and-gold walls. He had been
+a great traveller, but always his first evening, when he came once more
+into touch with a civilisation more meretricious but more poignant than
+his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His
+companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.
+
+"They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is
+only gossip, however."
+
+For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His
+eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully _soign�e_, very
+alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not
+actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more
+he felt the disturbance of the West.
+
+"If we should chance to come together naturally," he said, "it would
+gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very
+naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that
+evening, and the table towards which an attentive _ma�tre d'h�tel_
+conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by
+Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was
+bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently,
+to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after
+the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to
+offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.
+
+"This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie," he said. "I am
+fortunate."
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted her unspoken invitation
+and seated himself on the lounge by her side.
+
+"We who come from the self-contained countries of the world," he
+explained, "and China is one of them, come always with the desire and
+longing for new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite for these
+is insatiable."
+
+"And am I a new sensation?" Maggie asked, glancing up at him innocently
+enough, but with a faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.
+
+"You are," he answered placidly. "You reveal--or rather you suggest--the
+things of which in my country we know nothing."
+
+"But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised over there," Maggie
+observed. "Please tell me at once what it is that I possess which your
+womenkind do not."
+
+"If I answered all that your question implies," he said, "I should make
+use of speech too direct for the conventions of the world in which you
+live. I would simply remind you that whereas we men in China may claim,
+I think, to have reached the same standard of culture and civilisation
+as Europeans, we have left our womenkind far behind in that respect. The
+Chinese woman, even the noble lady, does not care for serious affairs.
+The God of the Mountains, as they call him, made her a flower to pluck,
+a beautiful plaything for her chosen mate. She remains primitive. That
+is why, in time, man wearies of her, why the person of imagination looks
+sometimes westward, finds a new joy and a strange new fascination in a
+wholly different type of femininity."
+
+"But you have many European women now living in China," Maggie reminded
+him,--"American women, too, and they are so much admired everywhere."
+
+"The Chinese, especially we of the nobility," Prince Shan replied, "are
+born with racial prejudices. An individual may forgive an affront, a
+nation never. The days of retaliation by force of arms may indeed have
+passed, but the gentleman of China, even of these days, is not likely to
+take to his heart the woman of America."
+
+"Dear me," Maggie murmured, "isn't it rather out of date to persevere in
+these ancient feuds?"
+
+"Feeling of all sorts is out of date," he admitted patiently, "yet there
+are some things which endure. I should be honoured by your friendship,
+Lady Maggie."
+
+"This is very sudden," she laughed. "I am very flattered--but what does
+it mean?"
+
+"Permission to call upon you--and your aunt," he added, glancing around
+the little circle.
+
+"We shall be delighted," Maggie replied, "but you won't like my aunt.
+She is a little deaf, and she has no sense of humour. She has come to
+live with us because Lord Dorminster and I are not really related,
+although we call ourselves cousins, and I should hate to leave Belgrave
+Square. You shall take me out to tea to-morrow afternoon instead, if you
+like."
+
+A smouldering fire burned for a moment in his eyes.
+
+"That will make me very happy," he said. "I shall attend you at four
+o'clock."
+
+Thenceforward, conversation became general. Prince Shan, with the air
+of one who has achieved his immediate object, left his place by Maggie's
+side and talked with grave courtesy to her aunt. Presently the little
+party broke up, bound, it seemed, for the same theatre. Nigel had become
+a little serious.
+
+"Well, you've made a good start, Maggie," he remarked, leaning forward
+in his place in the limousine.
+
+"Have I?" Maggie answered thoughtfully. "I wonder!"
+
+"I wish we could get at him in some different fashion," her companion
+observed uneasily.
+
+"My dear man, I'm hardened to these enterprises," Maggie assured him. "I
+even let the President of the German Republic hold my hand once when his
+wife wasn't looking. Nothing came of it," she added, with a little sigh.
+"These Germans are terribly sentimental when it doesn't cost them
+anything. They've no idea of a fair exchange."
+
+"By a 'fair exchange' you mean," her aunt suggested, a little
+censoriously, "that you expected him to barter his country's secrets for
+a touch of your fingers?"
+
+"Or my lips, perhaps," Maggie added, with a little grimace. "Please
+don't look so serious, Aunt. I'm not really in love with Prince Shan,
+you know, and to-night I rather feel like marrying Nigel, if I can get
+him back again. I like his waistcoat buttons, and the way he has tied
+his tie."
+
+"Too late, my dear," Nigel warned her. "I give you formal notice. I
+have transferred my affections."
+
+"That decides me," Maggie declared firmly. "I shall collect you back
+again. I hate to lose an admirer."
+
+"The nonsense you young people talk!" Mrs. Bollington Smith observed, as
+they reached the theatre.
+
+Chalmers joined them soon after they had reached their box. He sank into
+the empty place by Maggie's side which Nigel had just vacated and leaned
+forward confidentially.
+
+"So you've started the campaign," he whispered.
+
+"How do you know?" she enquired.
+
+"I was at the Ritz to-night," he told her, "at the far end of the room
+with my Chief and two other men. We were behind you in the lounge
+afterwards."
+
+"I was so engrossed," Maggie murmured.
+
+Chalmers paused for a moment to watch the performance. When he spoke
+again, his voice, was, for him, unusually serious.
+
+"Young lady," he said, "I told you on our first meeting my idea of
+diplomacy. Truth! No beating about the bush--just the plain, unvarnished
+truth! I have conceived an affection for you."
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Maggie exclaimed softly. "Are you going to
+propose?"
+
+"Nothing," he assured her, "is farther from my thoughts. Lest I should
+be misunderstood, let me substitute the term 'affectionate interest' for
+'affection.' I have felt uneasy ever since I saw Prince Shan watching
+you across the restaurant to-night."
+
+"Did he really watch me?" Maggie asked complacently.
+
+"He not only watched you," Chalmers assured her, "but he thought about
+you--and very little else."
+
+"Congratulate me, then," she replied. "I am on the way to success."
+
+Chalmers frowned.
+
+"I'm not quite so sure," he said. "You'll think I'm an illogical sort of
+person, but I've changed my mind about your r�le in this little affair."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I am afraid of Prince Shan," he answered deliberately.
+
+She looked at him from behind her fan. Her eyes sparkled with interest.
+If there were any other feeling underneath, she showed no trace of it.
+
+"What a queer word for you to use!"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know it. I would back you, Lady Maggie, to hold your own against any
+male creature breathing, of your own order and your own race, but Prince
+Shan plays the game differently. He possesses every gift which women and
+men both admire, but he hasn't our standards. Life for him means power.
+A wish for him entails its fulfilment."
+
+"You are afraid," Maggie suggested, still with the laughter in her eyes,
+"that he will trifle with my affections?"
+
+"Something like that," he admitted bluntly. "Prince Shan will be here
+for a week--perhaps a fortnight. When he goes, he goes a very long
+distance away."
+
+"I may decide to marry him," Maggie said. "One gets rather tired here of
+the regular St. George's, Hanover Square, business, and all that comes
+afterwards."
+
+"Dear Lady Maggie," Chalmers replied, "that is the trouble. Prince Shan
+would never marry you."
+
+"Why not?" she asked simply.
+
+"First of all," Chalmers went on, after a moment's hesitation, "because
+Prince Shan, broad-minded though he seems to be and is on all the great
+questions of the world, still preserves something of what we should call
+the superstition of his country and order. I believe, in his own mind,
+he looks upon himself as being one of the few elect of the earth. He
+travels, he is gracious everywhere, but though his manner is the
+perfection of form, in his heart he is still aloof. He rides through the
+clouds from Asia, and he leaves always something of himself over there
+on the other side. Let me tell you this, Lady Maggie. I have never
+forgotten it. He was at Harvard in my year, and so far as he unbent to
+any one, he sometimes unbent to me. I asked him once whether he were
+ever going to marry. He shook his head and sighed. 'I can never marry,'
+he replied. 'Why not?' I asked him. 'Because there are no women of the
+Shan line alive,' he answered. Later, he took pity on my bewilderment.
+He let me understand. For two thousand years, no Shan has married, save
+one of his own line. To ally himself with a princess of the royal house
+of England would be a m�salliance which would disturb his ancestors in
+their graves. Of course, this sounds to us very ridiculous, but to him
+it isn't. It is part of the religion of his life."
+
+"You are not very encouraging, are you?" Maggie remarked. "Perhaps he
+has changed since those days."
+
+Her companion shook his head.
+
+"I should say not," he replied, "the Prince is not of the order of those
+who change."
+
+"Is it matrimony alone," she asked, "which he denies himself?"
+
+Chalmers glanced towards Mrs. Bollington Smith, whose eyes were closed.
+Then he nodded towards the stage.
+
+"You see the woman who has just come upon the stage?"
+
+Maggie glanced downwards. A very wonderful little figure in white satin,
+lithe and sinuous as a cat, Chinese in the subtlety of her looks,
+European in her almost sinister over-civilisation, stood smiling
+blandly at the applauding audience.
+
+"La Belle Nita," Maggie murmured. "I thought she was in Paris. Well,
+what of her?"
+
+"She is reputed to be a prot�g�e of Prince Shan. You see how she looks
+up at his box."
+
+Maggie was conscious of a queer and almost incomprehensible stab at the
+heart. She answered without hesitation or change of expression, however.
+
+"The Prince must be kind to a fellow countrywoman," she declared
+indulgently. "You are talking terrible scandal."
+
+La Belle Nita danced wonderfully, sang like a linnet, danced again and
+disappeared, notwithstanding the almost wild calls for an encore. With
+the end of her turn came a selection from the orchestra and a general
+emptying of the boxes. Presently Chalmers went in search of Nigel. A few
+moments later there was a knock at the door. Maggie gripped the sides of
+her chair tightly. She was moved almost to fury by the turmoil in which
+she found herself. Her invitation to enter was almost inaudible.
+
+"I am deserted," Prince Shan explained, as he made his bow and took the
+chair to which Maggie pointed. "My friend Immelan has left me to visit
+acquaintances, and I chance to be unattended this evening. I trust that
+I do not intrude."
+
+"You are very welcome here," Maggie replied. "Will you listen to the
+orchestra, or talk to me?"
+
+"I will talk, if I may," he answered. "Lord Dorminster is not with
+you?"
+
+"Nigel went to look up a friend whom he wants to bring to supper. He is
+one of those people who seem to discover friends and acquaintances in
+every quarter of the globe."
+
+"And to that fortunate chance," her visitor continued, dropping his
+voice a little, "I owe the happiness of finding you alone."
+
+Maggie glanced towards her aunt, who was leaning back in her seat.
+
+"Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't," she declared. "She is really a
+very efficient chaperon. Talk to me about China, please, and tell me
+about your _Dragon_ airship. Is it true that you have silver baths, and
+that Gauteron painted the walls of your dining salon?"
+
+"One is in the air five days on the way over," he answered
+indifferently. "It is necessary that one's surroundings should be
+agreeable. Perhaps some day I may have the honour of showing it to you.
+In the darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to be seen."
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"You knew that I was there, then?"
+
+"Yours was the first face I saw when I descended from the car," he told
+her. "You stood apart, watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that
+you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I came there. As a rule,
+I do not dine in public."
+
+"How could you possibly know that I was going to be there?" Maggie asked
+curiously.
+
+"I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through the names of those who
+had booked tables," he answered. "It was very simple."
+
+"It was only a chance that the table was reserved in my name," she
+reminded him.
+
+"It was chance which brought us together," he rejoined. "It is chance
+under another name to which I trust in life."
+
+For the first time in her life, in her relations with the other sex,
+Maggie felt a queer sensation which was almost fear. She felt herself
+losing poise, her will governed, her whole self dominated. Unconsciously
+she drew herself a little away. Her eyes travelled around the crowded
+house and suddenly rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
+Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly forward, her eyes fixed
+intently upon Prince Shan, was La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown
+around her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure in the
+semi-obscurity.
+
+"You have some one waiting for you in your box," Maggie told him.
+
+He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his feet. She gave him
+credit for the adroitness of mind which rejected the obvious
+explanation of her presence there.
+
+"I must go," he said simply, "but I have many things which I desire to
+say to you. You will not forget to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"I shall not forget," she answered, in a low tone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince Shan's eyes as he sat
+back in the dim recesses of his box and scrutinised his visitor. La
+Belle Nita had learnt all that Paris and London could teach her.
+
+"You are very beautiful, Nita," he said.
+
+"Many men tell me so," she answered.
+
+"Life has gone well with you since we met last?" he asked reflectively.
+
+"The months have passed," she replied.
+
+"You have been faithful?"
+
+"Fidelity is of the soul."
+
+He paused, as though pondering over her answer. A famous French comedian
+was holding the stage, and the house rocked with laughter.
+
+"You have the same apartment?"
+
+She pressed the clasp of a black velvet bag which rested on the edge of
+the box, opened it, and passed him a key.
+
+"It is the same."
+
+He held the key in his fingers for a moment, but he had the air of a man
+to whom the action had no significance.
+
+"You have enough money?" he asked.
+
+"I have saved a million francs," she told him. "I am waiting for my
+lord to speak of things that matter. The woman in the box over
+there--who is she?"
+
+"An English spy," he answered calmly.
+
+She lowered her eyes for a moment, as though to conceal the sudden soft
+flash.
+
+"An English spy," she repeated. "My rival in espionage."
+
+"You have no rival, Nita," he replied, "and she is in the opposite
+camp."
+
+Her two red lips were distorted into a pout.
+
+"Is it over, my task?" she asked. "I am weary of Paris. I love it over
+here better. I am weary of French officers, of these solemn officials
+who come to my room like guilty schoolboys, and who speak of themselves
+and their importance with bated breath, as though their whisper would
+rock the world. My master has enough information?"
+
+"More than enough," he assured her. "You have done your work
+wonderfully."
+
+"Shall I now deal with her?" she continued, with a slight, eager
+movement of her head towards the opposite box.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"She is harmless, she and her entourage," he replied. "Some stroke of
+good fortune brought them word of the meeting between myself and
+Immelan, and beyond that they guessed at its significance. They were at
+the shed to watch my arrival. Now, with their mouths open, they sit and
+wait for the information which they hope will drop in. They are very
+ingenuous, these Anglo-Saxons, but they are not diplomats."
+
+She turned her head and looked across the auditorium. Maggie was talking
+to a man whom Nigel had just brought in, and who was bending over her in
+obvious admiration. Nita, with her wealth of cosmetics, her over-red
+lips, stared curiously at this possible rival, with her clear skin, her
+beautiful neck and shoulders, her hair dressed close to her head, her
+air of quiet, almost singular distinction.
+
+"The young lady," she confessed, "wears her clothes well for an English
+woman. She is _bien soign�e_, but she looks a little difficult."
+
+His eyes followed the direction of hers, and her object was achieved.
+She read correctly the light that gleamed in them.
+
+"I may come to-night?" she asked quietly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Not again," he replied.
+
+A violinist now held the stage, a Pole newly come to London. La Belle
+Nita closed her eyes. For a few minutes her sorrow seemed to throb to
+the minor music to which she was listening.
+
+"For all my work, then," she said presently, "for the suffering and the
+risk, there is to be nothing?"
+
+"Is it nothing for you to be invited to live in whatsoever manner you
+choose?" he remonstrated.
+
+"It is little," she replied steadily. "There are a dozen who would do
+this for me, who pray every day that they may do so. What are all these
+things beside the love of my master?"
+
+He looked at her a little sadly, yet without any sign of real feeling.
+To him she represented nothing more than a doll with brains, from whose
+intelligence he had profited, but of whose beauty he was weary.
+
+"You know what our poet says, Nita," he reminded her. "'Love is like the
+rustling of the wind in the almond trees before dawn.' We cannot command
+it. It comes to us or leaves us without reason."
+
+She looked across the auditorium once more and spoke with her head
+turned away from her companion.
+
+"There is no one in the East," she said, "because those who write me
+weekly send news of my lord's doings. There is no one in the East,
+because there they give the body who know nothing of the soul. And so my
+Prince is safe amongst them. But here--these western women have other
+gifts. Is that she, master of my life and soul?"
+
+"I met her this evening for the first time," he replied.
+
+She laughed drearily.
+
+"Eyes may meet in the street without speech, a glance may burn its way
+into the soul. Once I thought that I might love again, because a
+stranger smiled at me in the Bois, and he had grey eyes, and that look
+about his mouth which a woman craves for. He passed on, and I forgot.
+You see, my lord was still there.--So this is the woman."
+
+"Who knows?" he answered.
+
+Immelan came into the box a little abruptly. There was a cloud upon his
+face which he did his best to conceal. Almost simultaneously, a
+messenger from behind the scenes arrived for Nita. She rose to her feet
+and wrapped her green cloak closely around her lissom figure.
+
+"In a quarter of an hour," she said, "I have to appear again. It is to
+be good-night, then?"
+
+She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the appeal which knows no
+nationality shone out of their velvety depths. She stood before him
+simply, like a slave who pleads. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face
+moved.
+
+"It is to be good-night, Nita," he answered calmly.
+
+Her head drooped, and she passed out. She had the air of a flower whose
+petals have been bruised. Immelan looked after her curiously, almost
+compassionately.
+
+"It is finished, then, with the little one, Prince?" he enquired.
+
+"It is finished," was the calm reply.
+
+Immelan stroked his short moustache thoughtfully.
+
+"Is it wise?" he ventured. "She has been faithful and assiduous. She
+knows many things."
+
+Prince Shan's eyes were filled with mild wonder.
+
+"She has had some years of my occasional companionship," he said. "It is
+surely as much as she could hope for or expect. We are not like you
+Westerners, Immelan," he went on. "Our women are the creatures of our
+will. We call them, or we send them away. They know that, and they are
+prepared."
+
+"It seems a little brutal," Immelan muttered.
+
+"You prefer your method?" his companion asked. "Yet you practise deceit.
+Your fancy wanders, and you lie about it. You lose your dignity, my
+friend. No woman is worth a man's lie."
+
+Immelan was leaning back in his chair, gazing steadfastly across the
+crowded theatre.
+
+"Your principles," he said, "are suited to your own womenkind. La Belle
+Nita has become westernised. Are you sure that she accepts the situation
+as she would if she dwelt with you in Pekin?"
+
+"I am her master," Prince Shan declared calmly. "I have made no promises
+that I have not fulfilled."
+
+"The promise between a man and a woman is an unspoken one," Immelan
+persisted. "You have not been in Europe for five months. All that time
+she has awaited you."
+
+"Something else has happened," Prince Shan said deliberately.
+
+"Since your arrival in London?"
+
+"Since my arrival in London, since I stepped out of my ship last night."
+
+Immelan was frankly incredulous.
+
+"You mean Lady Maggie Trent?"
+
+"Certainly! I have always felt that some day or other my thoughts would
+turn towards one of these strange, western women. That time has come.
+Lady Maggie possesses those charms which come from the brain, yet which
+appeal more deeply than any other to the subtle desires of the poet, the
+man of letters and the philosopher. She is very wonderful, Immelan. I
+thank you for your introduction."
+
+Immelan ceased to caress his moustache. He leaned back in his chair and
+gazed at his companion. For many years he and the Prince had been
+associates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even begun to
+understand him.
+
+"But you forget, Prince," he said, "that Lady Maggie and her friends are
+in the opposite camp. When our agreement is concluded and known to the
+world, she will look upon you as an enemy."
+
+"As yet," Prince Shan answered calmly, "our agreement is not concluded."
+
+Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat
+prevented an expression of anger.
+
+"But, Prince," he expostulated, "apart from political considerations,
+you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you
+and Lady Maggie?"
+
+"Why not?" was the cool reply.
+
+"Lady Maggie is of the English nobility," Immelan pointed out. "Neither
+she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in
+the nature of a morganatic alliance."
+
+"It would not be necessary," Prince Shan declared. "It is in my mind to
+offer her marriage."
+
+Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his
+pocket. He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.
+
+"Marriage?" he muttered. "You are not serious!"
+
+"I am entirely serious," the Prince insisted. "I can understand your
+amazement, Immelan. When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it
+as I would at a weed. But we who have studied in the West have learnt
+certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.
+All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.
+From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity: devotion to our country
+and singleness of purpose. Over here, though, one has also learnt
+something. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the Shans must seek not
+for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate. If
+their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of
+his life."
+
+Immelan was speechless. There was something final and convincing in his
+companion's measured words. His own protest, when at last he spoke,
+sounded paltry.
+
+"But supposing it is true that she is already engaged to Lord
+Dorminster?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled very quietly.
+
+"That," he said, "can easily be disposed of."
+
+"But do you seriously believe that you would be able to induce her to
+return with you to Pekin?" Immelan persisted.
+
+At that moment it chanced that Maggie turned her head and looked across
+at the two men. Prince Shan leaned a little forward to meet her gaze.
+His face was expressionless. The lines of his mouth were calm and
+restful, yet in his eyes there glowed for a single moment the fire of a
+man who looks upon the thing he covets.
+
+"I seriously believe it," he answered under his breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Maggie leaned back in her chair with a little sigh of content. The
+scarlet-coated waiter had just removed their tea tray, a pleasant breeze
+was rustling through the leaves of the trees under which she and Prince
+Shan were seated. From the distance came the low strains of a military
+band. Everywhere on the lawns and along the paths men and women were
+promenading.
+
+"Confess that this is better than Rumpelmayer's or the Ritz," she
+murmured lazily.
+
+"It is better," he admitted. "It is a very wonderful place."
+
+"You have nothing like it in China?" she asked him.
+
+"It would not be possible," he answered. "Democracy there is confined to
+politics. In other respects, our class prejudices are far more rigid
+than yours. But then I see a great change in this country since I was
+here as a student."
+
+"You have lost your affection for it, perhaps?" she ventured, looking at
+him through half-closed eyes.
+
+"On the contrary," he assured her, "my gratitude towards her was never
+so great as at this moment. Your country has given me nothing I prize
+so much, Lady Maggie, as my knowledge of you."
+
+She looked away from his very earnest eyes, and the light retort died
+away upon her lips. The men and women whom she watched so steadfastly
+seemed like puppets, the flowers artificial, the music unreal. Already
+she was beginning to resent the influence which he was establishing over
+her. The art of badinage in which she was so proficient stood her in no
+stead. Words, even the power of light speech, had deserted her.
+
+"Tell me about the changes that you see," she asked.
+
+"Perhaps," he replied, after a moment's hesitation, "it is because I am
+an occasional visitor that differences seem so marked to me, but look at
+the tables there. That is the Duke of Illinton, is it not? At the next
+table, the man in the strange clothes and uncomfortable hat--it seems to
+me that I have seen him somewhere under different circumstances."
+
+Maggie nodded.
+
+"Life is a terrible hotchpotch nowadays," she admitted. "After the war,
+our gentry and aristocracy who were not wealthy were taxed out of
+existence. The profiteers, and the men who had made fortunes during the
+war, took their place. It has made the country prosperous but less
+picturesque."
+
+"You put things very clearly," he said. "To-day in England is certainly
+the day of the shopkeeper's triumph. Wealth is a great thing, but it is
+great only for what it leads to. I think your philosopher of the
+streets, your new school of politicians, have alike forgotten that."
+
+"You have lost sympathy with England, have you not, Prince Shan?" Maggie
+asked him.
+
+He turned towards her, a faint but kindly smile upon his lips, a light
+in his eyes which she did not altogether understand.
+
+"Lady Maggie," he said quietly, "they tell me that you are interested in
+the political side of my visit to this country."
+
+"Who tells you that?" she demanded. "What have I to do with politics?"
+
+"You have been gifted with great intelligence," he continued, "and you
+are the confidante of your connection, Lord Dorminster. Lord Dorminster
+is one of those few Englishmen who realise the ill direction of the
+destinies of this country. You would like to help him in his present
+very strenuous efforts to ascertain the truth as to certain movements
+directed against the British Empire. That is so, is it not?"
+
+"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 assured 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
+peacocks 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 passion 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 assurance 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 assured him. "As for the
+purpose of your mission, I assure 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 passed 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 masses 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 attitude 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 attitude 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 class 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 gods 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 God 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 Pr�sident."
+
+A chapter of English history ended with the quiet passing of Monsieur
+Senn into the sunlit street. The latter entered his waiting automobile
+and drove at once to the French Embassy. The Ambassador listened in
+silence to his report.
+
+"What about the Press?" was his only question.
+
+"Monsieur le Pr�sident 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 Ambassador 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.
+
+Karschoff's face was suddenly grave. He seemed on the point of saying
+something but checked himself and turned away with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+"Each one to his taste," he murmured. "For my aperitif, a dash of
+absinthe in my cocktail; for Dorminster here, the lure of a woman's
+smile. Perhaps he gains. Who knows?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Nigel waited for his luncheon companion in the crowded vestibule of
+London's most famous club restaurant. He was to a certain extent out of
+the picture among the crowd of this new generation of pleasure seekers,
+on the faces of whom opulence and acquisitiveness had already laid its
+branding hand. The Mecca alike of musical comedy and the Stock Exchange,
+the place, however, still preserved a curious attraction for the foreign
+element in London, so that when at last Naida appeared, she was
+exchanging courtesies with an Italian Duchess on one side and a
+celebrated Russian dancer on the other. Nigel led her at once to the
+table which he had selected in the balcony.
+
+"I have obeyed your wishes to the letter," he said, "and I think that
+you are right. Up here we are entirely alone, and, as you see, they have
+had the sense to place the tables a long way apart. Am I to blame, I
+wonder, for asking you to do so unconventional a thing as to lunch here
+again alone with me?"
+
+She drew off her gloves and smiled across the table at him. Her plain,
+tailor-made gown, with its high collar, was the last word in elegance.
+The simplicity of her French hat was to prove the despair of a
+well-known modiste seated downstairs, who made a sketch of it on the
+menu and tried in vain to copy it. Even to Nigel's exacting taste she
+was flawless.
+
+"Is it unconventional?" she asked carelessly. "I do not study those
+things. I lunch or dine with a party, generally, because it happens so.
+I lunch alone with you because it pleases me."
+
+"And for this material side of our entertainment?" he enquired, smiling,
+as he handed her the menu card.
+
+"A grapefruit, a quail with white grapes, and some asparagus," she
+replied promptly. "You see, in one respect I am an easy companion. I
+know exactly what I want. A mixed vermouth, if you like, yes. And now,
+tell me your news?"
+
+"There is news," he announced, "which the whole world will know of
+before many hours are past. France has broken her pact with England."
+
+"It is my opinion," she said deliberately, "that France has been very
+patient with you."
+
+"And mine," he acknowledged. "We have now to see what will become of a
+fat and prosperous country with a semi-obsolete fleet and a comic opera
+army."
+
+"Must we talk of serious things?" she asked softly. "I am weary of the
+clanking wheels of life."
+
+He sighed.
+
+"And yet for you," he said, "they are not grinding out the fate of your
+country."
+
+"Nevertheless, I too hear them all the time," she rejoined. "And I hate
+them. They make one lose one's sense of proportion. After all, it is our
+own individual and internal life which counts. I can understand Nero
+fiddling while Rome burned, if he really had no power to call up fire
+engines."
+
+"Are you an individualist?" he asked.
+
+"Not fundamentally," she replied, "but I am caught up in the throes of a
+great reaction. I have been studying events, which it is quite true may
+change the destinies of the world, so intently that I have almost
+forgotten that, after all, the greatest thing in the world, my world, is
+the happiness or ill-content of Naida Karetsky. It is really of more
+importance to me to-day that my quail should be cooked as I like it than
+that England has let go her last rope."
+
+"You are not an Englishwoman," he reminded her.
+
+"That is of minor importance. We are all so much immersed in great
+affairs just now that we forget it is the small ones that count. I want
+my luncheon to be perfect, I want you to seem as nice to me as I have
+fancied you, and I want you to chase completely away the idea that you
+are cultivating my acquaintance for interested motives."
+
+"That I can assure you from the bottom of my heart is not the case," he
+replied. "Whatever other interests I may feel in you," he added, after
+a moment's hesitation, "my first and foremost is a personal one."
+
+She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes for his understanding.
+
+"A woman in my position," she complained, "is out of place. A man ought
+to come over and study your deservings or your undeservings and pore
+over the problem of the future of Europe. I am a woman, and I am not big
+enough. I am too physical. I have forgotten how to enjoy myself, and I
+love pleasure. Now am I a revelation to you?"
+
+"You have always been that," he told her. "You are so truthful
+yourself," he went on boldly, "that I shall run the risk of saying the
+most banal thing in the world, just because it happens to be the truth.
+I have felt for you since our first meeting what I have felt for no
+other woman in the world."
+
+"I like that, and I am glad you said it," she declared lightly enough,
+although her lips quivered for a moment. "And they have put exactly the
+right quantity of Maraschino in my grapefruit. I feel that I am on the
+way to happiness. I am going to enjoy my luncheon.--Tell me about
+Maggie."
+
+"I saw her yesterday," he answered. "We have arranged for her to come
+and live at Belgrave Square, after all."
+
+"My terrible altruism once more," she sighed. "I had meant not to speak
+another serious word, and yet I must. Maggie is very clever, amazingly
+clever, I sometimes think, but if she had the brains of all of her sex
+rolled into one, she would still be facing now an impossible situation."
+
+"Just what do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
+
+"Maggie seems determined to measure her wits with those of Prince Shan,"
+she said. "Believe me, that is hopeless."
+
+She looked up at him and laughed softly.
+
+"Oh, my dear friend," she went on, "that wooden expression is wonderful.
+You do not quite know where I stand, except--may I flatter myself?--as
+regards your personal feelings for me. Am I for Immelan and his schemes,
+or for your own foolish country? You do not know, so you make for
+yourself a face of wood."
+
+"Where do you stand?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"Sufficiently devoted to your interests to beg you this," she replied.
+"Do not let your little cousin think that she can deal with a man like
+Prince Shan. There can be only one end to that."
+
+Nigel moved a little uneasily in his place.
+
+"Prince Shan is only an ordinary human being, after all," he protested.
+
+"That is just where you are mistaken," she declared. "Prince Shan is one
+of the most extraordinary human beings who ever lived. He is one of the
+most farseeing men in the world, and he is absolutely the most
+powerful."
+
+"But China," Nigel began--
+
+"His power extends far beyond China," she interrupted, "and there is no
+brain in the world to match his to-day."
+
+"If he were a god wielding thunderbolts," Nigel observed, "he could
+scarcely do much harm to Maggie here in London."
+
+"There was an artist once," she said reflectively, "who drew a
+caricature of Prince Shan and sent it to the principal comic paper in
+America. It was such a success that a little time later on he followed
+it up with another, which included a line of Prince Shan's ancestors.
+Within a month's time the artist was found murdered. Prince Shan was in
+China at the time."
+
+"Are you suggesting that the artist was murdered through Prince Shan's
+contrivance?"
+
+"Am I a fool?" she answered. "Do you not know that to speak
+disrespectfully of the ancestors of a Chinaman is unforgivable? To all
+appearances Prince Shan never moved from his wonderful palace in Pekin,
+many thousands of miles away. Yet he lifted his little finger and the
+man died."
+
+"Isn't this a little melodramatic?" Nigel murmured.
+
+"Melodrama is often nearer the truth than people think," she said.
+"Shall I give you another instance? I know of several."
+
+"One more, then."
+
+"Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incognito," she continued.
+"There was at the time a small but very fashionable restaurant in the
+Bois, close to the Pr� Catelan. He presented himself one night there for
+dinner, accompanied, I believe, by La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who
+is in London to-day. As you know, there is little in Prince Shan's
+appearance to denote the Oriental, but for some reason or other the
+proprietor refused him a table. Prince Shan made no scene. He left and
+went elsewhere. Three nights later, the caf� was burnt to the ground,
+and the proprietor was ruined."
+
+"Anything else?" Nigel asked.
+
+"Only one thing more," she replied. "I have known him slightly for
+years. In Asia he ranks to all men as little less than a god. His
+palaces are filled with priceless treasures. He has the finest
+collection of jewels in the world. His wealth is simply inexhaustible.
+His appearance you appreciate. Yet I have never seen him look at a woman
+as he looked at your cousin the first time he met her. I was at the Ritz
+with my father, and I watched. I know you think that I am being foolish.
+I am not. I am a person with a very great deal of common sense, and I
+tell you that Prince Shan has never desired a thing in life to which he
+has not helped himself. Maggie is a clever child, but she cannot toss
+knives with a conjuror."
+
+Nigel was impressed and a little worried.
+
+"It seems absurd to think that anything could happen to Maggie here in
+London," he said, "after--"
+
+He paused abruptly. Naida smiled at him.
+
+"After her escape from Germany, I suppose you were going to say? You
+see, I know all about it. There was no Prince Shan in Berlin."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Well," he admitted, "I don't quite bring myself to believe in your
+terrible ogre, so I shall not worry. Tell me what news you have from
+Russia?"
+
+"Political?"
+
+"Any news."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I notice," she said, "that English people are changing their attitude
+towards my country. A few years ago she seemed negligible to them. Now
+they are beginning to have--shall I call them fears? Even my kind host,
+I think, would like to know what is in Paul Matinsky's heart as he hears
+the friends of Oscar Immelan plead their cause."
+
+"I admit it," he told her frankly. "I will go farther. I would give a
+great deal to know what is in your own mind to-day concerning us and our
+destiny. But these things are not for the moment. It was not to discuss
+or even to think of them that I asked you here to-day."
+
+"Why did you invite me, then?" she asked, smiling.
+
+"Because I wanted the pleasure of having you opposite me," he
+replied,--"because I wanted to know you better."
+
+"And are you progressing?"
+
+"Indifferently well," he acknowledged. "I seem to gain a little and
+slide back again. You are not an easy person to know well."
+
+"Nothing that is worth having is easy," she answered, "and I can assure
+you, when my friendship is once gained, it is a rare and steadfast
+thing."
+
+"And your affection?" he ventured.
+
+Her eyes rested upon his for a moment and then suddenly drooped. A
+little tinge of colour stole into her cheeks. For a moment she seemed to
+have lost her admirable poise.
+
+"That is not easily disturbed," she told him quietly. "I think that I
+must have an unfortunate temperament, there are so few people for whom I
+really care."
+
+He took his courage into both hands.
+
+"I have heard it rumoured," he said, "that Matinsky is the only man who
+has ever touched your heart."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That is not the truth. Paul Matinsky cares for me in his strange way,
+and he has a curiously exaggerated appreciation of my brain. There have
+been times," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "when I myself
+have been disturbed by fancies concerning him, but those times have
+passed."
+
+"I am glad," he said quietly.
+
+His fingers, straying across the tablecloth, met hers. She did not
+withdraw them. He clasped her hand, and it remained for a moment passive
+in his. Then she withdrew it and leaned back in her chair.
+
+"Is that meant to introduce a more intimate note into our conversation?"
+she asked, with a slight wrinkling of the forehead and the beginnings of
+a smile upon her lips.
+
+"If I dared, I would answer 'yes'," he assured her.
+
+"They tell me," she continued pensively, "that Englishmen more than any
+other men in the world have the flair for saying convincingly the things
+which they do not mean."
+
+"In my case, that would not be true," he answered. "My trouble is that I
+dare not say one half of what I feel."
+
+She looked across the table at him, and Nigel suddenly felt a great
+weight of depression lifted from his heart. He forgot all about his
+country's peril. Life and its possibilities seemed somehow all
+different. He was carried away by a rare wave of emotion.
+
+"Naida!" he whispered.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+Her eyes were soft and expectant. Something of the gravity had gone from
+her face. She was like a girl, suddenly young with new thoughts.
+
+"You know what I am going to say to you?"
+
+"Do not say it yet, please," she begged. "Somehow it seems to me that
+the time has not come, though the thought of what may be in your heart
+is wonderful. I want to dream about it first," she went on. "I want to
+think."
+
+He laughed, a strange sound almost to his own ears, for Nigel, since his
+uncle's death, had tasted the very depths of depression.
+
+"I obey," he agreed. "It is well to dally with the great things.
+Meanwhile, they grow."
+
+She smiled across at him.
+
+"I hope that they may," she answered. "And you will ask me to lunch
+again?"
+
+"Lunch or dine or walk or motor--whatever you will," he promised.
+
+She reflected for a moment and then laughed. She was drawing on her
+gloves now, and Nigel was paying the bill.
+
+"There are some people who will not like this," she said.
+
+"And one," he declared, "for whom it is going to make life a Paradise."
+
+They passed out into the street and strolled leisurely westwards. As
+they crossed Trafalgar Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
+spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion seemed suddenly
+surrounded by placards, all with the same headlines. They paused to
+read:
+
+              _TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR_
+          _HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT_
+           _TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX_
+
+They walked on. Naida said nothing, although she shook her head a little
+sorrowfully. Nigel glanced across the Square and down towards
+Westminster.
+
+"They will shout themselves hoarse there this afternoon," he groaned.
+
+For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of coming events.
+
+"It is amazing," she whispered, "for the writing on the wall is already
+there."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert Hall, in the
+gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff officer in the Russian Imperial
+Forces, Prince Karschoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
+other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene below and around.
+The greatest city the world has ever known seemed in those days to have
+entered upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in history. Every box
+and every yard of dancing space on the floor beneath was crowded with
+men and women in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked with
+jewels which eager merchants had brought together from every market of
+the world; even the men, in their silks and velvets and ruffles,
+carrying out the dominant note of wealth. It was a ball given for
+charity and under royal patronage.
+
+"All our friends seem to be here to-night," the Prince remarked,
+glancing around. "I saw Naida with her father and the eternal Oscar
+Immelan. Chalmers is here with an exceedingly gay party, and yonder sits
+his Imperial Highness, looking very much the barbaric prince.--By the
+by," he added, glancing towards Maggie, "I thought that he was not
+coming?"
+
+Maggie, who seemed a little tired, nodded quietly. It was a week or ten
+days later, and an early season was now in full swing.
+
+"He told me that he was not coming," she said. "I suppose the temptation
+to wear that gorgeous raiment was too much for him."
+
+"Apropos of that, there is one curious thing to be noted here with
+regard to clothes," the Prince continued. "Amongst the men, you find
+Venetian Doges, Chancellors, gallants of every age, but scarcely a
+single uniform. In a way, this seems typical of the passing of the
+militarism of your country. You are beginning to remind me of Venice in
+the Middle Ages. There is a new type of brain dominant here, fat instead
+of muscle, a citizen aristocracy instead of the lean, clear-eyed,
+athletic type."
+
+Maggie moved in her place a little irritably.
+
+"I am tired of warnings," she declared. "I wish some one could do
+something."
+
+"It is impossible," the Prince pronounced solemnly. "Napoleon earned for
+himself a greater claim to immortality when he christened the English a
+nation of shopkeepers than when he won the Battle of Austerlitz. If the
+Englishman of to-day saw his material prosperity slipping away from him,
+then indeed he would be nervous and restless, ready to lean towards
+every wind that blew, to listen to every disquieting rumour. To-day his
+bank balance is prodigious, and all's well with the world.--How
+wonderfully Prince Shan lives up to his part to-night!"
+
+They looked across towards the opposite box, whose single occupant, in
+the bright green robes of a mandarin, sat looking down upon the gay
+throng with an absolutely immovable expression. There was something
+almost regal about his air of detachment, his solitude amidst such a gay
+scene.
+
+"There is one of the strangest and most consistent figures in history,"
+Karschoff, who was in a talkative frame of mind, went on reflectively.
+"I honestly believe that Prince Shan considers himself to be of
+celestial descent, to carry in his person the honour of countless
+generations of Manchus. He has no intimates. Even Immelan usually has to
+seek an audience. What his pleasures may be, who knows?--because
+everything that happens with him happens behind closed walls. To-night,
+the door of his box is guarded as though he were more than royalty. No
+one is allowed to enter unless he has special permission."
+
+"There is some one entering now," Maggie pointed out, "for the first
+time. Watch!"
+
+La Belle Nita stood for a moment in the front of the box. She was
+dressed in the gala costume of a Chinese lady, in a cherry-coloured robe
+with wide sleeves, her hair, with its many jewelled ornaments, like a
+black pool of night, her face ghastly white with a superabundance of
+powder. Prince Shan turned his head slightly towards her, and though no
+muscle of his face moved, it was obvious that her coming was unwelcome.
+She began to talk. He listened with the face of a sphinx. Presently she
+drew back into the shadows of the box. She had thrown herself into a
+chair, and her face was hidden.
+
+"La Belle Nita has made a mistake," Maggie observed. "His Serene
+Highness evidently had no wish to be disturbed."
+
+Karschoff's eyes rested upon the figure in green silk, and they were
+filled with an unwilling admiration.
+
+"That man is magnificent," he declared. "Watch his face now that he is
+speaking. Not a muscle moves, not a flash in his eyes, yet one has the
+fancy that he is saying terrible things."
+
+It was obvious, a moment later, that La Belle Nita had left the box.
+Maggie sprang up. Her colour was a little heightened. There was a rare
+nervousness in her tone.
+
+"Let us walk around and find some of the others," she suggested, turning
+to Nigel. "I want to dance."
+
+They all three passed out and mingled with the dancers. Maggie put on
+her mask and deliberately glided into the crowd as though with the
+intention of losing herself. It was not until she was underneath Prince
+Shan's box and out of sight of its occupant that she paused. Her
+thoughts were in a turmoil. His presence there, after his deliberate
+assurance to her that he had no intention of coming, his calm and
+unnoticing regard of her and every one else, seemed to confirm in every
+way the wave of pessimism which she as well as Nigel was experiencing.
+She had passed Immelan in the entrance, and there was something
+ominously disturbing in his cool, triumphant smile. She pictured to
+herself the agreement signed, some nameless terror already launched. She
+remembered that Nigel had complained of Naida's inaccessibility during
+the last few days. She herself had been surprised at Prince Shan's
+apparent withdrawal, temporary though it might be, from the peculiar but
+impressive position which he had taken up with regard to her.
+
+She stood back against the wall, in a dark corner, striving to collect
+her thoughts, thankful for the brief respite from conversation. A man in
+the costume of a monk, who had followed her across the room, touched her
+on the shoulder. He spoke in a quiet, unfamiliar voice with a foreign
+accent,
+
+"You are Lady Maggie Trent?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Will you please go to box number fourteen, on the second tier? There is
+some one there who waits for you."
+
+"Who is it?" she asked.
+
+The monk had glided away. Maggie, after a few minutes' reflection,
+slipped out into the corridor, mounted one flight of stairs, and passed
+along the semicircular balcony. The door of box number fourteen was
+ajar. She pushed it gently open and glanced in. Seated so as to be out
+of sight of the whole house was La Belle Nita. For a moment the two
+looked at each other. Then the Chinese girl sprang to her feet, made a
+quaint little bow, and, gliding around, closed the door behind her
+visitor.
+
+"Sit down, please," she invited. "I will tell you things you may like to
+hear."
+
+A sudden thought flashed into Maggie's mind. She began to see light. She
+obeyed at once. The two women sat well back and out of sight of the
+house. La Belle Nita held the handle of the door in her hand while she
+spoke, as though to prevent any one entering.
+
+"I have an enemy who was once a friend," she said, "and I wish to do him
+evil. He is not only my enemy, but he is yours. He is the enemy of all
+you English people, because it is a great disaster which he plans to
+bring upon you."
+
+"You speak of Prince Shan?" Maggie exclaimed.
+
+Even at the mention of his name, the girl shook. She looked around as
+though fearing the shadows. She rattled the door to make sure that it
+was closed.
+
+"For him whom you call Prince Shan I have worked many years, first of
+all in Paris, now here. I was content with small reward. That reward he
+now takes from me. It is my wish to betray him."
+
+"Why do you send for me?" Maggie asked.
+
+"Because you have been an English spy," was the quiet reply. "It may
+surprise you that I know that, but I do know. I have been a spy for
+Prince Shan in Paris. You were a spy for England in Berlin. You were a
+spy for your country's sake; I was a spy for love. Now I betray for
+hate."
+
+"Please go on."
+
+"Prince Shan came this time to Europe with two schemes in his mind," the
+girl continued. "One concerned France. That one he has discarded.
+Through me he learned of the military strength of France, her secret
+resources, of her tireless watch upon the Rhine. So he listens to
+Immelan, and Immelan and he together, oh, English lady, they have made a
+wonderful plan!"
+
+"Are you going to tell me what it is?" Maggie asked, her eyes bright
+with excitement.
+
+"I cannot tell you because I do not know," was the unwilling admission,
+"but I will make it so that you can discover for yourself. A few hours
+ago, the plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the third drawer
+of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the left-hand side of the hall after
+you have entered his house in Curzon Street."
+
+"But no one can enter it!" Maggie exclaimed. "The place is like a fort.
+No stranger may pass the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
+that he receives no visitors."
+
+La Belle Nita smiled. From a pocket somewhere within the folds of her
+flowing gown, she produced two small keys.
+
+"Listen," she said. "The house in Curzon Street has been called the
+House of Silence. There are many servants there, but they come only from
+beneath and when they are summoned. There is what no other person has
+ever possessed--the key of the front door. There is also the key of the
+cabinet. Prince Shan has ordered his automobile for two o'clock. It is
+now barely midnight."
+
+The keys lay in the palm of Maggie's hand. Her heart had begun to beat
+quickly. Somehow or other, she was conscious of a thrill of excitement
+which she had never before experienced, even when she had sat back in
+her corner of the railway carriage, watching for the frontier, knowing
+that the wires were busy with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
+were on her track.
+
+"If the servants should hear me?" she faltered.
+
+"You say only 'I await the Prince'," La Belle Nita murmured. "That key
+never leaves his own person save for one in great favour. They will
+believe that he gave it to you. You will be unmolested."
+
+A queer sensation suddenly assailed Maggie. She felt extraordinarily
+primitive, ridiculously feminine. She looked at the girl opposite to
+her, the girl whose body was draped in perfumed silks, whose face was
+thick with rice powder, whose eyes were sad. She felt no pity. What
+feeling she had, she did not care to analyse.
+
+"Is this your key?" she asked.
+
+"It was mine once, but its use has been forbidden to me," the girl
+replied. "Prince Shan is a changed man. Something has come into his life
+of which I know nothing, but as it has come, so must I go. I give you
+your chance, lady, but already I weaken. Go quickly, if you go at all.
+Please leave me, for I am very unhappy."
+
+Maggie stole quietly out and made her way through the jostling throng
+back to her own box, which for the moment was empty. She slipped on her
+cloak, and from the hidden spaces where she stood she looked across the
+auditorium. The silent figure in green silk robes was still seated in
+his place, his eyes following the movements of the dancers, his head a
+little thrown back, a slight weariness in his face. He was still alone.
+He still had the air of being alone because it was his desire. Once he
+looked up towards the box in which she was, and Maggie, although she
+knew she was invisible, shrank back against the wall. She set her teeth
+hard and looked back through the slightly misty space. An unfamiliar
+feeling for a moment almost choked her. She waited until she had
+vanquished it, then adjusted her mask and left the box.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+From the moment when the taxicab drove away and left her in the deserted
+street, Maggie was conscious of a strange sense of suppressed
+excitement, something more poignant and mysterious, even, than the
+circumstances of her adventure might account for. It was exciting
+enough, in its way, to play the part of a marauding thief, to find
+herself unexpectedly face to face with a possible solution of the great
+problem of Prince Shan's intentions. But beneath all this there was
+another feeling, more entirely metaphysical, which in a sense steadied
+her nerves because it filled her with a strange impression that she had
+lost her own identity, that she was playing somebody else's part in a
+novel and thrilling drama.
+
+The street was empty when she inserted the little key in the front door.
+There was not a soul there to see her step in as it swung open and then
+softly, noiselessly, but without any conscious effort of hers, closed
+again behind her. She held her breath and looked around.
+
+The hall was round, painted white and dimly lit by an overhead electric
+globe. In the centre was a huge green vase filled with great branches of
+some sort of blossoms. Not a picture hung upon the walls, nor was there
+any hall stand, chest, closet for coats or hats, or any of the usual
+furbishings of such a place. There were three rugs upon the polished
+floor and nothing else except a yawning stairway and closed doors.
+Whatever servants might be in attendance were evidently in a distant
+part of the building. Not a sound was to be heard. Still without any
+lack of courage, but oppressed with that curious sense of unreality, she
+turned almost automatically towards the door on the left and opened it.
+Again it closed behind her noiselessly. She realised that she was in one
+of the principal reception rooms of the house, dimly lit as the hall
+from a dome-shaped globe set into the ceiling. She moved a yard or two
+across the threshold and stood looking about her. Here again there was
+an almost singular absence of furniture. The walls were hung with
+apple-green silk, richly embroidered. There were some rugs upon the
+polished floor, a few quaintly carved chairs set with their backs
+against the wall, and opposite to her the ebony cabinet of which La
+Belle Nita had spoken. She moved towards it. Somehow or other, she found
+herself with the other key in her hand, stooping down. She counted the
+drawers--one, two three--fitted in the key, turned it, and realised with
+a little start the presence in the drawer of a roll of parchment, tied
+around with tape and sealed with a black seal. She laid her hand upon
+it, but even at that moment she felt a shiver pass through her body.
+There had been no sound in the room, which she could have sworn had been
+empty when she entered it, yet she had now a conviction that she was not
+alone. She turned slowly around, her lips parted, breathing quickly.
+Standing in the middle of the room, a grim, commanding figure in his
+flowing green robes, the dim light flashing upon the great diamonds in
+his belt, stood Prince Shan.
+
+To Maggie at that moment came a great throbbing in her ears, a sense of
+remoteness from this terrible happening, followed by an intense and
+vital consciousness of danger. The man who had brought new things into
+her life, the polished gentleman of the world, with his fascinating
+brain and gentle courtesy, had gone. It was Prince Shan of China who
+stood there. She felt the chill of his contempt and disapproval in her
+heart. She had forfeited her high estate. She was a convicted thief,--an
+adventuress!
+
+She gripped at the side of the cabinet. Her poise had gone. She had the
+air of a trapped animal.
+
+"You!" she exclaimed. "How did you get here?"
+
+He answered her without change of expression. A sense of crisis seemed
+to have made his tone more level, his face stony.
+
+"It is my house," he said. "I do not often leave it. I sat in my
+sleeping chamber behind"--he pointed to the silken curtains through
+which he had passed--"I heard your entrance and guessed with pain and
+regret at your mission."
+
+"But a quarter of an hour ago you were at the ball!"
+
+"You are mistaken," he replied. "I do not attend such gatherings. I had
+given you my word that I should not be there."
+
+"But I saw you," she persisted, "in that same costume!"
+
+"Surely not," he dissented. "The person whom you saw was a gentleman
+from my suite, who wore the dress of an inferior mandarin. He is
+sometimes supposed to resemble me. I should have believed that your
+apprehension of such things would have informed you that no Prince of my
+line would wear the garments of his order for a public show."
+
+Her fingers had left the drawer now. She stood upright, pale and
+desperate.
+
+"That woman of your country, then--La Belle Nita--did she lie to me?"
+
+"How can I tell?" he answered coldly, "because I do not know what she
+said."
+
+Maggie made an effort to test her position.
+
+"I came here as a thief," she confessed. "I am detected. What are your
+intentions?"
+
+He moved very slowly a little closer to her. Maggie felt her sense of
+excitement grow.
+
+"You came here as a thief," he repeated, "as a spy. Why did you not ask
+me for the information you desired?"
+
+"Because you would not have told me," she replied, "at least you would
+not have told me the truth."
+
+"For a price," he said, "the truth would have been yours for the asking.
+For a different price it is yours now."
+
+Again without noticeable movement he seemed to have drawn nearer. The
+edge of that cool ebony cabinet seemed to be burning her fingers. Try
+however hard, she could not frame the question which had risen to her
+lips.
+
+"The price," he continued, "is you--yourself. A few hours ago it was
+your love I craved for. Now it is yourself."
+
+He was so near to her now that she faced the steady radiance of his
+wonderful eyes, so near that she could trace the faint lines about his
+mouth, the strong, stern immobility of his perfectly shaped,
+olive-tinted features.
+
+"You are too wonderful," he went on, "to remain a daughter of the crude
+West. I want to take you back with me to the land where life still moves
+to poetry, to the land where one can live in a world unknown by these
+struggling hordes. You shall live in a palace where the perfume of
+flowers lingers always, with the sound of running water in your ears, a
+palace from which all sordid things and all manner of ugliness are
+banished because we alone have found the key to the garden of
+happiness."
+
+He raised his hand, and it seemed as though unseen eyes watched them
+from every quarter. The silken curtains through which he had issued were
+drawn back by invisible hands, and the inner apartment was disclosed.
+Its faint illumination was obscured with purple shades. There was a high
+lacquer bedstead, with little ivory ladders on either side, a bedstead
+hung with silks of black and purple and mauve. There was a huge couch, a
+shrine opposite the bed, in which was a kneeling figure of black marble.
+A faint odour, as though from thousand-year-old sachets, very faint
+indeed and yet with its mead of intoxication, seemed to steal out from
+the room, which had borrowed from its curious hangings, its marvellous
+adornments, its strangely attuned atmosphere, all the mysticism of a
+fabled world.
+
+"You have come," he said. "Will you stay?" The inertia seemed suddenly
+to leave her limbs. She threw up her head as though gasping for air,
+escaped, somehow or other, from the thrall of his eyes, and passed
+across the smooth floor with flying footsteps. Her fingers seized the
+handle of the door and turned it, only to find it held by some invisible
+fastening. She shook it passionately. There was not even sound. She
+turned back once more. Prince Shan had only slightly changed his
+position. He stood upon the threshold of the inner room, and his arms
+were outstretched in invitation.
+
+"Am I a prisoner?" she sobbed.
+
+"You came of your own free will," he replied. "You will stay for my
+pleasure and for the joy of my being. As for these things," he went on,
+moving slowly to the cabinet, picking up the pile of papers and throwing
+them on one side contemptuously, "these are only one's amusements. I
+pass my lighter hours with them. They interest me in the same manner as
+a chess problem. We do not care, we in the mighty East, which of you
+holds your head highest this side of Suez. All you western nations are
+to us a peck of dust outside our palace gates. Listen, dear one. We can
+leave, if you will, to-night, and top the clouds before sunrise. And I
+promise you this," he went on, "when you pass from the greyness of these
+sordid lands into the everlasting sunshine of the East, you will not
+care any longer about these people who go about the world on all fours.
+Day by day you will know what life and love mean. You will find the
+cloying weight of material things pass from your brain and body, and the
+joy of holy and wonderful living take their place."
+
+Her whole being was in a turmoil. She drew nearer to the papers upon the
+table. She was now within a yard of Prince Shan himself. He made no
+effort to intercept her, no movement of any sort to stop her. Only his
+eyes never left her face, and she felt a madness which seemed to be
+choking the life out of her, a pounding of her heart against her ribs, a
+strange and wonderful joy, a joy in which there was no fear, a joy of
+new things and new hopes. With the papers for which she had come only a
+few yards away, she forgot them. She turned her head slowly. His arms
+seemed to steal out from those long, silken sleeves. She suddenly felt
+herself held in a wonderful embrace.
+
+"Dear lady of all my desires," he whispered in her ear, "you shall make
+me happy and find the secret of happiness yourself in giving, in
+suffering, in love."
+
+For a long and wonderful moment she lay in his arms. She felt the soft
+burning of his kisses, the call of the room with its intoxicating, yet
+strangely ascetic perfume, the room to which all the time he seemed to
+be gently leading her. And then a flood of strange, alien recollections
+and realisations seemed to bring her from a better place back to a
+worse,--the sound of a passing taxicab, the distant booming of Big Ben,
+sounds of the world outside, the actual day-by-day world, with its
+day-by-day code of morals, the world in which she lived, and her
+friends, and all that had made life for her. She drew away, and he
+watched the change in her.
+
+"I want to go!" she cried. "Let me go!"
+
+"You are no prisoner," he assured her sadly.
+
+He clapped his hands. She had reached the door by now and found the
+handle yield to her fingers. Outside in the hall, the front door stood
+open, and a heavy rain was beating in on the white flags. She looked
+around. She was in her own atmosphere here. Their eyes met, and his were
+very sorrowful.
+
+"My servants are assembling," he said. "You will find a car at your
+service."
+
+Even then she hesitated. There was a strange return of the wonderful
+emotion of a few minutes ago. She hoped almost painfully that he would
+call. Instead, he lifted the silk hangings and passed out of sight.
+Somehow or other, she made her way down the hall. A butler stood upon
+the steps, another servant was holding open the door of a limousine just
+drawn up. She had no distinct recollection of giving any address. She
+simply threw herself back amongst the cushions. It was not until they
+were in Piccadilly that she suddenly remembered that she had left upon
+the table the papers he had scornfully offered her. Then she began to
+laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+It chanced that the box was empty when Maggie, with flying footsteps,
+hastened down the corridor and pushed open the door. She sank into a
+chair, her knees trembling, her senses still dazed. Deliberately,
+although with hot and trembling fingers, she folded over and tore into
+small pieces a programme of the dances, which she had picked up from an
+adjoining chair. The action, insignificant though it was, seemed to
+bring her back into touch with the real and actual world, the world of
+music and wild gayety, of swiftly moving feet, of laughter and
+languorous voices. For a brief space of time she had escaped, she had
+wandered a little way into an unknown country, a country from whose
+thrilling dangers she had emerged with a curious feeling that life would
+never be altogether the same again. She glanced at the clock at the back
+of the box. She had been absent from the Hall altogether only about an
+hour and twenty minutes. There was still at least an hour before it
+would be possible for her to plead weariness and escape. And opposite,
+in the shadows of the distant box, the mock Prince Shan seemed always to
+be gazing at her with that cryptic smile upon his lips.
+
+Presently the door was stealthily opened. A face as pale as death, with
+black eyes like pieces of coal, was framed for a moment in the shadowed
+slit. A little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle Nita, her
+flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she recognised the sole occupant
+of the box, crept through the opening and closed the door again.
+
+"You are here?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Your courage failed you?
+You did not go?"
+
+"I have been and returned," Maggie answered. "Now tell me what I have
+done that you should have plotted this thing against me?"
+
+The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a moment hummed the refrain
+of a sad chant, as she rocked slowly backwards and forwards.
+
+"'What have you done?' the rose asked the butterfly. 'What have you
+done?' the mimosa blossom asked the little blue bird, whose wings
+fluttered amongst her leaves. 'You have taken love from me, love which
+is the blossom of life.'"
+
+"It sounds very picturesque," Maggie said coldly, "but I do not follow
+your allegory. What I want to know is why you lied to me, why you sent
+me to that house to meet Prince Shan?"
+
+"How did I lie to you?" Nita demanded. "The papers you sought were
+there. Were they not yours for the asking, or was the price too great?"
+
+"The papers were there, certainly," Maggie acquiesced, "but you knew
+very well--"
+
+She stopped short. Slowly the Oriental idea of it all was beginning to
+frame itself in her mind. She dimly understood the bewilderment in the
+other's face.
+
+"The papers were there, and he, the most wonderful of all men, was
+there," Nita murmured, "yet you leave him while the night is yet young,
+you return here without them!"
+
+Maggie rose from her chair, moved to the side table and poured herself
+out a glass of wine, which she drank hastily. Anything to escape from
+the scornful wonder of those questioning eyes!
+
+"I did not go there," she said, "to make bargains with Prince Shan. I
+believed as you wished me to believe, that he was here in that box. I
+believed that I should have found the house empty, should have found
+what I wanted and have escaped with it. Why did you do this thing? Why
+did you send me on that errand when you knew that Prince Shan was
+there?"
+
+"It was my desire that he should know that you are no different from
+other women," was the calm reply. "I was a spy for him. You are a
+spy--against him."
+
+"It was a deliberate plot, then!" Maggie exclaimed, trying to feel the
+anger which she imparted to her tone.
+
+La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a bird.
+
+"You very, very foolish Englishwoman," she said. "A hand leaned down
+from Heaven, and you liked better to stay where you were, but I am
+glad."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because I have been his slave," the girl continued. "At odd, strange
+moments he has shown me a little love, he has let me creep into a small
+corner of his heart. Now I am cast out, and there is no more life for me
+because there is no more love, and there is no more love because, having
+felt his, no other can come after. Here have I sat with all the tortures
+of Hell burning in my blood because I knew that you and he were there
+alone, because I was never sure that, after all, I was not doing my
+lord's will. And now I know that I suffered in vain. You did not
+understand."
+
+Maggie looked across at her visitor reflectively. She was beginning to
+regain her poise.
+
+"Listen," she said, "did you seriously expect me to accept Prince Shan
+as a lover?"
+
+The girl's eyes were round with wonder.
+
+"It would be your great good fortune," she murmured, "if he should offer
+you so wonderful a thing."
+
+Maggie laughed,--persisted in her laugh, although it sounded a little
+hard and the mirth a little forced.
+
+"I cannot reason with you," she declared, "because you would not
+understand. If you love him so much, why not go back to him? You will
+find him quite alone. I dare say you know the secrets of his lockless
+doors and hordes of unseen servants."
+
+La Belle Nita rose to her feet. About her lips there flickered the
+faintest smile.
+
+"Young English lady," she said, "I shall not go, because I am shut for
+ever out of his heart. But listen; would you have me go?"
+
+For a moment Maggie's poise was gone again. A strange uncertainty was
+once more upon her. She was terrified at her own feelings. The smile on
+the other's lips deepened and then passed away.
+
+"Ah," she murmured, as with a little bow she turned towards the door,
+"you are not all snow and ice, then! There is something of the woman in
+you. He must have known that. I am better content."
+
+Alone in the box, Maggie was confronted once more with spectres. She
+felt all the fear and the sweetness of this new awakening. The old
+dangers and problems, the danger of life and death, the problem of her
+well-ordered days, fell away from her as trifles. There was wilder music
+in the world than any to which she had yet listened,--music which seemed
+to be awakening vibrant melodies in her terrified heart. The curtain
+which hung about the forbidden world had been suddenly lifted. Little
+shivers of fear convulsed her. Her standards were confused, her whole
+sense of values disturbed. Her primal virginity, left to itself because
+it had never needed a guard, had suddenly become a questioning thing.
+She sat there face to face with this new phase in her life. She was not
+even conscious of the abrupt pause in the music, the agitated murmur of
+voices, the sudden cessation of that rhythmical sweep of footsteps on
+the floor below.
+
+The door of the box was once more opened. Naida, attired as a lady of
+the Russian Court, entered, followed by Nigel. Both were obviously
+disturbed. Nigel, who was in ordinary evening dress, carrying his
+discarded mask in his hand, was paler than usual and exceedingly grave.
+Naida's dark eyes, too, seemed filled with a sense of awesome things.
+Almost at the same moment, Maggie realised for the first time that the
+music had ceased, that there was a hush outside, curiously perceptible,
+almost audible.
+
+"What has happened?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+Nigel had poured out a glass of wine and was holding it to Naida's lips.
+
+"Something very terrible," he said quietly. "Prince Shan was murdered in
+his box there a few minutes ago."
+
+Maggie half rose to her feet. The walls seemed spinning round. Then she
+looked across the great empty space. The still figure in the apple-green
+coat had disappeared.
+
+"Prince Shan was murdered in that box," she repeated, "a few minutes
+ago?"
+
+"Yes!" Nigel assented gravely. "He seems to have feared something of the
+sort, for he had two servants on guard outside and announced that he
+was not receiving visitors to-night. No one knows any particulars, but a
+number of people in the auditorium saw him fall sideways from his chair.
+When he was picked up, there was a small dagger through his heart."
+
+"Through Prince Shan's heart?" Maggie persisted wildly.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+Suddenly she began to laugh. It was a strange, hysterical ebullition of
+feeling, frankly horrifying. Naida gazed at her with distended eyes.
+
+"Prince Shan has never been here!" Maggie explained brokenly. "He has
+never left his house in Curzon Street! He is there now!"
+
+Nigel shook his head.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Maggie?" he demanded. "Every one has seen
+Prince Shan here. You spoke of him yourself. He was in the box exactly
+opposite."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That was one of his suite," she cried. "I know! I tell you I know!" she
+went on, her voice rising a little. "Prince Shan is safe in his house in
+Curzon Street."
+
+"How can you possibly know this, Maggie?" Naida intervened eagerly.
+
+"Because I left him there half an hour ago," was the tremulous reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+There is in the Anglo-Saxon temperament an almost feverish desire to
+break away from any condition of strain, a sort of shamefaced impulse to
+discard emotionalism. The strange hush which had lent a queer sensation
+of unreality to all that was passing in the great building was without
+any warning brought to an end. Whispers swelled into speech, and speech
+into almost a roar of voices. Then the music struck up, although at
+first there were few who cared to dance. There were many who, like
+Maggie and her companions, silently left their places and hurried
+homewards.
+
+In the limousine scarcely a word was spoken. Maggie leaned back in her
+seat, her face dazed and expressionless. Opposite to her, Nigel sat with
+set, grim face, looking with fixed stare out of the window at the
+deserted streets. Of the three, Naida seemed more on the point of giving
+way to emotion. They had passed Hyde Park Corner, however, before a word
+was spoken. Then it was she who broke the silence.
+
+"Where do we go to first?" she demanded.
+
+"To the Milan Court," Nigel replied.
+
+"You are taking me home first, then?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+She was silent for a moment. Then she leaned forward and touched the
+window.
+
+"Pull that down, please," she directed. "I am stifling."
+
+He obeyed, and the rush of cold, wet air had a curiously quietening
+effect upon the nerves of all of them. Raindrops hung from the leaves of
+the lime trees and still glittered upon the windowpane. On the way
+towards the river, the masses of cloud were tinged with purple, and
+faintly burning stars shone out of unexpectedly clear patches of sky.
+The night of storm was over, but the wind, dying away before the dawn,
+seemed to bring with it all the sweetness of the cleansed places, to be
+redolent even of the budding trees and shrubs,--the lilac bushes,
+drooping with their weight of moisture, and the pink and white chestnut
+blossoms, dashed to pieces by the rain but yielding up their lives with
+sweetness. The streets, in that single hour between the hurrying
+homewards of the belated reveller and the stolid tramp of the early
+worker, were curiously empty and seemed to gain in their loneliness a
+new dignity. Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the
+background, became almost classical; Whitehall the passageway for
+heroes.
+
+"What does it all mean?" Naida asked, almost pathetically.
+
+It was Maggie who answered. Her tone was lifeless, but her manner
+almost composed.
+
+"It means that the attempt to assassinate Prince Shan has failed," she
+said. "Prince Shan told me himself that he had no intention of going to
+the ball. He kept his word. The man who was murdered was one of his
+suite."
+
+"But how do you know this?" Naida persisted.
+
+"You heard what I told you in the box," was the quiet reply. "I shall
+explain--as much as I can explain--to Nigel when we get home. He can
+tell you everything later on to-day at lunch-time, if you like."
+
+"It has been one of the strangest nights I ever remember," Naida
+declared, after a brief pause. "Oscar Immelan, who was dining with us,
+arrived half an hour late. I have never seen him in such a condition
+before. He had the air of a broken man."
+
+"Have you any idea of what had happened?" Nigel asked.
+
+"Only this," Naida replied. "We saw Prince Shan last night. He spent
+several hours with us. I may be wrong, but I came to the conclusion then
+that he had at any rate modified his views about the whole situation
+since his arrival in England."
+
+Again there was a brief silence. The minds of all three of them were
+busy with the same thought. Prince Shan's word had been spoken and
+Immelan's hopes dashed to the ground,--and within a few hours, this
+murder! They nursed the thought, but no one put it into words.
+
+A sleepy-eyed porter opened the door of the car outside the Milan Court.
+Naida gathered herself together with a little shiver.
+
+"I think that after to-night," she said quietly, "there need be no
+secrets between any of us."
+
+Nigel held her hand in his. Their eyes met, and both of them were
+conscious, in that moment, of closer personal relations, of the passing
+of a certain sense of strain. She even smiled as she turned away.
+
+"To-morrow," she concluded, "there must be a great exchange of
+confidences. I am lunching at Belgrave Square, if Maggie has not
+forgotten, and I shall tell you then what I have written to Paul
+Matinsky. I showed it to Prince Shan yesterday. Good night!"
+
+She patted Maggie's hand affectionately and flitted away. The revolving
+doors closed behind her, and the car swung out once more into the
+Strand, glided down the Mall, past Buckingham Palace, and stopped at
+last before the great, lifeless house in Belgrave Square. Nigel opened
+the front door with a latchkey and turned on the light.
+
+"You won't mind sparing me a few minutes?" he begged.
+
+"I suppose not," she answered, shivering.
+
+He led the way to the study. She threw off her cloak and sank into the
+depths of one of the big easy-chairs. She looked very frail and rather
+pathetic as she leaned her head against the chair back. Now that the
+excitement was over, the strain of the emotion she had experienced
+showed in the violet shadows under her eyes and in the droop of her
+shoulders.
+
+"I am tired," she said plaintively.
+
+Nigel came over and sat on the arm of her chair.
+
+"Tell me what happened to-night, Maggie."
+
+"The little Chinese girl sent for me to go to her box," she explained.
+"She told me where in Prince Shan's house were hidden the papers which
+revealed the understanding between Immelan and himself. She gave me a
+key of the house and a key of the cabinet. We could both see the man
+whom I believed to be Prince Shan seated in his box. She assured me that
+he would be there for the next two hours. I went to the house in Curzon
+Street."
+
+"Well?"
+
+His monosyllable was sharp and incisive. His face was grey and anxious.
+She herself remained lifeless. All that there was of emotion between
+them seemed to have become vested in his searching eyes.
+
+"I found what I believe to have been the papers. They were in the
+cabinet, just where she had told me. Then I turned around and found
+Prince Shan watching me. He had been there all the time."
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"At first he said little, but I knew that he was very angry. I have
+never felt so ashamed in my life."
+
+"You must tell me the rest, please."
+
+She stirred uneasily in her chair.
+
+"It is very difficult," she confessed frankly.
+
+"Remember," he persisted, "that in a way, Maggie, I am your guardian. I
+am responsible, too, for anything which may happen to you whilst you are
+engaged in work for the good of our cause. You seem to have walked into
+a trap. Did he threaten you, or what?"
+
+"There was nothing definite," she answered, "and yet--he made me
+understand."
+
+"Made you understand what?"
+
+"His wishes," she replied, looking up coolly. "He offered me the
+papers."
+
+"That damned Chinaman!"
+
+There was a cold light in her eyes which Nigel had met with before and
+dreaded.
+
+"You forget yourself, Nigel," she said. "Prince Shan is a great
+nobleman."
+
+"The rest? Tell me the rest," he demanded.
+
+"I am here," she reminded him.
+
+"And the papers?"
+
+"I came away without them."
+
+He turned, and, walking to the window, threw it open. The dawn had
+become almost silvery, and the leaves of the overhanging trees were
+rustling in the faintest of breezes. Presently he came back.
+
+"What exactly are your feelings for this man, Maggie?" he asked.
+
+For the first time he was struck with a certain pathos in her immobile
+face. She looked up at him, and there was a gleam almost of fear in her
+eyes.
+
+"I don't know, Nigel," she confessed.
+
+He moved restlessly about the room, seemed to notice for the first time
+the whisky and soda set out upon the sideboard and the open box of
+cigarettes. He helped himself and came back.
+
+"Did you read the papers?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I had no chance."
+
+"You don't know for certain what they were about?"
+
+"I think I do," she replied. "I believe they contained the text of the
+agreement between Immelan and Prince Shan. I believe they would have
+shown us exactly what we have to fear."
+
+He stood there for a moment thoughtfully.
+
+"To-night," he said, "I find it difficult to concentrate upon these
+things. Naida was extraordinarily hopeful. She has seen Prince Shan, and
+between them I believe that they have decided to let Oscar Immelan's
+scheme alone. Karschoff, too, has heard rumours. He is of the same
+opinion. Somehow or other, though, I seem to have lost my sense of
+perspective. A greater fear has come into my heart, Maggie."
+
+She rose to her feet and laid her hands upon his shoulders.
+
+"Nigel," she whispered, "I cannot answer you. I cannot say what you
+would like me to say, although, on the other hand, there is no surety of
+what you seem to fear. I am going to bed. I am very tired."
+
+A feeble shaft of sunlight stole into the room, flickered and passed
+away, then suddenly reappeared. Nigel turned and opened the door, and
+she passed out, curiously silent and absorbed. He looked after her,
+perplexed and worried. Suddenly a strangely commonplace, yet--in the
+silence of the house and the great hall--an almost dramatic sound
+startled him. The front doorbell rang sharply. After a moment's
+hesitation, he hurried to it himself. Karschoff stood upon the steps,
+still in his evening clothes, his face a little drawn and haggard in the
+bright light.
+
+"I could not resist coming in, Nigel," he said. "I saw the light in the
+study from outside. Is there any definite news?"
+
+Nigel drew him inside.
+
+"There are indications," he replied cautiously, "that the present danger
+is passing."
+
+Karschoff nodded.
+
+"I gathered so from Naida," he admitted. "Prince Shan, though, is the
+pivot upon which the whole thing turns. You have heard nothing final
+from him?"
+
+"Nothing! Tell me, was any one arrested at the Albert Hall?"
+
+"No one. The murdered man, as I suppose you have heard, was Sen Lu, one
+of the Prince's secretaries."
+
+"The whole thing seems strange," Nigel remarked. "Do you suppose Prince
+Shan knew that an attempt upon his life was likely to-night?"
+
+Karschoff shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"It is difficult to say. These Orientals contrive to surround themselves
+with such an atmosphere of mystery. But from what I know of Prince
+Shan," he went on, "I do not think that he is one to shirk danger--even
+from the assassin's dagger."
+
+A milk cart drew up with a clatter outside. There was the sound of the
+area gate being opened. Karschoff put on his hat. He looked Nigel in the
+face.
+
+"Maggie," he began--
+
+Nigel nodded understandingly as he threw open the front door.
+
+"I'll tell you about it to-morrow," he promised, "or rather later on
+to-day. She's a little overwrought. Otherwise--there's nothing."
+
+Karschoff turned away with a sigh of relief.
+
+"I am glad," he said. "Prince Shan is the soul of honour according to
+his own standard, but these Orientals--one never knows. I am glad,
+Nigel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+In his spacious reception room, with its blue walls, the high vases of
+flowers, the faint odour of incense, its indefinable ascetic charm,
+Prince Shan sat in his high-backed chair whilst Li Wen, his trusted
+secretary talked. Li Wen was very eloquent. His tone was never raised,
+he never forgot that he was speaking to a being of a superior world. He
+had a great deal to say, however, and he was eager to say it. Prince
+Shan, as he listened, smoked a long cigarette in a yellow tube. He wore
+a ring in which was set an uncut green stone on the fourth finger of his
+left hand. Although the hour was barely nine o'clock, he was shaved and
+dressed as though for a visit of ceremony. He listened to Li Wen gravely
+and critically.
+
+"I am sorry about the little one," he said, looking through the cloud of
+tobacco smoke up towards the ceiling. "Nita has been very useful. She
+has been as faithful, too, as is possible for a woman."
+
+Li Wen bowed and waited. He knew better than to interrupt.
+
+"It was through the information which Nita brought me," his master went
+on, "that I have been able to check the truth of Immelan's statement as
+to the French dispositions and the _rapprochement_ with Italy. Nita has
+served me very well indeed. What she has done in this matter, she has
+done in a moment of caprice."
+
+"My lord," Li Wen ventured, "a woman is of no account in the plans of
+the greatest. She is like a leaf blown hither or thither on the winds of
+love or jealousy. She may be used, but she must be discarded."
+
+"It is a strange world, this western world," Prince Shan mused. "In our
+own country, Li Wen, we plot or we fight, we build the great places,
+climb to the lofty heights, and when we rest we pluck flowers, and women
+are our flowers. But here, while one builds, the women are there; while
+one climbs, the women are in the way. They jostle the thoughts, they
+disturb the emotions, not only of the poet and the pleasure seeker, but
+of the man who hews his way upwards to the goal he seeks. And it is very
+deliberate, Li Wen. An Englishman eats and drinks in public and places
+opposite him a flower he has plucked or hopes to pluck. He drugs himself
+deliberately. Half the time when he should be soaring in his thoughts,
+he descends of deliberate intent. Instead of his flower, he makes his
+woman the partner of his grossness."
+
+"The master speaks," Li Wen murmured. "But what of the woman? She awaits
+your pleasure."
+
+"I shall hear what she has to say," Prince Shan decided.
+
+Walking backwards as nimbly as a cat, his head drooped, his hands in
+front of him, Li Wen left his master's presence. A moment later he
+reappeared, ushering in La Belle Nita. Prince Shan waved him away. The
+girl came slowly forward, pale and trembling, smouldering fires in her
+narrow eyes. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face moved. He watched her
+approach in silence. She sank on to the floor by the side of his chair.
+
+"What is my master's will?" she asked.
+
+Prince Shan looked downwards at her, and she began to tremble again.
+There was nothing threatening in his eyes, nothing menacing in his
+expression. Nevertheless, she felt the chill of death.
+
+"You have done me many good and faithful services, Nita," he said. "What
+evil spirit has put it into your brain that it would be a good thing to
+deceive me?"
+
+Her scarlet lips opened and closed again.
+
+"How have I deceived?" she faltered. "I gave the keys to the woman with
+the blue eyes, and I sent her to my lord. It was a hard thing to do
+that, but I did it. Was there any risk of evil? My lord was here to deal
+with her."
+
+"Why did you do this thing, Nita?" he asked.
+
+"My lord knows," she answered simply. "I did it to bring evil upon this
+English woman whom he has preferred. I did it that he might understand.
+It was my lord himself who told me that she was a spy. Now it is
+proved."
+
+Prince Shan's fingers stole into the pocket of his coat. He held out a
+crumpled sheet of paper, on which was written a single sentence. The
+girl began to shiver.
+
+"You have been very anxious indeed, Nita," he said, "to bring evil upon
+this woman. This is the message you sent to Immelan. Do you recognise
+your words? Listen, these are your words:
+
+"'The greatest of all will desert you, if the Englishwoman whom he loves
+is not speedily removed. Even to-night he may give papers into her hand,
+and your secret will be known.'"
+
+The girl sat transfixed. She seemed to have lost all power of speech.
+
+"That is a copy of the message which you sent to Immelan," he told her
+sternly.
+
+"It is the terrible Li Wen," she faltered. "He has the second sight. The
+devil walks with him."
+
+"The devil is sometimes a useful confederate," her companion continued
+equably. "You warned Immelan that it was in my mind to refuse his terms
+and to open my heart to the Englishwoman, and you seduced Sen Lu to
+carry your message. Yet your judgment was at fault. The hand of Immelan
+was stretched out against me, and me alone. But for my knowledge of
+these things, I might have sat in the place of Sen Lu, who rightly died
+in my stead. What have you to say?"
+
+She rose to her feet. He made no movement, but his eyes watched her, and
+the muscles of his body stiffened. He watched the white hand which stole
+irresolutely towards the loose folds of her coat.
+
+"You ask me why I have done this," she cried, "but you already know. It
+is because you have taken this woman with the blue eyes into your
+heart."
+
+"If that were true," he answered, "of what concern is it to others? I am
+Prince Shan."
+
+"You sent me here to breathe this cursed western atmosphere," she
+moaned, "to drink in their thoughts and see with their eyes. I see and
+know the folly of it all, but who can escape? Jealousy with us is a
+disease. Over there one creeps away like a hurt animal because there is
+nothing else. Here it is different. The Frenchwoman, the Englishwoman,
+who loses her lover--she does not fold her hands. She strikes, she is a
+wronged creature. I too have felt that."
+
+Her master sat for long in silence.
+
+"You are right," he pronounced. "I shall try to be just. You are a
+person of small understanding. You have never made any effort to live
+with your head in the clouds. Let that be so. The fault was mine."
+
+"I do not wish to live," she cried.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Live or die--what does it matter?" he answered indifferently. "With
+life there is pain, and with death there is none, but if you choose
+life, remember this. The woman with the blue eyes, as you call her, has
+become the star of my life. If harm should come to her, not only you,
+but every one of your family and race, in whatsoever part of the world
+they may be, will leave this life in agony."
+
+The girl stood and wondered.
+
+"My lord thinks so much of a plaything?" she murmured.
+
+Prince Shan frowned. His finely shaped, silky eyebrows almost met. She
+covered her eyes and drooped her head.
+
+"We of the East," he said, "although we are the mightier race, progress
+slowly, because the love of new things is not with us. Something of
+western ways I have learned, and the love of woman. It is not for a
+plaything I desire her whom we will not name. She shall sit by my side
+and rule. I shall wed her with my brain as with my body. Our minds will
+move together. We shall feel the same shivering pleasure when we rule
+the world with great thoughts as when our bodies touch. I shall teach
+her to know her soul, even as my own has been revealed to me."
+
+"No woman is worthy of this, my lord," the girl faltered.
+
+He waved his hand and she stole away. At the door he stopped her.
+
+"Do you go to life or death, Nita?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him with a great sorrow.
+
+"I am a worthless thing," she replied. "I go where my lord's words have
+sent me."
+
+Li Wen reappeared presently for an appointed audience. He brought
+messages.
+
+"Highness," he announced, "there is a code dispatch here from Ki-Chou.
+An American gained entrance to the City last week. Yesterday he left by
+�roplane for India. He was overtaken and captured. It is feared,
+however, that he has agents over the frontier, for no papers were found
+upon him."
+
+"It was a great achievement," Prince Shan said thoughtfully. "No other
+foreigner has ever passed into our secret city. Is there word as to how
+he got there?"
+
+"He came as a Russian artificer from that city in Russia of which we do
+not speak," Li Wen replied. "He brought letters, and his knowledge was
+great."
+
+"His name?" the Prince asked.
+
+"Gilbert Jesson, Highness. His passport and papers refer to Washington,
+but his message, if he sent one, is believed to have come to London."
+
+"The man must die," the Prince said calmly. "That, without doubt, he
+expects. Yet the news is not serious. My heart has spoken for peace, Li
+Wen."
+
+Li Wen bowed low. His master watched him curiously.
+
+"If I had asked it, Li Wen, where would your counsel have led?"
+
+"Towards peace, Highness. I do not trust Immelan. It is not in such a
+manner that China's Empire shall spread. There are ancestors of mine who
+would turn in their graves to find China in league with a western
+Power."
+
+"You are a wise man, Li Wen," his master declared. "We hold the mastery
+of the world. What shall we do with it?"
+
+"The mightiest sword is that which enforces peace," was the calm reply.
+"Highness, the lady whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom."
+
+Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who was ushered in a moment or
+two later, with rather more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy,
+leading her himself to a chair.
+
+"I wondered," she confessed, "if I were ever to be allowed to see inside
+your wonderful house."
+
+"It is my misfortune to be compelled to pay so brief a visit to this
+country," he replied. "As a rule, it gives me great pleasure to open my
+rooms three evenings and entertain those who care to come and see me."
+
+"I have heard of your entertainments," she said, smiling. "Prima donnas
+sing. You rob the capitals of Europe to find your music. Then the great
+Monsieur Auguste is lured from Paris to prepare your supper, and not a
+lady leaves without some priceless jewel."
+
+"I entertain so seldom," he reminded her. "I fear that the fame of my
+feasts has been exaggerated."
+
+"When do you leave, Prince?" she asked him.
+
+"Within a few days," he replied.
+
+"I come for your last word," she announced. "All that I have written to
+Paul Matinsky you know."
+
+"The last word is not yet to be spoken," he said. "This, however, you
+may tell Matinsky. The scheme of Oscar Immelan has been laid before me.
+I have rejected it."
+
+"In what other way, then, would you use your power?" she asked.
+
+He made no answer. She watched him with a great and growing curiosity.
+
+"Prince," she said, "they tell me that you are a great student of
+history."
+
+"I have read what is known of the history of most of the countries of
+the world," he admitted.
+
+"There have been men," she persisted, "who have dealt in empires for the
+price of a woman's smile."
+
+"Such men have loved," he said, "as I love."
+
+"Yet for you life has always been a great and lofty thing," she reminded
+him. "You could not stand where you do if you had not realised the
+beauty and wonder of sacrifice. Fate has given the peace of the world
+into your keeping. You will not juggle with the trust?"
+
+He rose to his feet. A servant stood almost immediately at the open
+door.
+
+"Fate and an American engineer," he remarked with a smile. "I thank you,
+dear lady, for your visit. You will hear my news before I leave."
+
+She looked into his eyes for a moment.
+
+"It is a great decision," she said, "which rests with you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+An hour or so later, Prince Shan left his house in Curzon Street and,
+followed at a discreet distance by two members of his household,
+strolled into the Park. It had pleased him that morning to conform
+rigorously to the mode of dress adopted by the fashionable citizens of
+the country which he was visiting. Few people, without the closest
+observation, would have taken him for anything but a well-turned-out,
+exceedingly handsome and distinguished-looking Englishman. He carried
+himself with a faint air of aloofness, as though he moved amongst scenes
+in which he had no actual concern, as though he were living, in thought
+at any rate, in some other world. The morning was brilliantly sunny, and
+both the promenade and the Row were crowded. Slightly hidden behind a
+tree, he stood and watched. A gay crowd of promenaders passed along the
+broad path, and the air was filled with the echo of laughter, the jargon
+of the day, intimate references to a common world, invitations lightly
+given and lightly accepted. It was Sunday morning, in a season when
+colour was the craze of the moment, and the women who swept by seemed to
+his rather mystical fancy like the flowers in some of the great open
+spaces he knew so well, stirred into movement by a soft wind. They were
+very beautiful, these western women; handsome, too, the men with whom
+they talked and flirted. Always they had that air, however, of absolute
+complacency, as though they felt nothing of the quest which lay like a
+thread of torture amongst the nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was
+no more distinguished figure among the men there than he himself, and
+yet the sense of alienation grew in his heart as he watched. There were
+many familiar faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one who would
+not have greeted him with interest, even with gratification. And yet he
+had never been so deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
+oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid self-assurance of
+these westerners, so well-content with the earth upon which their feet
+fell. He had judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held in
+their thoughts and estimation. He was something of a curiosity, his
+title half a joke, the splendour of his long race a thing unrealisable
+by these scions of a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
+new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan had been a shade
+more eloquent, had pleaded his cause upon a higher level, that Naida
+Karetsky also had formed a different impression of the world which he
+was studying so earnestly,--what a transformation he could have brought
+upon this light-hearted and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly
+balanced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious of a certain faint
+contempt for the almost bovine self-satisfaction of a nation without
+eyes. Literature and painting, art in all its far-flung branches, even
+science, were suffering in these days from a general and paralysing
+inertia. Life which demanded no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of
+everything in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the only
+incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long in this fat land the only
+brake upon an era of self-indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his
+own millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in their ears, and
+it seemed to his elastic fancy that he was inhaling a long breath of
+cooler and more vigorous life.
+
+The current of his reflections was broken. He had moved a little towards
+the rails, and he was instantly aware of the girl cantering towards
+him,--a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay horse. She
+wore a simple brown habit and bowler hat, and she sat her horse with
+that complete lack of self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
+horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she cantered towards him,
+with no thought of the crowds passing along the promenade. Yet, as she
+drew nearer, she suddenly glanced down, and their eyes met. As though
+obeying his unspoken wish, she reined in her horse and came close to the
+rails behind which he stood for a moment bareheaded. There was the
+faintest smile upon her lips. She was amazingly composed. She had asked
+herself repeatedly, almost in terror, how they should meet when the time
+came. Now that it had happened, it seemed the most natural thing in the
+world. She was scarcely conscious even of embarrassment.
+
+"You are demonstrating to the world," she remarked, "that the reports of
+your death this morning were exaggerated?"
+
+"I had forgotten the incident," he assured her calmly.
+
+His callousness was so unaffected that she shivered a little.
+
+"Yet this Sen Lu, this man for whom you were mistaken, was an intimate
+member of your household, was he not?"
+
+"Sen Lu was a very good friend," Prince Shan answered. "He did his duty
+for many years. If he knows now that his life was taken for mine, he is
+happy to have made such atonement."
+
+She manoeuvred her horse a little to be nearer to him.
+
+"Why was Sen Lu murdered?" she asked.
+
+"There are those," he replied, "of whom I myself shall ask that question
+before the day is over."
+
+"You have an idea, then?" she persisted.
+
+"If," he said, "you desire my whole confidence, it is yours."
+
+She sat looking between her horse's ears.
+
+"To tell you the truth," she confessed, "I do not know what I desire.
+Your philosophy, I suppose, does not tolerate moods. I shall escape from
+them some time, I expect, but just now I seem to have found my way into
+a maze. The faces of these people don't even seem real to me, and as for
+you, I am perfectly certain that you have never been in China in your
+life."
+
+"Tell me the stimulant that is needed to raise you from your apathy," he
+asked. "Will you find it in the rapid motion of your horse--a very noble
+animal--in the joy of this morning's sunshine and breeze, or in the
+toyland where these puppets move and walk?" he added, glancing down the
+promenade. "Dear Lady Maggie, I beg permission to pay you a visit of
+ceremony. Will you receive me this afternoon?"
+
+She knew then what it was that she had been hoping for. She looked down
+at him and smiled.
+
+"At four o'clock," she invited.
+
+She nodded, touched her horse lightly with the whip, and cantered off.
+Prince Shan found himself suddenly accosted by a dozen acquaintances,
+all plying him with questions. He listened to them with an amused smile.
+
+"The whole affair is a very simple one," he said. "A member of my
+household was assassinated last night. It was probably a plot against my
+own life. Those things are more common with us, perhaps, than over
+here."
+
+"Jolly country, China, I should think," one of the younger members of
+the group remarked. "You can buy a man's conscience there for
+ninepence."
+
+Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.
+
+"The market value here," he observed, "seems a little higher, but the
+supply greater."
+
+"_Touch�_!" Karschoff laughed. "There is another point of view, too. The
+further east you go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes an
+absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag it out to its
+furthermost span. The American millionaire, for example, has a resident
+physician attached to his household and is likely to spend the aftermath
+of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose condition. And in the East,
+who cares? If not to-day--to-morrow! Inevitability, which is the
+nightmare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By the by,
+Prince," he added, "have you any theory as to last night's attempt?"
+
+"That is just the question," Prince Shan replied, "which two very
+intelligent gentlemen from Scotland Yard asked me this morning. Theory?
+Why should I have a theory?"
+
+"The attempt was without a doubt directed against you," Karschoff
+observed. "Do you imagine that it was personal or political?"
+
+"How can I tell?" the Prince rejoined carelessly. "Why should any one
+desire my death? These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
+Immelan!" he went on. "Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not
+one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the
+world!"
+
+"My own or another's?" Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism.
+
+"I trust," was the bland reply, "that you are, as I have always esteemed
+you, an altruist."
+
+"And why?"
+
+Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a very agreeable figure in
+the centre of the little group of men, the hands which held his malacca
+cane behind his back, the smile which parted his lips benign yet
+cryptic.
+
+"Because," he explained, "it is a great thing to have more regard for
+the lives of others than for one's own, and there are times," he added,
+"when it is certainly one's own life which is in the more precarious
+state."
+
+There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus of congratulations
+and farewells. Immelan and Prince Shan were left alone. The former
+seemed to have turned paler. The sun was warm, and yet he shivered.
+
+"Just what do you mean by that, Prince?" he asked.
+
+"You shall walk with me to my house, and I will tell you," was the quiet
+reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+"I suppose," Immelan suggested, as the two men reached the house in
+Curzon Street, "it would be useless to ask you to break your custom and
+lunch with me at the Ritz or at the club?"
+
+His companion smiled deprecatingly.
+
+"I have adopted so many of your western customs," he said
+apologetically. "To this lunching or dining in public, however, I shall
+never accustom myself."
+
+Immelan laughed good-naturedly. The conversation of the two men on their
+way from the Park had been without significance, and some part of his
+earlier nervousness seemed to be leaving him.
+
+"We all have our foibles," he admitted. "One of mine is to have a pretty
+woman opposite me when I lunch or dine, music somewhere in the distance,
+a little sentiment, a little promise, perhaps."
+
+"It is not artistic," Prince Shan pronounced calmly. "It is not when the
+wine mounts to the head, and the sense of feeding fills the body, that
+men speak best of the things that lie near their hearts. Still, we will
+let that pass. Each of us is made differently. There is another thing,
+Immelan, which I have to say to you."
+
+They passed into the reception room, with its shining floor, its
+marvellous rugs, its silken hangings, and its great vases of flowers.
+Prince Shan led his companion into a recess, where the light failed to
+penetrate so completely as into the rest of the apartment. A wide
+settee, piled with cushions, protruded from the wall in semicircular
+shape. In front of it was a round ebony table, upon which stood a great
+yellow bowl filled with lilies. Prince Shan gave an order to one of the
+servants who had followed them into the room and threw himself at full
+length among the cushions, his head resting upon his hand, his face
+turned towards his guest.
+
+"They will bring you the aperitif of which you are so fond," he said,
+"also cigarettes. Mine, I know, are too strong for you."
+
+"They taste too much of opium," Immelan remarked.
+
+Prince Shan's eyes grew dreamy as he gazed through a little cloud of
+odorous smoke.
+
+"There is opium in them," he admitted. "Believe me, they are very
+wonderful, but I agree with you that they are not for the ordinary
+person."
+
+The soft-footed butler presented a silver tray, upon which reposed a
+glassful of amber liquid. Immelan took it, sipped it appreciatively, and
+lit a cigarette.
+
+"Your man, Prince," he acknowledged, "mixes his vermouths wonderfully."
+
+"I am glad that what he does meets with your approval," was the
+courteous reply. "He came to me from one of your royal palaces. I simply
+told him that I wished my guests to have of the best."
+
+"Yet you never touch this sort of drink yourself," Immelan observed
+curiously.
+
+The Prince shook his head.
+
+"Sometimes I take wine," he said. "That is generally at night. A few
+evenings ago, for instance," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I
+drank Chateau Yquem, smoked Egyptian cigarettes, ate some muscatel
+grapes, and read 'Pippa Passes.' That was one of my banquets."
+
+"As a matter of fact," Immelan remarked thoughtfully, "you are far more
+western in thought than in habit. The temperance of the East is in your
+blood."
+
+"I find that my manner of life keeps the brain clear," Prince Shan said
+slowly. "I can see the truth sometimes when it is not very apparent. I
+saw the truth last night, Immelan, when I sent Sen Lu to die."
+
+Immelan's expression was indescribable. He sat with his mouth wide open.
+The hand which held his glass shook. He stared across the bowl of lilies
+to where his host was looking up through the smoke towards the ceiling.
+
+"Sen Lu was a traitor," the latter went on, "a very foolish man who with
+one act of treachery wiped out the memory of a lifetime of devotion. In
+the end he told the truth, and now he has paid his debt."
+
+"What do you mean?" Immelan demanded, in a voice which he attempted in
+vain to control. "How was Sen Lu a traitor?"
+
+"Sen Lu," the Prince explained, "was in the pay of those who sought to
+know more of my business than I chose to tell--who sought, indeed, to
+anticipate my own judgment. When they gathered from him, and, alas! from
+my sweet but frail little friend Nita, that the chances were against my
+signing a certain covenant, they came to what, even now, seems to me a
+strange decision. They decided that I must die. There I fail wholly to
+follow the workings of your mind, Immelan. How was my death likely to
+serve your purpose?"
+
+Immelan was absolutely speechless. Three times he opened his lips, only
+to close them again. Some instinct seemed to tell him that his companion
+had more to say. He sat there as though mesmerised. Meanwhile, the
+Prince lit another cigarette.
+
+"A blunder, believe me, Immelan," he continued thoughtfully. "Death will
+not lower over my path till my task is accomplished. I am young--many
+years younger than you, Immelan--and the greatest physicians marvel at
+my strength. Against the assassin's knife or bullet I am secure. You
+have been brought up and lived, my terrified friend, in a country where
+religion remains a shell and a husk, without comfort to any man. It is
+not so with me, I live in the spirit as in the body, and my days will
+last until the sun leans down and lights me to the world where those
+dwell who have fulfilled their destiny."
+
+Immelan drained the contents of the glass which his unsteady hand was
+holding. Then he rose to his feet. The veins on his forehead were
+standing out, his blue eyes were filled with rage.
+
+"Blast Sen Lu!" he muttered. "The man was a double traitor!"
+
+"He has atoned," his companion said calmly. "He made his peace and he
+went to his death. It seems very fitting that he should have received
+the dagger which was meant for my heart. Now what about you, Oscar
+Immelan?"
+
+Immelan laughed harshly.
+
+"If Sen Lu told you that I was in this plot against your life, he lied!"
+
+The Prince inclined his head urbanely.
+
+"Such a man as Sen Lu goes seldom to his death with a lie upon his
+lips," he said. "Yet I confess that I am puzzled. Why should you plan
+this thing, Immelan? You cannot know what is in my mind concerning your
+covenant. I have not yet refused to sign it."
+
+"You have not refused to sign it," Immelan replied, "but you will
+refuse."
+
+"Indeed?" the Prince murmured.
+
+"You are even now trifling with the secrets confided to you," Immelan
+went on. "You know very well that the woman who came to you last night
+is a spy whose whole time is spent in seeking to worm our secret from
+you."
+
+"Your agents keep themselves well informed," was the calm comment.
+
+"Yours still have the advantage of us," Immelan answered bitterly. "Now
+listen to me. I have heard it said of you--I have heard that you claim
+yourself--that you have never told a falsehood. We have been allies.
+Answer me this question. Have you parted with any of our secrets?"
+
+"Not one," the Prince assured him. "A certain lady visited this house
+last night, not, as you seem to think, at my invitation, but on her own
+initiative. She was not successful in her quest."
+
+"She would not pay the price, eh?" Immelan sneered. "By the gods of your
+ancestors, Prince Shan, are there not women enough in the world for you
+without bartering your honour, and the great future of your country, for
+a blue-eyed jade of an Englishwoman?"
+
+The Prince sat slowly up. His appearance was ominous. His face had
+become set as marble; there was a look in his eyes like the flashing of
+a light upon black metal. He contemplated his visitor across the lilies.
+
+"A man so near to death, Immelan," he enjoined, "might choose his words
+more carefully."
+
+Immelan laughed scornfully.
+
+"I am not to be bullied," he declared. "Your doors with their patent
+locks have no fears for me. When you walk abroad, you are followed by
+members of your household. When you come to my rooms, they attend you. I
+am not a prince, but I, too, have a care for my skin. Three of my secret
+service men never let me out of their sight. They are within call at
+this moment."
+
+His host smiled.
+
+"This is very interesting," he said, "but you should know me better,
+Immelan, than to imagine that mine are the clumsy methods of the dagger
+or the bullet. The man whom I will to die--drinks with me."
+
+He pointed a long forefinger at the empty glass. Immelan gazed at it,
+and the sweat stood out upon his forehead.
+
+"My God!" he muttered. "There was a queer taste! I thought that it was
+aniseed!"
+
+"There was nothing in that glass," the Prince declared, "which the
+greatest chemist who ever breathed could detect as poison, yet you will
+die, my friend Immelan, without any doubt. Shall I tell you how? Would
+you know in what manner the pains will come? No? But, my friend, you
+disappoint me! You showed so much courage an hour ago. Listen. Feel for
+a swelling just behind--Ah!"
+
+Immelan was already across the room. The Prince touched a bell, the
+doors were opened. Ghastly pale, his head swimming, the tortured man
+dashed out into the street. The Prince leaned back amongst his cushions,
+untied a straw-fastened packet of his long cigarettes, lit one, and
+closed his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Nigel was just arriving at Dorminster House when Maggie returned from
+her ride. He assisted her to dismount and entered the house with her.
+
+"There is something here I should like to show you, Maggie," he said, as
+he drew a dispatch from his pocket. "It was sent round to me half an
+hour ago by Chalmers, from the American Embassy."
+
+"It's about Gilbert Jesson!" Maggie exclaimed, holding out her hand for
+it.
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"There's a note inside, and an enclosure," he said. "You had better read
+both."
+
+Maggie opened out the former:
+
+     MY DEAR DORMINSTER,
+
+     I am afraid there is rather bad news about Jesson. One of our
+     regular line of airships, running from San Francisco to
+     Vladivostok, has picked up a wireless which must have come from
+     somewhere in the South of China. They kept it for a few days, worse
+     luck, thinking it was only nonsense, as it was in code. Washington
+     got hold of it, however, and cabled it to us last night. I enclose
+     a copy, decoded.
+
+     Sincerely yours,
+
+     JERE CHALMERS.
+
+The copy was brief enough. Maggie felt her heart sink as she glanced
+through the few lines:
+
+     Report dispatched London. Fear escape impossible. Good-by.
+
+     JESSON.
+
+"Horrible!" Maggie exclaimed, with a shiver. "I thought he was in
+Russia."
+
+"So did we all," Nigel replied. "He must have come to the conclusion
+that the key to the riddle he was trying to solve was in China, and gone
+on there. Look here, Maggie," he continued, after a moment's hesitation,
+"do you think anything could be done for Jesson with Prince Shan?"
+
+Maggie was silent. They were standing in a shaded corner of the hall,
+but a fleck of sunshine shone in her hair. She was still a little out of
+breath with the exercise, her cheeks full of healthy colour, her eyes
+bright. She tapped her skirt with her riding whip. Nigel watched her a
+little uneasily.
+
+"Prince Shan is calling here this afternoon," Maggie announced. "I hope
+you don't mind."
+
+"What are you going to say to him?" Nigel asked bluntly.
+
+There was a short, tense silence. Even at the thought of the crisis
+which she knew to be so close at hand, Maggie felt herself unnerved and
+in dubious straits.
+
+"I do not know," she said at last. "For one thing, I do not know what he
+wants."
+
+"What he wants seems perfectly plain to me," Nigel replied gravely. "He
+wants you."
+
+Maggie made a desperate effort to regain the lightheartedness of a few
+weeks ago.
+
+"If you believe that," she said, "your composure is most unflattering."
+
+There was a ring at the front doorbell, and a familiar voice was heard
+outside. Maggie turned away to the staircase with a little sigh of
+relief.
+
+"Naida!" she exclaimed. "I remember now I asked her for a quarter past
+one instead of half-past. You must entertain her, Nigel. I'll change
+into something quickly. And of course I'll speak to Prince Shan. We
+mustn't lose a minute about that. I'll telephone from my room in a few
+minutes, Naida. Nigel will look after you."
+
+Naida came down the hall, cool and exquisitely gowned in a creation of
+shimmering white. Nigel led her into the rarely used drawing-room and
+found a chair for her between the open window and the conservatory. At
+first they exchanged but few words. The sense of her near presence
+affected Nigel as nothing of the sort had ever done before. She for her
+part seemed quite content with a silence which had in it many of the
+essentials of eloquence.
+
+"If the history of these days is ever written by an irascible German
+historian," Naida remarked at length, "he will probably declare that the
+destinies of the world have been affected during this last month by an
+outburst of primitivism. Do you know that I have written quite nice
+things to Paul about you English people? Honest things, of course, but
+still things which you helped me to discover. And Prince Shan, too. I
+think that when he rode here through the clouds, he believed in his
+heart that he was coming as a harbinger of woe."
+
+"You really think, then, that the crisis is past?" Nigel asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am almost sure of it. Prince Shan returns to China within the course
+of the next few days."
+
+"We have lived so long," Nigel observed, "in dread of the unknown. I
+wonder whether we shall ever understand the exact nature of the danger
+with which we were faced."
+
+"It depends upon Prince Shan," she replied. "The terms were Immelan's,
+but the method was his."
+
+"Do you believe," he asked a little abruptly, "that the attempt on
+Prince Shan's life last night was made by Immelan?"
+
+There was a touch, perhaps, of her Muscovite ancestry in the cool
+indifference with which she considered the matter.
+
+"I should think it most likely," she decided. "Prince Shan never changes
+his mind, and I believe that he has decided against Immelan's scheme.
+Immelan's only chance would be in Prince Shan's successor."
+
+"Why is China so necessary?" Nigel asked.
+
+She turned and smiled at her companion.
+
+"Alas!" she sighed, "we have reached an _impasse_. The great English
+diplomat asks too many questions of the simple Russian girl."
+
+"It is unfortunate," he replied, in the same vein, "because I feel like
+asking more."
+
+"As, for example?"
+
+"Whether you would be content to live for the rest of your life in any
+other country except Russia."
+
+"A woman is content to live anywhere, under certain circumstances," she
+murmured.
+
+Karschoff, discreetly announced, entered the room with flamboyant ease.
+
+"It is well to be young!" he exclaimed, as he bent over Naida's fingers.
+"You look, my far-away but much beloved cousin, as though you had slept
+peacefully through the night and spent the morning in this soft, sunlit
+air, with perhaps, if one might suggest such a thing, an hour at a Bond
+Street beauty parlour. Here am I with crow's-feet under my eyes and
+ghosts walking by my side. Yet none the less," he added, as the door
+opened and Maggie appeared, "looking forward to my luncheon and to hear
+all the news."
+
+"There is no news," Naida declared, as the butler announced the service
+of the meal. "We have reached the far end of the ways. The next
+disclosures, if ever they are made, will come from others. At luncheon
+we are going to talk of the English country, the seaside, the meadows,
+and the quiet places. The time arrives when I weary, weary, of the
+brazen ticking of the clock of fate."
+
+"I shall tell you," Nigel declared, "of a small country house I have in
+Devonshire. There are rough grounds stretching down to the sea and
+crawling up to the moors behind. My grandfather built it when he was
+Chancellor of England, or rather he added to an old farmhouse. He called
+it the House of Peace."
+
+"My father built a house very much in the same spirit," Naida told them.
+"He called it after an old Turkish inscription, engraven on the front of
+a villa in Stamboul--'The House of Thought and Flowers.'"
+
+Maggie smiled across the table approvingly.
+
+"I like the conversation," she said. "Naida and I are, after all, women
+and sentimentalists. We claim a respite, an armistice--call it what you
+will. Prince Karschoff, won't you tell me of the most beautiful house
+you ever dwelt in?"
+
+"Always the house I am hoping to end my days in," he answered. "But let
+me tell you about a villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People
+used to speak of it as one of the world's treasures."
+
+When the two men were seated alone over their coffee, Nigel passed
+Chalmers' note and the enclosure across to his companion.
+
+"You remember I told you about Chalmers' friend, Jesson, the secret
+service man who came over to us?" he said. "Chalmers has just sent me
+round this."
+
+Karschoff nodded and studied the message through his great horn-rimmed
+eyeglass.
+
+"I thought that he was going to Russia for you," he said.
+
+"So he did. He must have gone on from there."
+
+"And the message comes from Southern China," Prince Karschoff reflected.
+
+Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Germany! Prince Shan in
+England, negotiating with Immelan! And behind, sinister, menacing,
+mysterious--Japan!
+
+"Supposing," he propounded at last, "there really does exist a secret
+treaty between China and Japan?"
+
+"If there is," Prince Karschoff observed, "one can easily understand
+what Immelan has been at. Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I
+know they are afraid of something of the sort in the States. An American
+who was in the club yesterday told us they had spent over a hundred
+millions on their west coast fortifications in the last two years."
+
+"One can understand, too, in that case," Nigel continued, "why Japan
+left the League of Nations. That stunt of hers about being outside the
+sphere of possible misunderstandings never sounded honest."
+
+"It was unfortunate," Prince Karschoff said, "that America was dominated
+for those few months by an honest but impractical idealist. He had the
+germ of an idea, but he thrust it on the world before even his own
+country was ready for it. In time the nations would certainly have
+elaborated something more workable."
+
+"You cannot keep a full-blooded man from clenching his fist if he's
+insulted," Nigel pointed out, "and nations march along the same lines as
+individuals. Its existence has never for a single moment weakened
+Germany's hatred of England, and the stronger she grows, the more she
+flaunts its conditions. France guards her frontiers, night and day, with
+an army ten times larger than she is allowed. Russia has become the
+country of mysteries, with something up her sleeve, beyond a doubt, and
+there are cities in modern China into which no European dare penetrate.
+Japan quite frankly maintains an immense army, the United States is
+silently following suit--and God help us all if a war does come!"
+
+"You are right," Karschoff assented gloomily. "The last glamour of
+romance has gone from fighting. There were remnants of it in the last
+war, especially in Palestine and Egypt and when we first overran
+Austria. To-day, science would settle the whole affair. The war would be
+won in the laboratory, the engine room and the workshop. I doubt
+whether any battleship could keep afloat for a week, and as to the
+fighting in the air, if a hundred airships were in action, I do not
+suppose that one of them would escape. Then they say that France has a
+gun which could carry a shell from Amiens to London, and more mysterious
+than all, China has something up her sleeve which no one has even a
+glimmering of."
+
+"Except Jesson," Nigel muttered.
+
+"And Jesson's gleam of knowledge, or suspicion," Prince Karschoff
+remarked, "seems to have brought him to the end of his days. Can
+anything be done with Prince Shan about him, do you think?"
+
+"Only indirectly, I am afraid," Nigel replied. "Maggie is seeing him
+this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I believe she telephoned to him
+before luncheon, but I haven't heard anything yet. When a man goes out
+on that sort of a job, he burns his boats. And Jesson isn't the first
+who has turned eastwards, during the last few months. I heard only
+yesterday that France has lost three of her best men in China--one who
+went as a missionary and two as merchants. They've just disappeared
+without a word of explanation."
+
+The telephone extension bell rang. Nigel walked over to the sideboard
+and took down the receiver.
+
+"Is that Lord Dorminster?" a man's voice asked.
+
+"Speaking," Nigel replied.
+
+"I am David Franklin, private secretary to Mr. Mervin Brown," the voice
+continued. "Mr. Mervin Brown would be exceedingly obliged if you would
+come round to Downing Street to see him at once."
+
+"I will be there in ten minutes," Nigel promised.
+
+He laid down the receiver and turned to Karschoff.
+
+"The Prime Minister," he explained.
+
+"What does he want you for?"
+
+"I think," Nigel replied, "that the trouble cloud is about to burst."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown on this occasion did not beat about the bush. His old
+air of confident, almost smug self-satisfaction, had vanished. He
+received Nigel with a new deference in his manner, without any further
+sign of that good-natured tolerance accorded by a busy man to a kindly
+crank.
+
+"Lord Dorminster," he began, "I have sent for you to renew a
+conversation we had some little time since. I will be quite frank with
+you. Certain circumstances have come to my notice which lead me to
+believe that there may be more truth in some of the arguments you
+brought forward than I was willing at the time to believe."
+
+"I must confess that I am relieved to hear you say so," Nigel replied.
+"All the information which I have points to a crisis very near at hand."
+
+The Prime Minister leaned a little across the table.
+
+"The immediate reason for my sending for you," he explained, "is this.
+My friend the American Ambassador has just sent me a copy of a wireless
+dispatch which he has received from China from one of their former
+agents. The report seems to have been sent to him for safety, but the
+sender of it, of whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
+pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China by you."
+
+"Jesson!" Nigel exclaimed. "I have heard of this already, sir, from a
+friend in the American Embassy."
+
+"The dispatch," Mr. Mervin Brown went on, "is in some respects a little
+vague, but it is, on the other hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It
+gives specific details as to definite military preparations on the part
+of China and Russia, associated, presumably, with a third Power whose
+name you will forgive my not mentioning. These preparations appear to
+have been brought almost to completion in the strictest secrecy, but the
+headquarters of the whole thing, very much to my surprise, I must
+confess, seems to be in southern China."
+
+"In that case," Nigel pointed out, "if you will permit me to make a
+suggestion, sir, you have a very simple course open to you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Send for Prince Shan."
+
+"Prince Shan," the Prime Minister replied, with knitted brows, "is not
+over in this country officially. He has begged to be excused from
+accepting or returning any diplomatic courtesies."
+
+"Nevertheless," Nigel persisted, "I should send for Prince Shan. If it
+had not been," he went on slowly, "for the complete abolition of our
+secret service system, you would probably have been informed before now
+that Prince Shan has been having continual conferences in this country
+with one of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
+shores--Oscar Immelan."
+
+"Immelan has no official position in this country," the Prime Minister
+objected.
+
+"A fact which makes him none the less dangerous," Nigel insisted. "He is
+one of those free lances of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
+ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious wave of altruism
+which is responsible for the League of Nations. Immelan was one of the
+first to see how his country might benefit by the new r�gime. It is he
+who has been pulling the strings in Russia and China, and, I fear,
+another country."
+
+"What I want to arrive at," Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently,
+"is something definite."
+
+"Let me put it my own way," Nigel begged. "A very large section of our
+present-day politicians--you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
+Brown--have believed this country safe against any military dangers,
+because of the connections existing between your unions of working men
+and similar bodies in Germany. This is a great fallacy for two reasons:
+first because Germany has always intended to have some one else pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for her, and second because we cannot
+internationalise labour. English and German workmen may come together
+on matters affecting their craft and the conditions of their labour, but
+at heart one remains a German and one an Englishman, with separate
+interests and a separate outlook."
+
+"Well, at the end of it all," Mr. Mervin Brown said, "the bogey is war.
+What sort of a war? An invasion of England is just as impossible to-day
+as it was twenty years ago."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"I cannot answer your question," he admitted. "I was looking to Jesson's
+report to give us an idea as to that."
+
+"You shall see it to-morrow," Mr. Mervin Brown promised. "It is round at
+the War Office at the present moment."
+
+"Without seeing it," Nigel went on, "I expect I can tell you one
+startling feature of its contents. It suggested, did it not, that the
+principal movers against us would be Russian and China and--a country
+which you prefer just now not to mention?"
+
+"But that country is our ally!" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed.
+
+Nigel smiled a little sadly.
+
+"She has been," he admitted. "Still, if you had been _au fait_ with
+diplomatic history thirty years ago, Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know
+that she was on the point of ending her alliance with us and
+establishing one with Germany. It was only owing to the genius of one
+English statesman that at the last moment she almost reluctantly
+renewed her alliance with us. She is in the same state of doubt
+concerning our destiny to-day. She has seen our last two Governments
+forget that we are an Imperial Power and endeavour to apply the
+principles of sheer commercialism to the conduct of a great nation. She
+may have opened her eyes a thousand years later than we did, but she is
+awake enough now to know that this will not do. There is little enough
+of generosity amongst the nations; none amongst the Orientals. I have a
+conviction myself that there is a secret alliance between China and this
+other Power, a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance."
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in thought. Somehow or other
+his face had gained in dignity since the beginning of the conversation.
+The nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look of deep and
+solemn anxiety.
+
+"If you are right, Lord Dorminster," he pronounced presently, "the world
+has rolled backwards these last ten years, and we who have failed to
+mark its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility thrust upon
+us."
+
+"Politically, I am afraid I agree with you," Nigel replied. "Only the
+idealist, and the prejudiced idealist, can ignore the primal elements in
+human nature and believe that a few lofty sentiments can keep the
+nations behind their frontiers. War is a terrible thing, but human life
+itself is a terrible thing. Its principles are the same, and force will
+never be restrained except by force. If the League of Nations had been
+established upon a firmer and less selfish basis, it certainly might
+have kept the peace for another thirty or forty years. As it is, I
+believe that we are on the verge of a serious crisis."
+
+"War for us is an impossibility," Mr. Mervin Brown declared frankly,
+"simply because we cannot fight. Our army consists of policemen; science
+has defeated the battleship; and practically the same conditions exist
+in the air."
+
+"You sent for me, I presume, to ask for my advice," Nigel said. "At any
+rate, let me offer it. I have reason to believe that the negotiations
+between Prince Shan and Oscar Immelan have not been entirely successful.
+Send for Prince Shan and question him in a friendly fashion."
+
+"Will you be my ambassador?" the Prime Minister asked.
+
+Nigel hesitated for a moment.
+
+"If you wish it," he promised. "Prince Shan is in some respects a
+strangely inaccessible person, but just at present he seems well
+disposed towards my household."
+
+"Arrange, if you can," Mr. Mervin Brown begged, "to bring him here
+to-morrow morning. I will try to have available a copy of the dispatch
+from Jesson. It refers to matters which I trust Prince Shan will be able
+to explain."
+
+Nigel lingered for a moment over his farewell.
+
+"If I might venture upon a suggestion, sir," he said, "do not forget
+that Prince Shan is to all intents and purposes the autocrat of Asia. He
+has taught the people of the world to remodel their ideas of China and
+all that China stands for. And further than this, he is, according to
+his principles, a man of the strictest honour. I would treat him, sir,
+as a valued _confr�re_ and equal."
+
+The Prime Minister smiled.
+
+"Don't look upon me as being too intensely parochial, Dorminster," he
+said. "I know quite well that Prince Shan is a man of genius, and that
+he is a representative of one of the world's greatest families. I am
+only the servant of a great Power. He is a great Power in himself."
+
+"And believe me," Nigel concluded fervently, as he made his adieux, "the
+greatest autocrat that ever breathed. If, when you exchange farewells
+with him, he says--'There will be no war'--we are saved, at any rate for
+the moment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Maggie, very cool and neat, a vision of soft blue, a wealth of colouring
+in the deep brown of her closely braided hair, her lips slightly parted
+in a smile of welcome, felt, notwithstanding her apparent composure, a
+strange disturbance of outlook and senses as Prince Shan was ushered
+into her flower-bedecked little sitting room that afternoon. The unusual
+formality of his entrance seemed somehow to suit the man and his manner.
+He bowed low as soon as he had crossed the threshold and bowed again
+over her fingers as she rose from her easy-chair.
+
+"It makes me very happy that you receive me like this," he told her
+simply. "It makes it so much easier for me to say the things that are in
+my heart."
+
+"Won't you sit down, please?" Maggie invited. "You are so tall, and I
+hate to be completely dominated."
+
+He obeyed at once, but he continued to talk with grave and purposeful
+seriousness.
+
+"I wish," he said, "to bring myself entirely into accord, for these few
+minutes, with your western methods and customs. I address you,
+therefore, Lady Maggie, with formal words, while I keep back in my
+heart much that is struggling to express itself. I have come to ask you
+to do me the great honour of becoming my wife."
+
+Maggie sat for a few moments speechless. The thing which she had half
+dreaded and half longed for--the low timbre of his caressing voice--was
+entirely absent. Yet, somehow or other, his simple, formal words were at
+least as disturbing. He leaned towards her, a quiet, dignified figure,
+anxious yet in a sense confident. He had the air of a man who has
+offered to share a kingdom.
+
+"Your wife," Maggie repeated tremulously.
+
+"The thought is new to you, perhaps," he went on, with gentle tolerance.
+"You have believed the stories people tell that in my youth I was vowed
+to celibacy and the priesthood. That is not true. I have always been
+free to marry, but although to-day we figure as a great progressive
+nation, many of the thousand-year-old ideas of ancient China have dwelt
+in my brain and still sit enshrined in my heart. The aristocracy of
+China has passed through evil times. There is no princess of my own
+country whom I could meet on equal terms. So, you see, although it
+develops differently, there is something of the snobbishness of your
+western countries reflected in our own ideas."
+
+"But I am not a princess," Maggie murmured.
+
+"You are the princess of my soul," he answered, lowering his eyes for a
+moment almost reverently. "I cannot quite hope to make you understand,
+but if I took for my wife a Chinese lady of unequal mundane rank, I
+should commit a serious offence against those who watch me from the
+other side of the grave, and to whom I am accountable for every action
+of my life. A lady of another country is a different matter."
+
+"But I am an Englishwoman," Maggie said, "and I love my country. You
+know what that means."
+
+"I know very well," he admitted. "I had not meant to speak of those
+things until later, but, for your country's sake, what greater alliance
+could you seek to-day than to become the wife of him who is destined to
+be the Ruler of Asia?"
+
+Maggie caught hold of her courage. She looked into his eyes
+unflinchingly, though she felt the hot colour rise into her cheeks.
+
+"You did not speak to me of these things, Prince Shan, when I came to
+your house last night," she reminded him.
+
+His smile was full of composure. It was as though the truth which sat
+enshrined in the man's soul lifted him above all the ordinary emotions
+of fear of misunderstandings.
+
+"For those few minutes," he confessed, "I was very angry. It brings
+great pain to a man to see the thing he loves droop her wings, flutter
+down to earth, and walk the common highway. It is not for you, dear one,
+to mingle with that crowd who scheme and cheat, hide and deceive, for
+any reward in the world, whether it be money, fame, or the love of
+country. You were not made for those things, and when I saw you there,
+so utterly in my power, having deliberately taken your risk, I was
+angry. For a single moment I meant that you should realise the danger of
+the path you were treading. I think that I did make you realise it."
+
+Her eyes fell. He seemed to have established some compelling power over
+her. He had met her thoughts before they were uttered, and answered even
+her unspoken question.
+
+"I wish you didn't make life so much like a kindergarten," she
+complained, with an almost pathetic smile at the corners of her lips.
+
+"It is a very different place," he rejoined fervently, "that I desire to
+make of life for you. Listen, please. I have spoken to you first the
+formal words which make all things possible between us, and now, if I
+may, I let my heart speak. Somewhere not far from Pekin I have a palace,
+where my lands slope to the river. For five months in the year my
+gardens are starred with blue and yellow flowers, sweet-smelling as the
+almond blossom, and there are little pagodas which look down on the blue
+water, pagodas hung with creepers, not like your English evergreens, but
+with blossoms, pink and waxen, which open as one looks at them and send
+out sweet perfumes. When you are there with me, dear one, then I shall
+speak to you in the language of my ancestors, which some day you will
+understand, and you shall know that love has its cradle in the East, you
+shall feel the flame of its birth, the furnace of its accomplishment.
+Here my tongue moves slowly, yet I stoop my knee to you, I show you my
+heart, and my lips tell you that I love. What that love is you shall
+learn some day, if you have the will and the confidence and the soul.
+Will you come back to China with me, Maggie?"
+
+She rested her fingers on his hand.
+
+"You are a magician," she confessed. "I am very English, and yet I want
+to go."
+
+He stood for a moment looking into her eyes. Then he stooped down and
+raised her hesitating fingers to his lips.
+
+"I believe that you will come," he said simply. "I believe that you will
+ride over the clouds with me, back to the country of beautiful places.
+So now I speak to you of serious things. Of money there shall be what
+you wish, more than any woman even of your rank possesses in this
+country. I shall give you, too, the sister of my great _Black Dragon_ so
+that in five days, if you wish, you can pass from any of my palaces to
+London. And further than that, behold!"
+
+He drew from his pocket a roll of papers. Maggie recognised it, and her
+heart beat faster. Curiously enough, just then she scarcely thought of
+its world importance. She remembered only those few moments of strange
+thrills, the wonder at finding him in that room, as he stood watching
+her, the horror and yet the thrill of his measured words. He laid the
+papers upon the table.
+
+"Read them," he invited. "You will understand then the net that has been
+closing around your country. You will understand the better if I tell
+you this. China and Japan are one. It was my first triumph when
+patriotism urged me into the field of politics. We have a single motto,
+and upon that is based all that you may read there,--'_Europe for the
+Europeans, Asia for us_.'"
+
+Maggie was conscious of a sudden sense of escape from her almost
+mesmeric state. The change in his tone, his calm references to things
+belonging to another and altogether different world, had dissolved a
+situation against the charm of which she had found herself powerless,
+even unwilling to struggle. Once more she was back in the world where
+for the last two years had lain her chief interests. She took the papers
+in her hand and began reading them quickly through. Every now and then a
+little exclamation broke from her lips.
+
+"You will observe," her companion pointed out, looking over her
+shoulder, "that on paper, at any rate, Japan is the great gainer. She
+takes Australia, New Zealand and India. China absorbs Thibet and
+re�stablishes her empire of forty years ago. The arrangement is based
+very largely on racial conditions. China is a self-centered country. We
+have not the power of fusion of the Japanese. You will observe further,
+as an interesting circumstance, that the American foothold in Asia
+disappears as completely as the British."
+
+"But tell me," she demanded, "how are these things to be brought about,
+and where does Immelan come in?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"Immelan's position," he explained, "is largely a sentimental one, yet
+on the other hand he saves his country from what might be a grave
+calamity. The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might
+seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.
+The point is this. He soothes his country of the pain which groans day
+by day in her limbs. He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great
+Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise."
+
+"And France escapes," she murmured.
+
+"France escapes," he assented. "Rightly or wrongly, the whole of
+Germany's post-war animosity was directed against England. She
+considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen. She may have
+been right or wrong. I myself find the evidence conflicting. At this
+moment the matter does not concern us."
+
+"And is Great Britain, then," Maggie asked, "believed to be so helpless
+that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the
+will of China and Japan?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"Great Britain," he reminded her, "has taken the League of Nations to
+her heart. It was a very dangerous thing to do."
+
+"Still," Maggie persisted, "there remains the great thing which you have
+not told me. These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart
+of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?"
+
+"If I had signed the agreement," he replied, "they could very easily
+have been carried into effect. You have heard already, have you not,
+through some of your agents, of the three secret cities? In the
+eastern-most of them is the answer to your question."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Is that a challenge to me to come out and discover for myself all that
+I want to know?"
+
+"If you come," he answered, "you shall certainly know everything. There
+is another little matter, too, which waits for your decision."
+
+"Tell me of it at once, please," she begged, with a sudden conviction of
+his meaning.
+
+He obeyed without hesitation.
+
+"I spoke just now," he reminded her, "of the three secret cities. They
+are secret because we have taken pains to keep them so. One is in
+Germany, one in Russia, and one in China. A casual traveller could
+discover little in the German one, and little more, perhaps, in the
+Russian one. Enough to whet his curiosity, and no more. But in China
+there is the whole secret at the mercy of a successful spy. A man named
+Jesson, Lady Maggie--"
+
+"I telephoned you about him before luncheon to-day," she interrupted.
+
+"I had your message," he replied, "and the man is safe for the moment.
+At the same time, Lady Maggie, let me remind you that this is a game the
+rules of which are known the world over. Jesson has now in his
+possession the secret on which I might build, if I chose, plans to
+conquer the world. He knew the penalty if he was discovered, and he was
+discovered. To spare his life is sentimentalism pure and simple, yet if
+it is your will, so be it."
+
+"You are very good to me," she declared gratefully, "all the more good
+because half the time I can see that you scarcely understand."
+
+"That I do not admit," he protested. "I understand even where I do not
+sympathise. You make of life the greatest boon on earth. We of my race
+and way of thinking are taught to take it up or lay it down, if not with
+indifference, at any rate with a very large share of resignation.
+However, Jesson's life is spared. From what I have heard of the man, I
+imagine he will be very much surprised."
+
+She gave a little sigh of relief.
+
+"You have given me a great deal of your confidence," she said
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Is it not clear," he answered, "why I have done so? I ask of you the
+greatest boon a woman has to give. I do not seek to bribe, but if you
+can give me the love that will make my life a dream of happiness, then
+will it not be my duty to see that no shadow of misfortune shall come to
+you or yours? China stands between Japan and Russia, and I am China."
+
+She gave him her hands.
+
+"You are very wonderful," she declared. "Remember that at a time like
+this, it is not a woman's will alone that speaks. It is her soul which
+lights the way. Prince Shan, I do not know."
+
+He smiled gravely.
+
+"I leave," he told her, "on Friday, soon after dawn."
+
+She found herself trembling.
+
+"It is a very short time," she faltered.
+
+They had both risen to their feet. He was close to her now, and she felt
+herself caught up in a passionate wave of inertia, an absolute inability
+to protest or resist. His arms were clasped around her lightly and with
+exceeding gentleness. He leaned down. She found herself wondering, even
+in that tumultuous moment, at the strange clearness of his complexion,
+the whiteness of his firm, strong teeth, the soft brilliance of his
+eyes, which caressed her even before his lips rested upon hers.
+
+"I think that you will come," he whispered. "I think that you will be
+very happy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the following morning, to a
+state of intense activity. Taxi-cabs and motor-cars were lined along the
+street; a stream of callers came and went. That part of the
+establishment of which little was seen by the casual caller, the rooms
+where half a dozen secretaries conducted an immense correspondence,
+presided over by Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In his
+reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few of the callers, mostly
+journalists and politicians, to whom Li Wen gave the entr�e. One visitor
+even this most astute of secretaries found it hard to place. He took the
+card in to his master, who glanced at it thoughtfully.
+
+"The Earl of Dorminster," he repeated. "I will see him."
+
+Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet with a certain
+aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his favourite chair of plain black oak
+heaped with green silk cushions and held out his hand a little
+tentatively.
+
+"You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster," he said. "I trust that
+you come to wish me fortune."
+
+"That," Nigel replied, "depends upon how you choose to seek it."
+
+"I am answered," was the prompt acknowledgment. "One thing in your
+country I have at least learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of
+candour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have you come to speak to
+me as an ambassador from your cousin, or in any way on her behalf?"
+
+"My business has nothing to do with Lady Maggie," Nigel assured him
+gravely.
+
+Prince Shan held out his hand.
+
+"Stop," he begged. "Do not explain your business. If it is a personal
+request, it is granted. If, on the other hand, you seek my advice on
+matters of grave importance, it is yours. Before other words are spoken,
+however, I myself desire to address you on the subject of Lady Maggie
+Trent."
+
+"As you please," Nigel answered.
+
+"It is not the custom of my country, or of my life," Prince Shan
+continued, "to covet or steal the things which belong to another. If
+fate has made me a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady
+Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It is my great desire that
+she should become my wife."
+
+Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There was something in the
+other's measured speech, so fateful, so assured, that it seemed almost
+as though he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that had seemed
+to him impossible and unnatural in such an idea disappeared from that
+moment.
+
+"You tell me this," Nigel began--
+
+"I announce it to you as the head of the family," Prince Shan
+interrupted.
+
+"You tell it to me also," Nigel persisted, "because you have heard the
+rumours which were at one time very prevalent--that Lady Maggie and I
+were or were about to become engaged to be married."
+
+"I have heard such a rumour only very indirectly," Prince Shan
+confessed, "and I cannot admit that it has made any difference in my
+attitude. I think, in my land and yours, we have at least one common
+convention. The woman who touches our heart is ours if we may win her.
+Love is unalterably selfish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for
+those who may suffer by our victory, we may have pity but no
+consideration."
+
+"Am I to understand," Nigel asked bluntly, "that Lady Maggie has
+consented to be your wife?"
+
+"Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her alone with her thoughts.
+Every hour it is my hope to hear from her. She knows that I leave for
+China early to-morrow."
+
+"So at the present moment you are in suspense."
+
+"I am in suspense," Prince Shan admitted, "and perhaps," he went on,
+with one of his rare smiles, "it occurred to me that it would be in one
+sense a relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears that are
+in my heart. You are the one person to whom I could speak, Lord
+Dorminster. You have not wished my suit well, but at least you have been
+clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you that a prince of
+China might venture to compete with a peer of England."
+
+"On the contrary," Nigel assented, "I have the greatest admiration for
+the few living descendants of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a
+right to enter the lists, a right to win if you can."
+
+"And what do you think of my prospects, if I may ask such a delicate
+question?" Prince Shan enquired.
+
+"I cannot estimate them," Nigel replied. "I only know that Maggie is
+deeply interested."
+
+"I think," his companion continued softly, "that she will become my
+Princess. You have never visited China, Lord Dorminster," he went on,
+"so you have little idea, perhaps, as to the manner of our lives. Some
+day I will hope to be your host, so until then, as I may not speak of my
+own possessions, may I go just so far as this? Your cousin will be very
+happy in China. This is a great country, but the very air you breathe is
+cloyed with your national utilitarianism. Mine is a country of beautiful
+thoughts, of beautiful places, of quiet-living and sedate people. I can
+give your cousin every luxury of which the world has ever dreamed,
+wrapped and enshrined in beauty. No person with a soul could be unhappy
+in the places where she will dwell."
+
+"You are at least confident," Nigel remarked.
+
+"It is because I am convinced," was the calm rejoinder. "I shall take
+your cousin's happiness into my keeping without one shadow of misgiving.
+The last word, however, is with her. It remains to be seen whether her
+courage is great enough to induce her to face such a complete change in
+the manner of her life."
+
+"It will not be her lack of courage which will keep her in England,"
+Nigel declared.
+
+Prince Shan bowed, with a graceful little gesture of the hands. The
+subject was finished.
+
+"I shall now, Lord Dorminster," he said, "take advantage of your kindly
+presence here to speak to you on a very personal matter, only this time
+it is you who are the central figure, and I who am the dummy."
+
+"I do not follow you," Nigel confessed, with a slight frown.
+
+"I speak in tones of apology," Prince Shan went on, "but you must
+remember that I am one of reflective disposition; Nature has endowed me
+with some of the gifts of my great ancestors, philosophers famed the
+world over. It seems very clear to me that, if I had not come, from
+sheer force of affectionate propinquity you would have married Lady
+Maggie."
+
+Nigel's frown deepened.
+
+"Prince Shan!" he began.
+
+Again the outstretched hand seemed as though the fingers were pressed
+against his mouth. He broke off abruptly in his protest.
+
+"You would have lived a contented life, because that is your province,"
+his companion continued. "You would have felt yourself happy because you
+would have been a faithful husband. But the time would have come when
+you would both have realised that you had missed the great things."
+
+"This is idle prophecy," Nigel observed, a little impatiently. "I came
+to see you upon another matter."
+
+"Humour me," the Prince begged. "I am going to speak to you even more
+intimately. I shall venture to do so because, after all, she is better
+known to me than to you. I am going to tell you that of all the women in
+the world, Naida Karetsky is the most likely to make you happy."
+
+Nigel drew himself up a little stiffly.
+
+"One does not discuss these things," he muttered.
+
+"May I call that a touch of insularity?" Prince Shan pleaded, "because
+there is nothing else in the world so wonderful to discuss, in all
+respect and reverence, as the women who have made us feel. One last
+word, Lord Dorminster. The days of matrimonial alliances between the
+reigning families of Europe have come to an end under the influence of a
+different form of government, but there is a certain type of alliance,
+the utility of which remains unimpaired. I venture to say that you could
+not do your country a greater service, apart from any personal feelings
+you might have, than by marrying Mademoiselle Karetsky. There, you see,
+now I have finished. This is for your reflection, Lord Dorminster--just
+the measured statement of one who wears at least the cloak of philosophy
+by inheritance. Time passes. Your own reason for coming to see me has
+not yet been expounded."
+
+"I have come to ask you to visit the Prime Minister before you leave
+England," Nigel announced.
+
+Prince Shan changed his position slightly. His forehead was a little
+wrinkled. He was silent for a moment.
+
+"If I pay more than a farewell visit of ceremony," he said, "that is to
+say, if I speak with Mr. Mervin Brown on things that count, I must
+anticipate a certain decision at which I have not yet wholly arrived."
+
+Nigel had a sudden inspiration.
+
+"You are seeking to bribe Maggie!" he exclaimed.
+
+"That is not true," was the dignified reply.
+
+"Then please explain," Nigel persisted.
+
+Prince Shan rose to his feet. He walked to the heavy silk curtains which
+led into his own bedchamber, pushed them apart, and looked for a moment
+at the familiar objects in the room. Then he came back, glancing on his
+way at the ebony cabinet.
+
+"One does not repeat one's mistakes," he said slowly, "and although you
+and I, Lord Dorminster, breathe the common air of the greater world, my
+instinct tells me that of certain things which have passed between your
+cousin and myself it is better that no mention ever be made. I wish to
+tell you this, however. There is in existence a document, my signature
+to which would, without a doubt, have a serious influence upon the
+destinies of this country. That document, unsigned, would be one of my
+marriage gifts to Lady Maggie--and as you know I have not yet had her
+answer. However, if you wish it, I will go to the Prime Minister."
+
+Li Wen came silently in. He spoke to his master for a few minutes in
+Chinese. A faint smile parted the latter's lips.
+
+"You can tell the person at the telephone that I will call within the
+next few minutes," he directed. "You will not object," he added, turning
+courteously to Nigel, "if I stop for a moment, on the way to Downing
+Street, at a small private hospital? An acquaintance of mine lies sick
+there and desires urgently to see me."
+
+"I am entirely at your service," Nigel assured him.
+
+Prince Shan, with many apologies, left Nigel alone in the car outside a
+tall, grey house in John Street, and, preceded by the white-capped nurse
+who had opened the door, climbed the stairs to the first floor of the
+celebrated nursing home, where, after a moment's delay, he was shown
+into a large and airy apartment. Immelan was in bed, looking very ill
+indeed. He was pale, and his china-blue eyes, curiously protruding, were
+filled with an expression of haunting fear. A puzzled doctor was
+standing by the bedside. A nurse, who was smoothing the bedclothes,
+glanced around at Prince Shan's entrance. The invalid started
+convulsively, and, clutching the pillows with his right hand, turned
+towards his visitor.
+
+"So you've come!" he exclaimed. "Stay where yon are! Don't go!
+Doctor--nurse--leave us alone for a moment."
+
+The nurse went at once. The doctor hesitated.
+
+"My patient is a good deal exhausted," he said. "There are no dangerous
+symptoms at present, but--"
+
+"I will promise not to distress him," Prince Shan interrupted. "I am
+myself somewhat pressed for time, and it is probable that your patient
+will insist upon speaking to me in private."
+
+The doctor followed the nurse from the room. Prince Shan stood looking
+down upon the figure of quondam associate. There was a leaven of mild
+wonder in his clear eyes, a faintly contemptuous smile about the corners
+of his lips.
+
+"So you are afraid of death, my friend," he observed, "afraid of the
+death you planned so skilfully for me."
+
+"It is a lie!" Immelan declared excitedly. "Sen Lu was never killed by
+my orders. Listen! You have nothing against me. My death can do you no
+good. It is you who have been at fault. You--Prince Shan--the great
+diplomatist of the world--are gambling away your future and the future
+of a mighty empire for a woman's sake. You have treated me badly enough.
+Spare my life. Call in the doctor here and tell him what to do. He can
+find nothing in my system. He is helpless."
+
+The smile upon the Prince's lips became vaguer, his expression more
+bland and indeterminate.
+
+"My dear Immelan," he murmured, "you are without doubt delirious.
+Compose yourself, I beg."
+
+A light that was almost tragic shone in the man's face. He sat up with a
+sudden access of strength.
+
+"For the love of God, don't torture me!" he groaned. "The pains grow
+worse, hour by hour. If I die, the whole world shall know by whose
+hand."
+
+The expression on Prince Shan's face remained unchanged. In his eyes,
+however, there was a little glint of something which seemed almost like
+foreknowledge,
+
+"When you die," he pronounced calmly, "it will be by your own hand--not
+mine."
+
+For some reason or other, Immelan accepted these measured words of
+prophecy as a total reprieve. The relief in his face was almost piteous.
+He seized his visitor's hand and would have fawned upon it. Prince Shan
+withdrew himself a little farther from the bed.
+
+"Immelan," he said, "during my stay in England I have studied you and
+your methods, I have listened to all you have had to say and to propose,
+I have weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of the scheme you
+have outlined to me, and I only arrived at my decision after the most
+serious and unbiassed reflection. Your scheme itself was bold and almost
+splendid, but, as you yourself well know at the back of your mind, it
+would lay the seeds of a world tumult. I have studied history, Immelan,
+perhaps a little more deeply than you, and I do not believe in
+conquests. For the restoration to China of such lands as belong
+geographically and rightly to the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans.
+You, it seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to gratify your
+hatred of England."
+
+"A cat's-paw!" Immelan gasped. "Australia, New Zealand and India for
+Japan, new lands for her teeming population; Thibet for you, all
+Manchuria, and the control of the Siberian Railway!"
+
+"These are dazzling propositions," Prince Shan admitted, "and yet--what
+about the other side of the Pacific?"
+
+"America would be powerless," Immelan insisted.
+
+"So you said before, in 1917," was the dry reminder. "I did not come
+here, however, to talk world politics with you. Those things for the
+moment are finished. I came in answer to your summons."
+
+Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.
+
+"You meant what you said?" he demanded, with hoarse anxiety. "There was
+no poison? Swear that?"
+
+Prince Shan moved towards the door. His backward glance was coldly
+contemptuous.
+
+"What I said, I meant," he replied. "Extract such comfort from it as you
+may."
+
+He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Immelan stared
+after him, hollow-eyed and anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing
+upon him once more.
+
+Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove off to Downing Street.
+The former was silent for the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
+towards his companion.
+
+"The man Immelan is a coward," he declared. "It is he whom I have just
+visited."
+
+Nigel shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"So many men are brave enough in a fight," he remarked, "who lose their
+nerve on a sick bed."
+
+"Bravery in battle," Prince Shan pronounced, "is the lowest form of
+courage. The blood is stirred by the excitement of slaughter as by
+alcohol. With Immelan I shall have no more dealings."
+
+"Speaking politically as well as personally?" Nigel enquired.
+
+The other smiled.
+
+"I think I might go so far as to agree," he acquiesced, "but in a sense,
+there are conditions. You shall hear what they are. I will speak before
+you to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign of my departure."
+
+Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which hung down, here and
+there, from the blue sky, came the _Black Dragon_, her engines purring
+softly, her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched her for a
+moment in silence.
+
+"At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start," Prince Shan announced. "My
+pilot tells me that the weather conditions are wonderful, all the way
+from here to Pekin. We shall be there on Wednesday."
+
+"You travel alone?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"I have passengers," was the quiet reply. "I am taking the English
+chaplain to your Church in Pekin."
+
+The eyes of the two men met.
+
+"It is an ingenious idea," Nigel admitted dryly.
+
+"I wish to be prepared," his companion answered. "It may be that he is
+my only companion. In that case, I go back to a life lonelier than I
+have ever dreamed of. It is on the knees of the gods. So far there has
+come no word, but although I am not by nature an optimist, my
+superstitions are on my side. All the way over on my last voyage, when I
+lay in my berth, awake and we sailed over and through the clouds, my
+star, my own particular star, seemed leaning always down towards me, and
+for that reason I have faith."
+
+Nigel glanced at his companion curiously but without speech. The car
+pulled up in Downing Street. The two men descended and found everything
+made easy for them. In two minutes they were in the presence of the
+Prime Minister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a
+matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation. He received
+Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an
+earlier visit. To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to
+be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.
+
+"Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation," he said,
+"bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you."
+
+"I have found his lordship," Prince Shan declared, "one of the few
+Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside
+his own country."
+
+The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.
+
+"Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan," he
+said. "They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the
+promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
+friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities. Lord
+Dorminster would have me believe that there is a still more terrible
+price for us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole outlook,
+abandon our belief in the League of Nations, and once more acknowledge
+the supremacy of force."
+
+"Lord Dorminster is right," Prince Shan pronounced. "I have come here to
+tell you so, Mr. Mervin Brown."
+
+"You come here as a friend of England?" the latter asked.
+
+"I come here as one who hesitates to become her enemy," was the measured
+reply. "I will be perfectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
+to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of China and Japan,
+would have resulted in the humiliation of your country and the
+gratification of Germany's eagerly desired revenge."
+
+"You believe in the existence of that sentiment, then?" the Prime
+Minister enquired.
+
+"Any one short of a very insular Englishman," the Prince replied, "would
+have realised it long ago. There is a great society in Germany, scarcely
+even a secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations of the last
+great war. Lord Dorminster tells me that you are to-day without a secret
+service. For that reason you have remained in ignorance of the mines
+beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans well and carefully. Her
+first and greatest weapon has been your sense of security. She has seen
+you contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious satisfaction,
+invincible France, regaining her wealth more slowly than you for the
+simple reason that half the man power of the country is absorbed by her
+military preparations. France is impregnable. A direct invasion of your
+country is in all probability impossible. Those two facts have seemed to
+you all-sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may say so, sir,
+very short-sighted."
+
+"Germany has no power to transport troops in other directions," Mr.
+Mervin Brown observed.
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"You have another enemy besides Germany," he pointed out, "a great
+democracy who has never forgiven your lack of sympathy at her birth,
+your attempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne in agony and
+shame, yet containing the germs of worthy things which your statesmen in
+those days failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Russia stands
+hand in hand with Germany."
+
+"But surely," the Prime Minister protested, "you speak in the language
+of the past? The League of Nations still exists. Any directly predatory
+expedition would bring the rest of the world to arms."
+
+Prince Shan shook his head.
+
+"One of the first necessities of a tribunal," he expounded, "is that
+that tribunal should have the power to punish. You yourself are one of
+the judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With what weapon will
+you chastise him? The culprit has grown mightier than the judge."
+
+"America--"
+
+"America," Prince Shan interrupted, "can, when she chooses, strike a
+weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
+proceed outside her own sphere of influence."
+
+"But she must protect her trade," the Prime Minister insisted.
+
+"She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
+instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
+mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
+as anxious to buy as she is to sell."
+
+"I am to figure to myself, then," Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, "a
+combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
+Great Britain?"
+
+"There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned," Prince Shan
+assured him gravely. "If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
+would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
+treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
+would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
+be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer."
+
+"It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
+knowledge of this scheme," the Prime Minister confessed.
+
+"Official Germany would probably deny it," Prince Shan answered dryly.
+"Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
+but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
+have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
+cities?"
+
+"I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales," Mr.
+Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.
+
+"Nevertheless, they exist," Prince Shan continued, "and they exist for
+the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
+have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
+The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
+design to conquer any country in the world."
+
+"Armoured airships?" Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.
+
+"Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air," Prince
+Shan explained. "On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
+ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
+to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
+these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
+Government."
+
+"I remember something of the sort," the Prime Minister assented. "The
+inventor himself was an American, I believe."
+
+"Precisely! I believe he told you in plain words that whoever possessed
+his model might, if they chose, dominate the world."
+
+"But who wants to dominate the world by force?" Mr. Mervin Brown
+demanded passionately. "We have passed into a new era, an era of peace
+and the higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and money to
+create these horrible instruments of destruction. The League of Nations
+has decreed that they shall not be built."
+
+"Nevertheless," Prince Shan declared, with portentous gravity, "a
+thousand of these engines of destruction are now ready in a certain city
+of China. Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota of work
+in the shape of providing parts. China alone has put them together. I
+bought the secret, and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
+world remains at peace or moves on to war."
+
+"You cannot hesitate, then?" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed anxiously. "You
+yourself are an apostle of civilisation."
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"It is because we are strong," he said, "that we love peace. It is
+because you are weak that you fear war. I am not here to teach you
+statesmanship. It is not for me to point out to you the means by which
+you can make your country safe and keep her people free. Call a meeting
+of what remains of the League of Nations and compare your strength with
+that of the nations who have crept outside and lie waiting. Then take
+the advice of experts and set your house in order. You sacrifice
+everything to-day to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dorminster
+here into your councils. You are not a nation of fools. Speak the truth
+at the next meeting of the League of Nations and see that it is properly
+reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you."
+
+"Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dorminster?" the Prime Minister
+invited, turning to Nigel.
+
+"If you will recreate the post of Minister for War, I will do so with
+pleasure," was the prompt reply.
+
+Prince Shan held out his hand.
+
+"There is great responsibility upon your shoulders, Mr. Mervin Brown,"
+he said. "You will never know how near you have been to disaster. Try
+and wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call together your
+writers, your thinking men, your historians. Encourage the flagging
+spirit of patriotism in your public schools and universities. Is this
+presumption on my part that I give so much advice? If so, forgive me.
+Truth that sits in the heart will sometimes demand to be heard."
+
+At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained behind. They both looked
+at the door through which Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown
+metaphorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a little dazed.
+
+"Is that man real flesh and blood?" he demanded.
+
+"He is as real and as near the truth," Nigel replied solemnly, "as the
+things of which he has told us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+That night, Nigel gave a dinner party on Maggie's account at the
+fashionable London hotel of the moment. Invitations had been sent out by
+telephone, by hurried notes, in one or two cases were delivered by word
+of mouth. On the whole, the acceptances, considering the season was in
+full swing, were a little remarkable. Every one was anxious to come,
+because, as one of her girl friends put it, no one ever knew what Maggie
+was going to be up to next. One of the few refusals came from Prince
+Shan, and even he made use of compromise:
+
+     _My dear Lord Dorminster, will you forgive me if in this instance I
+     do not break a custom to which I have perhaps a little too rigidly
+     adhered. The Prime Minister telephoned, a few minutes after we left
+     him, asking me to meet two of his colleagues from the Foreign
+     Office to-night, and I doubt whether our conference will have
+     concluded at the hour you name._
+
+     _However, if you will permit me, I will give myself the pleasure of
+     joining you later in the evening, to make my adieux to those of my
+     friends whom I am quite sure I shall find amongst your company._
+
+     _Sincerely yours_,
+
+     SHAN.
+
+Maggie passed the note back with a little smile. She made no comment
+whatever. Nigel watched her thoughtfully.
+
+"I have carried out your orders," he observed. "Everything has been
+attended to, even to the colour of your table decorations. Now tell me
+what it all means?"
+
+She looked him in the face quite frankly.
+
+"How can I?" she answered. "I do not know myself."
+
+"Is this by way of being a farewell party?" he persisted.
+
+"I do not know that," she assured him. "The only thing is that if I do
+decide--to go--well, I shall have had a last glimpse of most of my
+friends."
+
+"As your nearest male relative, in fact your guardian," Nigel went on,
+with a touch of his old manner, "I feel myself deeply interested in your
+present situation. If a little advice from one who is considerably your
+senior would be acceptable--"
+
+"It wouldn't," Maggie interrupted quietly. "There are just two things in
+life no girl accepts advice upon--the way she does her hair and the man
+she means to marry. You see, both are decided by instinct. I shall know
+before dawn to-morrow what I mean to do, but until then nothing that
+anybody could say would make any difference. Besides, your mind ought to
+be full of your own matrimonial affairs. I hear that Naida is talking
+of going back to Russia next week."
+
+"My own affairs are less complex," Nigel replied. "I am going to ask
+Naida to marry me--to-night if I have the opportunity."
+
+Maggie made a little grimace.
+
+"There goes my second string!" she exclaimed. "Nigel, you are horribly
+callous. I have never been in the least sure that I haven't wanted to
+marry you myself."
+
+Nigel lit a cigarette and pushed the box across to his companion.
+
+"I've frequently felt the same way," he confessed. "The trouble of it is
+that when the really right person comes along, one hasn't any doubt
+about it whatever. I should have made you a stodgy husband, Maggie."
+
+She sniffed.
+
+"I think that considering the way you've flirted with me," she declared,
+"you ought at least to have given me the opportunity of refusing you."
+
+"If Naida refuses me," he began--
+
+"And I decide that Asia is too far away," she interrupted--
+
+"We may come together, after all," he said, with a resigned little sigh.
+
+"Glib tongue and empty heart," she quoted. "Nigel, I would never trust
+you. I believe you're in love with Naida."
+
+"And I'm not quite so sure about you," he observed, watching the colour
+rise quickly in her cheeks. "Off with you to dress, young woman. It's
+past seven, and we must be there early. I still have the wine to order."
+
+The dinner party was in its way a complete success. Prince Karschoff was
+there, benign and distinguished; Chalmers and one or two other young men
+from the American Embassy. There was a sprinkling of Maggie's girl
+friends, a leaven of the older world in Nigel's few intimates,--and
+Naida, very pale but more beautiful than ever in a white velvet gown,
+her hair brushed straight back, and with no jewellery save one long rope
+of pearls. Nigel who in his capacity as host had found little time for
+personal conversation during the service of dinner, deliberately led her
+a little apart when they passed out into the lounge for coffee and to
+watch the dancing.
+
+"My duties are over for a time," he said. "Do you realise that I have
+not had a word with you alone since our luncheon at Ciro's?"
+
+"We have all been a little engrossed, have we not?" she murmured. "I
+hope that you are satisfied with the way things have turned out."
+
+"Nothing shall induce me to talk politics or empire-saving to-night," he
+declared, with a smile. "I have other things to say."
+
+"Tell me why you asked us all to dine so suddenly," she enquired. "I do
+not know whether it is my fancy, but there seems to be an air of
+celebration about. Is there any announcement to be made?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"None. The party was just a whim of Maggie's."
+
+They both looked across towards the ballroom, where she was dancing with
+Chalmers.
+
+"Maggie is very beautiful to-night," Naida said. "I could scarcely
+listen to my neighbour's conversation at dinner time for looking at her.
+Yet she has the air all the time of living in a dream, as though
+something had happened which had lifted her right away from us all. I
+began to wonder," she added, "whether, after all, Oscar Immelan had not
+told me the truth, and whether we should not be drinking her health and
+yours before the evening was over."
+
+"You could scarcely believe that," he whispered, "if you have any memory
+at all."
+
+There was a faint touch of pink in her cheeks, a tinge of colour as
+delicate as the passing of a gleam of sunshine over a sea-glistening
+shell.
+
+"But Englishmen are so unfaithful," she sighed.
+
+"Then I at least am an exception," Nigel answered swiftly. "The words
+which you checked upon my lips the last time we were alone together
+still live in my heart. I think, Naida, the time has come to say them."
+
+Their immediate neighbours had deserted them. He leaned a little
+towards her.
+
+"You know so well that I love you, Naida," he said. "Will you be my
+wife?"
+
+She looked up at him, half laughing, yet with tears in her eyes. With an
+impulsive little gesture, she caught his hand in hers for a moment.
+
+"How horribly sure you must have felt of me," she complained, "to have
+spoken here, with all these people around! Supposing I had told you that
+my life's work lay amongst my own people, or that I had made up my mind
+to marry Oscar Immelan, to console him for his great disappointment."
+
+"I shouldn't have believed you," he answered, smiling.
+
+"Conceit!" she exclaimed.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"In a sense, of course, I am conceited," he replied. "I am the happiest
+and proudest man here. I really think that after all we ought to turn it
+into a celebration."
+
+The band was playing a waltz. Naida's head moved to the music, and
+presently Nigel rose to his feet with a smile, and they passed into the
+ballroom. Karschoff and Mrs. Bollington Smith watched them with
+interest.
+
+"Naida is looking very wonderful to-night," the latter remarked. "And
+Nigel, too; I wonder if there is anything between them."
+
+"The days of foreign alliances are past," Karschoff replied, "but a few
+intermarriages might be very good for this country."
+
+"Are you serious?" she asked.
+
+"Absolutely! I would not suggest anything of the sort with Germany, but
+with this new Russia, the Russia of which Naida Karetsky is a daughter,
+why not? Although they will not have me back there, Russia is some day
+going to lay down the law to Europe."
+
+"I wonder whether Maggie has any ideas of the sort in her mind," Mrs.
+Bollington Smith observed. "She seems curiously abstracted to-night."
+
+Chalmers came grumblingly up to Mrs. Bollington Smith, with whom he was
+an established favourite.
+
+"Lady Maggie is treating me disgracefully," he complained. "She will
+scarcely dance at all. She goes around talking to every one as though it
+were a sort of farewell party."
+
+"Perhaps it may be," Karschoff remarked quietly.
+
+"She isn't going away, is she?" Chalmers demanded.
+
+"Who knows?" the Prince replied. "Lady Maggie is one of those strange
+people to whom one may look with every confidence for the unexpected."
+
+She herself came across to them, a few moments later.
+
+"Something tells me," she declared, "that you are talking about me."
+
+"You are always a very much discussed young lady," Karschoff rejoined,
+with a little bow.
+
+She made a grimace and sank into a chair by her aunt. She talked on
+lightly enough, but all the time with that slight suggestion of
+superficiality which is a sign of strain. She glanced often towards the
+entrance of the lounge, yet no one seemed less disturbed when at a few
+minutes before eleven Prince Shan came quietly in. He made his way at
+once to Mrs. Bollington Smith and bent over her fingers.
+
+"It is so kind of you and Lord Dorminster," he said, "to give me this
+opportunity of saying good-by to a few friends."
+
+"You are leaving us so soon, Prince?"
+
+"To-morrow, soon after dawn," he replied, his eyes wandering around the
+little circle. "I wish to be in Pekin, if possible, by Wednesday, so my
+_Dragon_ must spread his wings indeed."
+
+He said a few words to almost everybody. Last of all he came to Maggie,
+and no one heard what he said to her. There was no change in his face as
+he bent low over her fingers, no sign of anything which might have
+passed between them, as a few minutes later he turned to one side with
+Nigel. Maggie held out her hand to Chalmers. The strain seemed to have
+passed. Her lips were parted in a wonderful smile, her feet moved to the
+music.
+
+"Come and dance," she invited.
+
+They moved a few steps away together, when Maggie came to an abrupt
+standstill. The two stood for a moment as though transfixed, their eyes
+upon the arched entrance which led from the restaurant into the lounge.
+A man was standing there, looking around, a strange, menacing figure, a
+man dressed in the garb of fashion but with the face of a savage, with
+eyes which burned in his head like twin dots of fire, with drawn, hollow
+cheeks and mouth a little open like a mad dog's. As his eyes fell upon
+the group and he recognised them, a look of horrible satisfaction came
+into his face. He began to approach quite deliberately. He seemed to
+take in by slow degrees every one who stood there,--Maggie herself and
+Chalmers, Naida, Nigel and Prince Shan. He moved forward. All the time
+his right hand was behind him, concealed underneath the tails of his
+dress coat.
+
+"Be careful!" Maggie cried out. "It is Oscar Immelan! He is mad!"
+
+Some of the party and many of the bystanders had shrunk away from the
+menacing figure. Naida stepped out from among the little group of those
+who were left.
+
+"Oscar," she said firmly, "what is the matter with you? You are not well
+enough to be here."
+
+He came to a standstill. At close quarters his appearance was even more
+terrible. Although by some means he had gotten into his evening clothes,
+he was only partly shaven, and there were gashes in his face where the
+hand which had held his razor had slipped. The pupils of his eyes were
+distended, and the eyes themselves seemed to have shrunk back into their
+sockets. His whole frame seemed to have suddenly lost vigour, even
+substance. He had the air of a man in clothes too large for him. Even
+his voice was shriller,--shriller and horrible with the slow and bestial
+satisfaction of his words.
+
+"So here you are, the whole nest of you together, eh?" he exclaimed.
+"Good! Very good indeed! Prince Shan, the poisoner! Dorminster, enjoying
+your brief triumph, eh? And you, Naida Karetsky, traitress to your
+country--deceiver--"
+
+"That will do, Immelan," Nigel interrupted sharply. "We are all here.
+What do you want with us?"
+
+"That comes," Immelan replied. "Soon you shall all know why I have come!
+Let me speak to my friend Shan for a moment. I carry your poison in my
+veins, but there is a chance--just a chance," he added slowly, with a
+horrible smile upon his lips, "that you may go first, after all."
+
+Nigel made a stealthy but rapid movement forward, drawing Naida gently
+out of the way. Immelan was too quick, however. He swung around, showing
+the revolver which he had been concealing behind him, and moved to one
+side until his back was against one of the pillars. By this time, most
+of the other occupants of the ballroom had either rushed screaming away
+altogether, or were hiding, peering out in fascinated horror from the
+different recesses. The chief ma�tre d'h�tel bravely held his ground and
+came to within a few paces of Immelan.
+
+"We can't have any brawling here," he said. "Put that revolver away."
+
+Immelan took no notice of the intervener, except that for a single
+moment the muzzle yawned in the latter's face. The ma�tre d'h�tel was a
+brave man, but he had a wife and family, and after all, it was not his
+affair. There were other men there to look after the ladies. He hurried
+off to call for the police. Almost as he went, Prince Shan stepped into
+the foreground. His voice was calm and expressionless. His eyes, in
+which there shone no shadow of fear, were steadily fixed upon Immelan.
+He spoke without flurry.
+
+"So you carry your own weapons to-night, Immelan," he said. "That at
+least is more like a man. You seem to have a grievance against every
+one. Start with me. What is it?"
+
+There were some of them who wondered why, at this juncture when he so
+clearly dominated his assailant, Prince Shan, whose courage was superb
+and whose _sang froid_ absolutely unshaken did not throw himself upon
+this intruder and take his chance of bringing the matter to an end at
+the moment when the man's nerve was undoubtedly shaken. Then they looked
+towards the entrance, and they understood. Creeping towards the little
+gathering came Li Wen and another of the Prince's suite, a younger and
+even more active man. The two came on tiptoe, crouching and moving
+warily, with the gleam of the tiger in their anxious eyes. Maggie caught
+a warning glance from Nigel and looked away.
+
+"You are my murderer!" Immelan cried hoarsely. "It is through you I
+suffer these pains! I am dying of your accursed poison!"
+
+"If that were true," Prince Shan replied, with the air of one willing to
+discuss the subject impartially, "might I remind you of Sen Lu, who died
+in my box at the Albert Hall? For whom was that dagger thrust meant,
+Immelan? Not for the man whom you had bought to betray me, the only one
+of my suite who has ever been tempted with gold. That dagger thrust was
+meant for me, and the assassin was one of your creatures. So even if
+your words were true, Immelan, and the poison which you imagine to be in
+your body were planted there by me, are we less than quits?"
+
+Immelan's lie was unconvincing.
+
+"I know nothing of Sen Lu's death," he declared. "I employ no assassins.
+When there is killing to be done, I can do it myself. I am here to-night
+for that purpose. You have deserted me at the last moment, Prince
+Shan--played me and my country false for the sake of the English woman
+whom you think to carry back with you to China. And you," he added,
+turning with a sudden furious glance at Naida, "you have deceived the
+man who trusted you, the man who sent you here for one purpose, and one
+purpose only. You have done your best to ruin my scheme. Not only that,
+but you have given the love which was mine--mine, I say--to another--an
+Englishman! I hate you all! That is why I, a dying man, have crawled
+here to reap my little harvest of vengeance.--You, Naida--you shall be
+first--"
+
+Naida was suddenly swung on one side, and the shot which rang out passed
+through Nigel's coat sleeve, grazing his wrist,--the only shot that was
+fired. Prince Shan, watching for his moment, as his two attendants threw
+themselves upon the madman from behind, himself sprang forward, knocked
+Immelan's right hand up with a terrible blow, and sent the revolver
+crashing to the ground. It was a matter of a few seconds. Immelan, when
+he felt himself seized, scarcely struggled. The courage of his madness
+seemed to pass, the venom died out of his face, he shook like a man in
+an ague. Prince Shan kicked the revolver on one side and looked
+scornfully down upon him, now a nerveless wreck.
+
+"Immelan," he said, "it is a pity that you did not wait until to-morrow
+morning. You would then have known the truth. You are no more poisoned
+than I am. If you had been in China--well, who knows? In England there
+is so much prejudice against the taking of a worthless life that as a
+guest I subscribed to it and mixed a little orris-root tooth powder
+with your vermouth."
+
+The man's eyes suddenly opened. He was feverishly, frantically anxious.
+
+"Tell me that again," he shrieked. "You mean it? Swear that you mean
+it."
+
+Prince Shan's gesture as he turned away was one of supreme contempt.
+
+"A Shan," he said, "never needs to repeat."
+
+There was the bustle of arriving police, the story of a revolver which
+had gone off by accident, a very puzzling contretemps expounded for
+their benefit. The situation, and the participants in it, seemed to
+dissolve with such facility that it was hard for any one to understand
+what had actually happened. Prince Shan, with Maggie on his arm, was
+talking to the leader of the orchestra, who had suddenly reappeared. The
+former turned to his companion.
+
+"It is not my custom to dance," he said, "but the waltz that they were
+beginning to play seemed to me to have a little of the lure of our own
+music. Will you do me the honour?"
+
+They moved away to the music. Chalmers stood and watched them, with one
+hand in his pocket and the other on Nigel's shoulder. He turned to
+Naida, who was on the other side.
+
+"Nothing like a touch of melodrama for the emotions," he grumbled. "Look
+at Lady Maggie! Her head might be touching the clouds, and I never saw
+her eyes shine like that when she danced with me."
+
+"You don't dance as well as Prince Shan, old fellow," Nigel told him.
+
+"And the Prince sails for China at dawn," Naida murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Prince Shan stood in the tiny sitting room of his suite upon the _Black
+Dragon_ and looked around him critically. The walls were of black oak,
+with white inlaid plaques on which a great artist had traced little
+fanciful figures,--a quaint Chinese landscape, a temple, a flower-hung
+pagoda. There were hangings of soft, blue silk tapestry, brought from
+one of his northern palaces. The cloth which covered the table was of
+the finest silk. There were several bowls of flowers, a couch, and two
+comfortable chairs. Through the open doors of the two bedchambers came a
+faint glimpse of snow-white linen, a perfume reminiscent at once of
+almond blossom, green tea, and crushed lavender, and in the little room
+beyond glistened a silver bath. Already attired for the voyage, his
+pilot stood on the threshold.
+
+"Is all well, your Highness?" he asked.
+
+"Everything is in order," Prince Shan replied. "Ching Su is a perfect
+steward."
+
+"The reverend gentleman is in his room, your Highness," the pilot went
+on. "All the supplies have arrived, and the crew are at their stations.
+At what hour will it please your Highness to start?"
+
+Prince Shan looked through the open window, along the wooden platform,
+out to the broad stretch of road which led to London.
+
+"I announced the hour of my departure as six o'clock," he replied. "I
+cannot leave before in case of any farewell message. Is the woman of
+whom I spoke to you here?"
+
+"She is in attendance, your Highness."
+
+"She understands that she will not be required unless my other passenger
+should desire to accompany us?"
+
+"She understands perfectly, your Highness."
+
+Prince Shan stepped through his private exit on to the narrow wooden
+platform. Already the mighty engines had started, purring softly but
+deeply, like the deep-throated murmurings of a giant soon to break into
+a roar. It was a light, silvery morning, with hidden sunshine
+everywhere. On the other side of the vast amphitheatre of flat,
+cinder-covered ground, the Downs crept upwards, rolling away to the
+blue-capped summit of a distant range of hills. Northwards, the pall of
+London darkened the horizon. An untidy medley of houses and factories
+stretched almost to the gates of the vast air terminus. Listening
+intently, one could catch the faint roar of the city's awakening
+traffic, punctuated here and there by the shrill whistling of tugs in
+the river, hidden from sight by a shroud of ghostly mist. The dock on
+which Prince Shan stood was one apportioned to foreign royalty and
+visitors of note. A hundred yards away, the Madrid boat was on the point
+of starting, her whistles already blowing, and her engines commencing to
+beat. Presently the great machinery which assisted her flight from the
+ground commenced its sullen roar. There was a chorus of farewell shouts
+and she glided up into the air, a long row of people waving farewells
+from the windows. Prince Shan glanced at his watch,--twenty minutes to
+six. He paced the wooden boards and looked again,--ten minutes to six.
+Then he stopped suddenly. Along that gleaming stretch of private road
+came a car, driven at a rapid pace. Prince Shan stood and watched it,
+and as he watched, it seemed almost as though the hidden sun had caught
+his face and transfigured it. He stood as might stand a man who feels
+his feet upon the clouds. His lips trembled. There was no one there to
+see--his attendants stood respectfully in the background--but in his
+eyes was a rare moisture, and for a single moment a little choking at
+his throat. The car turned in under the arched roof. Prince Shan's
+servants, obeying his gesture, hurried forward and threw open the gates.
+The heavily laden limousine came to a standstill. Three people
+descended. Nigel and Naida lingered, watching the luggage being
+unloaded. Maggie came forward alone.
+
+They met a few yards from the entrance to the platform. Prince Shan was
+bare-headed, and Maggie, at least, saw those wonderful things in his
+face. He bent down and took her hands in his.
+
+"Dear and sweet soul," he whispered, as his lips touched her fingers,
+"may my God and yours grant that you shall find happiness!"
+
+Her own eyes were wet as she smiled up at him.
+
+"I have been so long making up my mind," she said, "and yet I knew all
+the time. I am so glad--so happy that I have come. Think, too, how
+wonderful a start! We leave the earth for the clouds."
+
+"It is a wonderful allegory," he answered, smiling. "We will take it
+into our hearts, dear one. It rests within the power of every human
+being to search for happiness and, in searching, to find it. I am
+fortunate because I can take you to beautiful places. I can spell out
+for you the secrets of a new art and a new beauty. We can walk in fairy
+gardens. I can give you jewels such as Europe has never seen, but I can
+give you, Maggie, nothing so strange and wonderful, even to me who know
+myself, as the love which fills my heart."
+
+Her laugh was like music.
+
+"I am going to be so happy," she murmured.
+
+The other two approached and they all shook hands. They looked over the
+amazing little rooms, watched the luggage stowed away in some marvellous
+manner, saw the crew, every one at his station like a motionless figure.
+Then a whistle was blown, and once more they all clasped hands.
+
+"Very soon," Prince Shan promised, as he and Maggie leaned from the
+window of the car, "I shall send the _Black Dragon_ for you, Lord
+Dorminster, and for the one other whom I think you may wish to bring.
+Asia is not so far off, these days, and Maggie will love to see her
+friends."
+
+Almost imperceptibly the giant airship floated away.
+
+"Watch, both of you," Maggie cried. "I am sending you down a farewell
+present." She whispered to Prince Shan, who handed her something from
+his pocket, smiled, and gave an order. The great ship passed in a
+semicircle and hovered almost exactly above their heads. A little shower
+of small scraps of paper came floating down. Nigel picked one up,
+examined it, and understood. He waved his hat.
+
+"It is Maggie's farewell gift to England," he said, "the treaty which
+Prince Shan never signed."
+
+They stood side by side, watching. With incredible speed, the _Black
+Dragon_ passed into the clouds and out again. Then, as it roared away
+eastwards, the sun suddenly disclosed itself. The airship mounted
+towards it, shimmering and gleaming in every part. Naida passed her hand
+a little shyly through her companion's arm.
+
+"Isn't that rather a wonderful way to depart in search of happiness?"
+she murmured.
+
+He smiled down at her.
+
+"I do not think that we shall find the search very difficult, dear," he
+said, "though our feet may remain upon the earth."
+
+Naida's lip quivered for a moment. Then she caught a glimpse of his face
+and gave a little sigh of content.
+
+"There is heaven everywhere," she whispered.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Prince Shan, by E. Phillips
+Oppenheim</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Great Prince Shan</p>
+<p>Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim</p>
+<p>Release Date: August 6, 2004  [eBook #13123]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN***</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Steven desJardins<br>
+    and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN</h1>
+
+<h2>BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM</h2>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4>1922</h4>
+
+<br />
+
+<h3><a href='#THE_GREAT_PRINCE_SHAN'>THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN</a></h3>
+<h4><a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XI'>CHAPTER XI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XII'>CHAPTER XII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XIII'>CHAPTER XIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XIV'>CHAPTER XIV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XV'>CHAPTER XV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XVI'>CHAPTER XVI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XVII'>CHAPTER XVII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XVIII'>CHAPTER XVIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XIX'>CHAPTER XIX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XX'>CHAPTER XX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXI'>CHAPTER XXI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXII'>CHAPTER XXII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXIII'>CHAPTER XXIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXIV'>CHAPTER XXIV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXV'>CHAPTER XXV</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXVI'>CHAPTER XXVI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXVII'>CHAPTER XXVII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXVIII'>CHAPTER XXVIII</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXIX'>CHAPTER XXIX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXX'>CHAPTER XXX</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXXI'>CHAPTER XXXI</a><br />
+<a href='#CHAPTER_XXXII'>CHAPTER XXXII</a></h4>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='THE_GREAT_PRINCE_SHAN'></a><h2>THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN</h2>
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_I'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;A club for diplomats and gentlemen,&quot; Prince Karschoff remarked, looking
+lazily through a little cloud of tobacco smoke around the spacious but
+almost deserted card room. &quot;The classification seems comprehensive
+enough, yet it seems impossible to get even a decent rubber of bridge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Daniel Harker, a many years retired plenipotentiary to one of the
+smaller Powers, shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Personally, I have come to the conclusion,&quot; he declared, &quot;that the
+<i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i> for the club seems to be passing. There is no diplomacy,
+nowadays, and every man who pays his taxes is a gentleman. Kingley, you
+are the youngest. Ransack the club and find a fourth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Honourable Nigel Kingley smiled lazily from the depths of his
+easy-chair. He was a young Englishman of normal type, long-limbed,
+clean-shaven, with good features, a humorous mouth and keen grey eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In actual years,&quot; he admitted, &quot;I may have the advantage of you two,
+but so far as regards the qualities of youth, Karschoff is the youngest
+man here. Besides, no one could refuse him anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a subterfuge,&quot; the Prince objected, &quot;but if I must go, I will go
+presently. We will wait five minutes, in case Providence should be kind
+to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three men relapsed into silence. They were seated in a comfortable
+recess of the card room of the St. Philip's Club. The atmosphere of the
+apartment seemed redolent with suggestions of faded splendour. There was
+a faint perfume of Russian calf from the many rows of musty volumes
+which still filled the stately bookcases. The oil paintings which hung
+upon the walls belonged to a remote period. In a distant corner, four
+other men were playing bridge, speechless and almost motionless, the
+white faces of two of them like cameos under the electric light and
+against the dark walls. There was no sound except the soft patter of the
+cards and the subdued movements of a servant preparing another bridge
+table by the side of the three men. Then the door of the room was
+quietly opened and closed. A man of youthful middle-age, carefully
+dressed, with a large, clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and fair hair
+sprinkled with grey, came towards them. He was well set up, almost
+anxiously ingratiating in manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see now what Providence has sent,&quot; Sir Daniel Harker observed under
+his breath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is enough to make an atheist of one, this!&quot; the Prince muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any bridge?&quot; the newcomer enquired, seating himself at the table and
+shuffling one of the packs of cards.</p>
+
+<p>The three men rose to their feet with varying degrees of unwillingness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan is too good for us,&quot; Sir Daniel grumbled. &quot;He always wins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am lucky,&quot; the newcomer admitted, &quot;but I may be your partner; in
+which case, you too will win.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are my partner,&quot; the Prince declared, &quot;I shall play for five
+pounds a hundred. I desire to gamble. London is beginning to weary me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Kingley is a better player, though not so lucky,&quot; Immelan
+acknowledged, with a little bow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never believe it, with all due respect to our young friend here,&quot; Sir
+Daniel replied, as he cut a card. &quot;Kingley plays like a man with brain
+but without subtlety. In a duel between you two, I would back Immelan
+every time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kingley took his place at the table with a little gesture of
+resignation. He looked across the table to where Immelan sat displaying
+the card which he had just cut. The eyes of the two men met. A few
+seconds of somewhat significant silence followed. Then Immelan gathered
+up the cards.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have the utmost respect for Mr. Kingley as an adversary,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>The latter bowed a little ironically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May you always preserve that sentiment! To-day, chance seems to have
+made us partners. Your deal, Mr. Immelan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What stakes?&quot; the Prince enquired, settling himself down in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are for you to name,&quot; Immelan declared.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince laughed shortly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe you are as great a gambler at heart as I am,&quot; he observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Mr. Kingley for my partner, and the game one of skill,&quot; was the
+courteous reply, &quot;I do not need to limit my stakes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A servant crossed the room, bringing a note upon a tray. He presented it
+to Kingley, who opened and read it through without change of
+countenance. When he had finished it, however, he laid his cards face
+downwards upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; he said, &quot;I owe you my most profound apologies. I am called
+away at once on a matter of urgent business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this is most annoying,&quot; the Prince declared irritably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here comes my saviour,&quot; Kingley remarked, as another man entered the
+card room. &quot;Henderson will take my place. Glad I haven't to break you
+up, after all. Henderson, will you play a rubber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer assented. Nigel Kingley made his adieux and crossed the
+room. Immelan watched him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is our friend Kingley's profession?&quot; he enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has no profession,&quot; Sir Daniel replied. &quot;He has never come into
+touch with the sordid needs of these money-grubbing days. He is the
+nephew and heir of the Earl of Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan looked away from the retreating figure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster,&quot; he murmured. &quot;The same Lord Dorminster who was in the
+Government many years ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was Foreign Secretary when I was Governor of Jamaica,&quot; Sir Daniel
+answered. &quot;A very brilliant man he was in those days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan nodded thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel Kingley, on leaving the St. Philip's Club, was driven at once, in
+the automobile which he found awaiting him, to a large corner house in
+Belgrave Square, which he entered with the air of an habitu&eacute;. The
+waiting major-domo took him at once in charge and piloted him across the
+hall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His lordship is very much occupied, Mr. Nigel,&quot; he announced. &quot;He is
+not seeing any other callers. He left word, however, that you were to be
+shown in the moment you arrived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His lordship is quite well, I hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well in health, sir, but worried, and I don't wonder at it,&quot; the man
+replied, speaking with the respectful freedom of an old servant. &quot;I
+never thought I'd live to see such times as these.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A man in the early sixties, still good-looking, notwithstanding a
+somewhat worn expression, looked up from his seat at the library table
+on Kingley's entrance. He nodded, but waited until the door was closed
+behind the retreating servant before he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good of you to come, Nigel,&quot; he said. &quot;Bring your chair up here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bad news?&quot; the newcomer enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Damnable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief silence, during which Nigel, knowing his uncle's
+humours, leaned back in his chair and waited. Upon the table was a
+little pile of closely written manuscript, and by their side several
+black-bound code books, upon which the &quot;F.O.Private&quot; still remained,
+though almost obliterated with time. Lord Dorminster's occupation was
+apparent. He was decoding a message of unusual length. Presently he
+turned away from the table, however, and faced his nephew. His hands
+travelled to his waistcoat pocket. He drew out a cigarette from a thin
+gold case, lit it and began to smoke. Then he crossed his legs and
+leaned a little farther back in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; he said, &quot;we are living in strange times.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one denies that, sir,&quot; was the grave assent.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Dorminster glanced at the calendar which stood upon the desk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-day,&quot; he continued, &quot;is the twenty-third day of March, nineteen
+hundred and thirty-four. Fifteen years ago that terrible Peace Treaty
+was signed. Since then you know what the history of our country has
+been. I am not blowing my own trumpet when I say that nearly every man
+with true political insight has been cast adrift. At the present moment
+the country is in the hands of a body of highly respectable and
+well-meaning men who, as a parish council, might conduct the affairs of
+Dorminster Town with unqualified success. As statesmen they do not
+exist. It seems to me, Nigel, that you and I are going to see in reality
+that spectre which terrified the world twenty years ago. We are going to
+see the breaking up of a mighty empire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what has happened or is going to happen,&quot; Nigel begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, for one thing,&quot; his uncle replied, &quot;the Emperor of the East is
+preparing for a visit to Europe. He will be here probably next month.
+You know whom I mean, of course?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan!&quot; Nigel exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan of China,&quot; Lord Dorminster assented. &quot;His coming links up
+many things which had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what happens
+during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide the destinies of this
+country, and yet I wouldn't mind betting you a thousand to one that
+there isn't a single official of the Government who has the slightest
+idea as to why he is coming, or that he is coming at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan for the moment, Nigel. Now
+listen. You go about a great deal. What do people say about
+me&mdash;honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the light.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They call you a faddist and a scaremonger,&quot; Nigel confessed, &quot;yet there
+are one or two, especially at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and
+ambassadors whose place in the world has passed away, who think and
+believe differently. You know, sir, that I am amongst them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; he said, &quot;I fancy I am about to prove myself. Seven years ago,
+it was,&quot; he went on reminiscently, &quot;when the new National Party came
+into supreme power. You know one of their first battle cries&mdash;'Down with
+all secret treaties! Down with all secret diplomacy! Let nothing exist
+but an honest commercial understanding between the different countries
+of the world!' How Germany and Russia howled with joy! In place of an
+English statesman with his country's broad interests at heart, we have
+in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen representatives of the great
+industries, whose object, in their own words, is, I believe, to develop
+friendly commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between the nations.
+Not only our ambassadors but our secret service were swept clean out of
+existence. I remember going to Broadley, the day he was appointed
+Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple question. I asked him whether
+he did not consider it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of
+the other great nations, however friendly they might seem, to keep
+himself assured that all these expressions of good will were honourable,
+and that in the heart of the German nation that great craving for
+revenge which is the natural heritage of the present generation had
+really become dissipated. Broadley smiled at me. 'Lord Dorminster,' he
+said, 'the chief cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We look
+upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It is the people of Germany
+with whom we are in touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
+of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides, there is the League
+of Nations.' Those were Broadley's views then, and they are his views
+to-day. You know what I did?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel assented cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few of us,&quot; he observed. &quot;You
+have been running an unofficial secret service of your own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Precisely! I have had a few agents at work for over a year, and when I
+have finished decoding this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which
+will prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold of terrible
+events. The worst of it is&mdash;well, we have been found out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Nigel asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle's sensitive lips quivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You knew Sidwell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sidwell was found stabbed to the heart in a caf&eacute; in Petrograd, three
+weeks ago,&quot; Lord Dorminster announced. &quot;An official report of the
+enquiry into his death informs his relatives that his death was due to a
+quarrel with some Russian sailors over one of the women of the quarter
+where he was found.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Horrible!&quot; Nigel muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sidwell was one of those unnatural people, as you know,&quot; Lord
+Dorminster went on, &quot;who never touched wine or spirits and who hated
+women. To continue. Atcheson was a friend of yours, wasn't he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course! He was at Eton with me. It was I who first brought him here
+to dine. Don't tell me that anything has happened to Jim Atcheson!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This dispatch is from him,&quot; Lord Dorminster replied, indicating the
+pile of manuscript upon the table,&mdash;&quot;a dispatch which came into my hands
+in a most marvellous fashion. He died last week in a nursing home
+in&mdash;well, let us say a foreign capital. The professor in charge of the
+hospital sends a long report as to the unhappy disease from which he
+suffered. As a matter of fact, he was poisoned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel Kingley had been a soldier in his youth and he was a brave man.
+Nevertheless, the horror of these things struck a cold chill to his
+heart. He seemed suddenly to be looking into the faces of spectres, to
+hear the birth of the winds of destruction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is all I have to say to you for the moment,&quot; his uncle concluded
+gravely. &quot;In an hour I shall have finished decoding this dispatch, and I
+propose then to take you into my entire confidence. In the meantime, I
+want you to go and talk for a few minutes to the cleverest woman in
+England, the woman who, in the face of a whole army of policemen and
+detectives, crossed the North Sea yesterday afternoon with this in her
+pocket.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean Maggie?&quot; Nigel exclaimed eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will find her in the boudoir,&quot; he said. &quot;I told her that you were
+coming. In an hour's time, return here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Dorminster rose to his feet as his nephew turned to depart. He laid
+his hand upon the latter's shoulder, and Nigel always remembered the
+grave kindliness of his tone and expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; he sighed, &quot;I am afraid I shall be putting upon your shoulders
+a terrible burden, but there is no one else to whom I can turn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one else to whom you ought to turn, sir,&quot; the young man
+replied simply. &quot;I shall be back in an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_II'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Lady Maggie Trent, a stepdaughter of the Earl of Dorminster, was one of
+those young women who had baffled description for some years before she
+had commenced to take life seriously. She was neither fair nor dark,
+petite nor tall. No one could ever have called her nondescript, or have
+extolled any particular grace of form or feature. Her complexion had
+defied the ravages of sun and wind and that moderate indulgence in
+cigarettes and cocktails which the youth of her day affected. Her nose
+was inclined to be retrouss&eacute;, her mouth tender but impudent, her grey
+eyes mostly veiled in expression but capable of wonderful changes. She
+was curled up in a chair when Nigel entered, immersed in a fashion
+paper. She held out her left hand, which he raised to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Nigel, dear,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;what do you think of my new
+profession?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hate it,&quot; he answered frankly.</p>
+
+<p>She sighed and laid down the fashion paper resignedly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You always did object to a woman doing anything in the least useful. Do
+you realise that if anything in the world can save this stupid old
+country, I have done it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I realise that you've been running hideous risks,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him petulantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What of it?&quot; she demanded. &quot;We all run risks when we do anything worth
+while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not quite the sort that you have been facing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know exactly where I have been?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No idea,&quot; he confessed. &quot;What my uncle has just told me was a complete
+revelation, so far as I was concerned. I believed, with the rest of the
+world, what the newspapers announced&mdash;that you were visiting Japan and
+China, and afterwards the South Sea Islands, with the Wendercombes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dad wanted to tell you,&quot; she said, &quot;but it was I who made him promise
+not to. I was afraid you would be disagreeable about it. We arranged it
+all with the Wendercombes, but as a matter of fact I did not even start
+with them. For the last eight months, I have been living part of the
+time in Berlin and part of the time in a country house near the Black
+Forest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a bit of it! I have been governess to the two daughters of Herr
+Essendorf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Essendorf, the President of the German Republic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lady Maggie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He isn't a bit like his pictures. He is a huge fat man and he eats a
+great deal too much. Oh, the horror of those meals!&quot; she added, with a
+little shudder. &quot;Think of me, dear Nigel, who never eat more than an
+omelette and some fruit for luncheon, compelled to sit down every day to
+a <i>mittagessen!</i> I wonder I have any digestion left at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you mean that you were there under your own name?&quot; he asked
+incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I secured some perfectly good testimonials before I left,&quot; she said.
+&quot;They referred to a Miss Brown, the daughter of Prebendary Brown. I was
+Miss Brown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great Heavens!&quot; Nigel muttered under his breath. &quot;You heard about
+Atcheson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor fellow, they got him all right. You talk about thrills, Nigel,&quot;
+she went on. &quot;Do you know that the last night before I left for my
+vacation, I actually heard that fat old Essendorf chuckling with his
+wife about how his clever police had laid an English spy by the heels,
+and telling her, also, of the papers which they had discovered and
+handed over. All the time the real dispatch, written by Atcheson when
+he was dying, was sewn into my corsets. How's that for an exciting
+situation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a man's job, anyhow,&quot; Nigel declared.</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders and abandoned the personal side of the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you been in Germany lately, Nigel?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for many years,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>She stretched herself out upon the couch and lit a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Germany of before the war of course I can't remember,&quot; she said
+pensively. &quot;I imagine, however, that there was a sort of instinctive
+jealous dislike towards England and everything English, simply because
+England had had a long start in colonisation, commerce and all the rest
+of it. But the feeling in Germany now, although it is marvellously
+hidden, is something perfectly amazing. It absolutely vibrates wherever
+you go. The silence makes it all the more menacing. Soon after I got to
+Berlin, I bought a copy of the Treaty of Peace and read it. Nigel, was
+it necessary to have been so bitterly cruel to a beaten enemy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Logically it would seem not,&quot; Nigel admitted. &quot;Actually, we cannot put
+ourselves back into the spirit of those days. You must remember that it
+was an unprovoked war, a war engineered by Germany for the sheer
+purposes of aggression. That is why a punitive spirit entered into our
+subsequent negotiations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I expect history will tell us some day,&quot; she continued, &quot;that we needed
+a great statesman of the Beaconsfield type at the Peace table. However,
+that is all ended. They sowed the seed at Versailles, and I think we are
+going to reap the harvest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all,&quot; Nigel observed thoughtfully, &quot;it is very difficult to see
+what practical interference there could be with the peace of the world.
+I can very well believe that the spirit is there, but when it comes to
+hard facts&mdash;well, what can they do? England can never be invaded. The
+war of 1914 proved that. Besides, Germany now has a representative on
+the League of Nations. She is bound to toe the line with the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked,&quot; Maggie reminded him.
+&quot;We seem somehow or other to have found our way into the bad books of
+every country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should attribute it,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;to the passing of our old
+school of ambassadors. After all, ambassadors are born, not made, and
+they should be&mdash;they very often were&mdash;men of rare tact and perceptions.
+We have no one now to inform us of the prejudices and humours of the
+nations. We often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many
+opportunities of a <i>rapprochement</i>. It is trade, trade, trade and
+nothing else, the whole of the time, and the men whom we sent to the
+different Courts to further our commercial interests are not the type to
+keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate matters which
+sometimes need adjustment between two countries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may be the explanation of all the bad feeling,&quot; Maggie admitted,
+&quot;and you may be right when you say that any practical move against us is
+almost impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is terribly
+exercised about the coming of Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must get him to talk to me,&quot; Nigel said. &quot;As a matter of fact, I
+don't think that we need fear Asiatic intervention over here. Prince
+Shan is too great a diplomatist to risk his country's new prosperity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan,&quot; Maggie declared, &quot;is the one man in the world I am
+longing to meet. He was at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For one year only. He went from there to Harvard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what he was like,&quot; she begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have only a hazy recollection of him,&quot; Nigel confessed. &quot;He was a
+most brilliant scholar and a fine horseman. I can't remember whether he
+did anything at games.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-looking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved, though, and even in those
+days he was far more exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
+thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he would become Asia's great
+man. I'll tell you all that I can remember about him another time,
+Maggie. I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson's. Have you any
+idea what it is about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None at all. It is in the old Foreign Office cipher and it looks like
+gibberish. I only know that the first few lines he transcribed gave dad
+the jumps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder if he has finished it by now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'll send for you when he has. How do you think I am looking, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wonderful,&quot; he answered, rising to his feet and standing with his elbow
+upon the mantelpiece, gazing down at her. &quot;But then you <i>are</i> wonderful,
+aren't you, Maggie? You know I always thought so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a mirror from the little bag by her side and scrutinized
+her features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It can't be my face,&quot; she decided, turning towards him with a smile. &quot;I
+must have charm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your face is adorable,&quot; he declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you going to flirt with me?&quot; she asked, with a faint smile at the
+corners of her lips. &quot;You always do it so well and so convincingly. And
+I hate foreigners. They are terribly in earnest but there is no finesse
+about them. You may kiss me just once, please, Nigel, the way I like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He held her for a moment in his arms, tenderly, but with a reserve to
+which she was accustomed from him. Presently she thrust him away. Her
+own colour had risen a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Delightful,&quot; she murmured. &quot;Think of the wasted months! No one has
+kissed me, Nigel, since we said good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you made up your mind to marry me yet?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear,&quot; she answered, patting his hand, &quot;do restrain your ardour. Do
+you really want to marry me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't love me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am awfully fond of you,&quot; he assured her, &quot;and I don't love any one
+else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't enough, Nigel,&quot; she declared, &quot;and, strange to say, it's
+exactly how I feel about you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see why it shouldn't be enough,&quot; he argued. &quot;Perhaps we have
+too much common sense for these violent feelings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be that,&quot; she admitted doubtfully. &quot;On the other hand, don't
+let's run any risk. I should hate to find an affinity, and all that sort
+of thing, after marriage&mdash;divorce in these days is such shocking bad
+form. Besides, honestly, Nigel, I don't feel frivolous enough to think
+about marriage just now. I have the feeling that even while the clock is
+ticking we are moving on to terrible things. I can't tell you quite what
+it is. I carried my life in my hands during those last few days abroad.
+I dare say this is the reaction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled reassuringly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all, you are safe at home now, dear,&quot; he reminded her, &quot;and I
+really am very fond of you, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I'm quite absurdly fond of you, Nigel,&quot; she acknowledged. &quot;It makes
+me feel quite uncomfortable when I reflect that I shall probably have to
+order you to make love to some one else before the week is out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall do nothing of the sort,&quot; he declared firmly. &quot;I am not good at
+that sort of thing. And who is she, anyhow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door&mdash;not the discreet
+tap of a well-bred domestic, but a flurried, almost an imperative
+summons. Before either of them could reply, the door was opened and
+Brookes, the elderly butler, presented himself upon the threshold. Even
+before he spoke, it was clear that he brought alarming news.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you step down to the library at once, sir?&quot; he begged, addressing
+Nigel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the matter, Brookes?&quot; Maggie demanded anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear that his lordship is not well,&quot; the man replied.</p>
+
+<p>They all hurried out together. Brookes was evidently terribly perturbed
+and went on talking half to himself without heeding their questions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought at first that his lordship must have fainted,&quot; he said. &quot;I
+heard a queer noise, and when I went in, he had fallen forward across
+the table. Parkins has rung for Doctor Wilcox.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What sort of a noise?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounded like a shot,&quot; the man faltered.</p>
+
+<p>They entered the library, Nigel leading the way. Lord Dorminster was
+lying very much as Brookes had described him, but there was something
+altogether unnatural in the collapse of his head and shoulders and his
+motionless body. Nigel spoke to him, touched him gently, raised him at
+last into a sitting position. Something on which his right hand seemed
+to have been resting clattered on to the carpet. Nigel turned around and
+waved Maggie back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't come,&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it a stroke?&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid that he is dead,&quot; Nigel answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>They went out into the hall and waited there in shocked silence until
+the doctor arrived. The latter's examination lasted only a few seconds.
+Then he pointed to the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is very terrible,&quot; he said. &quot;I am afraid you had better ring up
+Scotland Yard, Mr. Kingley. Lord Dorminster appears either to have shot
+himself, as seems most probable,&quot; he added, glancing at the revolver
+upon the carpet, &quot;or to have been murdered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is incredible!&quot; Nigel exclaimed. &quot;He was the sanest possible man,
+and the happiest, and he hadn't an enemy in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The physician pointed downwards to the revolver. Then he unfastened once
+more the dead man's waistcoat, opened his shirt and indicated a small
+blue mark just over his heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is how he died,&quot; he said. &quot;It must have been instantaneous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Time seemed to beat out its course in leaden seconds whilst they waited
+for the superintendent from Scotland Yard. Nigel at first stood still
+for some moments. From outside came the cheerful but muffled roar of the
+London streets, the hooting of motor horns, the rumbling of wheels, the
+measured footfall of the passing multitude. A boy went by, whistling;
+another passed, calling hoarsely the news from the afternoon papers. A
+muffin man rang his bell, a small boy clattered his stick against the
+area bailing. The whole world marched on, unmoved and unnoticing. In
+this sombre apartment alone tragedy reigned in sinister silence. On the
+sofa, Lord Dorminster, who only half an hour ago had seemed to be in
+the prime of life and health, lay dead.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel moved towards the writing-table and stood looking at it in wonder.
+The code book still remained, but there was not the slightest sign of
+any manuscript or paper of any sort. He even searched the drawers of the
+desk without result. Every trace of Atcheson's dispatch and Lord
+Dorminster's transcription of it had disappeared!</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_III'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>On a certain day some weeks after the adjourned inquest and funeral of
+Lord Dorminster, Nigel obtained a long-sought-for interview with the
+Right Honourable Mervin Brown, who had started life as a factory
+inspector and was now Prime Minister of England. The great man received
+his visitor with an air of good-natured tolerance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heard of you from Scotland Yard, haven't I, Lord Dorminster?&quot; he said,
+as he waved him to a seat. &quot;I gather that you disagreed very strongly
+with the open verdict which was returned at the inquest upon your
+uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The verdict was absolutely at variance with the facts,&quot; Nigel declared.
+&quot;My uncle was murdered, and a secret report of certain doings on the
+continent, which he was decoding at the time, was stolen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The medical evidence scarcely bears out your statement,&quot; Mr. Mervin
+Brown pointed out dryly, &quot;nor have the police been able to discover how
+any one could have obtained access to the room, or left it, without
+leaving some trace of their visit behind. Further, there are no
+indications of a robbery having been attempted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I happen to know more than any one else about this matter,&quot; Nigel
+urged,&mdash;&quot;more, even, than I thought it advisable to mention at the
+inquest&mdash;and I beg you to listen to me, Mr. Mervin Brown. I know that
+you considered my uncle to be in some respects a crank, because he was
+far-seeing enough to understand that under the seeming tranquillity
+abroad there is a universal and deep-seated hatred of this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I look upon that statement as misleading and untrue,&quot; the Minister
+declared. &quot;Your late uncle belonged to that mischievous section of
+foreign politicians who believed in secret treaties and secret service,
+and who fostered a state of nervous unrest between countries otherwise
+disposed to be friendly. We have turned over a new leaf, Lord
+Dorminster. Our efforts are all directed towards developing an
+international spirit of friendliness and trust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Utopian but very short-sighted,&quot; Nigel commented. &quot;If my uncle had
+lived to finish decoding the report upon which he was engaged, I could
+have offered you proof not only of the existence of the spirit I speak
+of, but of certain practical schemes inimical to this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The papers you speak of have disappeared,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown observed,
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They were taken away by the person who murdered my uncle,&quot; Nigel
+insisted.</p>
+
+<p>The Right Honourable gentleman nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you know my views about the affair,&quot; he said. &quot;I may add that
+they are confirmed by the police. I am in no way prejudiced, however,
+and am willing to listen to anything you may have to say which will not
+take you more than a quarter of an hour,&quot; he added, glancing at the
+clock upon his table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here goes, then,&quot; Nigel began. &quot;My uncle was a statesman of the old
+school who had no faith in the Utopian programme of the present
+Government of this country. When you abandoned any pretence of a
+continental secret service, he at his own expense instituted a small one
+of his own. He sent two men out to Germany and one to Russia. The one
+sent to Russia was the man Sidwell, whose murder in a Petrograd caf&eacute; you
+may have read of. Of the two sent to Germany, one has disappeared, and
+the other died in hospital, without a doubt poisoned, a few days after
+he had sent the report to England which was stolen from my uncle's desk.
+That report was brought over by Lady Maggie Trent, Lord Dorminster's
+stepdaughter, who was really the brains of the enterprise and under
+another name was acting as governess to the children of Herr Essendorf,
+President of the German Republic. Half an hour before his death, my
+uncle was decoding this dispatch in his library. I saw him doing it, and
+I saw the dispatch itself. He told me that so far as he had gone
+already, it was full of information of the gravest import; that a
+definite scheme was already being formulated against this country by an
+absolutely unique and dangerous combination of enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those enemies being?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I can only surmise,&quot; he replied. &quot;My uncle had only commenced to
+decode the dispatch when I last saw him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I gather, Lord Dorminster,&quot; the Minister said, &quot;that you connect
+your uncle's death directly with the supposed theft of this document?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the conclusion you arrive at, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is an absolutely logical one,&quot; Nigel declared firmly. &quot;I assert that
+other countries are not falling into line with our lamentable abnegation
+of all secret service defence, and that, in plain words, my uncle was
+murdered by an agent of one of these countries, in order that the
+dispatch which had come into his hands should not be decoded and passed
+on to your Government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Right Honourable gentleman smiled slightly. He was a man of some
+natural politeness, but he found it hard to altogether conceal his
+incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he promised, &quot;I will consider all that you have
+said. Is there anything more I can do for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Nigel replied boldly. &quot;Induce the Cabinet to re&euml;stablish our
+Intelligence Department and secret service, even on a lesser scale, and
+don't rest until you have discovered exactly what it is they are
+plotting against us somewhere on the continent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To carry out your suggestions, Lord Dorminster,&quot; the Minister pointed
+out, &quot;would be to be guilty of an infringement of the spirit of the
+League of Nations, the existence of which body is, we believe, a
+practical assurance of our safety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As man to man, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;I see you don't believe a word of what I
+have been telling you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As man to man,&quot; the other admitted pleasantly, as he touched the bell,
+&quot;I think you have been deceived.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Nigel, even as a prophet of woe, was a very human person and withal a
+philosopher. He strolled along Piccadilly and turned into Bond Street,
+thoroughly enjoying one of the first spring days of the season. Flower
+sellers were busy at every corner; the sky was blue, with tiny flecks of
+white clouds, there was even some dust stirred by the little puffs of
+west wind. He exchanged greetings with a few acquaintances, lingered
+here and there before the shop windows, and presently developed a fit of
+contemplation engendered by the thoughts which were all the time at the
+back of his mind. Bond Street was crowded with vehicles of all sorts,
+from wonderfully upholstered automobiles to the resuscitated victoria.
+The shop windows were laden with the treasures of the world, buyers were
+plentiful, promenaders multitudinous. Every one seemed to be cheerful
+but a little engrossed in the concrete act of living. Nigel almost ran
+into Prince Karschoff, at the corner of Grafton Street.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dreaming, my friend?&quot; the latter asked quietly, as he laid his hand
+upon Nigel's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Guilty,&quot; Nigel confessed. &quot;You are an observant man, Prince. Tell me
+whether anything strikes you about the Bond Street of to-day, compared
+with the Bond Street of, say, ten years ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Russian glanced around him curiously. He himself was a somewhat
+unusual figure in his distinctively cut morning coat, his carefully tied
+cravat, his silk hat, black and white check trousers and faultless white
+spats.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A certain decline of elegance,&quot; he murmured. &quot;And is it my fancy or has
+this country become a trifle Americanised as regards the headgear of its
+men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe our thoughts are moving in the same groove,&quot; he said. &quot;To me
+there seems to be a different class of people here, as though the
+denizens of West Kensington, suddenly enriched, had come to spend their
+money in new quarters. Not only that, but there is a difference in the
+wares set out in the shops, an absence of taste, if you can understand
+what I mean, as though the shopkeepers themselves understood that they
+were catering for a new class of people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the triumph of your <i>bourgeoisie</i>,&quot; the Russian declared. &quot;Your
+aristocrat is no longer able to survive. <i>Noblesse oblige</i> has no
+significance to the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he caters for
+the people who can write them. Let us pursue our reflections a little
+farther and in a different direction, my friend,&quot; he added, glancing at
+his watch. &quot;Lunch with me at the Ritz, and we will see whether the
+cookery, too, has been adapted to the new tastes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he
+many times afterwards remembered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two,&quot; he said
+doubtfully. &quot;Besides, I had half promised to be at the club.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not to-day,&quot; Karschoff insisted. &quot;To-day let us listen to the call of
+the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant
+will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps 'One for you and one for
+me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two
+men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many
+acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of
+mind, pointed out many of the habitu&eacute;s of the place to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age,&quot; he declared,
+a little bitterly. &quot;Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for
+a man without a country to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know everybody,&quot; Nigel replied, without reference to his
+companion's lament. &quot;Tell me who the woman is who has just entered?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff glanced in the direction indicated, and for a moment his
+somewhat saturnine expression changed. A smile played upon his lips, his
+eyes seemed to rest upon the figure of the girl half turned away from
+them with interest, almost with pleasure. She was of an unusual type,
+tall and dark, dressed in black with the simplicity of a nun, with only
+a little gleam of white at her throat. Her hair&mdash;so much of it as showed
+under her flower-garlanded hat&mdash;was as black as jet, and yet, where she
+stood in the full glare of the sunlight, the burnish of it was almost
+wine-coloured. Her cheeks were pale, her expression thoughtful. Her
+eyes, rather heavily lidded, were a deep shade of violet. Her mouth was
+unexpectedly soft and red.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, my friend, no wonder you ask!&quot; Karschoff declared with enthusiasm.
+&quot;That is a woman whom you must know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me her name,&quot; Nigel persisted with growing impatience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her name,&quot; Karschoff replied, &quot;is Naida Karetsky. She is the daughter
+of the man who will probably be the next President of the Russian
+Republic. You see, I can speak those words without a tremor. Her father
+at present represents the shipping interests of Russia and England. He
+is one of the authorised consuls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he of the party?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff scrutinised the approaching figures through his eyeglass and
+nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her father is the dark, broad-shouldered man with the square beard,&quot; he
+indicated. &quot;Immelan, as you can see, is the third. They are coming this
+way. We will speak of them afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida, with her father and Oscar Immelan, left some acquaintances with
+whom they had been talking and, preceded by a <i>ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel</i>, moved in
+the direction of the two men. The girl recognised the Prince with a
+charming little bow and was on the point of passing on when she
+appeared to notice his companion. For a moment she hesitated. The
+Prince, anticipating her desire to speak, rose at once to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mademoiselle,&quot; he said, bending over her hand, &quot;welcome back to
+England! You bring with you the first sunshine we have seen for many
+days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you being meteorological or complimentary?&quot; she asked, smiling.
+&quot;Will you present your companion? I have heard of Mr. Kingley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With the utmost pleasure,&quot; the Prince replied. &quot;Mr. Kingley, through
+the unfortunate death of a relative, is now the Earl of
+Dorminster&mdash;Mademoiselle Karetsky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel, as he made his bow, was conscious of an expression of something
+more than ordinary curiosity in the face of the girl who had herself
+aroused his interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are the son, then,&quot; she enquired, &quot;of Lord Dorminster who died
+about a month ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His nephew,&quot; Nigel explained. &quot;My uncle was unfortunately childless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met your uncle once in Paris,&quot; she said. &quot;It will give me great
+pleasure to make your better acquaintance. Will you and my dear friend
+here,&quot; she added, turning to the Prince, &quot;take coffee with us
+afterwards? I shall then introduce you to my father. Oscar Immelan you
+both know, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They murmured their delighted assent, and she passed on. Nigel watched
+her until she took her place at the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely that girl is well-born?&quot; he observed. &quot;I have never seen a more
+delightful carriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; Karschoff told him. &quot;Karetsky is a well-to-do man of
+commerce, but her mother was a Baroness Kolchekoff, a distant relative
+of my own. The Kolchekoffs lived on their estates, and as a matter of
+fact we never met. Naida has gone over to the people, though, body and
+soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is extraordinarily beautiful,&quot; Nigel remarked.</p>
+
+<p>His companion was swinging his eyeglass back and forth by its cord.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Many men have thought so,&quot; he replied. &quot;For myself, there is antagonism
+in my blood against her. I wonder whether I have done well or ill in
+making you two acquainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel felt a sudden desire to break through a certain seriousness which
+had come over his own thoughts and which was reflected in the other's
+tone. He shrugged his shoulders slightly and filled his glass with wine.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every man in the world is the better,&quot; he propounded, &quot;for adding to
+the circle of his acquaintances a beautiful woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sententious and a trifle inaccurate,&quot; the Prince objected, with a
+sudden flash of his white teeth. &quot;The beauty which is not for him has
+been many a man's undoing. But seriously, my quarrel with Naida is one
+of prejudice only. She is the confidante and the inspiration of
+Matinsky, and though one realises, of course, that so long as there is a
+Russian Republic there must be a Russian President, I suppose I should
+scarcely be human if I did not hate him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely,&quot; Nigel queried, &quot;she must be very much his junior?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky is forty-four,&quot; Karschoff said. &quot;Naida is twenty-six or
+twenty-seven. The disparity of years, you see, is not so great.
+Matinsky, however, is married to an invalid wife, and concerning Naida I
+have never heard one word of scandal. But this much is certain. Matinsky
+has the blandest confidence in her judgment and discretion. She has
+already been his unofficial ambassador in several capitals of Europe. I
+am convinced that she is here with a purpose. But enough of my
+country-people. We came here to be gay. Let us drink another bottle of
+wine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The joy of living seemed for a moment to reassert itself in Karschoff's
+face. His momentary fierceness, reminiscent of his Tartar ancestry, had
+passed, but it had left a shadow behind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At least one should be grateful,&quot; he conceded a moment later, &quot;for the
+distinction such a woman as Naida Karetsky brings into a room like this.
+Our Bond Street lament finds its proof here. Except for their
+clothes&mdash;so ill-worn, too, most of them&mdash;the women here remind one of
+Blackpool, and their men of Huddersfield. I am inclined to wish that I
+had taken you to Soho.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shook his head. His eyes had strayed to a distant corner of the
+room, where Naida and her two companions were seated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We cannot escape anywhere,&quot; he declared, &quot;from this overmastering wave
+of mediocrity. A couple of generations and a little intermarriage may
+put things right. A Chancellor of the Exchequer with genius, fifteen
+years ago, might even have prevented it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can claim, at any rate, a bloodless and unapparent revolution,&quot; the
+Prince observed. &quot;You chivied your aristocracy of birth out of existence
+with yellow papers, your aristocracy of mind with a devastating income
+tax. This is the class whom you left to gorge,&mdash;the war profiteers. I
+hope that whoever writes the history of these times will see that it is
+properly illustrated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the lounge, they had barely seated themselves before Naida, with her
+father and Immelan, appeared. The little party at once joined up, and
+Naida seated herself next to Nigel. She talked very slowly, but her
+accent amounted to little more than a prolongation of certain syllables,
+which had the effect of a rather musical drawl. Her father, after the
+few words of introduction had been spoken, strolled away to speak to
+some acquaintances, and Immelan and the Prince discussed with measured
+politeness one of the commonplace subjects of the moment. Naida and her
+companion became almost isolated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met your uncle once,&quot; Naida said, &quot;at a dinner party in Paris. I
+remember that he attracted me. He represented a class of Englishman of
+whom I had met very few, the thinking aristocrat with a sense for
+foreign affairs. It was some years ago, that. He remained outside
+politics, did he not, until his death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Outside all practical politics,&quot; Nigel assented. &quot;He had his interests,
+though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you inherited them?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He declined the challenge of her eyes. After all, she belonged to the
+Russia whose growing strength was the greatest menace to European peace,
+and whose attitude towards England was entirely uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My uncle and I were scarcely intimate,&quot; he said. &quot;I was never really in
+his confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so much so as Lady Maggie Trent? She would be your cousin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not a relationship of blood,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Lady Maggie was the
+daughter of my uncle's second wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is very charming,&quot; Naida murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find her delightful,&quot; Nigel agreed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is not only charming, but she has intelligence,&quot; Naida continued.
+&quot;I think that Lord Dorminster was very fond of her, that he trusted her
+with many of his secrets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had he secrets?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>She remained for a moment very thoughtful, smoking a thin cigarette
+through a long holder and watching the little rings of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; she said at last. &quot;I find your attitude the only
+correct one. Did you know that Maggie was a friend of mine, Lord
+Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can very well believe it,&quot; he answered, &quot;but I have never heard her
+speak of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! But she has been away for some months. You have not seen much of
+her, perhaps, since her return?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very little,&quot; he acquiesced. &quot;She only arrived in London just before my
+uncle's death, and since then I have had to spend some time at
+Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a matter of curiosity,&quot; Naida enquired, &quot;when do you expect to see
+her again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This afternoon, I hope,&quot; he replied,&mdash;&quot;directly I leave here, in fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you will give her a little message for me, please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With great pleasure!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell her from me&mdash;mind she understands this, if you please&mdash;that she
+is not to leave England again until we have met.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this a warning?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him searchingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder,&quot; she reflected, &quot;how much of you is Lord Dorminster's
+nephew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I, in my turn,&quot; he rejoined, with sudden boldness, &quot;wonder how much
+of you is Matinsky's envoy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She began to laugh softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster,&quot; she said. &quot;I should like
+to see more of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will permit me to call upon you,&quot; he begged eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for a little time. My father
+is trying to get a house. My sister is coming over to look after him. I
+am unfortunately only a bird of passage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shall not run the risk of missing you,&quot; he declared. &quot;I shall
+call very soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan intervened,&mdash;grim, suspicious, a little disturbed. For some
+reason or other, the meeting between these two young people seemed to
+have made him uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father has desired me to present his excuses to Lord Dorminster,&quot;
+he announced, &quot;and to escort you back to the Milan. He has been
+telephoned for from the Consulate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will not delay your call too long, Lord Dorminster?&quot; she enjoined,
+as she gave him her hand. &quot;I shall expect you the first afternoon you
+are free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not delay giving myself the pleasure,&quot; he assured her.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince. The two men stood together
+and watched her depart with her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really, one gains much through being an onlooker,&quot; the Prince
+reflected. &quot;There go the spirit of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You
+dabble in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you guess what they
+are met for&mdash;for whom they wait?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might guess,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;but I would rather be told.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They wait for the master spirit,&quot; Karschoff declared, taking his arm.
+&quot;They wait for the great Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_V'></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little room which the latter
+had used as a boudoir. They were discussing the question of her future
+residence there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid,&quot; he declared, &quot;that you will have to marry me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would have its advantages,&quot; she admitted thoughtfully. &quot;I am really
+so fond of you, Nigel. I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's,
+Kensington, and have the Annersley children for bridesmaids. Don't you
+think I should look sweet in old gold and orange blossoms?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't tantalise me,&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We really must decide upon something,&quot; she insisted. &quot;I hate giving up
+my rooms here, I should hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna,
+and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for us two to go on living
+here if I didn't. Are you quite sure that you love me, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not quite so sure as I was this morning,&quot; he confessed, holding
+out his cup for some more tea. &quot;I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day
+at luncheon at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest, most
+wonderful figure you ever saw!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who was the cat?&quot; Maggie enquired with asperity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karetsky. Karschoff introduced me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a trace of the one
+expression he had never before seen in her face&mdash;fear&mdash;lurking in her
+eyes, even asserting itself in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida Karetsky?&quot; she repeated. &quot;Tell me exactly how you met her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She was lunching with her father and Oscar Immelan. She stopped to
+speak to Karschoff and asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited
+us to take coffee in the lounge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She went out of her way to make your acquaintance, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I suppose she did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know who she is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over here, I understood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is more than that,&quot; Maggie declared nervously. &quot;She is the
+inspiration of the President himself. She is the most vital force in
+Russian politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to know, to whom I
+told you that I wished you to pay attentions. And now that you know her,
+I am afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where did you meet her?&quot; he asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We were at school together in Paris. She was two years older than I,
+but she stayed there until she was twenty. Afterwards we met in
+Florence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was greatly interested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell me about her surprises me,&quot;
+he admitted. &quot;She has the air of counting for great things in the world.
+She is very beautiful, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is beautiful enough,&quot; Maggie replied, &quot;to have turned the head of
+the great Paul Matinsky himself. They say that he would give his soul to
+be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned Tsarina of Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel frowned slightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't that going rather a long way?&quot; he objected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not when one remembers what manner of a man Matinsky is,&quot; Maggie
+replied. &quot;He may have his faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far
+as regards his private life. There has never been a word of scandal
+concerning him and Naida, nor will there ever be. But in his eyes, Naida
+has that most wonderful gift of all,&mdash;she has vision. He once told a man
+with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was the one person in the world
+to whom a mistake was impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at
+all what she was over here for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not as yet,&quot; he replied, &quot;but she has asked me to go and see her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did she seem interested in you personally, or was it because your name
+is Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot tell. She asked me
+whether I had inherited my uncle's hobby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What did you tell her?&quot; she asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after all she is in the enemy
+camp. She and Immelan seemed on particularly good terms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet,&quot; Maggie declared.
+&quot;She always used to speak so affectionately of England. Nigel, do you
+think that I have vision?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sure that you have,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, then, I will tell you what I see,&quot; she continued. &quot;I see
+Naida Karetsky for Russia, Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and
+Sweden, and Prince Shan for Asia&mdash;here&mdash;meeting in London&mdash;within the
+next week or ten days, to take counsel together to decide whether the
+things which are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall not
+be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals it cleverly enough, but he
+hates England with all the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced.
+She is to be won. And Prince Shan&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, what about him?&quot; Nigel demanded, a little carried away by
+Maggie's earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know,&quot; she confessed. &quot;If the stories one hears about him are
+true, no man nor any woman could ever influence him. At least, though,
+one could watch and hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris, not to London,&quot; Nigel
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he goes to Paris,&quot; Maggie said, &quot;Naida and Immelan will go. So shall
+we. If he comes here, it will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the
+Prime Minister?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw him,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;but without the slightest result. He is
+clearly of the opinion that the open verdict was a merciful one. In
+other words, he believes that it was a case of suicide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How wicked!&quot; Maggie exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a little high,&quot; Nigel
+remarked, &quot;to ask him to believe that he was murdered in cold blood,
+here in the heart of London, by the secret service agent of a foreign
+Power. The strangest part of it all is that it is true. To think that
+those few pages of manuscript would have told us exactly what we have to
+fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I in my corsets!&quot; Maggie groaned.</p>
+
+<p>They were both silent for a moment. Then Nigel moved towards the door
+and opened it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come downstairs into the library, will you, Maggie?&quot; he begged. &quot;Let us
+go in for a little reconstruction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They found Brookes in the hall and took him with them. The blinds in
+the room had never been raised, and there was still that nameless
+atmosphere which lingers for long in an apartment which has become
+associated with tragedy. Instinctively they all moved quietly and spoke
+in hushed voices. Nigel sat in the chair where his uncle had been found
+dead and made a mental effort to reconstruct the events which must have
+immediately preceded the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that this was all thrashed out at the inquest, Brookes,&quot; he
+said, &quot;but I want you to tell me once more. You see how far it is from
+this table to the door. My uncle must have had abundant warning of any
+one approaching. Was there no other way by which any one could have
+entered the room?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was, your lordship,&quot; the man replied, &quot;and I have regretted
+several times since that I did not mention it at the inquest. The
+cleaners were here on the morning of that day, and the window at the
+farther end of the room was unfastened&mdash;I even believe that it was
+open.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel rose and examined the window in question. It was almost flush with
+the ground, and although there were iron railings separating it from the
+street, a little gate opening from the area entrance made ingress not
+only possible but easy. Nigel returned to his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't understand this not having been mentioned at the inquest,
+Brookes,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was waiting for the question to be asked, your lordship. It was
+perfectly clear to every one there, if your lordship will excuse my
+saying so, that both the coroner and the police seemed to have made up
+their minds that it was a case of suicide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had the same idea with reference to the coroner, at any rate,
+Brookes,&quot; he said. &quot;So long as the verdict was returned in the form it
+was, I am not sure that it was not better so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He dismissed the man with a little nod and sat turning over the code
+books which still stood upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You and I, at any rate, Maggie, know the truth,&quot; he said, &quot;and so long
+as we can get no help from the proper quarters, I think that we should
+do better to let the matter remain as it is. We don't want to direct
+people's attention to us. We want to lull suspicion so far as we can, to
+be free to watch the three.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telephone bell rang, and as Nigel moved his arm to take off the
+receiver, he knocked over one of the black, morocco-bound code books, A
+sheet of paper with a few words upon it came fluttering to the ground.
+Maggie picked it up, glanced at it carelessly at first and then with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;you see whose handwriting this is? Could it be
+part of the decoded dispatch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telephone enquiry had been unimportant. Nigel pushed the instrument
+away. They both looked eagerly at the page of manuscript paper. It was
+numbered &quot;8&quot; at the top, and the few words written upon it in Lord
+Dorminster's writing were obviously the continuation of a paragraph:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>The name of the middle one, then, of the three secret cities, into
+     which at all costs some one must find his way, is Kroten, and the
+     telephone number which is all the clue I have been able to get, up
+     to the present, to the London end of the affair, is Mayfair 146.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;This is just where he got to in the decoding!&quot; Nigel declared. &quot;I
+wonder whether it's any use looking for the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They searched through every page of the heavy code books in vain. Then
+they returned to their study of the single page. Nigel dragged down an
+atlas and studied it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kroten,&quot; he muttered. &quot;Here it is,&mdash;a small place about six hundred
+miles from Petrograd, apparently the centre of a barren, swampy
+district, population thirty thousand, birth rate declining, industries
+nil. Cheerful sort of spot it seems!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have more luck than you!&quot; Maggie cried, her finger tracing out a
+line in the open telephone book. &quot;Look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel glanced over her shoulder and read the entry to which she was
+pointing:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Immelan Oscar, 13 Clarges Street, W. Mayfair 146.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel played golf at Ranelagh, on the following Sunday morning, with
+Jere Chalmers, a young American in the Diplomatic Service, who had just
+arrived in London and brought a letter of introduction to him. They had
+a pleasant game and strolled off from the eighteenth green to the
+dressing rooms on the best of terms with each other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say, Dorminster,&quot; his young companion enjoined, &quot;let's get through this
+fixing-up business quickly. I've had a kind of feeling for a cocktail,
+these last four holes, which I can't exactly put into words. Besides, I
+want to have a word or two with you before the others come down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shan't be a minute,&quot; Nigel promised. &quot;I'm going to change into
+flannels after lunch&mdash;that is, if you don't mind playing a set or two at
+tennis. My cousin-in-law Maggie Trent, whom you'll meet at luncheon, is
+rather keen, and she doesn't care about golf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm game for anything,&quot; the other agreed, lifting his head spluttering
+from the basin. &quot;Gee, that's good! Get a move on, there's a good fellow.
+I have a fancy for just five minutes with you out on the lawn, with the
+ice chinking in our glasses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel finished smoothing his hair, and the two men strolled through the
+hall, gave an order to a red-coated attendant, and found a secluded
+table under a marvellous tree in the gardens on the other side. Chalmers
+had become a little thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dorminster,&quot; he declared, &quot;yours is a wonderful country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just how is it appealing to you at the moment?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll try and tell you,&quot; was the meditative reply. &quot;It's your
+extraordinary insouciance. It seems to me, as a budding diplomat, that
+you are running the most ghastly risks on earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In what direction?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young American shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you've got a thoroughly democratic Government&mdash;not such a bad
+Government, I should say, as things go. They've bled your <i>bourgeoisie</i>
+a bit, and serve 'em right, but with an empire to keep up you're losing
+all touch upon international politics. Your ambassadors have been
+exchanged for trade consuls, the whole of your secret service staff has
+been disbanded, you place your entire faith on this sacred League of
+Nations. Say, Dorminster, you're taking risks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mustn't forget,&quot; Dorminster replied, &quot;that it was your country who
+started the League of Nations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;President Wilson did,&quot; Chalmers grunted. &quot;You can't say that the
+country ever backed him up. That's the worst of us on the other side&mdash;we
+so seldom really get a common voice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The League of Nations was a thundering good idea,&quot; Nigel declared, &quot;but
+it belongs to Utopia and not to this vulgar planet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just so,&quot; Chalmers rejoined, &quot;and yet you are about the only nation who
+ever took it into her bosom and suckled it. To be perfectly frank with
+you, now, what other nation in the world is there, except yours, which
+is obeying the conventions strictly? I tell you frankly, we keep our eye
+on Japan, and we build a good many commercial ships which would astonish
+you if you examined them thoroughly. Our National Guard, too, know a bit
+more about soldiering than their grandfathers. You people, on the other
+hand, seem to have become infatuated pacifists. I can't tell tales out
+of school, but I don't like the way things are going on eastwards. Asia
+means something different now that that amazing fellow, Prince Shan, has
+made a great nation of China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am entirely in accord with you,&quot; Nigel agreed, &quot;but what is one to do
+about it? Our present Government has a big majority, trade at home and
+abroad is prosperous, the income tax is down to a shilling in the pound
+and looks like being wiped out altogether. Everybody is fat and happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just as they were in 1914,&quot; Chalmers remarked significantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More so,&quot; Dorminster asserted. &quot;In those days we had our alarmists.
+Nowadays, they too seem to have gone to sleep. My uncle&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your uncle was an uncommonly shrewd man,&quot; Chalmers interrupted. &quot;I was
+going to talk about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After lunch,&quot; Nigel suggested, rising to his feet. &quot;Here come my cousin
+and some of her tennis friends. Karschoff is lunching with us, too. You
+know him, don't you? Come along and I'll introduce you to the others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a very cheerful party who, after a few minutes under the trees,
+strolled into luncheon and took their places at the round table reserved
+for them at the end of the room. Maggie at once took possession of
+Chalmers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been so anxious to meet you, Mr. Chalmers,&quot; she said. &quot;They tell
+me that you represent the modern methods in American diplomacy, and that
+therefore you have been made first secretary over the heads of half a
+dozen of your seniors. How they must dislike you, and how clever you
+must be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know that I'm so much disliked,&quot; the young man answered, with a
+twinkle in his eyes, &quot;but I flatter myself that I have brought a new
+note into diplomacy. I was always taught that there were thirty-seven
+different ways of telling a lie, which is to state a diplomatic fact. I
+have swept them all away. I tell the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How daring,&quot; Maggie murmured, &quot;and how wonderfully original! What
+should you say, now, if I asked you if my nose wanted powdering?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should start by saying that the question was outside the sphere of my
+activities,&quot; he decided. &quot;I should then proceed to add, as a private
+person, that a little dab on the left side would do it no harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to believe,&quot; she confessed, &quot;that all I have heard of you is
+true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me exactly what you have heard,&quot; he begged. &quot;Leave out everything
+that isn't nice. I thrive on praise and good reports.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To begin with, then, that you are an extraordinarily shrewd young man,&quot;
+she replied, &quot;that you speak seven languages perfectly and know your way
+about every capital of Europe, and that you have ideas of your own as to
+what is going to happen during the next six or seven years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've been moving in well-informed circles,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Now shall I
+proceed to turn the tables upon you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't possibly know anything about me,&quot; she declared confidently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could tell you what I've discovered from personal observation,&quot; he
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That sounds like compliments or candour,&quot; she murmured. &quot;I'm terrified
+of both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I guess I'm not out to frighten you,&quot; he assured her. &quot;I'll keep
+the secrets of my heart hidden&mdash;until after luncheon, at any rate&mdash;-and
+just ask you&mdash;how you enjoyed your stay in Berlin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie's manner changed. She lowered her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Berlin?&quot; she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the household of the erstwhile leather manufacturer, the present
+President, Herr Essendorf. I hope you liked those fat children. They
+always seemed to me loathsome little brats.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you know about my stay in Berlin?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything there is to be known,&quot; he answered. &quot;To tell you the truth,
+our people there were a trifle anxious about you. I was the little angel
+watching from above.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are, without a doubt,&quot; Maggie pronounced, &quot;a most interesting young
+man. We will talk together presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A hint which sends me back to my mutton,&quot; the young man observed.
+&quot;Dorminster,&quot; he added, turning to his host, &quot;I heard the other day, on
+very good authority, that you were thinking of writing a novel. If you
+are, study the lady who has just entered. There is a type for you, an
+intelligence which might baffle even your attempts at analysis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida, escorted by her father and Immelan, took her place at an
+adjacent table. She bowed to Nigel and Karschoff before sitting down,
+and her eyes travelled over the rest of the party with interest. Then
+she recognised Maggie and waved her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan is a very constant admirer,&quot; Prince Karschoff remarked, a
+little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that her father?&quot; Maggie asked.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is one of the ambassadors of commerce from my country,&quot; he said. &quot;In
+place of diplomacy, he superintends the exchange of shipping cargoes and
+talks freights. I suppose Immelan and he are all the time comparing
+notes, but I scarcely see where my dear friend Naida comes in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is still the oldest interest in the world for her to fall back
+upon,&quot; Chalmers murmured. &quot;One hears that Immelan is devoted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Scandalmonger!&quot; the Prince declared severely. &quot;Young man from the New
+World,&quot; he proceeded, &quot;get on with your lunch and drink your iced water.
+Let the vision of those two remind you that it was your people who
+foisted the League of Nations upon us, and be humble, even sorrowful,
+when you view one of the sad results.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't be responsible, directly or indirectly, for a political
+flirtation,&quot; Chalmers grumbled. &quot;Besides, why should there be any
+politics about it at all? Mademoiselle Karetsky is quite attractive
+enough to turn the head even of a seasoned old boulevardier like you,
+Prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That young man,&quot; Karschoff said deliberately, &quot;will find himself before
+long face to face with a blighted career. He has no respect for age, and
+he is shockingly lacking in finesse. All the same, on one point I am
+agreed. I don't think there is a man breathing who could resist Naida if
+she wished to call him to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little party broke up presently and wandered out into the gardens.
+They sat for a while upon the lawn, drinking their coffee and exchanging
+greetings with acquaintances. In the distance, the orchestra was playing
+soft music, with a fine regard for the atmosphere of the pleasant,
+almost languorous spring afternoon. Everywhere were signs of
+contentment, even gaiety, and here the alien streak of unfamiliar
+newcomers was far less pronounced. When the time came for tennis,
+Chalmers led the way with Maggie. As soon as they were out of hearing of
+the others, she turned towards him a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me exactly what you know about my stay in Berlin,&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything,&quot; he answered gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean that the New World to-day has progressed where the Old World
+seems to have been stricken with a terrible blindness. Our
+secret-service system has never been better, and frankly I hear many
+things which I don't like. I am going to talk to Lord Dorminster this
+afternoon very seriously, but in the meantime I wanted to speak to you.
+I heard a rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know how you heard it, but the rumour is not altogether
+untrue,&quot; she admitted. &quot;I have not yet made up my mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't go,&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You think they really do know all about me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that they do. I don't mind telling you that you had the shave of
+your life on the Dutch frontier last time, and I don't mind telling you,
+also, that we had two of our men shadowing you. One of them acted on his
+own initiative, or you would never have crossed the frontier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I rather wondered why they let me out,&quot; she observed. &quot;Perhaps you can
+explain why Frau Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my pseudonym of
+'Miss Brown' and to my reputed address in Lincolnshire, begging me to
+return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could tell you that, too,&quot; he replied. &quot;They want you back in
+Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They really do know, then, that I brought over the dispatch from
+Atcheson?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They know it,&quot; he assured her. &quot;They know, too, that it was chiefly a
+wasted labour. Their London agents saw to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps,&quot; she suggested, &quot;you know who their London agents are?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sooner or later in our conversation,&quot; he remarked, &quot;we were bound to
+arrive at a point&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come along and let us make up a set then,&quot; she intervened.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a taxicab to take him back
+to the purlieus of Piccadilly and auction bridge, sauntered along at the
+back of the tennis nets until she arrived at the court where Nigel and
+his party were playing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to watch this game for a few minutes,&quot; she told her
+companion. &quot;The men are such opposite types and yet both so
+good-looking. And Lady Maggie fascinates me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down to watch the set.
+Nigel, with his clean, well-knit figure, looked his best in spotless
+white flannels. Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
+presented a fine appearance. The play was fast and sometimes brilliant.
+Nigel had Maggie for a partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
+set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned forward in her chair,
+following every stroke with interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find this most fascinating,&quot; she murmured. &quot;I hope that Lord
+Dorminster and his cousin will win. Your sympathies, of course, are on
+the other side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; Immelan assented. &quot;My sympathies are on the other
+side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a lull in the game for a moment or two. The sun was
+troublesome, and the players were changing courts. Naida turned towards
+her companion thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friend,&quot; she said, glancing around as though to be sure that they
+were not overheard, &quot;there are times when you move me to wonder. In the
+small things as well as the large, you are so unchanging. I think that
+you would see an Englishman die, whether he were your friend or your
+enemy, very much as you kick a poisonous snake out of your path.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is quite true,&quot; was the calm reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But America was once your enemy,&quot; she continued, watching Chalmers'
+powerful service.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With America we made peace,&quot; he explained. &quot;With England, never. If you
+would really appreciate and understand the reason for that undying
+hatred which I and millions of my fellow countrymen feel, it will cost
+you exactly one shilling. Go to any stationer's and buy a copy of the
+Treaty of Versailles. Read it word by word and line by line. It is the
+most brutal document that was ever printed. It will help you to
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Paul always declared,&quot; she said, &quot;that in those days England had no
+statesmen&mdash;no one who could feel what lay beyond the day-by-day
+horizon. When I think of that Treaty, my friend, I sympathise with you.
+It is not a great thing to forge chains of hate for a beaten enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you realise this, are you not then our friend?&quot; Immelan asked.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared for a few moments to be engrossed in the tennis. Her
+companion, however, waited for her answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a way,&quot; she acknowledged, &quot;I find something magnificent in your
+wonderfully conceived plans for vengeance, and in the spirit which has
+evolved and kept them alive through all these years. Then, on the other
+hand, I look at home, and I ask myself whether you do not make what they
+would call over here a cat's-paw of my country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ours is the most natural and most beneficial of all possible
+alliances,&quot; Immelan insisted. &quot;Germany and Russia, hand in hand, can
+dominate the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not sure that it is an equal bargain, though, which you seek to
+drive with us,&quot; she said. &quot;Germany aims, of course, at world power, but
+you are still fettered by the terms of that Treaty. You cannot build a
+great fleet of warships or &aelig;roplanes; you cannot train great armies; you
+cannot lay up for yourselves all the store that is necessary for a
+successful war. So you bring your brains to Russia, and you ask us to do
+these things; but Russia does not aim at world power. Russia seeks only
+for a great era of self-development. She, too, has a mighty neighbour
+at her gates. I am not sure that your bargain is a fair one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the first time that I have heard you talk like this,&quot; Immelan
+declared, with a little tremor in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been in England twice during the last few months,&quot; Naida said.
+&quot;You know very well at whose wish I came, I have been studying the
+conditions here, studying the people so far as I can. I find them such a
+kindly race. I find their present Government so unsuspicious, so
+genuinely altruistic. After all, that Treaty belongs to an England that
+has passed. The England of to-day would never go to war at all. They
+believe here that they have solved the problem of perpetual peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan smiled a little bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear lady,&quot; he said, &quot;if I lose your help, if you go back to Petrograd
+and talk to Paul Matinsky as you are talking to me, do you know that you
+will break the heart of a nation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Paul does not look upon me as infallible,&quot; she protested. &quot;Besides,
+there are other considerations. And now, please, we will talk of the
+tennis. I do not know whether it is my fancy, but that man there to your
+left, in grey, seems to me to be taking an interest in our conversation.
+He cannot possibly overhear, and he has not glanced once in our
+direction, yet I have an instinct for these things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan glanced in the direction of the stranger,&mdash;a quiet-looking,
+spare man dressed in a grey tweed suit, clean-shaven and of early
+middle-age. There was nothing about his appearance to distinguish him
+from a score or more of other loiterers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are quite right,&quot; her companion admitted. &quot;One should not talk of
+these things even where the birds may listen, but it is so difficult. As
+for that man, he could not possibly hear, but there might be others. One
+passes behind on the grass so noiselessly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They relapsed into silence. Naida, leaning a little forward, became once
+more engrossed in the play. Her eyes were fixed upon Nigel. It was his
+movements which she followed, his strokes which she usually applauded.
+Immelan sat by her side and watched.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are well matched,&quot; he remarked presently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Chalmers has a wonderful service,&quot; she declared, &quot;but Lord
+Dorminster has more skill. Oh, bravo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The set at that moment was finished by a backhanded return from Nigel,
+which skimmed over the net at a great pace, completely out of reach of
+the opposing couple. The players strolled across to the seats under the
+trees. Naida smiled at Nigel, and he came over to her side. Once again
+he was conscious of that peculiar sense of pleasure and well-being
+which he felt in her company.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You play tennis very well, Lord Dorminster,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I found inspiration,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In your partner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie is always charming to play with. I was thinking of the
+onlookers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Immelan is very interested in tennis,&quot; she remarked, with a smile
+which challenged him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even more so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me about games in Russia,&quot; he begged, seating himself on the grass
+by her side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have none,&quot; she replied. &quot;I learnt my tennis at Cannes, where,
+curiously enough, I saw you play three years ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were there then?&quot; he asked with interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a few days only. We were motoring from Spain to Monte Carlo. Cannes
+was very crowded, but you see I remembered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her voice seemed to have some lingering charm in it, some curiously
+potent suggestion of personal interest which stirred his pulses. He
+looked up and met her eyes. For a moment the world of tennis fields, of
+pleasant chatter and of holiday-makings, passed away. He rose abruptly
+to his feet. This time he avoided looking at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must come over and speak to Maggie,&quot; he begged. &quot;Perhaps Mr.
+Immelan will spare you for a few moments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan bowed, sphinxlike but coldly furious. The two strolled away
+together.</p>
+
+<p>When the next set was over, Naida, who had rejoined her companion, had
+disappeared. On one of their vacated chairs was seated the quiet-looking
+stranger in grey. Chalmers passed his arm through Nigel's and led him in
+that direction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you two to know each other,&quot; he said. &quot;Jesson, this is Lord
+Dorminster&mdash;Mr. Gilbert Jesson&mdash;Lord Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men shook hands, Nigel a little vaguely. He was at first unable
+to place this newcomer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Jesson,&quot; Chalmers explained, dropping his voice a little, &quot;was a
+highly privileged and very much valued member of our Intelligence
+Department, until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if you
+could spare an hour or two any time this evening, Dorminster, it would
+interest you very much to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's
+resignation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should be very pleased indeed,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Won't you both come
+and dine in Belgrave Square to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow,
+Chalmers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and my cousin will be
+hostess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will give me very great pleasure,&quot; Jesson acquiesced. &quot;You will
+understand,&quot; he added, &quot;that the information which Mr. Chalmers has
+just given you concerning myself is entirely confidential.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We three will have a little talk to ourselves afterwards,&quot; he
+suggested. &quot;At eight o'clock&mdash;Number 17, Belgrave Square.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jesson strolled away after a little desultory conversation. Chalmers
+looked after him thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Harmless-looking chap, isn't he?&quot; he observed. &quot;Yet I'll let you in on
+this, Dorminster: there isn't another living person who knows so much of
+what is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why has he chucked his job, then?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will tell you that to-night,&quot; was Chalmers' quiet reply.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think I shall marry you, after all,&quot; Maggie announced that
+evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors
+with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity,&quot; she declared. &quot;Your
+flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went
+out of your way to ask her to dine to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like that!&quot; Nigel complained. &quot;Supposing it were true, I should
+simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country,&quot; Maggie
+sighed. &quot;However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you
+admire her very much, Nigel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from
+self-consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I do,&quot; he admitted. &quot;She's a perfectly wonderful person,
+isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment,&quot; he added,
+looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of
+furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. &quot;We'll go into
+the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and
+cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received formally, and
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreciate the cosmopolitan note of our
+welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We do look a little too domestic, don't we?&quot; Maggie replied, as she
+passed through the porti&egrave;re which Nigel was holding up. &quot;I'm not at all
+sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or
+anything. I must think of my reputation. I may decide to marry Mr.
+Chalmers, and Americans are very particular about that sort of thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From what I have seen of him, I should think that Chalmers would make
+you an excellent husband,&quot; Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. &quot;You
+need a firm hand, and I should think he would be quite capable of using
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You take the matter far too calmly,&quot; she objected. &quot;I can assure you
+that I am getting peevish. I hate all Russian women with creamy
+complexions and violet-coloured eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are wonderful eyes,&quot; Nigel declared, after he had given Brookes an
+order.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is for your betters, sir,&quot; she reminded him. &quot;You must not forget
+that she is to rule over Russia some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just at present,&quot; Nigel observed, &quot;Paul Matinsky has a perfectly good
+wife of his own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An invalid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Invalids always live long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Presidents and emperors can always get divorces,&quot; Maggie insisted,
+&quot;especially in this irreligious age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky isn't that sort,&quot; Nigel said cheerfully. &quot;Even an old gossip
+like Karschoff calls him a purist, and you yourself have spoken of his
+principles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right,&quot; she remarked. &quot;If you are determined to rush into danger, I
+suppose you must. There is just one more point to be considered, though.
+I suppose you know that if you succeed any farther with Naida, you will
+introduce a personal note into our coming struggle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Nigel demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Immelan, of course,&quot; she replied. &quot;He's head over ears in love
+with Naida. Any one can see that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel laughed scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear child,&quot; he protested, &quot;can you imagine a woman like Naida
+thinking seriously of a fellow like Immelan?&mdash;a scheming, Teutonic
+adventurer, without even the breeding of his class!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie laughed softly for several moments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Nigel,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;what a luxury to get at the man of
+you! I haven't seen your eyes flash like that for ages. The cocktails,
+thank goodness! Shake one for me till it froths all the way up the
+glass, please, and then give me a cigarette.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel obeyed orders, helped himself, and glanced at the clock as Brookes
+left the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How nice of you to come half an hour early, Maggie!&quot; he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>She made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The first time you have noticed it,&quot; she said dolefully. &quot;Do you
+realise, Nigel, that it is nearly a week since you proposed to me? Apart
+from your penchant for Naida, don't you really want to marry me any
+more?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He came across the room and stood looking down at her thoughtfully. She
+was wearing a somewhat daringly fashioned black lace gown, which showed
+a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her brown hair was simply
+but artistically arranged. She was piquante, alluring, with a
+provocative smile at the corners of her lips and a challenging gleam in
+her eyes. The daintiness and femininity of her were enthralling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would make an adorable wife,&quot; he reflected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For some one else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An unspeakable proposition,&quot; he assured her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're very nice-looking, Nigel,&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're terribly attractive, Maggie!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why is it,&quot; she sighed, &quot;that we neither of us want to marry the
+other?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If a serious proposition would really be of interest to you,&quot; he
+began,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You heard them coming,&quot; she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>The three expected guests arrived almost together, bringing with them,
+at any rate so far as Chalmers and Naida were concerned, an atmosphere
+of light-heartedness which was later on to make the little dinner party
+a complete success. Naida, too, was in black, a gown simpler than
+Maggie's but full of distinction. She wore no jewellery except a
+wonderful string of pearls. Her black hair was brushed straight back
+from her forehead but drooped a little over her ears. She seemed to
+bring with her a larger share of girlishness than any of them had
+previously observed in her, as though she had made up her mind for this
+one evening to cast herself adrift from the graver cares of life and to
+indulge in the frivolities which after all were the heritage of her
+youth. She sat at Nigel's right hand and plied him with questions as to
+the lighter side of his life,&mdash;his favourite sport, books, and general
+occupation. She gave evidences of humour which delighted everybody, and
+Nigel, though he would at times have welcomed, and did his best to
+initiate, an incursion into more serious subjects, found himself
+compelled to admire the tact with which she continually foiled him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a mistake,&quot; she declared once, &quot;to believe that a woman is ever
+serious unless she is forced to be. All our natural proclivities are
+towards gaiety. We are really butterflies by instinct, and we are at our
+best when we are natural. Don't you agree with me, Maggie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From the bottom of my heart,&quot; Maggie assented. &quot;Nothing but conscience
+ever induces me to pull a long face and turn my thoughts to serious
+things. And I haven't a great deal of conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you see,&quot; Naida continued, smiling up at her host, &quot;when you try to
+get a woman to talk politics or sociology with you, you are brushing a
+little of the down off her wings. We really want to be told&mdash;other
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should imagine,&quot; he replied, &quot;that my sex frequently indulged you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so much as I should desire,&quot; she assured him. &quot;I have somehow or
+other acquired an undeserved reputation for brains. In Russia
+especially, when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my frock or
+the way my hair is done. They plunge instead into a subject of which I
+know nothing&mdash;philosophy or history, or international politics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know nothing of international politics?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A home thrust,&quot; she declared, laughing. &quot;I suppose that is a subject
+upon which I have some glimmerings of knowledge. Really not very much,
+though, but then I have a theory about that. I think sometimes that the
+clearest judgments are formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a
+subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling in it half their lifetime and
+acquired prejudices. Do you always provide strawberries for your guests,
+Lord Dorminster? If so, I should like to come and live here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you will promise to come and live here,&quot; he replied, &quot;I will provide
+strawberries if I have to start a nursery garden in Jersey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie,&quot; Naida announced across the table, &quot;Lord Dorminster has
+proposed to me. The matter of strawberries has brought us together. I
+don't think I shall accept him. There are no means of making him keep
+his bargain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'd make an awfully good husband,&quot; Maggie declared. &quot;If no one else
+wants me, I shall probably marry him myself some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster is more my type,&quot; she declared. &quot;Besides, you have had
+your chance if you really wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia
+who prophesies that I shall never marry. That does not please me. I
+think not to be married is the worst fate that can happen to any woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The remedy,&quot; Nigel told her, &quot;is in your own hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jesson, quieter than the others, was still an interesting personality,
+often intervening with a shrewd remark and listening to the sallies of
+the others with a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes. When at
+last the girls left them for a time, Nigel led the way at once into the
+library, where coffee and liqueurs were served.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I expect the others will find their way here in a few minutes,&quot; he
+said, as the door closed behind Brookes and his satellite. &quot;You had
+something to say to me, Chalmers, about Mr. Jesson here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All that I have to say is in the nature of a testimonial,&quot; the young
+American replied. &quot;Jesson was easily one of our best men in Europe. He
+resigned a few months ago simply because he wants a job with you
+fellows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't quite understand,&quot; Nigel began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me explain,&quot; Jesson begged. &quot;I spent the last three years poking
+about Europe, and so far as the United States is concerned, there's
+nothing doing. My reports aren't worth much more than the paper they are
+written on, and while I'm drawing my money from Washington, it's not my
+business to collect information that affects other countries. That's why
+I've sent in my resignation. There are great events brewing eastwards,
+Lord Dorminster, and I want to take a hand in the game.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you want to work for us?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;I guess that's how I've figured it
+out. You see, I'm one of those Americans who still consider themselves
+half English. Next to the United States, Great Britain is the country
+for me. I know what I'm talking about, Lord Dorminster, and I've come to
+the conclusion that there's a lot of trouble in store for you people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm pretty well convinced of that myself,&quot; Nigel agreed, &quot;but you know
+how things are with us. We have a democratic Government who have placed
+their whole faith in the League of Nations, and who are absolutely and
+entirely anti-militarist. On paper, the governments of Russia, Germany,
+and most of the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk. Some of
+us&mdash;my uncle was one&mdash;who have studied history and who know something of
+the science of international politics, realise perfectly well that no
+Empire can be considered secure under such conditions. This country
+swarms with foreign secret-service men. What they are planning against
+us, Heaven knows!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heaven and Naida Karetsky,&quot; Chalmers intervened softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You believe that she is our enemy?&quot; Nigel asked, with a look of trouble
+in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is Immelan's friend,&quot; Chalmers reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was a man named Atcheson,&quot; Jesson began quietly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The first one was stabbed in
+Petrograd. Jim Atcheson was poisoned and died in Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was rather a scare in a certain quarter about Atcheson,&quot; Jesson
+observed. &quot;He was supposed to have got a report through to the late Lord
+Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He got it through all right,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;My uncle was busy
+decoding it, seated in this room, at that table, when he died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His death was very sudden,&quot; Jesson ventured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not the faintest doubt but that he was murdered,&quot; Nigel
+declared. &quot;The document upon which he was working disappeared entirely
+except for one sheet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have that one sheet?&quot; Jesson asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed it cut, and laid it upon
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are two things worth noticing here,&quot; he pointed out. &quot;The first
+is that the actual name of a town in Russia is given, and a telephone
+number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It seems to be an
+unimportant place in a very desolate region. The telephone number is
+Oscar Immelan's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is interesting, though not surprising,&quot; Jesson declared. &quot;Immelan,
+as you of course know, is one of your enemies, one of those who are
+working in this country for purposes of his own. But as regards Kroten,
+may I ask where you obtained your information about the place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them the paragraph. Jesson read
+it with a faint smile upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy,&quot; he remarked, &quot;that this is a little out of date. I should
+like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good heavens! Why?&quot; Nigel exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can scarcely answer that question,&quot; Jesson said. &quot;I am like a man
+with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those
+pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here,&quot; he
+said, &quot;is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities,
+situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their
+way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have
+heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
+have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled.
+Kroten is the next, and of the third I have still to discover the
+whereabouts. Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act for you
+abroad? I require no salary or remuneration of any sort. I am a wealthy
+man, and investigations of this kind are my one hobby. I shall not move
+without your permission, although I recognise, of course, that your own
+position is entirely an unofficial one. If you will trust me, however, I
+promise that all my energies shall be devoted to the interests of this
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a pact,&quot; he decided. &quot;Before you leave, I will give you the whole
+of my uncle's brief correspondence with Sidwell. You may be able to
+gather from it what he was after. Sidwell, you remember, was stabbed in
+a caf&eacute; in the slums of Petrograd.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember quite well,&quot; Jesson admitted quietly. &quot;I knew Sidwell. He
+was a clever person in his way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I
+fancy that I hear the voices of the ladies coming. I shall just have
+time to tell you rather a curious coincidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men waited eagerly. Jesson touched with his forefinger the sheet
+of paper which he had been studying.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sidwell,&quot; he concluded, &quot;could not have been so far off the mark. The
+man with whom he was spending the evening in that caf&eacute; was a mechanic
+from Kroten.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a><h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Naida, early one afternoon, a few days after the dinner at Belgrave
+Square, raised herself on one elbow from the sofa on which she was
+resting, glanced at the roses and the card which the maid had presented
+for her inspection, and waved them impatiently away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gentleman waits,&quot; the woman reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>Naida glanced out of the window across a dull and apparently uninviting
+prospect of roofs and chimneys, to where in the background a faint line
+of silver and a wheeling flock of sea gulls became dimly visible through
+the branches of the distant trees. The window itself was flung wide
+open, but the slowly moving air had little of freshness in it. Sparrows
+twittered around the window-sill, and a little patch of green shone out
+from the Embankment Gardens. The radiance of spring here found few
+opportunities.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gentleman waits,&quot; the serving woman repeated stolidly, speaking in
+her native Russian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can show him up,&quot; her mistress replied a little wearily.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan entered, a few moments later, spruce and neat in a well-fitting
+grey suit, and carrying a grey Homburg hat. He was redolent of soaps
+and perfumes. His step was buoyant, almost jaunty, yet in his blue eyes,
+as he bent over the hand of the woman upon whom he had come to call,
+lurked something of the disquietude which, notwithstanding his most
+strenuous efforts, was beginning to assert itself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You make me very happy, my dear Naida,&quot; he began, &quot;that you receive me
+thus so informally. Your good father is smoking in the lounge. He bade
+me come up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She beckoned him to a seat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand thanks for your flowers, my friend,&quot; she said. &quot;Now tell me
+why you are possessed to see me at this untimely hour. I always rest for
+a time after luncheon, and I am only here because the sunshine filled my
+room and made me restless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a little matter of news,&quot; he announced slowly. &quot;I thought it
+might interest you. I hoped it would.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head and looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;News?&quot; she repeated. &quot;News from you means only one thing. Is it good or
+bad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is good,&quot; he replied, &quot;because it saves me a long and tedious
+journey, because it saves me also from a separation which I should have
+found detestable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your journey to China, then, is abandoned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is rendered unnecessary. Prince Shan has decided after all to
+adhere to his original plan and come to Europe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are sure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an official intimation,&quot; he replied. &quot;I may probably have to go
+to Paris, but no farther. It is even possible that I might leave
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was genuinely interested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one in the whole world,&quot; she declared, &quot;whom I have wanted
+to meet so much as Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will not be disappointed,&quot; he promised her. &quot;There is no one like
+him. When he enters the room, you know that you are in the presence of a
+great man. The three of us together! Naida, we will remake the map of
+the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She frowned a little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not take too much for granted, Oscar,&quot; she enjoined. &quot;Remember that
+I am here to watch and to report. It is not for me to make decisions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then for whom else?&quot; he demanded. &quot;Paul Matinsky himself wrote me that
+you had his entire confidence&mdash;that you possessed full powers for
+action. You will not be faint-hearted, Naida?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall never be false to my convictions,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief silence. He was not altogether satisfied, but he
+judged the moment unpropitious for any further reference to the coming
+of Prince Shan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My plans, as you see, are changed,&quot; he said at last, &quot;and for that
+reason a promise which I made to myself will not now be kept.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet a little uneasily, shook out her fluffy morning
+gown, and retreated towards the door leading to the apartments beyond.
+He watched her without movement. She picked up a pile of letters from a
+table in the middle of the room, glanced at them, and threw them down.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is as well,&quot; she warned him, &quot;to keep all promises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As for this one,&quot; he replied, &quot;I have no responsibility save to myself.
+I absolve myself. I give myself permission to speak. Your father is even
+wishful that I should do so. I crave from you, Naida, the happiness
+which only you can bring into my life. I ask you to become my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him without visible change of expression. Her lips,
+however, were a little parted. The air of aloofness with which she moved
+through the world seemed suddenly more marked. He would have been a
+brave man, or one entirely without perceptions, who would have advanced
+towards her at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is quite impossible,&quot; she pronounced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not admit it,&quot; he contended. &quot;No, I will never admit that. The
+fates brought us together. It will take something stronger than fate to
+drive us apart. I had not meant to speak yet. I had meant to wait until
+the great pact was sealed and the glory to come assured, but during
+these last few days I have suffered. A strange fancy has come to me. I
+seem to feel something between us, so I speak before it can grow. I
+speak because without you life for me would be a thing not worth having.
+You are my life and my soul. You will not send me away?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida was troubled but unhesitating. It was perhaps at that moment that
+a hidden characteristic of her features showed itself. Her mouth,
+sometimes almost too voluptuous in its softness, had straightened into a
+firm line of scarlet. The deeper violet of her eyes had gone. So a woman
+might have looked who watched suffering unmoved, the woman of the bull
+or prize fight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad that you have spoken, Oscar,&quot; she said. &quot;I know a thing now
+which has been a source of doubt and anxiety to me. What you ask is
+impossible. I do not love you. I shall never love you. A few days ago, I
+asked myself the very question you have just asked me, and I could not
+answer it. Now I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Pain and anger struggled in his face. He was suffering, without a doubt,
+but for a moment it seemed as though the anger would predominate. His
+great shoulders heaved, his hands were clenched until the signet ring on
+his left finger cut into the flesh, his eyes were like glittering points
+of fire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the old dream concerning Paul?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has nothing to do with Paul,&quot; she assured him. &quot;Concerning him I
+will admit that I have had my weak moments. I think that those have
+passed. It was such a wonderful dream,&quot; she went on reflectively, &quot;the
+dream of ruling the mightiest nation in the world, a nation that even
+now, after many years of travail, is only just finding its way through
+to the light. It seemed such a small thing that stood in the way. Since
+then I have met Paul's wife. She does not understand, but at least she
+loves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is a poor fool, no helpmate for any man,&quot; Immelan declared. &quot;Yet it
+is not his cause I plead, but mine. I, too, can minister to your
+ambitions. Be my wife, and I swear to you that before five years have
+passed I will be President of the German Republic. Germany is no strange
+country to you,&quot; he went on passionately. &quot;It is you who have helped in
+the great <i>rapprochement</i>. At times when Paul has been difficult, you
+have smoothed the way. I would not speak against your country, I would
+not speak against anything which lies close to your heart, but let me
+tell you that when the day of purification comes, the day when God gives
+us leave to pour out the vials of vengeance, there will be no prouder,
+no more glorious people than ours. Our triumph will be yours, Naida. You
+yourself will help to cement the great alliance of these years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a woman,&quot; she said simply. &quot;Incidentally, I am a politician and
+something of an altruist, but when it comes to marriage, I am a woman. I
+do not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a darker shade upon his face now. Unconsciously he had drawn a
+little nearer to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; he begged; &quot;it is perhaps possible that I have not been
+mistaken&mdash;that a certain change has crept up in you even within the last
+few days? Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way into your
+heart? No, I will not say heart! It could not be your heart in so short
+a time. Into your fancy? Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you are
+thinking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only,&quot; she answered haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>A weaker woman he would have bullied. His veins were filled with anger.
+His tongue ached to spend itself. Naida's bearing cowed him. She
+remained a dominating figure. The unnatural restraint imposed upon
+himself, however, made his voice sound hard and unfamiliar. There were
+little patches of white around his mouth; his teeth showed, when he
+spoke, more than usual.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If there were any one else,&quot; he declared, &quot;and that some one else
+should chance to be an Englishman, I would find a new hell for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one else,&quot; she answered calmly, &quot;but if there ever should
+be, Oscar Immelan, and if you ever interfered with him, either in this
+country or any other, my arm would follow you around the world. Remember
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She turned away for a moment, eager to gain a brief respite from his
+darkening face. When she looked around, he was gone. She heard his
+footsteps passing down the corridor, the bell ringing for the lift, the
+clank of the gates as he stepped in. Once more she gazed out over the
+uninspiring prospect. There was a little more sunshine upon the river;
+more of the dusty chimney-pots seemed bathed in its silvery radiance. As
+she stood there, she felt herself growing calmer. The tension passed
+from her nerves. Her eyes grew soft again. Then an impulse came to her.
+She stretched out her hand for the telephone book, turned over the pages
+restlessly, looked through the &quot;D's&quot; until she found the name for which
+she was searching. For a long time she hesitated. When at last she took
+up the receiver and asked for a number, she was conscious of a slight
+thrill, a sense of excitement which in moments of more complete
+self-control would at least have served as a warning to her.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_X'></a><h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The curtain fell upon the first act of &quot;Louise.&quot; The lights were turned
+up, the tenseness relaxed, men made dives for their hats, and the
+unmusical murmured the usual platitudes. Naida leaned forward from the
+corner of her box to the man who was her sole companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; she said, &quot;I am expecting a caller with whom I wish to
+speak&mdash;Lord Dorminster. If he comes, will you leave us alone? And if any
+one else should be here, please take them away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More mysteries,&quot; her father muttered, not unkindly. &quot;Who is this man
+Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida leaned back in her chair and fanned herself slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one I know very much about,&quot; she acknowledged. &quot;I have selected him
+in my mind, however as being a typical Englishman of his class. I wish
+to talk to him, to appreciate his point of view. You know what Paul said
+when he gave you the appointment and sent us over here: 'Find out for me
+what sort of men these Englishmen are.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky should know,&quot; her father observed. &quot;He was here twelve years
+ago. He came over with the first commission which established regular
+relations with the British Government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt,&quot; she said equably, &quot;he was able to gauge the official
+outlook, but this country, during the last ten years, has gone through
+great vicissitudes. Besides, it is not only the official outlook in
+which Paul is interested. He doesn't understand, and frankly I don't,
+the position of what they call over here 'the man in the street.' You
+see, he must be either a fool, or he must be grossly deceived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So far as my dealings with him go, I should never call the Englishman a
+fool,&quot; Karetsky confessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are degrees and conditions of fools,&quot; his daughter declared
+calmly. &quot;A man with a perfectly acute brain may have simply idiotic
+impulses towards credulity, and a credulous man is always a fool.
+Anyhow, I know what Paul wants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a knock at the door. Karetsky opened it and stood aside to let
+Nigel pass in. Naida held out her hand to the latter with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am so glad that you have come,&quot; she said, raising her eyes for a
+minute to his. &quot;Father, you remember Lord Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two men exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Then Karetsky reached
+for his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your arrival, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he observed, &quot;leaves me free to make a
+few calls myself. We shall, I trust, meet again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel murmured a few courteous words and watched the retreating figure
+with some curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father is very typical,&quot; he declared. &quot;He reminds me of your
+country itself. He is massive, has suggestions of undeveloped strength.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Add that he is a little ponderous,&quot; Naida said lightly, &quot;slow to make
+up his mind, but as obstinate as the Urals themselves, and you have
+described him. Now tell me what you think of a young woman who rings you
+up without the slightest encouragement and invites you to come to the
+Opera purposely to visit her box.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I deny the absence of encouragement, and I am very grateful for the
+opportunity of coming,&quot; Nigel answered. &quot;And if I were to tell you all
+that I think of you,&quot; he added, after a moment's pause, &quot;it would take
+me a great deal longer than this quarter of an hour's interval.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These were their first few moments absolutely alone. Neither of them was
+unduly emotional, neither wholly free from experience, yet they looked
+and spoke and felt as though the coming of new things was at hand. The
+atmosphere of music, still present, was a wonderful background to the
+intensified sensations of which both were conscious. Naida had the
+utmost difficulty in steadying her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wanted to talk to you seriously because you can help me very much if
+you will,&quot; she began. &quot;In a sense, I am over here upon a mission. Some
+of us in Russia feel that your nation is imperfectly understood there.
+We are bearing grudges against you which may not be wholly justified.
+You see, to speak very plainly, we are under the constant influence of a
+people which cherishes no feelings of friendship towards you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the personal element had disappeared. Nigel remembered who
+his companion was and all that she stood for. He drew his chair a little
+nearer to hers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are looking for a typical Englishman,&quot; he said, &quot;I fear that I
+shall be a disappointment to you. The typical Englishman of to-day is
+hiding his head in the sand. I am not disposed to do anything of the
+sort. I recognise a great coming danger, and I am afraid of your
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The attitude of the official Englishman I know,&quot; she declared, a little
+eagerly. &quot;What I want to find out is whether there are many like
+yourself, who are awake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am afraid that I am in the minority,&quot; he confessed. &quot;I am trying to
+carry on the work which my uncle commenced. I am trying to secure firm
+and definite evidence of a certain plot which I believe to be brewing in
+your country and in Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me exactly what you know,&quot; she begged.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel looked at her for several moments in silence. She was wearing a
+Russian headdress, a low tiara of bound coils of pearls. A rope of
+pearls hung from her neck. Her white net gown was trimmed with ermine.
+At her first appearance in the front of the box she had created almost a
+sensation among those to whom she was visible. In these darker shadows
+the sensuous disturbance of which he had been conscious since his
+entrance swept over him once more with overmastering power.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very beautiful,&quot; he said, a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad you think so,&quot; she murmured, with a very sweet answering
+light in her eyes, &quot;but I am hoping that you have other things to tell
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are the friend of Immelan,&quot; he reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To some extent, yes,&quot; she assented, &quot;but I admit of no prejudices. The
+greatest friend I have in the world is Paul Matinsky, and it is at his
+wish that I am here. He is anxious above all things not to make a
+mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your country is very much under the dominance of Germany,&quot; he ventured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very much, I admit, but not utterly so. You must remember that after
+the cataclysm of 1917, Russia has been born again in travail and agony.
+No hand was outstretched to help her, save that of Germany alone, for
+her own sake ultimately, perhaps, but nevertheless with invaluable
+results to Russia. We had vast resources which Germany exploited,
+magnificent human material which Germany has educated and disciplined.
+The two nations have grown together for their common interest. At the
+same time, Paul Matinsky and very many others have always felt that
+there is one of Germany's great ambitions in which Russia ought not
+necessarily to become involved. I think&mdash;I hope that you understand me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In plain words,&quot; Nigel said, &quot;you refer to this projected plan of
+isolating England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In plain words, I do,&quot; she admitted. &quot;Russia's intentions concerning
+that are trembling in the balance. Germany is pressing her hard. Nothing
+will be finally decided until I return to Petrograd. You see, I speak to
+you quite openly, for I myself have had some experience of your present
+statesmen. I believe if you were to repeat this conversation to any one
+of them, if, even, you could open their eyes to what is happening, they
+would only shrug their shoulders and say that they relied for their
+protection on the League of Nations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are unhappily right,&quot; Nigel groaned, &quot;yet one perseveres, and after
+all there is an element of mystery about the whole affair. The French,
+as you know, have not imitated our blind credulity. Their frontier would
+seem to be impregnable, and the difficulties of invading England, even
+from the air, are very much as they were during the last war. It was
+these considerations which made my uncle persevere in his attempt at
+secret-service work on the Continent. Everything depends upon our
+knowing exactly what is in store for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And have you discovered that?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything that we have learnt so far has been of negative value,&quot; he
+replied. &quot;The German citizen army is large, but not threateningly so. So
+far as we have been able to discover, they do not seem to have any
+secret store of guns or ammunition. Their docks hold no secrets. Yet we
+know that there is something brewing. Both the men upon whom my uncle
+relied have been murdered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But one of them succeeded in getting a dispatch through, did he not?&quot;
+she asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he succeeded,&quot; Nigel acknowledged. &quot;My uncle was murdered,
+however, in the act of decoding it, and the dispatch itself was stolen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very frank,&quot; she said. &quot;I suppose I ought to feel flattered
+that you treat me with so little reserve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are a friend to Germany,&quot; he replied, &quot;you probably know all
+that I can tell you. If you are inclined towards friendship with us,
+then it is as well that you should know everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is reasonable,&quot; she admitted. &quot;Now listen. This conversation can
+only last a few minutes longer. It is true that Oscar Immelan is my
+father's old friend and also mine, but my judgment in all matters which
+relate to the welfare of my country is not influenced by that fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was a report once,&quot; Nigel said, taking his courage into both
+hands, &quot;that you were engaged to be married to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked him in the eyes. Against the whiteness of his skin, the
+colour of her own seemed more wonderful than ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not true,&quot; she replied. &quot;It will never be true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad,&quot; he declared fervently.</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief pause. Both seemed conscious of a renewal of that air
+of disturbance which had reigned between them during their first few
+moments alone. It was Naida who made an effort to restore their
+conversation to its former tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Germany has any scheme against this country,&quot; she said, &quot;believe me,
+it will not be so obvious as you seem to think. It will be a scheme
+which can only be carried out with the assistance of other countries,
+and that assistance is not yet wholly promised. I cannot betray to you
+my knowledge of certain things,&quot; she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, &quot;but I can at least give you this warning. It is not for his
+health alone that Prince Shan is flying from China to Paris. If there is
+a single member of your Government who has the least apprehension of
+world politics, now is the time for action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one,&quot; Nigel answered gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>The box was suddenly invaded. Karetsky reappeared with several other
+men. In the rear of the little procession came Immelan. His face
+darkened as he recognised Nigel. Naida looked across at him with a
+slight frown upon her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have changed your mind?&quot; she remarked. &quot;I thought you were for
+Paris to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fortunate chance intervened,&quot; Immelan replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fortunate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan watched Nigel's retreating figure with a menacing frown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find it so,&quot; he replied. &quot;Our wonderful prima donna is in great voice
+to-night&mdash;and I like to be prepared for all possible combinations.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Maggie came suddenly into the library at Belgrave Square, where Jesson,
+Chalmers and Nigel were talking together. She carried in her hand a
+note, which she handed to the latter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is a dear, after all,&quot; she declared. &quot;There is one person at
+least who does not wish to have me pass away in a German nursing home or
+fall a victim to Frau Essendorf's cooking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel read the note aloud. It consisted of only a sentence or two and
+was dated from the Milan Court that morning:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>Maggie dear, this is just a line of advice from your friend. You
+     must not go back to Germany.</p>
+
+<p>     Naida.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear,&quot; Maggie sighed, &quot;that my little expedition is scotched, even if
+I had been able to persuade you others to let me go. Every one seems to
+have made up their mind that I shall not go to Germany. It will be such
+a disappointment to those flaxen-haired atrocities, Gertrud and Bertha.
+Their so-much-loved Miss Brown can never return to them again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In any case, the game was scarcely worth the candle,&quot; Nigel observed.
+&quot;We have already all the evidence we require that some scheme inimical
+to this country is being proposed and fostered by Immelan. Our next move
+must be to find out the nature of this scheme&mdash;whether it be naval,
+military, or political. I don't think Essendorf would be at all likely
+to give away any more interesting information in the domestic circle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are we all going to do, then?&quot; Maggie asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are met here to discuss it,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Jesson is off to Russia
+this afternoon. I asked him to come round and have a few last words with
+us, in case there was anything to suggest for us stay-at-homes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall have to rely very largely upon luck,&quot; Jesson declared. &quot;There
+are three places, in any of which we might discover what we want to
+know. One is Kroten, another is Paris, provided that Prince Shan really
+goes there, and the third London.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;London?&quot; Maggie repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are two people in London,&quot; Jesson declared, &quot;who know everything
+we are seeking to discover. One is Immelan and the other Naida
+Karetsky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems to me,&quot; Maggie said, &quot;that if that is so, the place for us is
+where those two people are. What is the importance of Kroten, Mr.
+Jesson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kroten,&quot; Jesson replied, &quot;is the second of what I have seen referred
+to in a private diplomatic report, written in an enemy country, as the
+three mystery cities of the world. The first one is in Germany, and I
+have already explored it. I have information, but information which
+without its sequel is valueless. Kroten is the second. Ten years ago it
+was a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. To-day there are at least
+two hundred thousand people there, and it is growing all the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say, how can a town of that size,&quot; Chalmers enquired, &quot;be termed a
+mystery city in any sense of the word? Travelling's free in Russia. I
+guess any one that wanted could take a ticket to Kroten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good many do,&quot; Jesson assented calmly, &quot;and some never come back.
+America and Russia are on friendly terms, yet two men in my branch of
+the service&mdash;good fellows they were, too&mdash;started out from Washington
+for Kroten six months ago. Neither of them has been heard of since;
+neither ever will be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How's it done?&quot; Chalmers asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first place,&quot; Jesson explained, &quot;the city itself stands at the
+arm of the river, in a sort of cul-de-sac, with absolutely untraversable
+mountains on three sides of it. All the roads have to come around the
+plain and enter from eastwards. There is only one line of railway, so
+that all the approaches into the city are easily guarded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's all right geographically, of course,&quot; Nigel admitted, &quot;but what
+earthly excuse can any one make for keeping tourists or travellers out
+of the place if they want to go there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is perhaps the most ingenious thing of all,&quot; Jesson replied. &quot;You
+know that Russia is now practically a tranquil country, but there are
+certain bands of the extreme Bolshevistic faction who never gave in to
+authority and who practically exist in the little-known places by means
+of marauding expeditions. The mountains about Kroten are supposed to
+have been infested by these nomadic companies. Whether the outrages set
+down to them are really committed or not, I don't suppose any one knows,
+but my point of view is that the presence of these people is absolutely
+encouraged by the Government, to give them an excuse for the most
+extraordinary precautions in issuing passports or allowing any one from
+the outside world to pass into the city. If you get in, I understand you
+are waited upon by the police within half an hour and have to tell them
+the story of your past life and your future intentions. After that you
+are allowed to go about on parole. If you get too inquisitive, you are
+discovered to be in touch with the robber bands, and&mdash;well&mdash;that's an
+end of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A nice, salubrious spot,&quot; Nigel murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds most interesting,&quot; Maggie declared. &quot;I think a woman would
+be less likely to cause suspicion,&quot; she added hopefully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Utterly out of the question,&quot; Jesson pronounced. &quot;Kroten is the one
+place that must be left in my hands. I know more about the getting there
+than any of you, and I know the tricks of changing my identity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should rather like to go with you,&quot; Nigel confessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impossible!&quot; was the brief reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jesson smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be perfectly frank,&quot; he said, &quot;because you are developing an
+interest in the one person in the world who might give success over into
+our hands. It is necessary for you to remain where you can encourage
+that interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was a little staggered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friendship with Mademoiselle Karetsky,&quot; he protested, &quot;is scarcely
+likely to influence her political views.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a somewhat close observer,&quot; Jesson continued. &quot;You will not ask me
+to believe that your conversation with mademoiselle in her box at the
+Opera last night related all the time to&mdash;well, shall we say music?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel, you never told me you were at the Opera,&quot; Maggie intervened.
+&quot;What made you go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that it was a message from Mademoiselle Karetsky,&quot; Jesson
+suggested quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon my word, I think you're going to be a success, Jesson,&quot; he
+declared. &quot;Perhaps you can tell me what we did talk about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe I almost could,&quot; was the calm reply. &quot;In any case, I think I
+see the situation as it exists. Mademoiselle Karetsky is a wonderful
+woman. She has a great, open mind. To a certain extent, of course, she
+has seen things from the point of view of Paul Matinsky, Immelan, and
+that little coterie of Russo-Germans who see a future for both countries
+only in an alliance of the old-fashioned order. Matinsky, however, has
+always had his doubts. That is why he sent over here the one person whom
+he trusted. Presently she will make a report, and the whole issue will
+remain with her. Immelan knows this and pays her ceaseless court. My
+impression, however, is that his influence is waning. I believe that
+to-day he is terrified at the bare reflection of how much Naida Karetsky
+knows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You believe that she does know exactly what is intended?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am perfectly certain of it,&quot; Jesson replied. &quot;If she could be induced
+to tell us everything, my journey to Kroten might just as well be
+abandoned. Yet somehow I do not think she will go so far as that. The
+most that we can hope for is that she will advise Matinsky to reject
+Immelan's proposals, and that she will perhaps bring some influence to
+bear in the same direction upon Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am inclined to agree with Jesson,&quot; Nigel pronounced, &quot;inasmuch as I
+believe that Mademoiselle Karetsky is disposed to change or modify her
+views concerning us. You see, after all, this threatened blow against
+England is purely a private affair of Germany's. There is really no
+reason why Russia or any other country should be dragged into it. She is
+the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for her most dangerous
+rival.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Matinsky might be brought to think that way,&quot; Chalmers observed, &quot;but
+they say half the members of his Cabinet are under German influence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Matinsky believed that,&quot; Nigel declared, &quot;he is quite strong enough
+to clear them all out and make a fresh start.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the meantime,&quot; Maggie interposed, &quot;I should like to know in what way
+you propose to use poor little me? I am not to go to Germany, the man
+whom I at one time seriously thought of marrying is told off to engage
+the attentions of another woman, Mr. Jesson here is going to Kroten, and
+he doesn't show the slightest inclination to take me with him. Am I to
+sit here and do nothing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There remains for you the third enterprise,&quot; Jesson replied, &quot;one in
+which, so far as I can see,&quot; he continued, with a smile, &quot;you have not
+the faintest chance of success.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what it is, at least?&quot; she begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The conversion of Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't you trying me a little high?&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very high indeed,&quot; Jesson acknowledged. &quot;Prince Shan, for all his
+wonderful statesmanship and his grip upon world affairs, is reputed to
+be almost an anchorite in his daily life. No woman has ever yet been
+able to boast of having exercised the slightest influence over him. At
+the same time, he is an extraordinarily human person, and success with
+him would mean the end of your enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds a bit of a forlorn hope,&quot; Maggie remarked cheerfully, &quot;but
+I'll do my little best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan has abandoned his idea of landing at Paris,&quot; Jesson
+continued. &quot;He is coming direct to London. I have to thank Chalmers for
+that information. Immelan will meet him directly he arrives, and their
+first conversations will make history. Afterwards, if things go well,
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will join the conference.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear,&quot; Maggie sighed, &quot;that there will be difficulties in the way of
+my establishing confidential relations with Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There will be difficulties,&quot; Jesson assented, &quot;but the thing is not so
+impossible as it would be in Paris. Prince Shan has a very fine house
+in Curzon Street, which is kept in continual readiness for him. He will
+probably entertain to some extent. You will without doubt have
+opportunities of meeting him socially.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie glanced at herself in the glass.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Chinaman!&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess that doesn't mean what it did,&quot; Chalmers pointed out. &quot;Prince
+Shan is an aristocrat and a born ruler. He has every scrap of culture
+that we know anything about and something from his thousand-year-old
+family that we don't quite know how to put into words. Don't you worry
+about Prince Shan, Lady Maggie. Ask Dorminster here what they called him
+at Oxford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The first gentleman of Asia,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;I think he deserves the
+title.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>On the morning following the conclave in Belgrave Square, the Right
+Honourable Mervin Brown received two extremely distinguished visitors in
+Downing Street. It was doubtful whether the Prime Minister was
+altogether at his best. There was a certain amount of irritability
+rankling beneath his customary air of bonhommie. He motioned his callers
+to take chairs, however, and listened attentively to the few words of
+introduction which his secretary thought necessary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is General Dumesnil, sir, of the French Staff, and Monsieur
+Pouilly of the French Cabinet. They have called according to
+appointment, on Government business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very glad to see you, gentlemen,&quot; was the Prime Minister's brisk
+welcome. &quot;Sorry I can't talk French to you. Politics, these last ten
+years, haven't left us much time for the outside graces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pouilly at once took the floor. He was a thin, dark man with a
+beautifully trimmed black beard, flashing black eyes, and thoughtful,
+delicate features. He was attired in the frock coat and dark trousers of
+diplomatic usage, and he appeared to somewhat resent the brown tweed
+suit and soft collar of the man who was receiving him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot; he began, &quot;you will kindly look upon our visit as
+official. We are envoys from Monsieur le Pr&eacute;sident and the French
+Government. General Dumesnil has accompanied me, in case our
+conversation should turn upon military matters here or at the War
+Office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The General saluted. The Prime Minister bowed a little awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So far as I am concerned,&quot; the latter declared, &quot;I will be perfectly
+frank with you from the start. I know nothing whatever about military
+affairs. My job is to govern this country, to make the most of its
+resources, and to bring prosperity to its citizens from the English
+Channel to the North Sea. We don't need soldiers and never shall, that I
+can see. I am firmly convinced that the days of wars are over. The
+government of every country in the world is getting into the hands of
+the democracy, and the democracy don't want war and never did. If any of
+the more quarrelsome folk on the continent get scrapping, well, my
+conception of my duty is to keep out of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pouilly restrained himself. To judge from his appearance,
+however, it was not altogether an easy matter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You belong, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;to a type of statesman whose rise to power
+in this country some of us have watched with a certain amount of
+concern, for although it is not my mission here to-day to talk politics,
+I am yet bound to remind you that you do not stand alone. The very
+League of Nations upon which you rely imposes certain obligations upon
+you, some actual, some understood. It is to discuss the situation
+arising from your neglect to make the provisions called for in that
+agreement that I am here to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown glanced at some figures which his secretary had laid
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You complain, I presume, of the reduction of our standing army?&quot; he
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We complain of that,&quot; Monsieur Pouilly replied, &quot;and we complain also
+of the gradually decreasing interest shown by your Government in matters
+of &aelig;ronautics, artillery, and naval construction. We learnt our lesson
+in 1914. If trouble should come again, our country would once more be
+the sufferer. You would no doubt do everything that was expected of you,
+in time. Before you were ready, however, France would be ruined. You
+entered into certain obligations under the League of Nations. My
+Government begs to call your attention to the fact that you are not
+fulfilling them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my intention within the course of the next few months,&quot; Mervin
+Brown declared, &quot;to lay before the League of Nations a scheme for total
+disarmament.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pouilly was staggered. A little exclamation escaped the
+General.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about those nations,&quot; the latter enquired, &quot;who were left outside
+the League? What of Russia, for instance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Russia is a great and peaceful republic,&quot; Mervin Brown replied. &quot;All
+her efforts are devoted towards industrial development. No nation would
+have less to gain by a return to militarism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon, monsieur, but how do you know anything about Russia?&quot; Monsieur
+Pouilly asked. &quot;You have not a single secret service agent there, and
+your ambassadors are ambassadors of commerce.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know what every one else knows,&quot; Mervin Brown declared. &quot;Our
+commercial travellers are our secret service agents. They travel where
+they please in Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Germany?&quot; the General queried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I defy you to say that there is the slightest indication of any
+militarism in Germany,&quot; the Prime Minister insisted. &quot;I was there myself
+only a few months ago. The country is quiet and moving on now to a new
+prosperity. I am absolutely and entirely convinced that the world has
+nothing to fear from either Russia or Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you any theory, sir,&quot; General Dumesnil enquired, &quot;as to why Russia
+refused to join the League of Nations?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None whatever,&quot; was the genial acknowledgment. &quot;Russia was left out at
+the start through jealous statesmanship, and afterwards she preferred
+her independence. I have every sympathy with her attitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One more question,&quot; the soldier begged. &quot;Are you aware, sir, that since
+Japan left the League of Nations on the excuse of her isolation, she has
+been building &aelig;roplanes and battleships on a new theory, instigated, if
+you please, by China?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And look at her last balance sheet as a result of it,&quot; was the prompt
+retort. &quot;If a nation chooses to make herself a bankrupt by building war
+toys, no one in the world can help her. Legislation of that sort is
+foolish and simply an incitement to revolution. Look at the difference
+in our country. Our income tax is practically abolished, our industrial
+troubles are over. Our credit never stood so high, the wealth of the
+country was never so great. We are satisfied. A peaceful nation makes
+for peace. The rattling of the sabre incites military disturbance. Do
+not ask us, gentlemen, to train armies or build ships.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We ask you only to keep your covenant,&quot; Monsieur Pouilly pronounced
+stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who does keep it?&quot; the Prime Minister demanded. &quot;The world is governed
+now by common sense and humanity. I look upon a war of aggression on the
+part of any country as a sheer impossibility.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about a war of revenge?&quot; the General enquired quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can search Germany from end to end,&quot; Mervin Brown declared, &quot;and
+find no trace of any spirit of the sort. I am sorry if I am a
+disappointment to you, gentlemen, but the present Government views your
+attitude without sympathy. General Richardson is expecting a visit from
+you this morning at the War Office, and he will give you any information
+you desire. An appointment has also been made for you this afternoon at
+the Admiralty. You are doing me the honour of dining with me here
+to-morrow night to meet certain members of my Cabinet, and we will, if
+you choose, discuss the matter further then. I have thought it best to
+place my views clearly before you, however, at the outset of your visit
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Frenchmen rose a few minutes later and took their leave,
+ceremoniously but with obvious discontent. The Prime Minister leaned
+back in his chair and awaited his secretary's return with a
+well-satisfied smile. In a few minutes the latter presented himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Franklin,&quot; the great man said, &quot;I've let them hear the truth for
+once. Plain speaking, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young man bowed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They certainly know your views, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Minister glanced at his subordinate sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the matter with you this morning, Franklin?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is nothing the matter with me, thank you, sir,&quot; was the quiet
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not going to tell me that you disapprove of my attitude?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By no means, sir,&quot; the young man assured his Chief hastily,&mdash;&quot;not
+altogether, that is to say. At the same time, one wonders how far those
+two men represent the feeling of France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His Chief shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The military spirit is hard to kill,&quot; he said. &quot;It is in the blood of
+most Frenchmen. They are not big enough to understand that the world is
+moving on to greater things. What did they say to you before they left?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing much, sir. The General just asked me whether I thought you
+would soon be content to leave London unpoliced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What rubbish! Any one else for me to see this morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You promised to give Lord Dorminster ten minutes,&quot; the young man
+reminded him. &quot;He is in the anteroom now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister frowned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dorminster,&quot; he repeated. &quot;He is a nephew of the man who was always
+worrying the Government to re&euml;stablish the secret service. I remember he
+came to see me the other day, declared that his uncle had been
+murdered, and a secret dispatch from Germany stolen. I wonder he didn't
+wind up with a report that the Chinese were on their way to seize
+Ireland!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the same man, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I suppose I'd better see him and get it over,&quot; his Chief declared
+irritably. &quot;If only one could make these people realize how far behind
+the times they are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was shown in, a few minutes later. Mr. Mervin Brown was gracious
+but terse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't had the opportunity of congratulating you upon becoming one
+of our hereditary legislators, Lord Dorminster, since you took your seat
+in the House of Lords,&quot; he said. &quot;Pray let me do so now. I hope that we
+may count upon your support.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My support, sir,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;will be given to any Party which will
+take the urgent necessary steps to protect this country against a great
+danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God bless my soul!&quot; the Prime Minister exclaimed. &quot;Another of you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can only guess who my predecessors were,&quot; Nigel continued, smiling,
+&quot;but I will frankly confess that the object of my visit is to beg you to
+re&euml;stablish our secret service in Germany, Russia and China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; the other declared, &quot;would induce me to do anything of the
+sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you aware,&quot; Nigel enquired, &quot;that there is a considerable foreign
+secret service at work in this country at the present moment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not aware of it, and I don't believe it,&quot; was the blunt retort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have absolute proof,&quot; Nigel insisted. &quot;Not only that, but two
+ex-secret service men whom my uncle sent out to Germany and Russia on
+his own account were murdered there as soon as they began to get on the
+track of certain things which had been kept secret. A report from one of
+these men got through and was stolen from my uncle's library in Belgrave
+Square on the day he was murdered. You will remember that I placed all
+these facts before you on the occasion of a previous visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mervin Brown nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything else?&quot; he asked patiently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know that a special envoy from China is on his way here at the
+present moment to meet Immelan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oscar Immelan, the German Commissioner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same,&quot; Nigel assented.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A most delightful fellow,&quot; the Prime Minister declared warmly, &quot;and a
+great friend to this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must take the liberty of disagreeing with you,&quot; Nigel rejoined,
+&quot;because I know very well that he is our bitter enemy. Prince Shan, who
+is on his way from China to meet him, is the envoy of the one country
+outside Europe whom we might fear. We sit still and do nothing. We have
+no means of knowing what may be plotted against us here in London. At
+least a polite request might be sent to Prince Shan to ask him to pay
+you a visit and disclose the nature of his conference with Immelan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he cares to come, we shall be glad to see him,&quot; Mervin Brown
+replied, &quot;but I for one shall not go out of my way to talk politics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know what politics are, sir?&quot; Nigel asked, in a sudden fury.</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister's eyes flashed for a moment. He controlled himself,
+however, and rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an idea that I do,&quot; he answered. &quot;A few millions of my fellow
+countrymen believe the same thing, or I should not be here. I think that
+you know what my principles are, Lord Dorminster. I am here to govern
+this country for the benefit of the people. We don't want to govern any
+one else's country, we don't want to meddle in any one else's affairs.
+Least of all do we want to revert to the times when your uncle was a
+young man, and every country in Europe was sitting with drawn sword,
+trusting nobody, fearing everybody, living in a state of nerves, with
+the roll of the drum always in their ears. The best preventative of war,
+in my opinion, is not to believe in it. Good morning, Lord Dorminster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a dismissal against which there was no appeal. Nigel followed the
+secretary from the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You found the Chief a little bit ratty this morning, I expect, Lord
+Dorminster,&quot; the latter remarked. &quot;We've had the French Mission here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Mervin Brown has at least the virtue of knowing his own mind,&quot;
+Nigel replied dryly.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The automobile turned in through the great entrance gates of the South
+London Aeronautic Terminus and commenced a slow ascent along the broad
+asphalted road to what, a few years ago, had been esteemed a new wonder
+of the world. Maggie rose to her feet with a little exclamation of
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know I have never been here at night before?&quot; she exclaimed.
+&quot;Isn't it wonderful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marvellous!&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;It's the largest aeronautic station in the
+world&mdash;bigger, they say, than all our railway termini put together. Look
+at the flares, Maggie! No wonder the sky from the housetop at Belgrave
+Square seems always to be on fire at night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were approaching now the first of the huge sheds which were
+arranged in circular fashion around an immense stretch of perfectly
+level asphalted ground. Every shed was as big as an ordinary railway
+station, its arched opening framed with electric illuminations. Inside
+could be seen the crowds of people waiting on the platforms; in many of
+them, the engine of a great airship was already throbbing, waiting to
+start. In the background was a huge wireless installation, and around,
+at regular intervals, enormous pillars, on the top of which flares of
+different-coloured fire were burning. The automobile came to a
+standstill before a large electrically illuminated time chart. Nigel
+alighted for a moment and spoke to one of the inspectors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which station for the <i>Black Dragon</i>, private ship from China?&quot; he
+enquired.</p>
+
+<p>The man glanced at the chart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Number seven, on the other side,&quot; he replied. &quot;You can drive around.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How is she for time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She crossed the North Sea punctually,&quot; he replied. &quot;We should see her
+violet lights in ten minutes. Mind the traffic as you pass number three.
+The North ship from Norway is just in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel addressed a word of caution to the chauffeur, and they drove on.
+From the first shed they passed a stream of vehicles was pouring
+out,&mdash;porters with luggage, jostling throngs of newly arrived passengers
+on their way to the Electric Underground. They drove into number seven
+shed, left the car, and walked to the end of the long platform. The
+great arc of glass-covered roof above them was brilliantly illuminated,
+throwing a queer downward light upon the long line of waiting porters,
+the refreshment rooms, the kiosks and newspaper stalls. In the far end,
+a huge airship, bound for the East, was already filling up. Maggie and
+her companion stood for a few minutes gazing into the huge void of
+space.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me about Naida,&quot; the former begged, a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is a wonderful woman,&quot; Nigel declared enthusiastically. &quot;We
+lunched at Ciro's. She wore a black and white muslin gown which arrived
+this morning from Paris. Afterwards we went down to Ranelagh and sat
+under the trees.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Throwing yourself thoroughly into your little job, aren't you!&quot; Maggie
+sniffed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll have a chance to catch me up before long,&quot; he replied. &quot;Naida
+has promised that she will arrange a meeting with the Prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder what Oscar Immelan will have to say about it,&quot; Maggie
+reflected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To tell you the truth,&quot; Nigel said hopefully, &quot;I believe that Immelan
+is losing ground. His whole scheme is too selfish. Of course, Naida
+won't discuss these things with me in plain words, but she gives me a
+hint now and then. Amongst her gifts, she has a marvellous sense of
+justice and a hatred of any form of bribery. That is where I feel
+convinced that she and Immelan will never come together. Immelan could
+never see more than the selfish side, even of a world upheaval. Naida
+searches everywhere for motive. She has the altruistic instinct. I
+wonder no longer at Matinsky. She is a born ruler herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad you are getting along with her,&quot; Maggie remarked. &quot;Look!&quot; she
+broke off, catching at his arm. &quot;The violet lights!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>High up in the sky outside, two violet specks of light suddenly rose and
+fell like airballs. A crowd of mechanics appeared through subterranean
+doors and stood about in the vast arena. Very soon the airship came into
+sight, her cars brilliantly illuminated. She circled slowly round and
+came noiselessly to the ground, and with the mechanics running by her
+side, and her engines now scarcely audible, came slowly into the shed
+and to a standstill by the side of the platform. Maggie and her
+companion stood well in the background.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There he is,&quot; the latter whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan, suddenly appeared as though from the bowels of the earth, was
+shaking hands warmly with a tall, slender man who was one of the first
+to descend from the airship. They talked rapidly together for a few
+minutes. Then they disappeared, walking down towards the
+luggage-clearing station. Maggie watched the retreating figures
+earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He doesn't look in the least Chinese,&quot; she declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I told you he didn't,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;He was considered the
+best-looking man of his year up at Oxford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was unusually silent on their way back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was perhaps scarcely worth our while, this little expedition of
+ours,&quot; Maggie said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not sorry that we came?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. &quot;I think not,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why only 'think'?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She roused herself with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know, Nigel,&quot; she confessed. &quot;I can't imagine what is wrong
+with me. I feel shivery&mdash;nervous&mdash;as though something were going to
+happen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie whom he scarcely
+recognised.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Presentiments?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absurd, isn't it!&quot; she replied, with a weak smile. &quot;I'll get over it
+directly. I don't think I am going to like Prince Shan, Nigel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you haven't been long making up your mind,&quot; he observed. &quot;I
+shouldn't have thought you had been able even to see his face.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it,&quot; she reflected. &quot;To me it
+seemed as though it were carved out of granite, and as though all that
+was human about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he hadn't been
+looking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you flattering yourself that he will recognise you?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that he will,&quot; she answered simply.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at the Ritz on the
+following evening, Prince Shan and Immelan dined t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te, Immelan in
+the best of spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world,
+drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities; Prince Shan, his
+features and expression unchanging, and his face as white as the
+perfectly fitting shirt he wore. His clothes were fashionable and
+distinctive, his black pearls unobtrusive but wonderful, his smoothly
+brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger nails, his skilfully tied tie
+all indicative of his close touch with western civilization. There was
+nothing, in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly
+unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air of personal
+detachment, to denote the Oriental. He drank water, he ate sparingly, he
+preserved an almost unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one giving
+courteous attention to everything which his companion said and finding
+interest in it. Only once he asked a question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are well acquainted here, my host,&quot; he said. &quot;You know the trio at
+the table just behind the entrance&mdash;the attractive young lady with her
+chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must be an old college
+acquaintance whose name I have forgotten. Tell me some more about them
+in their private capacity, and not as saviours of their country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is not much to tell,&quot; he answered, without enthusiasm. &quot;The young
+lady is, as you know, Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white
+hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their escort is Lord
+Dorminster. You would probably know him by the name of Kingley&mdash;he has
+only just succeeded to the title.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan was looking straight across the room, his eyes travelling
+over the heads of the many brilliant little groups of diners to rest
+apparently upon an empty space in the white-and-gold walls. He had been
+a great traveller, but always his first evening, when he came once more
+into touch with a civilisation more meretricious but more poignant than
+his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His
+companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is
+only gossip, however.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His
+eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully <i>soign&eacute;e</i>, very
+alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not
+actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more
+he felt the disturbance of the West.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we should chance to come together naturally,&quot; he said, &quot;it would
+gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XIV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very
+naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that
+evening, and the table towards which an attentive <i>ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel</i>
+conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by
+Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was
+bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently,
+to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after
+the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to
+offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie,&quot; he said. &quot;I am
+fortunate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted her unspoken invitation
+and seated himself on the lounge by her side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We who come from the self-contained countries of the world,&quot; he
+explained, &quot;and China is one of them, come always with the desire and
+longing for new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite for these
+is insatiable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And am I a new sensation?&quot; Maggie asked, glancing up at him innocently
+enough, but with a faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are,&quot; he answered placidly. &quot;You reveal&mdash;or rather you suggest&mdash;the
+things of which in my country we know nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised over there,&quot; Maggie
+observed. &quot;Please tell me at once what it is that I possess which your
+womenkind do not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I answered all that your question implies,&quot; he said, &quot;I should make
+use of speech too direct for the conventions of the world in which you
+live. I would simply remind you that whereas we men in China may claim,
+I think, to have reached the same standard of culture and civilisation
+as Europeans, we have left our womenkind far behind in that respect. The
+Chinese woman, even the noble lady, does not care for serious affairs.
+The God of the Mountains, as they call him, made her a flower to pluck,
+a beautiful plaything for her chosen mate. She remains primitive. That
+is why, in time, man wearies of her, why the person of imagination looks
+sometimes westward, finds a new joy and a strange new fascination in a
+wholly different type of femininity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you have many European women now living in China,&quot; Maggie reminded
+him,&mdash;&quot;American women, too, and they are so much admired everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chinese, especially we of the nobility,&quot; Prince Shan replied, &quot;are
+born with racial prejudices. An individual may forgive an affront, a
+nation never. The days of retaliation by force of arms may indeed have
+passed, but the gentleman of China, even of these days, is not likely to
+take to his heart the woman of America.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear me,&quot; Maggie murmured, &quot;isn't it rather out of date to persevere in
+these ancient feuds?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Feeling of all sorts is out of date,&quot; he admitted patiently, &quot;yet there
+are some things which endure. I should be honoured by your friendship,
+Lady Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is very sudden,&quot; she laughed. &quot;I am very flattered&mdash;but what does
+it mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Permission to call upon you&mdash;and your aunt,&quot; he added, glancing around
+the little circle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall be delighted,&quot; Maggie replied, &quot;but you won't like my aunt.
+She is a little deaf, and she has no sense of humour. She has come to
+live with us because Lord Dorminster and I are not really related,
+although we call ourselves cousins, and I should hate to leave Belgrave
+Square. You shall take me out to tea to-morrow afternoon instead, if you
+like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A smouldering fire burned for a moment in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will make me very happy,&quot; he said. &quot;I shall attend you at four
+o'clock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thenceforward, conversation became general. Prince Shan, with the air
+of one who has achieved his immediate object, left his place by Maggie's
+side and talked with grave courtesy to her aunt. Presently the little
+party broke up, bound, it seemed, for the same theatre. Nigel had become
+a little serious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you've made a good start, Maggie,&quot; he remarked, leaning forward
+in his place in the limousine.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have I?&quot; Maggie answered thoughtfully. &quot;I wonder!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish we could get at him in some different fashion,&quot; her companion
+observed uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear man, I'm hardened to these enterprises,&quot; Maggie assured him. &quot;I
+even let the President of the German Republic hold my hand once when his
+wife wasn't looking. Nothing came of it,&quot; she added, with a little sigh.
+&quot;These Germans are terribly sentimental when it doesn't cost them
+anything. They've no idea of a fair exchange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By a 'fair exchange' you mean,&quot; her aunt suggested, a little
+censoriously, &quot;that you expected him to barter his country's secrets for
+a touch of your fingers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or my lips, perhaps,&quot; Maggie added, with a little grimace. &quot;Please
+don't look so serious, Aunt. I'm not really in love with Prince Shan,
+you know, and to-night I rather feel like marrying Nigel, if I can get
+him back again. I like his waistcoat buttons, and the way he has tied
+his tie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too late, my dear,&quot; Nigel warned her. &quot;I give you formal notice. I
+have transferred my affections.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That decides me,&quot; Maggie declared firmly. &quot;I shall collect you back
+again. I hate to lose an admirer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The nonsense you young people talk!&quot; Mrs. Bollington Smith observed, as
+they reached the theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers joined them soon after they had reached their box. He sank into
+the empty place by Maggie's side which Nigel had just vacated and leaned
+forward confidentially.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you've started the campaign,&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you know?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was at the Ritz to-night,&quot; he told her, &quot;at the far end of the room
+with my Chief and two other men. We were behind you in the lounge
+afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was so engrossed,&quot; Maggie murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers paused for a moment to watch the performance. When he spoke
+again, his voice, was, for him, unusually serious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Young lady,&quot; he said, &quot;I told you on our first meeting my idea of
+diplomacy. Truth! No beating about the bush&mdash;just the plain, unvarnished
+truth! I have conceived an affection for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Goodness gracious!&quot; Maggie exclaimed softly. &quot;Are you going to
+propose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; he assured her, &quot;is farther from my thoughts. Lest I should
+be misunderstood, let me substitute the term 'affectionate interest' for
+'affection.' I have felt uneasy ever since I saw Prince Shan watching
+you across the restaurant to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he really watch me?&quot; Maggie asked complacently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He not only watched you,&quot; Chalmers assured her, &quot;but he thought about
+you&mdash;and very little else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Congratulate me, then,&quot; she replied. &quot;I am on the way to success.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers frowned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not quite so sure,&quot; he said. &quot;You'll think I'm an illogical sort of
+person, but I've changed my mind about your r&ocirc;le in this little affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I am afraid of Prince Shan,&quot; he answered deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him from behind her fan. Her eyes sparkled with interest.
+If there were any other feeling underneath, she showed no trace of it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a queer word for you to use!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it. I would back you, Lady Maggie, to hold your own against any
+male creature breathing, of your own order and your own race, but Prince
+Shan plays the game differently. He possesses every gift which women and
+men both admire, but he hasn't our standards. Life for him means power.
+A wish for him entails its fulfilment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are afraid,&quot; Maggie suggested, still with the laughter in her eyes,
+&quot;that he will trifle with my affections?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something like that,&quot; he admitted bluntly. &quot;Prince Shan will be here
+for a week&mdash;perhaps a fortnight. When he goes, he goes a very long
+distance away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I may decide to marry him,&quot; Maggie said. &quot;One gets rather tired here of
+the regular St. George's, Hanover Square, business, and all that comes
+afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear Lady Maggie,&quot; Chalmers replied, &quot;that is the trouble. Prince Shan
+would never marry you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; she asked simply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First of all,&quot; Chalmers went on, after a moment's hesitation, &quot;because
+Prince Shan, broad-minded though he seems to be and is on all the great
+questions of the world, still preserves something of what we should call
+the superstition of his country and order. I believe, in his own mind,
+he looks upon himself as being one of the few elect of the earth. He
+travels, he is gracious everywhere, but though his manner is the
+perfection of form, in his heart he is still aloof. He rides through the
+clouds from Asia, and he leaves always something of himself over there
+on the other side. Let me tell you this, Lady Maggie. I have never
+forgotten it. He was at Harvard in my year, and so far as he unbent to
+any one, he sometimes unbent to me. I asked him once whether he were
+ever going to marry. He shook his head and sighed. 'I can never marry,'
+he replied. 'Why not?' I asked him. 'Because there are no women of the
+Shan line alive,' he answered. Later, he took pity on my bewilderment.
+He let me understand. For two thousand years, no Shan has married, save
+one of his own line. To ally himself with a princess of the royal house
+of England would be a m&eacute;salliance which would disturb his ancestors in
+their graves. Of course, this sounds to us very ridiculous, but to him
+it isn't. It is part of the religion of his life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not very encouraging, are you?&quot; Maggie remarked. &quot;Perhaps he
+has changed since those days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her companion shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should say not,&quot; he replied, &quot;the Prince is not of the order of those
+who change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it matrimony alone,&quot; she asked, &quot;which he denies himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers glanced towards Mrs. Bollington Smith, whose eyes were closed.
+Then he nodded towards the stage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see the woman who has just come upon the stage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie glanced downwards. A very wonderful little figure in white satin,
+lithe and sinuous as a cat, Chinese in the subtlety of her looks,
+European in her almost sinister over-civilisation, stood smiling
+blandly at the applauding audience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Belle Nita,&quot; Maggie murmured. &quot;I thought she was in Paris. Well,
+what of her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is reputed to be a prot&eacute;g&eacute;e of Prince Shan. You see how she looks
+up at his box.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was conscious of a queer and almost incomprehensible stab at the
+heart. She answered without hesitation or change of expression, however.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Prince must be kind to a fellow countrywoman,&quot; she declared
+indulgently. &quot;You are talking terrible scandal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita danced wonderfully, sang like a linnet, danced again and
+disappeared, notwithstanding the almost wild calls for an encore. With
+the end of her turn came a selection from the orchestra and a general
+emptying of the boxes. Presently Chalmers went in search of Nigel. A few
+moments later there was a knock at the door. Maggie gripped the sides of
+her chair tightly. She was moved almost to fury by the turmoil in which
+she found herself. Her invitation to enter was almost inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am deserted,&quot; Prince Shan explained, as he made his bow and took the
+chair to which Maggie pointed. &quot;My friend Immelan has left me to visit
+acquaintances, and I chance to be unattended this evening. I trust that
+I do not intrude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very welcome here,&quot; Maggie replied. &quot;Will you listen to the
+orchestra, or talk to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will talk, if I may,&quot; he answered. &quot;Lord Dorminster is not with
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel went to look up a friend whom he wants to bring to supper. He is
+one of those people who seem to discover friends and acquaintances in
+every quarter of the globe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to that fortunate chance,&quot; her visitor continued, dropping his
+voice a little, &quot;I owe the happiness of finding you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie glanced towards her aunt, who was leaning back in her seat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't,&quot; she declared. &quot;She is really a
+very efficient chaperon. Talk to me about China, please, and tell me
+about your <i>Dragon</i> airship. Is it true that you have silver baths, and
+that Gauteron painted the walls of your dining salon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One is in the air five days on the way over,&quot; he answered
+indifferently. &quot;It is necessary that one's surroundings should be
+agreeable. Perhaps some day I may have the honour of showing it to you.
+In the darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to be seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You knew that I was there, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yours was the first face I saw when I descended from the car,&quot; he told
+her. &quot;You stood apart, watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that
+you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I came there. As a rule,
+I do not dine in public.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could you possibly know that I was going to be there?&quot; Maggie asked
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through the names of those who
+had booked tables,&quot; he answered. &quot;It was very simple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was only a chance that the table was reserved in my name,&quot; she
+reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was chance which brought us together,&quot; he rejoined. &quot;It is chance
+under another name to which I trust in life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in her life, in her relations with the other sex,
+Maggie felt a queer sensation which was almost fear. She felt herself
+losing poise, her will governed, her whole self dominated. Unconsciously
+she drew herself a little away. Her eyes travelled around the crowded
+house and suddenly rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
+Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly forward, her eyes fixed
+intently upon Prince Shan, was La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown
+around her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure in the
+semi-obscurity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have some one waiting for you in your box,&quot; Maggie told him.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his feet. She gave him
+credit for the adroitness of mind which rejected the obvious
+explanation of her presence there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must go,&quot; he said simply, &quot;but I have many things which I desire to
+say to you. You will not forget to-morrow afternoon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not forget,&quot; she answered, in a low tone.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince Shan's eyes as he sat
+back in the dim recesses of his box and scrutinised his visitor. La
+Belle Nita had learnt all that Paris and London could teach her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very beautiful, Nita,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Many men tell me so,&quot; she answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Life has gone well with you since we met last?&quot; he asked reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The months have passed,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have been faithful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fidelity is of the soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, as though pondering over her answer. A famous French comedian
+was holding the stage, and the house rocked with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have the same apartment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She pressed the clasp of a black velvet bag which rested on the edge of
+the box, opened it, and passed him a key.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He held the key in his fingers for a moment, but he had the air of a man
+to whom the action had no significance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have enough money?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have saved a million francs,&quot; she told him. &quot;I am waiting for my
+lord to speak of things that matter. The woman in the box over
+there&mdash;who is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An English spy,&quot; he answered calmly.</p>
+
+<p>She lowered her eyes for a moment, as though to conceal the sudden soft
+flash.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An English spy,&quot; she repeated. &quot;My rival in espionage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have no rival, Nita,&quot; he replied, &quot;and she is in the opposite
+camp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her two red lips were distorted into a pout.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it over, my task?&quot; she asked. &quot;I am weary of Paris. I love it over
+here better. I am weary of French officers, of these solemn officials
+who come to my room like guilty schoolboys, and who speak of themselves
+and their importance with bated breath, as though their whisper would
+rock the world. My master has enough information?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More than enough,&quot; he assured her. &quot;You have done your work
+wonderfully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I now deal with her?&quot; she continued, with a slight, eager
+movement of her head towards the opposite box.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is harmless, she and her entourage,&quot; he replied. &quot;Some stroke of
+good fortune brought them word of the meeting between myself and
+Immelan, and beyond that they guessed at its significance. They were at
+the shed to watch my arrival. Now, with their mouths open, they sit and
+wait for the information which they hope will drop in. They are very
+ingenuous, these Anglo-Saxons, but they are not diplomats.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head and looked across the auditorium. Maggie was talking
+to a man whom Nigel had just brought in, and who was bending over her in
+obvious admiration. Nita, with her wealth of cosmetics, her over-red
+lips, stared curiously at this possible rival, with her clear skin, her
+beautiful neck and shoulders, her hair dressed close to her head, her
+air of quiet, almost singular distinction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The young lady,&quot; she confessed, &quot;wears her clothes well for an English
+woman. She is <i>bien soign&eacute;e</i>, but she looks a little difficult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes followed the direction of hers, and her object was achieved.
+She read correctly the light that gleamed in them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I may come to-night?&quot; she asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not again,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>A violinist now held the stage, a Pole newly come to London. La Belle
+Nita closed her eyes. For a few minutes her sorrow seemed to throb to
+the minor music to which she was listening.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For all my work, then,&quot; she said presently, &quot;for the suffering and the
+risk, there is to be nothing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it nothing for you to be invited to live in whatsoever manner you
+choose?&quot; he remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is little,&quot; she replied steadily. &quot;There are a dozen who would do
+this for me, who pray every day that they may do so. What are all these
+things beside the love of my master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her a little sadly, yet without any sign of real feeling.
+To him she represented nothing more than a doll with brains, from whose
+intelligence he had profited, but of whose beauty he was weary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know what our poet says, Nita,&quot; he reminded her. &quot;'Love is like the
+rustling of the wind in the almond trees before dawn.' We cannot command
+it. It comes to us or leaves us without reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked across the auditorium once more and spoke with her head
+turned away from her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one in the East,&quot; she said, &quot;because those who write me
+weekly send news of my lord's doings. There is no one in the East,
+because there they give the body who know nothing of the soul. And so my
+Prince is safe amongst them. But here&mdash;these western women have other
+gifts. Is that she, master of my life and soul?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met her this evening for the first time,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed drearily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eyes may meet in the street without speech, a glance may burn its way
+into the soul. Once I thought that I might love again, because a
+stranger smiled at me in the Bois, and he had grey eyes, and that look
+about his mouth which a woman craves for. He passed on, and I forgot.
+You see, my lord was still there.&mdash;So this is the woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who knows?&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan came into the box a little abruptly. There was a cloud upon his
+face which he did his best to conceal. Almost simultaneously, a
+messenger from behind the scenes arrived for Nita. She rose to her feet
+and wrapped her green cloak closely around her lissom figure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a quarter of an hour,&quot; she said, &quot;I have to appear again. It is to
+be good-night, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the appeal which knows no
+nationality shone out of their velvety depths. She stood before him
+simply, like a slave who pleads. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face
+moved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is to be good-night, Nita,&quot; he answered calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Her head drooped, and she passed out. She had the air of a flower whose
+petals have been bruised. Immelan looked after her curiously, almost
+compassionately.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is finished, then, with the little one, Prince?&quot; he enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is finished,&quot; was the calm reply.</p>
+
+<p>Immelan stroked his short moustache thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it wise?&quot; he ventured. &quot;She has been faithful and assiduous. She
+knows many things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's eyes were filled with mild wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has had some years of my occasional companionship,&quot; he said. &quot;It is
+surely as much as she could hope for or expect. We are not like you
+Westerners, Immelan,&quot; he went on. &quot;Our women are the creatures of our
+will. We call them, or we send them away. They know that, and they are
+prepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems a little brutal,&quot; Immelan muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You prefer your method?&quot; his companion asked. &quot;Yet you practise deceit.
+Your fancy wanders, and you lie about it. You lose your dignity, my
+friend. No woman is worth a man's lie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was leaning back in his chair, gazing steadfastly across the
+crowded theatre.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your principles,&quot; he said, &quot;are suited to your own womenkind. La Belle
+Nita has become westernised. Are you sure that she accepts the situation
+as she would if she dwelt with you in Pekin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am her master,&quot; Prince Shan declared calmly. &quot;I have made no promises
+that I have not fulfilled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The promise between a man and a woman is an unspoken one,&quot; Immelan
+persisted. &quot;You have not been in Europe for five months. All that time
+she has awaited you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something else has happened,&quot; Prince Shan said deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since your arrival in London?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since my arrival in London, since I stepped out of my ship last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was frankly incredulous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean Lady Maggie Trent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly! I have always felt that some day or other my thoughts would
+turn towards one of these strange, western women. That time has come.
+Lady Maggie possesses those charms which come from the brain, yet which
+appeal more deeply than any other to the subtle desires of the poet, the
+man of letters and the philosopher. She is very wonderful, Immelan. I
+thank you for your introduction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan ceased to caress his moustache. He leaned back in his chair and
+gazed at his companion. For many years he and the Prince had been
+associates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even begun to
+understand him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you forget, Prince,&quot; he said, &quot;that Lady Maggie and her friends are
+in the opposite camp. When our agreement is concluded and known to the
+world, she will look upon you as an enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As yet,&quot; Prince Shan answered calmly, &quot;our agreement is not concluded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat
+prevented an expression of anger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, Prince,&quot; he expostulated, &quot;apart from political considerations,
+you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you
+and Lady Maggie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; was the cool reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie is of the English nobility,&quot; Immelan pointed out. &quot;Neither
+she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in
+the nature of a morganatic alliance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would not be necessary,&quot; Prince Shan declared. &quot;It is in my mind to
+offer her marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his
+pocket. He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marriage?&quot; he muttered. &quot;You are not serious!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am entirely serious,&quot; the Prince insisted. &quot;I can understand your
+amazement, Immelan. When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it
+as I would at a weed. But we who have studied in the West have learnt
+certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.
+All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.
+From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity: devotion to our country
+and singleness of purpose. Over here, though, one has also learnt
+something. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the Shans must seek not
+for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate. If
+their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of
+his life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was speechless. There was something final and convincing in his
+companion's measured words. His own protest, when at last he spoke,
+sounded paltry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But supposing it is true that she is already engaged to Lord
+Dorminster?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That,&quot; he said, &quot;can easily be disposed of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But do you seriously believe that you would be able to induce her to
+return with you to Pekin?&quot; Immelan persisted.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment it chanced that Maggie turned her head and looked across
+at the two men. Prince Shan leaned a little forward to meet her gaze.
+His face was expressionless. The lines of his mouth were calm and
+restful, yet in his eyes there glowed for a single moment the fire of a
+man who looks upon the thing he covets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I seriously believe it,&quot; he answered under his breath.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XVI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Maggie leaned back in her chair with a little sigh of content. The
+scarlet-coated waiter had just removed their tea tray, a pleasant breeze
+was rustling through the leaves of the trees under which she and Prince
+Shan were seated. From the distance came the low strains of a military
+band. Everywhere on the lawns and along the paths men and women were
+promenading.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confess that this is better than Rumpelmayer's or the Ritz,&quot; she
+murmured lazily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is better,&quot; he admitted. &quot;It is a very wonderful place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have nothing like it in China?&quot; she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would not be possible,&quot; he answered. &quot;Democracy there is confined to
+politics. In other respects, our class prejudices are far more rigid
+than yours. But then I see a great change in this country since I was
+here as a student.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have lost your affection for it, perhaps?&quot; she ventured, looking at
+him through half-closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On the contrary,&quot; he assured her, &quot;my gratitude towards her was never
+so great as at this moment. Your country has given me nothing I prize
+so much, Lady Maggie, as my knowledge of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked away from his very earnest eyes, and the light retort died
+away upon her lips. The men and women whom she watched so steadfastly
+seemed like puppets, the flowers artificial, the music unreal. Already
+she was beginning to resent the influence which he was establishing over
+her. The art of badinage in which she was so proficient stood her in no
+stead. Words, even the power of light speech, had deserted her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me about the changes that you see,&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps,&quot; he replied, after a moment's hesitation, &quot;it is because I am
+an occasional visitor that differences seem so marked to me, but look at
+the tables there. That is the Duke of Illinton, is it not? At the next
+table, the man in the strange clothes and uncomfortable hat&mdash;it seems to
+me that I have seen him somewhere under different circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Life is a terrible hotchpotch nowadays,&quot; she admitted. &quot;After the war,
+our gentry and aristocracy who were not wealthy were taxed out of
+existence. The profiteers, and the men who had made fortunes during the
+war, took their place. It has made the country prosperous but less
+picturesque.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You put things very clearly,&quot; he said. &quot;To-day in England is certainly
+the day of the shopkeeper's triumph. Wealth is a great thing, but it is
+great only for what it leads to. I think your philosopher of the
+streets, your new school of politicians, have alike forgotten that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have lost sympathy with England, have you not, Prince Shan?&quot; Maggie
+asked him.</p>
+
+<p>He turned towards her, a faint but kindly smile upon his lips, a light
+in his eyes which she did not altogether understand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie,&quot; he said quietly, &quot;they tell me that you are interested in
+the political side of my visit to this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who tells you that?&quot; she demanded. &quot;What have I to do with politics?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have been gifted with great intelligence,&quot; he continued, &quot;and you
+are the confidante of your connection, Lord Dorminster. Lord Dorminster
+is one of those few Englishmen who realise the ill direction of the
+destinies of this country. You would like to help him in his present
+very strenuous efforts to ascertain the truth as to certain movements
+directed against the British Empire. That is so, is it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In plain words, you are accusing me of being a spy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, no!&quot; he protested gently. &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She knew better than to make the mistake of denial. After all, it was an
+absurdly unequal contest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not the only reason,&quot; she assured him, a little tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you see,&quot; he continued, after a moment's pause, &quot;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&mdash;you will not be
+offended?&mdash;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,&quot; he declared, rising to his feet. &quot;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,&quot; he
+went on, as they moved away together, &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie walked dutifully by his side, answering his frequent questions
+about flowers and shrubs, listening while he told her about his white
+peacocks 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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel so like a precocious child,&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He seemed suddenly to become younger, to meet her upon her own ground.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please do not be angry,&quot; he begged. &quot;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&mdash;go on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught at his wrist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please not,&quot; she begged breathlessly. &quot;Be content with this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They had paused by the side of an arbour. She suddenly felt the
+pressure of his fingers upon her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be content,&quot; he said, in a low tone, the passion of which
+seemed to throw her senses into complete turmoil, &quot;only when I have what
+my heart desires. But I will wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any luck, Lady Maggie?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him, and to his amazement her eyes were swimming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that Prince Shan will be on our side,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XVII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will accept, I trust, sir,&quot; the latter begged, &quot;this assurance 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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very welcome,&quot; the Prime Minister assured him. &quot;As for the
+purpose of your mission, I assure 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 passed into the hands of the democracy,
+and that democracies will not tolerate war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There I join issue with you, sir,&quot; the Frenchman replied. &quot;These are
+the obvious and expressed views of other European countries, yet month
+by month come rumours of the training of great masses 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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Russian Government have certainly given us cause for complaint in
+that direction,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown admitted. &quot;Strong representations are
+being made to them at the present moment. On the other hand, the reason
+for their attitude 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 attitude is
+reasonable, although I am free to admit that she is carrying her
+legislation against foreigners too far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the number of men she has under arms every year?&quot; Monsieur
+Senn enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Russia has always a possible danger to fear from China, the new
+Colossus of Asia,&quot; the Prime Minister pointed out. &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must tell you before we part, Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot; he said gravely,
+&quot;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 class 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&mdash;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 gods could offer me, see France in the same
+helpless state as England is in to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister rose also to his feet. He wore an air of offended
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monsieur Senn,&quot; he declared, &quot;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 God that that sound
+is represented in our country by the roar of machinery and the blaze of
+furnaces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Frenchman bowed and accepted the hand which the Prime Minister
+offered him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I present to you once more, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;the compliments and
+infinite regrets of Monsieur le Pr&eacute;sident.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A chapter of English history ended with the quiet passing of Monsieur
+Senn into the sunlit street. The latter entered his waiting automobile
+and drove at once to the French Embassy. The Ambassador listened in
+silence to his report.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the Press?&quot; was his only question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monsieur le Pr&eacute;sident insists upon the truth being known,&quot; the emissary
+announced. &quot;France has pledged her word against secret treaties.
+Besides, the honour of France must never afterwards be called in
+question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Ambassador sighed. He was new to his present post, but he had grown
+grey in the service of his country.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the end of a one-sided arrangement,&quot; he declared. &quot;It is
+incredible that these people do not realise that it is against their own
+country&mdash;against themselves&mdash;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well said Carlyle that 'History is philosophy teaching by examples',&quot;
+the former expounded. &quot;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 <i>bourgeoisie</i>
+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!&mdash;Let
+us lunch, my friends. The cuisine is still good here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel excused himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am engaged,&quot; he said. &quot;We may meet afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something tells me, my dear Nigel,&quot; Karschoff declared, &quot;that you are
+bent on frivolity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If to lunch with a woman is frivolous, I plead guilty,&quot; Nigel replied.</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff's face was suddenly grave. He seemed on the point of saying
+something but checked himself and turned away with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Each one to his taste,&quot; he murmured. &quot;For my aperitif, a dash of
+absinthe in my cocktail; for Dorminster here, the lure of a woman's
+smile. Perhaps he gains. Who knows?&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XVIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel waited for his luncheon companion in the crowded vestibule of
+London's most famous club restaurant. He was to a certain extent out of
+the picture among the crowd of this new generation of pleasure seekers,
+on the faces of whom opulence and acquisitiveness had already laid its
+branding hand. The Mecca alike of musical comedy and the Stock Exchange,
+the place, however, still preserved a curious attraction for the foreign
+element in London, so that when at last Naida appeared, she was
+exchanging courtesies with an Italian Duchess on one side and a
+celebrated Russian dancer on the other. Nigel led her at once to the
+table which he had selected in the balcony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have obeyed your wishes to the letter,&quot; he said, &quot;and I think that
+you are right. Up here we are entirely alone, and, as you see, they have
+had the sense to place the tables a long way apart. Am I to blame, I
+wonder, for asking you to do so unconventional a thing as to lunch here
+again alone with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She drew off her gloves and smiled across the table at him. Her plain,
+tailor-made gown, with its high collar, was the last word in elegance.
+The simplicity of her French hat was to prove the despair of a
+well-known modiste seated downstairs, who made a sketch of it on the
+menu and tried in vain to copy it. Even to Nigel's exacting taste she
+was flawless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it unconventional?&quot; she asked carelessly. &quot;I do not study those
+things. I lunch or dine with a party, generally, because it happens so.
+I lunch alone with you because it pleases me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And for this material side of our entertainment?&quot; he enquired, smiling,
+as he handed her the menu card.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A grapefruit, a quail with white grapes, and some asparagus,&quot; she
+replied promptly. &quot;You see, in one respect I am an easy companion. I
+know exactly what I want. A mixed vermouth, if you like, yes. And now,
+tell me your news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is news,&quot; he announced, &quot;which the whole world will know of
+before many hours are past. France has broken her pact with England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my opinion,&quot; she said deliberately, &quot;that France has been very
+patient with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And mine,&quot; he acknowledged. &quot;We have now to see what will become of a
+fat and prosperous country with a semi-obsolete fleet and a comic opera
+army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Must we talk of serious things?&quot; she asked softly. &quot;I am weary of the
+clanking wheels of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet for you,&quot; he said, &quot;they are not grinding out the fate of your
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless, I too hear them all the time,&quot; she rejoined. &quot;And I hate
+them. They make one lose one's sense of proportion. After all, it is our
+own individual and internal life which counts. I can understand Nero
+fiddling while Rome burned, if he really had no power to call up fire
+engines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you an individualist?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not fundamentally,&quot; she replied, &quot;but I am caught up in the throes of a
+great reaction. I have been studying events, which it is quite true may
+change the destinies of the world, so intently that I have almost
+forgotten that, after all, the greatest thing in the world, my world, is
+the happiness or ill-content of Naida Karetsky. It is really of more
+importance to me to-day that my quail should be cooked as I like it than
+that England has let go her last rope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not an Englishwoman,&quot; he reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is of minor importance. We are all so much immersed in great
+affairs just now that we forget it is the small ones that count. I want
+my luncheon to be perfect, I want you to seem as nice to me as I have
+fancied you, and I want you to chase completely away the idea that you
+are cultivating my acquaintance for interested motives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I can assure you from the bottom of my heart is not the case,&quot; he
+replied. &quot;Whatever other interests I may feel in you,&quot; he added, after
+a moment's hesitation, &quot;my first and foremost is a personal one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes for his understanding.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A woman in my position,&quot; she complained, &quot;is out of place. A man ought
+to come over and study your deservings or your undeservings and pore
+over the problem of the future of Europe. I am a woman, and I am not big
+enough. I am too physical. I have forgotten how to enjoy myself, and I
+love pleasure. Now am I a revelation to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have always been that,&quot; he told her. &quot;You are so truthful
+yourself,&quot; he went on boldly, &quot;that I shall run the risk of saying the
+most banal thing in the world, just because it happens to be the truth.
+I have felt for you since our first meeting what I have felt for no
+other woman in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like that, and I am glad you said it,&quot; she declared lightly enough,
+although her lips quivered for a moment. &quot;And they have put exactly the
+right quantity of Maraschino in my grapefruit. I feel that I am on the
+way to happiness. I am going to enjoy my luncheon.&mdash;Tell me about
+Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw her yesterday,&quot; he answered. &quot;We have arranged for her to come
+and live at Belgrave Square, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My terrible altruism once more,&quot; she sighed. &quot;I had meant not to speak
+another serious word, and yet I must. Maggie is very clever, amazingly
+clever, I sometimes think, but if she had the brains of all of her sex
+rolled into one, she would still be facing now an impossible situation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what do you mean?&quot; he asked cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie seems determined to measure her wits with those of Prince Shan,&quot;
+she said. &quot;Believe me, that is hopeless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him and laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, my dear friend,&quot; she went on, &quot;that wooden expression is wonderful.
+You do not quite know where I stand, except&mdash;may I flatter myself?&mdash;as
+regards your personal feelings for me. Am I for Immelan and his schemes,
+or for your own foolish country? You do not know, so you make for
+yourself a face of wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where do you stand?&quot; he asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sufficiently devoted to your interests to beg you this,&quot; she replied.
+&quot;Do not let your little cousin think that she can deal with a man like
+Prince Shan. There can be only one end to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel moved a little uneasily in his place.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan is only an ordinary human being, after all,&quot; he protested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is just where you are mistaken,&quot; she declared. &quot;Prince Shan is one
+of the most extraordinary human beings who ever lived. He is one of the
+most farseeing men in the world, and he is absolutely the most
+powerful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But China,&quot; Nigel began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His power extends far beyond China,&quot; she interrupted, &quot;and there is no
+brain in the world to match his to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he were a god wielding thunderbolts,&quot; Nigel observed, &quot;he could
+scarcely do much harm to Maggie here in London.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was an artist once,&quot; she said reflectively, &quot;who drew a
+caricature of Prince Shan and sent it to the principal comic paper in
+America. It was such a success that a little time later on he followed
+it up with another, which included a line of Prince Shan's ancestors.
+Within a month's time the artist was found murdered. Prince Shan was in
+China at the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you suggesting that the artist was murdered through Prince Shan's
+contrivance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I a fool?&quot; she answered. &quot;Do you not know that to speak
+disrespectfully of the ancestors of a Chinaman is unforgivable? To all
+appearances Prince Shan never moved from his wonderful palace in Pekin,
+many thousands of miles away. Yet he lifted his little finger and the
+man died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't this a little melodramatic?&quot; Nigel murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Melodrama is often nearer the truth than people think,&quot; she said.
+&quot;Shall I give you another instance? I know of several.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One more, then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incognito,&quot; she continued.
+&quot;There was at the time a small but very fashionable restaurant in the
+Bois, close to the Pr&eacute; Catelan. He presented himself one night there for
+dinner, accompanied, I believe, by La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who
+is in London to-day. As you know, there is little in Prince Shan's
+appearance to denote the Oriental, but for some reason or other the
+proprietor refused him a table. Prince Shan made no scene. He left and
+went elsewhere. Three nights later, the caf&eacute; was burnt to the ground,
+and the proprietor was ruined.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything else?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only one thing more,&quot; she replied. &quot;I have known him slightly for
+years. In Asia he ranks to all men as little less than a god. His
+palaces are filled with priceless treasures. He has the finest
+collection of jewels in the world. His wealth is simply inexhaustible.
+His appearance you appreciate. Yet I have never seen him look at a woman
+as he looked at your cousin the first time he met her. I was at the Ritz
+with my father, and I watched. I know you think that I am being foolish.
+I am not. I am a person with a very great deal of common sense, and I
+tell you that Prince Shan has never desired a thing in life to which he
+has not helped himself. Maggie is a clever child, but she cannot toss
+knives with a conjuror.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was impressed and a little worried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems absurd to think that anything could happen to Maggie here in
+London,&quot; he said, &quot;after&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused abruptly. Naida smiled at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After her escape from Germany, I suppose you were going to say? You
+see, I know all about it. There was no Prince Shan in Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders slightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; he admitted, &quot;I don't quite bring myself to believe in your
+terrible ogre, so I shall not worry. Tell me what news you have from
+Russia?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Political?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I notice,&quot; she said, &quot;that English people are changing their attitude
+towards my country. A few years ago she seemed negligible to them. Now
+they are beginning to have&mdash;shall I call them fears? Even my kind host,
+I think, would like to know what is in Paul Matinsky's heart as he hears
+the friends of Oscar Immelan plead their cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I admit it,&quot; he told her frankly. &quot;I will go farther. I would give a
+great deal to know what is in your own mind to-day concerning us and our
+destiny. But these things are not for the moment. It was not to discuss
+or even to think of them that I asked you here to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why did you invite me, then?&quot; she asked, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I wanted the pleasure of having you opposite me,&quot; he
+replied,&mdash;&quot;because I wanted to know you better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And are you progressing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indifferently well,&quot; he acknowledged. &quot;I seem to gain a little and
+slide back again. You are not an easy person to know well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing that is worth having is easy,&quot; she answered, &quot;and I can assure
+you, when my friendship is once gained, it is a rare and steadfast
+thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And your affection?&quot; he ventured.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes rested upon his for a moment and then suddenly drooped. A
+little tinge of colour stole into her cheeks. For a moment she seemed to
+have lost her admirable poise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not easily disturbed,&quot; she told him quietly. &quot;I think that I
+must have an unfortunate temperament, there are so few people for whom I
+really care.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He took his courage into both hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard it rumoured,&quot; he said, &quot;that Matinsky is the only man who
+has ever touched your heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not the truth. Paul Matinsky cares for me in his strange way,
+and he has a curiously exaggerated appreciation of my brain. There have
+been times,&quot; she went on, after a moment's hesitation, &quot;when I myself
+have been disturbed by fancies concerning him, but those times have
+passed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad,&quot; he said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>His fingers, straying across the tablecloth, met hers. She did not
+withdraw them. He clasped her hand, and it remained for a moment passive
+in his. Then she withdrew it and leaned back in her chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that meant to introduce a more intimate note into our conversation?&quot;
+she asked, with a slight wrinkling of the forehead and the beginnings of
+a smile upon her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I dared, I would answer 'yes',&quot; he assured her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They tell me,&quot; she continued pensively, &quot;that Englishmen more than any
+other men in the world have the flair for saying convincingly the things
+which they do not mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In my case, that would not be true,&quot; he answered. &quot;My trouble is that I
+dare not say one half of what I feel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked across the table at him, and Nigel suddenly felt a great
+weight of depression lifted from his heart. He forgot all about his
+country's peril. Life and its possibilities seemed somehow all
+different. He was carried away by a rare wave of emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were soft and expectant. Something of the gravity had gone from
+her face. She was like a girl, suddenly young with new thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know what I am going to say to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not say it yet, please,&quot; she begged. &quot;Somehow it seems to me that
+the time has not come, though the thought of what may be in your heart
+is wonderful. I want to dream about it first,&quot; she went on. &quot;I want to
+think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, a strange sound almost to his own ears, for Nigel, since his
+uncle's death, had tasted the very depths of depression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I obey,&quot; he agreed. &quot;It is well to dally with the great things.
+Meanwhile, they grow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled across at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope that they may,&quot; she answered. &quot;And you will ask me to lunch
+again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lunch or dine or walk or motor&mdash;whatever you will,&quot; he promised.</p>
+
+<p>She reflected for a moment and then laughed. She was drawing on her
+gloves now, and Nigel was paying the bill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are some people who will not like this,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And one,&quot; he declared, &quot;for whom it is going to make life a Paradise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They passed out into the street and strolled leisurely westwards. As
+they crossed Trafalgar Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
+spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion seemed suddenly
+surrounded by placards, all with the same headlines. They paused to
+read:</p>
+
+<center><i>TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR</i><br />
+<i>HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT</i><br />
+<i>TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX</i></center>
+
+<p>They walked on. Naida said nothing, although she shook her head a little
+sorrowfully. Nigel glanced across the Square and down towards
+Westminster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will shout themselves hoarse there this afternoon,&quot; he groaned.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of coming events.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is amazing,&quot; she whispered, &quot;for the writing on the wall is already
+there.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XIX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert Hall, in the
+gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff officer in the Russian Imperial
+Forces, Prince Karschoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
+other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene below and around.
+The greatest city the world has ever known seemed in those days to have
+entered upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in history. Every box
+and every yard of dancing space on the floor beneath was crowded with
+men and women in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked with
+jewels which eager merchants had brought together from every market of
+the world; even the men, in their silks and velvets and ruffles,
+carrying out the dominant note of wealth. It was a ball given for
+charity and under royal patronage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All our friends seem to be here to-night,&quot; the Prince remarked,
+glancing around. &quot;I saw Naida with her father and the eternal Oscar
+Immelan. Chalmers is here with an exceedingly gay party, and yonder sits
+his Imperial Highness, looking very much the barbaric prince.&mdash;By the
+by,&quot; he added, glancing towards Maggie, &quot;I thought that he was not
+coming?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie, who seemed a little tired, nodded quietly. It was a week or ten
+days later, and an early season was now in full swing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He told me that he was not coming,&quot; she said. &quot;I suppose the temptation
+to wear that gorgeous raiment was too much for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Apropos of that, there is one curious thing to be noted here with
+regard to clothes,&quot; the Prince continued. &quot;Amongst the men, you find
+Venetian Doges, Chancellors, gallants of every age, but scarcely a
+single uniform. In a way, this seems typical of the passing of the
+militarism of your country. You are beginning to remind me of Venice in
+the Middle Ages. There is a new type of brain dominant here, fat instead
+of muscle, a citizen aristocracy instead of the lean, clear-eyed,
+athletic type.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie moved in her place a little irritably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am tired of warnings,&quot; she declared. &quot;I wish some one could do
+something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible,&quot; the Prince pronounced solemnly. &quot;Napoleon earned for
+himself a greater claim to immortality when he christened the English a
+nation of shopkeepers than when he won the Battle of Austerlitz. If the
+Englishman of to-day saw his material prosperity slipping away from him,
+then indeed he would be nervous and restless, ready to lean towards
+every wind that blew, to listen to every disquieting rumour. To-day his
+bank balance is prodigious, and all's well with the world.&mdash;How
+wonderfully Prince Shan lives up to his part to-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They looked across towards the opposite box, whose single occupant, in
+the bright green robes of a mandarin, sat looking down upon the gay
+throng with an absolutely immovable expression. There was something
+almost regal about his air of detachment, his solitude amidst such a gay
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is one of the strangest and most consistent figures in history,&quot;
+Karschoff, who was in a talkative frame of mind, went on reflectively.
+&quot;I honestly believe that Prince Shan considers himself to be of
+celestial descent, to carry in his person the honour of countless
+generations of Manchus. He has no intimates. Even Immelan usually has to
+seek an audience. What his pleasures may be, who knows?&mdash;because
+everything that happens with him happens behind closed walls. To-night,
+the door of his box is guarded as though he were more than royalty. No
+one is allowed to enter unless he has special permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is some one entering now,&quot; Maggie pointed out, &quot;for the first
+time. Watch!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita stood for a moment in the front of the box. She was
+dressed in the gala costume of a Chinese lady, in a cherry-coloured robe
+with wide sleeves, her hair, with its many jewelled ornaments, like a
+black pool of night, her face ghastly white with a superabundance of
+powder. Prince Shan turned his head slightly towards her, and though no
+muscle of his face moved, it was obvious that her coming was unwelcome.
+She began to talk. He listened with the face of a sphinx. Presently she
+drew back into the shadows of the box. She had thrown herself into a
+chair, and her face was hidden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Belle Nita has made a mistake,&quot; Maggie observed. &quot;His Serene
+Highness evidently had no wish to be disturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff's eyes rested upon the figure in green silk, and they were
+filled with an unwilling admiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That man is magnificent,&quot; he declared. &quot;Watch his face now that he is
+speaking. Not a muscle moves, not a flash in his eyes, yet one has the
+fancy that he is saying terrible things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious, a moment later, that La Belle Nita had left the box.
+Maggie sprang up. Her colour was a little heightened. There was a rare
+nervousness in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us walk around and find some of the others,&quot; she suggested, turning
+to Nigel. &quot;I want to dance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They all three passed out and mingled with the dancers. Maggie put on
+her mask and deliberately glided into the crowd as though with the
+intention of losing herself. It was not until she was underneath Prince
+Shan's box and out of sight of its occupant that she paused. Her
+thoughts were in a turmoil. His presence there, after his deliberate
+assurance to her that he had no intention of coming, his calm and
+unnoticing regard of her and every one else, seemed to confirm in every
+way the wave of pessimism which she as well as Nigel was experiencing.
+She had passed Immelan in the entrance, and there was something
+ominously disturbing in his cool, triumphant smile. She pictured to
+herself the agreement signed, some nameless terror already launched. She
+remembered that Nigel had complained of Naida's inaccessibility during
+the last few days. She herself had been surprised at Prince Shan's
+apparent withdrawal, temporary though it might be, from the peculiar but
+impressive position which he had taken up with regard to her.</p>
+
+<p>She stood back against the wall, in a dark corner, striving to collect
+her thoughts, thankful for the brief respite from conversation. A man in
+the costume of a monk, who had followed her across the room, touched her
+on the shoulder. He spoke in a quiet, unfamiliar voice with a foreign
+accent,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Lady Maggie Trent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you please go to box number fourteen, on the second tier? There is
+some one there who waits for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is it?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>The monk had glided away. Maggie, after a few minutes' reflection,
+slipped out into the corridor, mounted one flight of stairs, and passed
+along the semicircular balcony. The door of box number fourteen was
+ajar. She pushed it gently open and glanced in. Seated so as to be out
+of sight of the whole house was La Belle Nita. For a moment the two
+looked at each other. Then the Chinese girl sprang to her feet, made a
+quaint little bow, and, gliding around, closed the door behind her
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down, please,&quot; she invited. &quot;I will tell you things you may like to
+hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A sudden thought flashed into Maggie's mind. She began to see light. She
+obeyed at once. The two women sat well back and out of sight of the
+house. La Belle Nita held the handle of the door in her hand while she
+spoke, as though to prevent any one entering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an enemy who was once a friend,&quot; she said, &quot;and I wish to do him
+evil. He is not only my enemy, but he is yours. He is the enemy of all
+you English people, because it is a great disaster which he plans to
+bring upon you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You speak of Prince Shan?&quot; Maggie exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Even at the mention of his name, the girl shook. She looked around as
+though fearing the shadows. She rattled the door to make sure that it
+was closed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For him whom you call Prince Shan I have worked many years, first of
+all in Paris, now here. I was content with small reward. That reward he
+now takes from me. It is my wish to betray him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you send for me?&quot; Maggie asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you have been an English spy,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;It may
+surprise you that I know that, but I do know. I have been a spy for
+Prince Shan in Paris. You were a spy for England in Berlin. You were a
+spy for your country's sake; I was a spy for love. Now I betray for
+hate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan came this time to Europe with two schemes in his mind,&quot; the
+girl continued. &quot;One concerned France. That one he has discarded.
+Through me he learned of the military strength of France, her secret
+resources, of her tireless watch upon the Rhine. So he listens to
+Immelan, and Immelan and he together, oh, English lady, they have made a
+wonderful plan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you going to tell me what it is?&quot; Maggie asked, her eyes bright
+with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot tell you because I do not know,&quot; was the unwilling admission,
+&quot;but I will make it so that you can discover for yourself. A few hours
+ago, the plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the third drawer
+of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the left-hand side of the hall after
+you have entered his house in Curzon Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But no one can enter it!&quot; Maggie exclaimed. &quot;The place is like a fort.
+No stranger may pass the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
+that he receives no visitors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita smiled. From a pocket somewhere within the folds of her
+flowing gown, she produced two small keys.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; she said. &quot;The house in Curzon Street has been called the
+House of Silence. There are many servants there, but they come only from
+beneath and when they are summoned. There is what no other person has
+ever possessed&mdash;the key of the front door. There is also the key of the
+cabinet. Prince Shan has ordered his automobile for two o'clock. It is
+now barely midnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The keys lay in the palm of Maggie's hand. Her heart had begun to beat
+quickly. Somehow or other, she was conscious of a thrill of excitement
+which she had never before experienced, even when she had sat back in
+her corner of the railway carriage, watching for the frontier, knowing
+that the wires were busy with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
+were on her track.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the servants should hear me?&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You say only 'I await the Prince',&quot; La Belle Nita murmured. &quot;That key
+never leaves his own person save for one in great favour. They will
+believe that he gave it to you. You will be unmolested.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A queer sensation suddenly assailed Maggie. She felt extraordinarily
+primitive, ridiculously feminine. She looked at the girl opposite to
+her, the girl whose body was draped in perfumed silks, whose face was
+thick with rice powder, whose eyes were sad. She felt no pity. What
+feeling she had, she did not care to analyse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this your key?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was mine once, but its use has been forbidden to me,&quot; the girl
+replied. &quot;Prince Shan is a changed man. Something has come into his life
+of which I know nothing, but as it has come, so must I go. I give you
+your chance, lady, but already I weaken. Go quickly, if you go at all.
+Please leave me, for I am very unhappy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie stole quietly out and made her way through the jostling throng
+back to her own box, which for the moment was empty. She slipped on her
+cloak, and from the hidden spaces where she stood she looked across the
+auditorium. The silent figure in green silk robes was still seated in
+his place, his eyes following the movements of the dancers, his head a
+little thrown back, a slight weariness in his face. He was still alone.
+He still had the air of being alone because it was his desire. Once he
+looked up towards the box in which she was, and Maggie, although she
+knew she was invisible, shrank back against the wall. She set her teeth
+hard and looked back through the slightly misty space. An unfamiliar
+feeling for a moment almost choked her. She waited until she had
+vanquished it, then adjusted her mask and left the box.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>From the moment when the taxicab drove away and left her in the deserted
+street, Maggie was conscious of a strange sense of suppressed
+excitement, something more poignant and mysterious, even, than the
+circumstances of her adventure might account for. It was exciting
+enough, in its way, to play the part of a marauding thief, to find
+herself unexpectedly face to face with a possible solution of the great
+problem of Prince Shan's intentions. But beneath all this there was
+another feeling, more entirely metaphysical, which in a sense steadied
+her nerves because it filled her with a strange impression that she had
+lost her own identity, that she was playing somebody else's part in a
+novel and thrilling drama.</p>
+
+<p>The street was empty when she inserted the little key in the front door.
+There was not a soul there to see her step in as it swung open and then
+softly, noiselessly, but without any conscious effort of hers, closed
+again behind her. She held her breath and looked around.</p>
+
+<p>The hall was round, painted white and dimly lit by an overhead electric
+globe. In the centre was a huge green vase filled with great branches of
+some sort of blossoms. Not a picture hung upon the walls, nor was there
+any hall stand, chest, closet for coats or hats, or any of the usual
+furbishings of such a place. There were three rugs upon the polished
+floor and nothing else except a yawning stairway and closed doors.
+Whatever servants might be in attendance were evidently in a distant
+part of the building. Not a sound was to be heard. Still without any
+lack of courage, but oppressed with that curious sense of unreality, she
+turned almost automatically towards the door on the left and opened it.
+Again it closed behind her noiselessly. She realised that she was in one
+of the principal reception rooms of the house, dimly lit as the hall
+from a dome-shaped globe set into the ceiling. She moved a yard or two
+across the threshold and stood looking about her. Here again there was
+an almost singular absence of furniture. The walls were hung with
+apple-green silk, richly embroidered. There were some rugs upon the
+polished floor, a few quaintly carved chairs set with their backs
+against the wall, and opposite to her the ebony cabinet of which La
+Belle Nita had spoken. She moved towards it. Somehow or other, she found
+herself with the other key in her hand, stooping down. She counted the
+drawers&mdash;one, two three&mdash;fitted in the key, turned it, and realised with
+a little start the presence in the drawer of a roll of parchment, tied
+around with tape and sealed with a black seal. She laid her hand upon
+it, but even at that moment she felt a shiver pass through her body.
+There had been no sound in the room, which she could have sworn had been
+empty when she entered it, yet she had now a conviction that she was not
+alone. She turned slowly around, her lips parted, breathing quickly.
+Standing in the middle of the room, a grim, commanding figure in his
+flowing green robes, the dim light flashing upon the great diamonds in
+his belt, stood Prince Shan.</p>
+
+<p>To Maggie at that moment came a great throbbing in her ears, a sense of
+remoteness from this terrible happening, followed by an intense and
+vital consciousness of danger. The man who had brought new things into
+her life, the polished gentleman of the world, with his fascinating
+brain and gentle courtesy, had gone. It was Prince Shan of China who
+stood there. She felt the chill of his contempt and disapproval in her
+heart. She had forfeited her high estate. She was a convicted thief,&mdash;an
+adventuress!</p>
+
+<p>She gripped at the side of the cabinet. Her poise had gone. She had the
+air of a trapped animal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;How did you get here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He answered her without change of expression. A sense of crisis seemed
+to have made his tone more level, his face stony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my house,&quot; he said. &quot;I do not often leave it. I sat in my
+sleeping chamber behind&quot;&mdash;he pointed to the silken curtains through
+which he had passed&mdash;&quot;I heard your entrance and guessed with pain and
+regret at your mission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But a quarter of an hour ago you were at the ball!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are mistaken,&quot; he replied. &quot;I do not attend such gatherings. I had
+given you my word that I should not be there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I saw you,&quot; she persisted, &quot;in that same costume!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely not,&quot; he dissented. &quot;The person whom you saw was a gentleman
+from my suite, who wore the dress of an inferior mandarin. He is
+sometimes supposed to resemble me. I should have believed that your
+apprehension of such things would have informed you that no Prince of my
+line would wear the garments of his order for a public show.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her fingers had left the drawer now. She stood upright, pale and
+desperate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That woman of your country, then&mdash;La Belle Nita&mdash;did she lie to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I tell?&quot; he answered coldly, &quot;because I do not know what she
+said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made an effort to test her position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came here as a thief,&quot; she confessed. &quot;I am detected. What are your
+intentions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He moved very slowly a little closer to her. Maggie felt her sense of
+excitement grow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came here as a thief,&quot; he repeated, &quot;as a spy. Why did you not ask
+me for the information you desired?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you would not have told me,&quot; she replied, &quot;at least you would
+not have told me the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a price,&quot; he said, &quot;the truth would have been yours for the asking.
+For a different price it is yours now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again without noticeable movement he seemed to have drawn nearer. The
+edge of that cool ebony cabinet seemed to be burning her fingers. Try
+however hard, she could not frame the question which had risen to her
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The price,&quot; he continued, &quot;is you&mdash;yourself. A few hours ago it was
+your love I craved for. Now it is yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so near to her now that she faced the steady radiance of his
+wonderful eyes, so near that she could trace the faint lines about his
+mouth, the strong, stern immobility of his perfectly shaped,
+olive-tinted features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are too wonderful,&quot; he went on, &quot;to remain a daughter of the crude
+West. I want to take you back with me to the land where life still moves
+to poetry, to the land where one can live in a world unknown by these
+struggling hordes. You shall live in a palace where the perfume of
+flowers lingers always, with the sound of running water in your ears, a
+palace from which all sordid things and all manner of ugliness are
+banished because we alone have found the key to the garden of
+happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He raised his hand, and it seemed as though unseen eyes watched them
+from every quarter. The silken curtains through which he had issued were
+drawn back by invisible hands, and the inner apartment was disclosed.
+Its faint illumination was obscured with purple shades. There was a high
+lacquer bedstead, with little ivory ladders on either side, a bedstead
+hung with silks of black and purple and mauve. There was a huge couch, a
+shrine opposite the bed, in which was a kneeling figure of black marble.
+A faint odour, as though from thousand-year-old sachets, very faint
+indeed and yet with its mead of intoxication, seemed to steal out from
+the room, which had borrowed from its curious hangings, its marvellous
+adornments, its strangely attuned atmosphere, all the mysticism of a
+fabled world.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have come,&quot; he said. &quot;Will you stay?&quot; The inertia seemed suddenly
+to leave her limbs. She threw up her head as though gasping for air,
+escaped, somehow or other, from the thrall of his eyes, and passed
+across the smooth floor with flying footsteps. Her fingers seized the
+handle of the door and turned it, only to find it held by some invisible
+fastening. She shook it passionately. There was not even sound. She
+turned back once more. Prince Shan had only slightly changed his
+position. He stood upon the threshold of the inner room, and his arms
+were outstretched in invitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I a prisoner?&quot; she sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came of your own free will,&quot; he replied. &quot;You will stay for my
+pleasure and for the joy of my being. As for these things,&quot; he went on,
+moving slowly to the cabinet, picking up the pile of papers and throwing
+them on one side contemptuously, &quot;these are only one's amusements. I
+pass my lighter hours with them. They interest me in the same manner as
+a chess problem. We do not care, we in the mighty East, which of you
+holds your head highest this side of Suez. All you western nations are
+to us a peck of dust outside our palace gates. Listen, dear one. We can
+leave, if you will, to-night, and top the clouds before sunrise. And I
+promise you this,&quot; he went on, &quot;when you pass from the greyness of these
+sordid lands into the everlasting sunshine of the East, you will not
+care any longer about these people who go about the world on all fours.
+Day by day you will know what life and love mean. You will find the
+cloying weight of material things pass from your brain and body, and the
+joy of holy and wonderful living take their place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her whole being was in a turmoil. She drew nearer to the papers upon the
+table. She was now within a yard of Prince Shan himself. He made no
+effort to intercept her, no movement of any sort to stop her. Only his
+eyes never left her face, and she felt a madness which seemed to be
+choking the life out of her, a pounding of her heart against her ribs, a
+strange and wonderful joy, a joy in which there was no fear, a joy of
+new things and new hopes. With the papers for which she had come only a
+few yards away, she forgot them. She turned her head slowly. His arms
+seemed to steal out from those long, silken sleeves. She suddenly felt
+herself held in a wonderful embrace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear lady of all my desires,&quot; he whispered in her ear, &quot;you shall make
+me happy and find the secret of happiness yourself in giving, in
+suffering, in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a long and wonderful moment she lay in his arms. She felt the soft
+burning of his kisses, the call of the room with its intoxicating, yet
+strangely ascetic perfume, the room to which all the time he seemed to
+be gently leading her. And then a flood of strange, alien recollections
+and realisations seemed to bring her from a better place back to a
+worse,&mdash;the sound of a passing taxicab, the distant booming of Big Ben,
+sounds of the world outside, the actual day-by-day world, with its
+day-by-day code of morals, the world in which she lived, and her
+friends, and all that had made life for her. She drew away, and he
+watched the change in her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want to go!&quot; she cried. &quot;Let me go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are no prisoner,&quot; he assured her sadly.</p>
+
+<p>He clapped his hands. She had reached the door by now and found the
+handle yield to her fingers. Outside in the hall, the front door stood
+open, and a heavy rain was beating in on the white flags. She looked
+around. She was in her own atmosphere here. Their eyes met, and his were
+very sorrowful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My servants are assembling,&quot; he said. &quot;You will find a car at your
+service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even then she hesitated. There was a strange return of the wonderful
+emotion of a few minutes ago. She hoped almost painfully that he would
+call. Instead, he lifted the silk hangings and passed out of sight.
+Somehow or other, she made her way down the hall. A butler stood upon
+the steps, another servant was holding open the door of a limousine just
+drawn up. She had no distinct recollection of giving any address. She
+simply threw herself back amongst the cushions. It was not until they
+were in Piccadilly that she suddenly remembered that she had left upon
+the table the papers he had scornfully offered her. Then she began to
+laugh.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>It chanced that the box was empty when Maggie, with flying footsteps,
+hastened down the corridor and pushed open the door. She sank into a
+chair, her knees trembling, her senses still dazed. Deliberately,
+although with hot and trembling fingers, she folded over and tore into
+small pieces a programme of the dances, which she had picked up from an
+adjoining chair. The action, insignificant though it was, seemed to
+bring her back into touch with the real and actual world, the world of
+music and wild gayety, of swiftly moving feet, of laughter and
+languorous voices. For a brief space of time she had escaped, she had
+wandered a little way into an unknown country, a country from whose
+thrilling dangers she had emerged with a curious feeling that life would
+never be altogether the same again. She glanced at the clock at the back
+of the box. She had been absent from the Hall altogether only about an
+hour and twenty minutes. There was still at least an hour before it
+would be possible for her to plead weariness and escape. And opposite,
+in the shadows of the distant box, the mock Prince Shan seemed always to
+be gazing at her with that cryptic smile upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the door was stealthily opened. A face as pale as death, with
+black eyes like pieces of coal, was framed for a moment in the shadowed
+slit. A little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle Nita, her
+flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she recognised the sole occupant
+of the box, crept through the opening and closed the door again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are here?&quot; she exclaimed incredulously. &quot;Your courage failed you?
+You did not go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been and returned,&quot; Maggie answered. &quot;Now tell me what I have
+done that you should have plotted this thing against me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a moment hummed the refrain
+of a sad chant, as she rocked slowly backwards and forwards.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What have you done?' the rose asked the butterfly. 'What have you
+done?' the mimosa blossom asked the little blue bird, whose wings
+fluttered amongst her leaves. 'You have taken love from me, love which
+is the blossom of life.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds very picturesque,&quot; Maggie said coldly, &quot;but I do not follow
+your allegory. What I want to know is why you lied to me, why you sent
+me to that house to meet Prince Shan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did I lie to you?&quot; Nita demanded. &quot;The papers you sought were
+there. Were they not yours for the asking, or was the price too great?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The papers were there, certainly,&quot; Maggie acquiesced, &quot;but you knew
+very well&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stopped short. Slowly the Oriental idea of it all was beginning to
+frame itself in her mind. She dimly understood the bewilderment in the
+other's face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The papers were there, and he, the most wonderful of all men, was
+there,&quot; Nita murmured, &quot;yet you leave him while the night is yet young,
+you return here without them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie rose from her chair, moved to the side table and poured herself
+out a glass of wine, which she drank hastily. Anything to escape from
+the scornful wonder of those questioning eyes!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not go there,&quot; she said, &quot;to make bargains with Prince Shan. I
+believed as you wished me to believe, that he was here in that box. I
+believed that I should have found the house empty, should have found
+what I wanted and have escaped with it. Why did you do this thing? Why
+did you send me on that errand when you knew that Prince Shan was
+there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was my desire that he should know that you are no different from
+other women,&quot; was the calm reply. &quot;I was a spy for him. You are a
+spy&mdash;against him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a deliberate plot, then!&quot; Maggie exclaimed, trying to feel the
+anger which she imparted to her tone.</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a bird.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You very, very foolish Englishwoman,&quot; she said. &quot;A hand leaned down
+from Heaven, and you liked better to stay where you were, but I am
+glad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I have been his slave,&quot; the girl continued. &quot;At odd, strange
+moments he has shown me a little love, he has let me creep into a small
+corner of his heart. Now I am cast out, and there is no more life for me
+because there is no more love, and there is no more love because, having
+felt his, no other can come after. Here have I sat with all the tortures
+of Hell burning in my blood because I knew that you and he were there
+alone, because I was never sure that, after all, I was not doing my
+lord's will. And now I know that I suffered in vain. You did not
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie looked across at her visitor reflectively. She was beginning to
+regain her poise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; she said, &quot;did you seriously expect me to accept Prince Shan
+as a lover?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl's eyes were round with wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be your great good fortune,&quot; she murmured, &quot;if he should offer
+you so wonderful a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie laughed,&mdash;persisted in her laugh, although it sounded a little
+hard and the mirth a little forced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot reason with you,&quot; she declared, &quot;because you would not
+understand. If you love him so much, why not go back to him? You will
+find him quite alone. I dare say you know the secrets of his lockless
+doors and hordes of unseen servants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Belle Nita rose to her feet. About her lips there flickered the
+faintest smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Young English lady,&quot; she said, &quot;I shall not go, because I am shut for
+ever out of his heart. But listen; would you have me go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Maggie's poise was gone again. A strange uncertainty was
+once more upon her. She was terrified at her own feelings. The smile on
+the other's lips deepened and then passed away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; she murmured, as with a little bow she turned towards the door,
+&quot;you are not all snow and ice, then! There is something of the woman in
+you. He must have known that. I am better content.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Alone in the box, Maggie was confronted once more with spectres. She
+felt all the fear and the sweetness of this new awakening. The old
+dangers and problems, the danger of life and death, the problem of her
+well-ordered days, fell away from her as trifles. There was wilder music
+in the world than any to which she had yet listened,&mdash;music which seemed
+to be awakening vibrant melodies in her terrified heart. The curtain
+which hung about the forbidden world had been suddenly lifted. Little
+shivers of fear convulsed her. Her standards were confused, her whole
+sense of values disturbed. Her primal virginity, left to itself because
+it had never needed a guard, had suddenly become a questioning thing.
+She sat there face to face with this new phase in her life. She was not
+even conscious of the abrupt pause in the music, the agitated murmur of
+voices, the sudden cessation of that rhythmical sweep of footsteps on
+the floor below.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the box was once more opened. Naida, attired as a lady of
+the Russian Court, entered, followed by Nigel. Both were obviously
+disturbed. Nigel, who was in ordinary evening dress, carrying his
+discarded mask in his hand, was paler than usual and exceedingly grave.
+Naida's dark eyes, too, seemed filled with a sense of awesome things.
+Almost at the same moment, Maggie realised for the first time that the
+music had ceased, that there was a hush outside, curiously perceptible,
+almost audible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What has happened?&quot; she asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel had poured out a glass of wine and was holding it to Naida's lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something very terrible,&quot; he said quietly. &quot;Prince Shan was murdered in
+his box there a few minutes ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie half rose to her feet. The walls seemed spinning round. Then she
+looked across the great empty space. The still figure in the apple-green
+coat had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan was murdered in that box,&quot; she repeated, &quot;a few minutes
+ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot; Nigel assented gravely. &quot;He seems to have feared something of the
+sort, for he had two servants on guard outside and announced that he
+was not receiving visitors to-night. No one knows any particulars, but a
+number of people in the auditorium saw him fall sideways from his chair.
+When he was picked up, there was a small dagger through his heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Through Prince Shan's heart?&quot; Maggie persisted wildly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she began to laugh. It was a strange, hysterical ebullition of
+feeling, frankly horrifying. Naida gazed at her with distended eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan has never been here!&quot; Maggie explained brokenly. &quot;He has
+never left his house in Curzon Street! He is there now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the matter with you, Maggie?&quot; he demanded. &quot;Every one has seen
+Prince Shan here. You spoke of him yourself. He was in the box exactly
+opposite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was one of his suite,&quot; she cried. &quot;I know! I tell you I know!&quot; she
+went on, her voice rising a little. &quot;Prince Shan is safe in his house in
+Curzon Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can you possibly know this, Maggie?&quot; Naida intervened eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I left him there half an hour ago,&quot; was the tremulous reply.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>There is in the Anglo-Saxon temperament an almost feverish desire to
+break away from any condition of strain, a sort of shamefaced impulse to
+discard emotionalism. The strange hush which had lent a queer sensation
+of unreality to all that was passing in the great building was without
+any warning brought to an end. Whispers swelled into speech, and speech
+into almost a roar of voices. Then the music struck up, although at
+first there were few who cared to dance. There were many who, like
+Maggie and her companions, silently left their places and hurried
+homewards.</p>
+
+<p>In the limousine scarcely a word was spoken. Maggie leaned back in her
+seat, her face dazed and expressionless. Opposite to her, Nigel sat with
+set, grim face, looking with fixed stare out of the window at the
+deserted streets. Of the three, Naida seemed more on the point of giving
+way to emotion. They had passed Hyde Park Corner, however, before a word
+was spoken. Then it was she who broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where do we go to first?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the Milan Court,&quot; Nigel replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are taking me home first, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for a moment. Then she leaned forward and touched the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pull that down, please,&quot; she directed. &quot;I am stifling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed, and the rush of cold, wet air had a curiously quietening
+effect upon the nerves of all of them. Raindrops hung from the leaves of
+the lime trees and still glittered upon the windowpane. On the way
+towards the river, the masses of cloud were tinged with purple, and
+faintly burning stars shone out of unexpectedly clear patches of sky.
+The night of storm was over, but the wind, dying away before the dawn,
+seemed to bring with it all the sweetness of the cleansed places, to be
+redolent even of the budding trees and shrubs,&mdash;the lilac bushes,
+drooping with their weight of moisture, and the pink and white chestnut
+blossoms, dashed to pieces by the rain but yielding up their lives with
+sweetness. The streets, in that single hour between the hurrying
+homewards of the belated reveller and the stolid tramp of the early
+worker, were curiously empty and seemed to gain in their loneliness a
+new dignity. Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the
+background, became almost classical; Whitehall the passageway for
+heroes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What does it all mean?&quot; Naida asked, almost pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>It was Maggie who answered. Her tone was lifeless, but her manner
+almost composed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It means that the attempt to assassinate Prince Shan has failed,&quot; she
+said. &quot;Prince Shan told me himself that he had no intention of going to
+the ball. He kept his word. The man who was murdered was one of his
+suite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how do you know this?&quot; Naida persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You heard what I told you in the box,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;I shall
+explain&mdash;as much as I can explain&mdash;to Nigel when we get home. He can
+tell you everything later on to-day at lunch-time, if you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has been one of the strangest nights I ever remember,&quot; Naida
+declared, after a brief pause. &quot;Oscar Immelan, who was dining with us,
+arrived half an hour late. I have never seen him in such a condition
+before. He had the air of a broken man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you any idea of what had happened?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only this,&quot; Naida replied. &quot;We saw Prince Shan last night. He spent
+several hours with us. I may be wrong, but I came to the conclusion then
+that he had at any rate modified his views about the whole situation
+since his arrival in England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a brief silence. The minds of all three of them were
+busy with the same thought. Prince Shan's word had been spoken and
+Immelan's hopes dashed to the ground,&mdash;and within a few hours, this
+murder! They nursed the thought, but no one put it into words.</p>
+
+<p>A sleepy-eyed porter opened the door of the car outside the Milan Court.
+Naida gathered herself together with a little shiver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that after to-night,&quot; she said quietly, &quot;there need be no
+secrets between any of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel held her hand in his. Their eyes met, and both of them were
+conscious, in that moment, of closer personal relations, of the passing
+of a certain sense of strain. She even smiled as she turned away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow,&quot; she concluded, &quot;there must be a great exchange of
+confidences. I am lunching at Belgrave Square, if Maggie has not
+forgotten, and I shall tell you then what I have written to Paul
+Matinsky. I showed it to Prince Shan yesterday. Good night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She patted Maggie's hand affectionately and flitted away. The revolving
+doors closed behind her, and the car swung out once more into the
+Strand, glided down the Mall, past Buckingham Palace, and stopped at
+last before the great, lifeless house in Belgrave Square. Nigel opened
+the front door with a latchkey and turned on the light.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You won't mind sparing me a few minutes?&quot; he begged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose not,&quot; she answered, shivering.</p>
+
+<p>He led the way to the study. She threw off her cloak and sank into the
+depths of one of the big easy-chairs. She looked very frail and rather
+pathetic as she leaned her head against the chair back. Now that the
+excitement was over, the strain of the emotion she had experienced
+showed in the violet shadows under her eyes and in the droop of her
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am tired,&quot; she said plaintively.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel came over and sat on the arm of her chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me what happened to-night, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The little Chinese girl sent for me to go to her box,&quot; she explained.
+&quot;She told me where in Prince Shan's house were hidden the papers which
+revealed the understanding between Immelan and himself. She gave me a
+key of the house and a key of the cabinet. We could both see the man
+whom I believed to be Prince Shan seated in his box. She assured me that
+he would be there for the next two hours. I went to the house in Curzon
+Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His monosyllable was sharp and incisive. His face was grey and anxious.
+She herself remained lifeless. All that there was of emotion between
+them seemed to have become vested in his searching eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I found what I believe to have been the papers. They were in the
+cabinet, just where she had told me. Then I turned around and found
+Prince Shan watching me. He had been there all the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At first he said little, but I knew that he was very angry. I have
+never felt so ashamed in my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must tell me the rest, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stirred uneasily in her chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is very difficult,&quot; she confessed frankly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember,&quot; he persisted, &quot;that in a way, Maggie, I am your guardian. I
+am responsible, too, for anything which may happen to you whilst you are
+engaged in work for the good of our cause. You seem to have walked into
+a trap. Did he threaten you, or what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was nothing definite,&quot; she answered, &quot;and yet&mdash;he made me
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Made you understand what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His wishes,&quot; she replied, looking up coolly. &quot;He offered me the
+papers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That damned Chinaman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a cold light in her eyes which Nigel had met with before and
+dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forget yourself, Nigel,&quot; she said. &quot;Prince Shan is a great
+nobleman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The rest? Tell me the rest,&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am here,&quot; she reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the papers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came away without them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned, and, walking to the window, threw it open. The dawn had
+become almost silvery, and the leaves of the overhanging trees were
+rustling in the faintest of breezes. Presently he came back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What exactly are your feelings for this man, Maggie?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time he was struck with a certain pathos in her immobile
+face. She looked up at him, and there was a gleam almost of fear in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know, Nigel,&quot; she confessed.</p>
+
+<p>He moved restlessly about the room, seemed to notice for the first time
+the whisky and soda set out upon the sideboard and the open box of
+cigarettes. He helped himself and came back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you read the papers?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had no chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know for certain what they were about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I do,&quot; she replied. &quot;I believe they contained the text of the
+agreement between Immelan and Prince Shan. I believe they would have
+shown us exactly what we have to fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stood there for a moment thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-night,&quot; he said, &quot;I find it difficult to concentrate upon these
+things. Naida was extraordinarily hopeful. She has seen Prince Shan, and
+between them I believe that they have decided to let Oscar Immelan's
+scheme alone. Karschoff, too, has heard rumours. He is of the same
+opinion. Somehow or other, though, I seem to have lost my sense of
+perspective. A greater fear has come into my heart, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet and laid her hands upon his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nigel,&quot; she whispered, &quot;I cannot answer you. I cannot say what you
+would like me to say, although, on the other hand, there is no surety of
+what you seem to fear. I am going to bed. I am very tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A feeble shaft of sunlight stole into the room, flickered and passed
+away, then suddenly reappeared. Nigel turned and opened the door, and
+she passed out, curiously silent and absorbed. He looked after her,
+perplexed and worried. Suddenly a strangely commonplace, yet&mdash;in the
+silence of the house and the great hall&mdash;an almost dramatic sound
+startled him. The front doorbell rang sharply. After a moment's
+hesitation, he hurried to it himself. Karschoff stood upon the steps,
+still in his evening clothes, his face a little drawn and haggard in the
+bright light.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could not resist coming in, Nigel,&quot; he said. &quot;I saw the light in the
+study from outside. Is there any definite news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel drew him inside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are indications,&quot; he replied cautiously, &quot;that the present danger
+is passing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gathered so from Naida,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Prince Shan, though, is the
+pivot upon which the whole thing turns. You have heard nothing final
+from him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing! Tell me, was any one arrested at the Albert Hall?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one. The murdered man, as I suppose you have heard, was Sen Lu, one
+of the Prince's secretaries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole thing seems strange,&quot; Nigel remarked. &quot;Do you suppose Prince
+Shan knew that an attempt upon his life was likely to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff shook his head doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is difficult to say. These Orientals contrive to surround themselves
+with such an atmosphere of mystery. But from what I know of Prince
+Shan,&quot; he went on, &quot;I do not think that he is one to shirk danger&mdash;even
+from the assassin's dagger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A milk cart drew up with a clatter outside. There was the sound of the
+area gate being opened. Karschoff put on his hat. He looked Nigel in the
+face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie,&quot; he began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded understandingly as he threw open the front door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you about it to-morrow,&quot; he promised, &quot;or rather later on
+to-day. She's a little overwrought. Otherwise&mdash;there's nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff turned away with a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad,&quot; he said. &quot;Prince Shan is the soul of honour according to
+his own standard, but these Orientals&mdash;one never knows. I am glad,
+Nigel.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>In his spacious reception room, with its blue walls, the high vases of
+flowers, the faint odour of incense, its indefinable ascetic charm,
+Prince Shan sat in his high-backed chair whilst Li Wen, his trusted
+secretary talked. Li Wen was very eloquent. His tone was never raised,
+he never forgot that he was speaking to a being of a superior world. He
+had a great deal to say, however, and he was eager to say it. Prince
+Shan, as he listened, smoked a long cigarette in a yellow tube. He wore
+a ring in which was set an uncut green stone on the fourth finger of his
+left hand. Although the hour was barely nine o'clock, he was shaved and
+dressed as though for a visit of ceremony. He listened to Li Wen gravely
+and critically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry about the little one,&quot; he said, looking through the cloud of
+tobacco smoke up towards the ceiling. &quot;Nita has been very useful. She
+has been as faithful, too, as is possible for a woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen bowed and waited. He knew better than to interrupt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was through the information which Nita brought me,&quot; his master went
+on, &quot;that I have been able to check the truth of Immelan's statement as
+to the French dispositions and the <i>rapprochement</i> with Italy. Nita has
+served me very well indeed. What she has done in this matter, she has
+done in a moment of caprice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord,&quot; Li Wen ventured, &quot;a woman is of no account in the plans of
+the greatest. She is like a leaf blown hither or thither on the winds of
+love or jealousy. She may be used, but she must be discarded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a strange world, this western world,&quot; Prince Shan mused. &quot;In our
+own country, Li Wen, we plot or we fight, we build the great places,
+climb to the lofty heights, and when we rest we pluck flowers, and women
+are our flowers. But here, while one builds, the women are there; while
+one climbs, the women are in the way. They jostle the thoughts, they
+disturb the emotions, not only of the poet and the pleasure seeker, but
+of the man who hews his way upwards to the goal he seeks. And it is very
+deliberate, Li Wen. An Englishman eats and drinks in public and places
+opposite him a flower he has plucked or hopes to pluck. He drugs himself
+deliberately. Half the time when he should be soaring in his thoughts,
+he descends of deliberate intent. Instead of his flower, he makes his
+woman the partner of his grossness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The master speaks,&quot; Li Wen murmured. &quot;But what of the woman? She awaits
+your pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall hear what she has to say,&quot; Prince Shan decided.</p>
+
+<p>Walking backwards as nimbly as a cat, his head drooped, his hands in
+front of him, Li Wen left his master's presence. A moment later he
+reappeared, ushering in La Belle Nita. Prince Shan waved him away. The
+girl came slowly forward, pale and trembling, smouldering fires in her
+narrow eyes. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face moved. He watched her
+approach in silence. She sank on to the floor by the side of his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is my master's will?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan looked downwards at her, and she began to tremble again.
+There was nothing threatening in his eyes, nothing menacing in his
+expression. Nevertheless, she felt the chill of death.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have done me many good and faithful services, Nita,&quot; he said. &quot;What
+evil spirit has put it into your brain that it would be a good thing to
+deceive me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her scarlet lips opened and closed again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How have I deceived?&quot; she faltered. &quot;I gave the keys to the woman with
+the blue eyes, and I sent her to my lord. It was a hard thing to do
+that, but I did it. Was there any risk of evil? My lord was here to deal
+with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why did you do this thing, Nita?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord knows,&quot; she answered simply. &quot;I did it to bring evil upon this
+English woman whom he has preferred. I did it that he might understand.
+It was my lord himself who told me that she was a spy. Now it is
+proved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's fingers stole into the pocket of his coat. He held out a
+crumpled sheet of paper, on which was written a single sentence. The
+girl began to shiver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have been very anxious indeed, Nita,&quot; he said, &quot;to bring evil upon
+this woman. This is the message you sent to Immelan. Do you recognise
+your words? Listen, these are your words:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The greatest of all will desert you, if the Englishwoman whom he loves
+is not speedily removed. Even to-night he may give papers into her hand,
+and your secret will be known.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl sat transfixed. She seemed to have lost all power of speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is a copy of the message which you sent to Immelan,&quot; he told her
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the terrible Li Wen,&quot; she faltered. &quot;He has the second sight. The
+devil walks with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil is sometimes a useful confederate,&quot; her companion continued
+equably. &quot;You warned Immelan that it was in my mind to refuse his terms
+and to open my heart to the Englishwoman, and you seduced Sen Lu to
+carry your message. Yet your judgment was at fault. The hand of Immelan
+was stretched out against me, and me alone. But for my knowledge of
+these things, I might have sat in the place of Sen Lu, who rightly died
+in my stead. What have you to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet. He made no movement, but his eyes watched her, and
+the muscles of his body stiffened. He watched the white hand which stole
+irresolutely towards the loose folds of her coat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ask me why I have done this,&quot; she cried, &quot;but you already know. It
+is because you have taken this woman with the blue eyes into your
+heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that were true,&quot; he answered, &quot;of what concern is it to others? I am
+Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You sent me here to breathe this cursed western atmosphere,&quot; she
+moaned, &quot;to drink in their thoughts and see with their eyes. I see and
+know the folly of it all, but who can escape? Jealousy with us is a
+disease. Over there one creeps away like a hurt animal because there is
+nothing else. Here it is different. The Frenchwoman, the Englishwoman,
+who loses her lover&mdash;she does not fold her hands. She strikes, she is a
+wronged creature. I too have felt that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her master sat for long in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; he pronounced. &quot;I shall try to be just. You are a
+person of small understanding. You have never made any effort to live
+with your head in the clouds. Let that be so. The fault was mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not wish to live,&quot; she cried.</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Live or die&mdash;what does it matter?&quot; he answered indifferently. &quot;With
+life there is pain, and with death there is none, but if you choose
+life, remember this. The woman with the blue eyes, as you call her, has
+become the star of my life. If harm should come to her, not only you,
+but every one of your family and race, in whatsoever part of the world
+they may be, will leave this life in agony.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl stood and wondered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord thinks so much of a plaything?&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan frowned. His finely shaped, silky eyebrows almost met. She
+covered her eyes and drooped her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We of the East,&quot; he said, &quot;although we are the mightier race, progress
+slowly, because the love of new things is not with us. Something of
+western ways I have learned, and the love of woman. It is not for a
+plaything I desire her whom we will not name. She shall sit by my side
+and rule. I shall wed her with my brain as with my body. Our minds will
+move together. We shall feel the same shivering pleasure when we rule
+the world with great thoughts as when our bodies touch. I shall teach
+her to know her soul, even as my own has been revealed to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No woman is worthy of this, my lord,&quot; the girl faltered.</p>
+
+<p>He waved his hand and she stole away. At the door he stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you go to life or death, Nita?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with a great sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a worthless thing,&quot; she replied. &quot;I go where my lord's words have
+sent me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen reappeared presently for an appointed audience. He brought
+messages.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness,&quot; he announced, &quot;there is a code dispatch here from Ki-Chou.
+An American gained entrance to the City last week. Yesterday he left by
+&aelig;roplane for India. He was overtaken and captured. It is feared,
+however, that he has agents over the frontier, for no papers were found
+upon him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a great achievement,&quot; Prince Shan said thoughtfully. &quot;No other
+foreigner has ever passed into our secret city. Is there word as to how
+he got there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He came as a Russian artificer from that city in Russia of which we do
+not speak,&quot; Li Wen replied. &quot;He brought letters, and his knowledge was
+great.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His name?&quot; the Prince asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gilbert Jesson, Highness. His passport and papers refer to Washington,
+but his message, if he sent one, is believed to have come to London.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man must die,&quot; the Prince said calmly. &quot;That, without doubt, he
+expects. Yet the news is not serious. My heart has spoken for peace, Li
+Wen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen bowed low. His master watched him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I had asked it, Li Wen, where would your counsel have led?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Towards peace, Highness. I do not trust Immelan. It is not in such a
+manner that China's Empire shall spread. There are ancestors of mine who
+would turn in their graves to find China in league with a western
+Power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a wise man, Li Wen,&quot; his master declared. &quot;We hold the mastery
+of the world. What shall we do with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mightiest sword is that which enforces peace,&quot; was the calm reply.
+&quot;Highness, the lady whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who was ushered in a moment or
+two later, with rather more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy,
+leading her himself to a chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wondered,&quot; she confessed, &quot;if I were ever to be allowed to see inside
+your wonderful house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my misfortune to be compelled to pay so brief a visit to this
+country,&quot; he replied. &quot;As a rule, it gives me great pleasure to open my
+rooms three evenings and entertain those who care to come and see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of your entertainments,&quot; she said, smiling. &quot;Prima donnas
+sing. You rob the capitals of Europe to find your music. Then the great
+Monsieur Auguste is lured from Paris to prepare your supper, and not a
+lady leaves without some priceless jewel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I entertain so seldom,&quot; he reminded her. &quot;I fear that the fame of my
+feasts has been exaggerated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When do you leave, Prince?&quot; she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Within a few days,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I come for your last word,&quot; she announced. &quot;All that I have written to
+Paul Matinsky you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The last word is not yet to be spoken,&quot; he said. &quot;This, however, you
+may tell Matinsky. The scheme of Oscar Immelan has been laid before me.
+I have rejected it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In what other way, then, would you use your power?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer. She watched him with a great and growing curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince,&quot; she said, &quot;they tell me that you are a great student of
+history.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have read what is known of the history of most of the countries of
+the world,&quot; he admitted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There have been men,&quot; she persisted, &quot;who have dealt in empires for the
+price of a woman's smile.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such men have loved,&quot; he said, &quot;as I love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet for you life has always been a great and lofty thing,&quot; she reminded
+him. &quot;You could not stand where you do if you had not realised the
+beauty and wonder of sacrifice. Fate has given the peace of the world
+into your keeping. You will not juggle with the trust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rose to his feet. A servant stood almost immediately at the open
+door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fate and an American engineer,&quot; he remarked with a smile. &quot;I thank you,
+dear lady, for your visit. You will hear my news before I leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked into his eyes for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a great decision,&quot; she said, &quot;which rests with you!&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXIV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>An hour or so later, Prince Shan left his house in Curzon Street and,
+followed at a discreet distance by two members of his household,
+strolled into the Park. It had pleased him that morning to conform
+rigorously to the mode of dress adopted by the fashionable citizens of
+the country which he was visiting. Few people, without the closest
+observation, would have taken him for anything but a well-turned-out,
+exceedingly handsome and distinguished-looking Englishman. He carried
+himself with a faint air of aloofness, as though he moved amongst scenes
+in which he had no actual concern, as though he were living, in thought
+at any rate, in some other world. The morning was brilliantly sunny, and
+both the promenade and the Row were crowded. Slightly hidden behind a
+tree, he stood and watched. A gay crowd of promenaders passed along the
+broad path, and the air was filled with the echo of laughter, the jargon
+of the day, intimate references to a common world, invitations lightly
+given and lightly accepted. It was Sunday morning, in a season when
+colour was the craze of the moment, and the women who swept by seemed to
+his rather mystical fancy like the flowers in some of the great open
+spaces he knew so well, stirred into movement by a soft wind. They were
+very beautiful, these western women; handsome, too, the men with whom
+they talked and flirted. Always they had that air, however, of absolute
+complacency, as though they felt nothing of the quest which lay like a
+thread of torture amongst the nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was
+no more distinguished figure among the men there than he himself, and
+yet the sense of alienation grew in his heart as he watched. There were
+many familiar faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one who would
+not have greeted him with interest, even with gratification. And yet he
+had never been so deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
+oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid self-assurance of
+these westerners, so well-content with the earth upon which their feet
+fell. He had judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held in
+their thoughts and estimation. He was something of a curiosity, his
+title half a joke, the splendour of his long race a thing unrealisable
+by these scions of a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
+new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan had been a shade
+more eloquent, had pleaded his cause upon a higher level, that Naida
+Karetsky also had formed a different impression of the world which he
+was studying so earnestly,&mdash;what a transformation he could have brought
+upon this light-hearted and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly
+balanced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious of a certain faint
+contempt for the almost bovine self-satisfaction of a nation without
+eyes. Literature and painting, art in all its far-flung branches, even
+science, were suffering in these days from a general and paralysing
+inertia. Life which demanded no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of
+everything in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the only
+incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long in this fat land the only
+brake upon an era of self-indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his
+own millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in their ears, and
+it seemed to his elastic fancy that he was inhaling a long breath of
+cooler and more vigorous life.</p>
+
+<p>The current of his reflections was broken. He had moved a little towards
+the rails, and he was instantly aware of the girl cantering towards
+him,&mdash;a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay horse. She
+wore a simple brown habit and bowler hat, and she sat her horse with
+that complete lack of self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
+horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she cantered towards him,
+with no thought of the crowds passing along the promenade. Yet, as she
+drew nearer, she suddenly glanced down, and their eyes met. As though
+obeying his unspoken wish, she reined in her horse and came close to the
+rails behind which he stood for a moment bareheaded. There was the
+faintest smile upon her lips. She was amazingly composed. She had asked
+herself repeatedly, almost in terror, how they should meet when the time
+came. Now that it had happened, it seemed the most natural thing in the
+world. She was scarcely conscious even of embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are demonstrating to the world,&quot; she remarked, &quot;that the reports of
+your death this morning were exaggerated?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had forgotten the incident,&quot; he assured her calmly.</p>
+
+<p>His callousness was so unaffected that she shivered a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet this Sen Lu, this man for whom you were mistaken, was an intimate
+member of your household, was he not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sen Lu was a very good friend,&quot; Prince Shan answered. &quot;He did his duty
+for many years. If he knows now that his life was taken for mine, he is
+happy to have made such atonement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She man&oelig;uvred her horse a little to be nearer to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why was Sen Lu murdered?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are those,&quot; he replied, &quot;of whom I myself shall ask that question
+before the day is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have an idea, then?&quot; she persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If,&quot; he said, &quot;you desire my whole confidence, it is yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat looking between her horse's ears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To tell you the truth,&quot; she confessed, &quot;I do not know what I desire.
+Your philosophy, I suppose, does not tolerate moods. I shall escape from
+them some time, I expect, but just now I seem to have found my way into
+a maze. The faces of these people don't even seem real to me, and as for
+you, I am perfectly certain that you have never been in China in your
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me the stimulant that is needed to raise you from your apathy,&quot; he
+asked. &quot;Will you find it in the rapid motion of your horse&mdash;a very noble
+animal&mdash;in the joy of this morning's sunshine and breeze, or in the
+toyland where these puppets move and walk?&quot; he added, glancing down the
+promenade. &quot;Dear Lady Maggie, I beg permission to pay you a visit of
+ceremony. Will you receive me this afternoon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She knew then what it was that she had been hoping for. She looked down
+at him and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At four o'clock,&quot; she invited.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, touched her horse lightly with the whip, and cantered off.
+Prince Shan found himself suddenly accosted by a dozen acquaintances,
+all plying him with questions. He listened to them with an amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole affair is a very simple one,&quot; he said. &quot;A member of my
+household was assassinated last night. It was probably a plot against my
+own life. Those things are more common with us, perhaps, than over
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jolly country, China, I should think,&quot; one of the younger members of
+the group remarked. &quot;You can buy a man's conscience there for
+ninepence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The market value here,&quot; he observed, &quot;seems a little higher, but the
+supply greater.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Touch&eacute;!</i>&quot; Karschoff laughed. &quot;There is another point of view, too. The
+further east you go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes an
+absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag it out to its
+furthermost span. The American millionaire, for example, has a resident
+physician attached to his household and is likely to spend the aftermath
+of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose condition. And in the East,
+who cares? If not to-day&mdash;to-morrow! Inevitability, which is the
+nightmare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By the by,
+Prince,&quot; he added, &quot;have you any theory as to last night's attempt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is just the question,&quot; Prince Shan replied, &quot;which two very
+intelligent gentlemen from Scotland Yard asked me this morning. Theory?
+Why should I have a theory?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The attempt was without a doubt directed against you,&quot; Karschoff
+observed. &quot;Do you imagine that it was personal or political?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I tell?&quot; the Prince rejoined carelessly. &quot;Why should any one
+desire my death? These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
+Immelan!&quot; he went on. &quot;Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not
+one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the
+world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My own or another's?&quot; Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust,&quot; was the bland reply, &quot;that you are, as I have always esteemed
+you, an altruist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a very agreeable figure in
+the centre of the little group of men, the hands which held his malacca
+cane behind his back, the smile which parted his lips benign yet
+cryptic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because,&quot; he explained, &quot;it is a great thing to have more regard for
+the lives of others than for one's own, and there are times,&quot; he added,
+&quot;when it is certainly one's own life which is in the more precarious
+state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus of congratulations
+and farewells. Immelan and Prince Shan were left alone. The former
+seemed to have turned paler. The sun was warm, and yet he shivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what do you mean by that, Prince?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall walk with me to my house, and I will tell you,&quot; was the quiet
+reply.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXV'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose,&quot; Immelan suggested, as the two men reached the house in
+Curzon Street, &quot;it would be useless to ask you to break your custom and
+lunch with me at the Ritz or at the club?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His companion smiled deprecatingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have adopted so many of your western customs,&quot; he said
+apologetically. &quot;To this lunching or dining in public, however, I shall
+never accustom myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan laughed good-naturedly. The conversation of the two men on their
+way from the Park had been without significance, and some part of his
+earlier nervousness seemed to be leaving him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We all have our foibles,&quot; he admitted. &quot;One of mine is to have a pretty
+woman opposite me when I lunch or dine, music somewhere in the distance,
+a little sentiment, a little promise, perhaps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not artistic,&quot; Prince Shan pronounced calmly. &quot;It is not when the
+wine mounts to the head, and the sense of feeding fills the body, that
+men speak best of the things that lie near their hearts. Still, we will
+let that pass. Each of us is made differently. There is another thing,
+Immelan, which I have to say to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They passed into the reception room, with its shining floor, its
+marvellous rugs, its silken hangings, and its great vases of flowers.
+Prince Shan led his companion into a recess, where the light failed to
+penetrate so completely as into the rest of the apartment. A wide
+settee, piled with cushions, protruded from the wall in semicircular
+shape. In front of it was a round ebony table, upon which stood a great
+yellow bowl filled with lilies. Prince Shan gave an order to one of the
+servants who had followed them into the room and threw himself at full
+length among the cushions, his head resting upon his hand, his face
+turned towards his guest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will bring you the aperitif of which you are so fond,&quot; he said,
+&quot;also cigarettes. Mine, I know, are too strong for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They taste too much of opium,&quot; Immelan remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's eyes grew dreamy as he gazed through a little cloud of
+odorous smoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is opium in them,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Believe me, they are very
+wonderful, but I agree with you that they are not for the ordinary
+person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The soft-footed butler presented a silver tray, upon which reposed a
+glassful of amber liquid. Immelan took it, sipped it appreciatively, and
+lit a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your man, Prince,&quot; he acknowledged, &quot;mixes his vermouths wonderfully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am glad that what he does meets with your approval,&quot; was the
+courteous reply. &quot;He came to me from one of your royal palaces. I simply
+told him that I wished my guests to have of the best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet you never touch this sort of drink yourself,&quot; Immelan observed
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sometimes I take wine,&quot; he said. &quot;That is generally at night. A few
+evenings ago, for instance,&quot; he went on, with a reminiscent smile, &quot;I
+drank Chateau Yquem, smoked Egyptian cigarettes, ate some muscatel
+grapes, and read 'Pippa Passes.' That was one of my banquets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a matter of fact,&quot; Immelan remarked thoughtfully, &quot;you are far more
+western in thought than in habit. The temperance of the East is in your
+blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find that my manner of life keeps the brain clear,&quot; Prince Shan said
+slowly. &quot;I can see the truth sometimes when it is not very apparent. I
+saw the truth last night, Immelan, when I sent Sen Lu to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan's expression was indescribable. He sat with his mouth wide open.
+The hand which held his glass shook. He stared across the bowl of lilies
+to where his host was looking up through the smoke towards the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sen Lu was a traitor,&quot; the latter went on, &quot;a very foolish man who with
+one act of treachery wiped out the memory of a lifetime of devotion. In
+the end he told the truth, and now he has paid his debt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot; Immelan demanded, in a voice which he attempted in
+vain to control. &quot;How was Sen Lu a traitor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sen Lu,&quot; the Prince explained, &quot;was in the pay of those who sought to
+know more of my business than I chose to tell&mdash;who sought, indeed, to
+anticipate my own judgment. When they gathered from him, and, alas! from
+my sweet but frail little friend Nita, that the chances were against my
+signing a certain covenant, they came to what, even now, seems to me a
+strange decision. They decided that I must die. There I fail wholly to
+follow the workings of your mind, Immelan. How was my death likely to
+serve your purpose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was absolutely speechless. Three times he opened his lips, only
+to close them again. Some instinct seemed to tell him that his companion
+had more to say. He sat there as though mesmerised. Meanwhile, the
+Prince lit another cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A blunder, believe me, Immelan,&quot; he continued thoughtfully. &quot;Death will
+not lower over my path till my task is accomplished. I am young&mdash;many
+years younger than you, Immelan&mdash;and the greatest physicians marvel at
+my strength. Against the assassin's knife or bullet I am secure. You
+have been brought up and lived, my terrified friend, in a country where
+religion remains a shell and a husk, without comfort to any man. It is
+not so with me, I live in the spirit as in the body, and my days will
+last until the sun leans down and lights me to the world where those
+dwell who have fulfilled their destiny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan drained the contents of the glass which his unsteady hand was
+holding. Then he rose to his feet. The veins on his forehead were
+standing out, his blue eyes were filled with rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blast Sen Lu!&quot; he muttered. &quot;The man was a double traitor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has atoned,&quot; his companion said calmly. &quot;He made his peace and he
+went to his death. It seems very fitting that he should have received
+the dagger which was meant for my heart. Now what about you, Oscar
+Immelan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan laughed harshly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Sen Lu told you that I was in this plot against your life, he lied!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prince inclined his head urbanely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such a man as Sen Lu goes seldom to his death with a lie upon his
+lips,&quot; he said. &quot;Yet I confess that I am puzzled. Why should you plan
+this thing, Immelan? You cannot know what is in my mind concerning your
+covenant. I have not yet refused to sign it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have not refused to sign it,&quot; Immelan replied, &quot;but you will
+refuse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed?&quot; the Prince murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are even now trifling with the secrets confided to you,&quot; Immelan
+went on. &quot;You know very well that the woman who came to you last night
+is a spy whose whole time is spent in seeking to worm our secret from
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your agents keep themselves well informed,&quot; was the calm comment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yours still have the advantage of us,&quot; Immelan answered bitterly. &quot;Now
+listen to me. I have heard it said of you&mdash;I have heard that you claim
+yourself&mdash;that you have never told a falsehood. We have been allies.
+Answer me this question. Have you parted with any of our secrets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not one,&quot; the Prince assured him. &quot;A certain lady visited this house
+last night, not, as you seem to think, at my invitation, but on her own
+initiative. She was not successful in her quest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She would not pay the price, eh?&quot; Immelan sneered. &quot;By the gods of your
+ancestors, Prince Shan, are there not women enough in the world for you
+without bartering your honour, and the great future of your country, for
+a blue-eyed jade of an Englishwoman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prince sat slowly up. His appearance was ominous. His face had
+become set as marble; there was a look in his eyes like the flashing of
+a light upon black metal. He contemplated his visitor across the lilies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man so near to death, Immelan,&quot; he enjoined, &quot;might choose his words
+more carefully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan laughed scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not to be bullied,&quot; he declared. &quot;Your doors with their patent
+locks have no fears for me. When you walk abroad, you are followed by
+members of your household. When you come to my rooms, they attend you. I
+am not a prince, but I, too, have a care for my skin. Three of my secret
+service men never let me out of their sight. They are within call at
+this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His host smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is very interesting,&quot; he said, &quot;but you should know me better,
+Immelan, than to imagine that mine are the clumsy methods of the dagger
+or the bullet. The man whom I will to die&mdash;drinks with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed a long forefinger at the empty glass. Immelan gazed at it,
+and the sweat stood out upon his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My God!&quot; he muttered. &quot;There was a queer taste! I thought that it was
+aniseed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was nothing in that glass,&quot; the Prince declared, &quot;which the
+greatest chemist who ever breathed could detect as poison, yet you will
+die, my friend Immelan, without any doubt. Shall I tell you how? Would
+you know in what manner the pains will come? No? But, my friend, you
+disappoint me! You showed so much courage an hour ago. Listen. Feel for
+a swelling just behind&mdash;Ah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan was already across the room. The Prince touched a bell, the
+doors were opened. Ghastly pale, his head swimming, the tortured man
+dashed out into the street. The Prince leaned back amongst his cushions,
+untied a straw-fastened packet of his long cigarettes, lit one, and
+closed his eyes.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXVI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Nigel was just arriving at Dorminster House when Maggie returned from
+her ride. He assisted her to dismount and entered the house with her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is something here I should like to show you, Maggie,&quot; he said, as
+he drew a dispatch from his pocket. &quot;It was sent round to me half an
+hour ago by Chalmers, from the American Embassy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's about Gilbert Jesson!&quot; Maggie exclaimed, holding out her hand for
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's a note inside, and an enclosure,&quot; he said. &quot;You had better read
+both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie opened out the former:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>MY DEAR DORMINSTER,
+
+<p>     I am afraid there is rather bad news about Jesson. One of our
+     regular line of airships, running from San Francisco to
+     Vladivostok, has picked up a wireless which must have come from
+     somewhere in the South of China. They kept it for a few days, worse
+     luck, thinking it was only nonsense, as it was in code. Washington
+     got hold of it, however, and cabled it to us last night. I enclose
+     a copy, decoded.</p>
+
+<p>     Sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p>     JERE CHALMERS.</p></div>
+
+<p>The copy was brief enough. Maggie felt her heart sink as she glanced
+through the few lines:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>Report dispatched London. Fear escape impossible. Good-by.
+
+<p>     JESSON.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Horrible!&quot; Maggie exclaimed, with a shiver. &quot;I thought he was in
+Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So did we all,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;He must have come to the conclusion
+that the key to the riddle he was trying to solve was in China, and gone
+on there. Look here, Maggie,&quot; he continued, after a moment's hesitation,
+&quot;do you think anything could be done for Jesson with Prince Shan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was silent. They were standing in a shaded corner of the hall,
+but a fleck of sunshine shone in her hair. She was still a little out of
+breath with the exercise, her cheeks full of healthy colour, her eyes
+bright. She tapped her skirt with her riding whip. Nigel watched her a
+little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan is calling here this afternoon,&quot; Maggie announced. &quot;I hope
+you don't mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you going to say to him?&quot; Nigel asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a short, tense silence. Even at the thought of the crisis
+which she knew to be so close at hand, Maggie felt herself unnerved and
+in dubious straits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not know,&quot; she said at last. &quot;For one thing, I do not know what he
+wants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What he wants seems perfectly plain to me,&quot; Nigel replied gravely. &quot;He
+wants you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made a desperate effort to regain the lightheartedness of a few
+weeks ago.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you believe that,&quot; she said, &quot;your composure is most unflattering.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a ring at the front doorbell, and a familiar voice was heard
+outside. Maggie turned away to the staircase with a little sigh of
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;I remember now I asked her for a quarter past
+one instead of half-past. You must entertain her, Nigel. I'll change
+into something quickly. And of course I'll speak to Prince Shan. We
+mustn't lose a minute about that. I'll telephone from my room in a few
+minutes, Naida. Nigel will look after you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida came down the hall, cool and exquisitely gowned in a creation of
+shimmering white. Nigel led her into the rarely used drawing-room and
+found a chair for her between the open window and the conservatory. At
+first they exchanged but few words. The sense of her near presence
+affected Nigel as nothing of the sort had ever done before. She for her
+part seemed quite content with a silence which had in it many of the
+essentials of eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the history of these days is ever written by an irascible German
+historian,&quot; Naida remarked at length, &quot;he will probably declare that the
+destinies of the world have been affected during this last month by an
+outburst of primitivism. Do you know that I have written quite nice
+things to Paul about you English people? Honest things, of course, but
+still things which you helped me to discover. And Prince Shan, too. I
+think that when he rode here through the clouds, he believed in his
+heart that he was coming as a harbinger of woe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You really think, then, that the crisis is past?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am almost sure of it. Prince Shan returns to China within the course
+of the next few days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have lived so long,&quot; Nigel observed, &quot;in dread of the unknown. I
+wonder whether we shall ever understand the exact nature of the danger
+with which we were faced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It depends upon Prince Shan,&quot; she replied. &quot;The terms were Immelan's,
+but the method was his.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you believe,&quot; he asked a little abruptly, &quot;that the attempt on
+Prince Shan's life last night was made by Immelan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a touch, perhaps, of her Muscovite ancestry in the cool
+indifference with which she considered the matter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should think it most likely,&quot; she decided. &quot;Prince Shan never changes
+his mind, and I believe that he has decided against Immelan's scheme.
+Immelan's only chance would be in Prince Shan's successor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why is China so necessary?&quot; Nigel asked.</p>
+
+<p>She turned and smiled at her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas!&quot; she sighed, &quot;we have reached an <i>impasse</i>. The great English
+diplomat asks too many questions of the simple Russian girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is unfortunate,&quot; he replied, in the same vein, &quot;because I feel like
+asking more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As, for example?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whether you would be content to live for the rest of your life in any
+other country except Russia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A woman is content to live anywhere, under certain circumstances,&quot; she
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff, discreetly announced, entered the room with flamboyant ease.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is well to be young!&quot; he exclaimed, as he bent over Naida's fingers.
+&quot;You look, my far-away but much beloved cousin, as though you had slept
+peacefully through the night and spent the morning in this soft, sunlit
+air, with perhaps, if one might suggest such a thing, an hour at a Bond
+Street beauty parlour. Here am I with crow's-feet under my eyes and
+ghosts walking by my side. Yet none the less,&quot; he added, as the door
+opened and Maggie appeared, &quot;looking forward to my luncheon and to hear
+all the news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no news,&quot; Naida declared, as the butler announced the service
+of the meal. &quot;We have reached the far end of the ways. The next
+disclosures, if ever they are made, will come from others. At luncheon
+we are going to talk of the English country, the seaside, the meadows,
+and the quiet places. The time arrives when I weary, weary, of the
+brazen ticking of the clock of fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall tell you,&quot; Nigel declared, &quot;of a small country house I have in
+Devonshire. There are rough grounds stretching down to the sea and
+crawling up to the moors behind. My grandfather built it when he was
+Chancellor of England, or rather he added to an old farmhouse. He called
+it the House of Peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father built a house very much in the same spirit,&quot; Naida told them.
+&quot;He called it after an old Turkish inscription, engraven on the front of
+a villa in Stamboul&mdash;'The House of Thought and Flowers.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie smiled across the table approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like the conversation,&quot; she said. &quot;Naida and I are, after all, women
+and sentimentalists. We claim a respite, an armistice&mdash;call it what you
+will. Prince Karschoff, won't you tell me of the most beautiful house
+you ever dwelt in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Always the house I am hoping to end my days in,&quot; he answered. &quot;But let
+me tell you about a villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People
+used to speak of it as one of the world's treasures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When the two men were seated alone over their coffee, Nigel passed
+Chalmers' note and the enclosure across to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You remember I told you about Chalmers' friend, Jesson, the secret
+service man who came over to us?&quot; he said. &quot;Chalmers has just sent me
+round this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Karschoff nodded and studied the message through his great horn-rimmed
+eyeglass.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought that he was going to Russia for you,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So he did. He must have gone on from there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the message comes from Southern China,&quot; Prince Karschoff reflected.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Germany! Prince Shan in
+England, negotiating with Immelan! And behind, sinister, menacing,
+mysterious&mdash;Japan!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Supposing,&quot; he propounded at last, &quot;there really does exist a secret
+treaty between China and Japan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If there is,&quot; Prince Karschoff observed, &quot;one can easily understand
+what Immelan has been at. Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I
+know they are afraid of something of the sort in the States. An American
+who was in the club yesterday told us they had spent over a hundred
+millions on their west coast fortifications in the last two years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One can understand, too, in that case,&quot; Nigel continued, &quot;why Japan
+left the League of Nations. That stunt of hers about being outside the
+sphere of possible misunderstandings never sounded honest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was unfortunate,&quot; Prince Karschoff said, &quot;that America was dominated
+for those few months by an honest but impractical idealist. He had the
+germ of an idea, but he thrust it on the world before even his own
+country was ready for it. In time the nations would certainly have
+elaborated something more workable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You cannot keep a full-blooded man from clenching his fist if he's
+insulted,&quot; Nigel pointed out, &quot;and nations march along the same lines as
+individuals. Its existence has never for a single moment weakened
+Germany's hatred of England, and the stronger she grows, the more she
+flaunts its conditions. France guards her frontiers, night and day, with
+an army ten times larger than she is allowed. Russia has become the
+country of mysteries, with something up her sleeve, beyond a doubt, and
+there are cities in modern China into which no European dare penetrate.
+Japan quite frankly maintains an immense army, the United States is
+silently following suit&mdash;and God help us all if a war does come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; Karschoff assented gloomily. &quot;The last glamour of
+romance has gone from fighting. There were remnants of it in the last
+war, especially in Palestine and Egypt and when we first overran
+Austria. To-day, science would settle the whole affair. The war would be
+won in the laboratory, the engine room and the workshop. I doubt
+whether any battleship could keep afloat for a week, and as to the
+fighting in the air, if a hundred airships were in action, I do not
+suppose that one of them would escape. Then they say that France has a
+gun which could carry a shell from Amiens to London, and more mysterious
+than all, China has something up her sleeve which no one has even a
+glimmering of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Except Jesson,&quot; Nigel muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Jesson's gleam of knowledge, or suspicion,&quot; Prince Karschoff
+remarked, &quot;seems to have brought him to the end of his days. Can
+anything be done with Prince Shan about him, do you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only indirectly, I am afraid,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Maggie is seeing him
+this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I believe she telephoned to him
+before luncheon, but I haven't heard anything yet. When a man goes out
+on that sort of a job, he burns his boats. And Jesson isn't the first
+who has turned eastwards, during the last few months. I heard only
+yesterday that France has lost three of her best men in China&mdash;one who
+went as a missionary and two as merchants. They've just disappeared
+without a word of explanation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telephone extension bell rang. Nigel walked over to the sideboard
+and took down the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that Lord Dorminster?&quot; a man's voice asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speaking,&quot; Nigel replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am David Franklin, private secretary to Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot; the voice
+continued. &quot;Mr. Mervin Brown would be exceedingly obliged if you would
+come round to Downing Street to see him at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will be there in ten minutes,&quot; Nigel promised.</p>
+
+<p>He laid down the receiver and turned to Karschoff.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Prime Minister,&quot; he explained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What does he want you for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;that the trouble cloud is about to burst.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXVII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown on this occasion did not beat about the bush. His old
+air of confident, almost smug self-satisfaction, had vanished. He
+received Nigel with a new deference in his manner, without any further
+sign of that good-natured tolerance accorded by a busy man to a kindly
+crank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster,&quot; he began, &quot;I have sent for you to renew a
+conversation we had some little time since. I will be quite frank with
+you. Certain circumstances have come to my notice which lead me to
+believe that there may be more truth in some of the arguments you
+brought forward than I was willing at the time to believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must confess that I am relieved to hear you say so,&quot; Nigel replied.
+&quot;All the information which I have points to a crisis very near at hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister leaned a little across the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The immediate reason for my sending for you,&quot; he explained, &quot;is this.
+My friend the American Ambassador has just sent me a copy of a wireless
+dispatch which he has received from China from one of their former
+agents. The report seems to have been sent to him for safety, but the
+sender of it, of whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
+pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China by you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jesson!&quot; Nigel exclaimed. &quot;I have heard of this already, sir, from a
+friend in the American Embassy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The dispatch,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown went on, &quot;is in some respects a little
+vague, but it is, on the other hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It
+gives specific details as to definite military preparations on the part
+of China and Russia, associated, presumably, with a third Power whose
+name you will forgive my not mentioning. These preparations appear to
+have been brought almost to completion in the strictest secrecy, but the
+headquarters of the whole thing, very much to my surprise, I must
+confess, seems to be in southern China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case,&quot; Nigel pointed out, &quot;if you will permit me to make a
+suggestion, sir, you have a very simple course open to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Send for Prince Shan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan,&quot; the Prime Minister replied, with knitted brows, &quot;is not
+over in this country officially. He has begged to be excused from
+accepting or returning any diplomatic courtesies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless,&quot; Nigel persisted, &quot;I should send for Prince Shan. If it
+had not been,&quot; he went on slowly, &quot;for the complete abolition of our
+secret service system, you would probably have been informed before now
+that Prince Shan has been having continual conferences in this country
+with one of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
+shores&mdash;Oscar Immelan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan has no official position in this country,&quot; the Prime Minister
+objected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fact which makes him none the less dangerous,&quot; Nigel insisted. &quot;He is
+one of those free lances of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
+ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious wave of altruism
+which is responsible for the League of Nations. Immelan was one of the
+first to see how his country might benefit by the new r&eacute;gime. It is he
+who has been pulling the strings in Russia and China, and, I fear,
+another country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What I want to arrive at,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently,
+&quot;is something definite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me put it my own way,&quot; Nigel begged. &quot;A very large section of our
+present-day politicians&mdash;you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
+Brown&mdash;have believed this country safe against any military dangers,
+because of the connections existing between your unions of working men
+and similar bodies in Germany. This is a great fallacy for two reasons:
+first because Germany has always intended to have some one else pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for her, and second because we cannot
+internationalise labour. English and German workmen may come together
+on matters affecting their craft and the conditions of their labour, but
+at heart one remains a German and one an Englishman, with separate
+interests and a separate outlook.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, at the end of it all,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown said, &quot;the bogey is war.
+What sort of a war? An invasion of England is just as impossible to-day
+as it was twenty years ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot answer your question,&quot; he admitted. &quot;I was looking to Jesson's
+report to give us an idea as to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall see it to-morrow,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown promised. &quot;It is round at
+the War Office at the present moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without seeing it,&quot; Nigel went on, &quot;I expect I can tell you one
+startling feature of its contents. It suggested, did it not, that the
+principal movers against us would be Russian and China and&mdash;a country
+which you prefer just now not to mention?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But that country is our ally!&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel smiled a little sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has been,&quot; he admitted. &quot;Still, if you had been <i>au fait</i> with
+diplomatic history thirty years ago, Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know
+that she was on the point of ending her alliance with us and
+establishing one with Germany. It was only owing to the genius of one
+English statesman that at the last moment she almost reluctantly
+renewed her alliance with us. She is in the same state of doubt
+concerning our destiny to-day. She has seen our last two Governments
+forget that we are an Imperial Power and endeavour to apply the
+principles of sheer commercialism to the conduct of a great nation. She
+may have opened her eyes a thousand years later than we did, but she is
+awake enough now to know that this will not do. There is little enough
+of generosity amongst the nations; none amongst the Orientals. I have a
+conviction myself that there is a secret alliance between China and this
+other Power, a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in thought. Somehow or other
+his face had gained in dignity since the beginning of the conversation.
+The nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look of deep and
+solemn anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are right, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he pronounced presently, &quot;the world
+has rolled backwards these last ten years, and we who have failed to
+mark its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility thrust upon
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Politically, I am afraid I agree with you,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;Only the
+idealist, and the prejudiced idealist, can ignore the primal elements in
+human nature and believe that a few lofty sentiments can keep the
+nations behind their frontiers. War is a terrible thing, but human life
+itself is a terrible thing. Its principles are the same, and force will
+never be restrained except by force. If the League of Nations had been
+established upon a firmer and less selfish basis, it certainly might
+have kept the peace for another thirty or forty years. As it is, I
+believe that we are on the verge of a serious crisis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;War for us is an impossibility,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown declared frankly,
+&quot;simply because we cannot fight. Our army consists of policemen; science
+has defeated the battleship; and practically the same conditions exist
+in the air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You sent for me, I presume, to ask for my advice,&quot; Nigel said. &quot;At any
+rate, let me offer it. I have reason to believe that the negotiations
+between Prince Shan and Oscar Immelan have not been entirely successful.
+Send for Prince Shan and question him in a friendly fashion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you be my ambassador?&quot; the Prime Minister asked.</p>
+
+<p>Nigel hesitated for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you wish it,&quot; he promised. &quot;Prince Shan is in some respects a
+strangely inaccessible person, but just at present he seems well
+disposed towards my household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Arrange, if you can,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown begged, &quot;to bring him here
+to-morrow morning. I will try to have available a copy of the dispatch
+from Jesson. It refers to matters which I trust Prince Shan will be able
+to explain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel lingered for a moment over his farewell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I might venture upon a suggestion, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;do not forget
+that Prince Shan is to all intents and purposes the autocrat of Asia. He
+has taught the people of the world to remodel their ideas of China and
+all that China stands for. And further than this, he is, according to
+his principles, a man of the strictest honour. I would treat him, sir,
+as a valued <i>confr&egrave;re</i> and equal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't look upon me as being too intensely parochial, Dorminster,&quot; he
+said. &quot;I know quite well that Prince Shan is a man of genius, and that
+he is a representative of one of the world's greatest families. I am
+only the servant of a great Power. He is a great Power in himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And believe me,&quot; Nigel concluded fervently, as he made his adieux, &quot;the
+greatest autocrat that ever breathed. If, when you exchange farewells
+with him, he says&mdash;'There will be no war'&mdash;we are saved, at any rate for
+the moment.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXVIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Maggie, very cool and neat, a vision of soft blue, a wealth of colouring
+in the deep brown of her closely braided hair, her lips slightly parted
+in a smile of welcome, felt, notwithstanding her apparent composure, a
+strange disturbance of outlook and senses as Prince Shan was ushered
+into her flower-bedecked little sitting room that afternoon. The unusual
+formality of his entrance seemed somehow to suit the man and his manner.
+He bowed low as soon as he had crossed the threshold and bowed again
+over her fingers as she rose from her easy-chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It makes me very happy that you receive me like this,&quot; he told her
+simply. &quot;It makes it so much easier for me to say the things that are in
+my heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't you sit down, please?&quot; Maggie invited. &quot;You are so tall, and I
+hate to be completely dominated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed at once, but he continued to talk with grave and purposeful
+seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish,&quot; he said, &quot;to bring myself entirely into accord, for these few
+minutes, with your western methods and customs. I address you,
+therefore, Lady Maggie, with formal words, while I keep back in my
+heart much that is struggling to express itself. I have come to ask you
+to do me the great honour of becoming my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie sat for a few moments speechless. The thing which she had half
+dreaded and half longed for&mdash;the low timbre of his caressing voice&mdash;was
+entirely absent. Yet, somehow or other, his simple, formal words were at
+least as disturbing. He leaned towards her, a quiet, dignified figure,
+anxious yet in a sense confident. He had the air of a man who has
+offered to share a kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your wife,&quot; Maggie repeated tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The thought is new to you, perhaps,&quot; he went on, with gentle tolerance.
+&quot;You have believed the stories people tell that in my youth I was vowed
+to celibacy and the priesthood. That is not true. I have always been
+free to marry, but although to-day we figure as a great progressive
+nation, many of the thousand-year-old ideas of ancient China have dwelt
+in my brain and still sit enshrined in my heart. The aristocracy of
+China has passed through evil times. There is no princess of my own
+country whom I could meet on equal terms. So, you see, although it
+develops differently, there is something of the snobbishness of your
+western countries reflected in our own ideas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am not a princess,&quot; Maggie murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are the princess of my soul,&quot; he answered, lowering his eyes for a
+moment almost reverently. &quot;I cannot quite hope to make you understand,
+but if I took for my wife a Chinese lady of unequal mundane rank, I
+should commit a serious offence against those who watch me from the
+other side of the grave, and to whom I am accountable for every action
+of my life. A lady of another country is a different matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am an Englishwoman,&quot; Maggie said, &quot;and I love my country. You
+know what that means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know very well,&quot; he admitted. &quot;I had not meant to speak of those
+things until later, but, for your country's sake, what greater alliance
+could you seek to-day than to become the wife of him who is destined to
+be the Ruler of Asia?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie caught hold of her courage. She looked into his eyes
+unflinchingly, though she felt the hot colour rise into her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did not speak to me of these things, Prince Shan, when I came to
+your house last night,&quot; she reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>His smile was full of composure. It was as though the truth which sat
+enshrined in the man's soul lifted him above all the ordinary emotions
+of fear of misunderstandings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For those few minutes,&quot; he confessed, &quot;I was very angry. It brings
+great pain to a man to see the thing he loves droop her wings, flutter
+down to earth, and walk the common highway. It is not for you, dear one,
+to mingle with that crowd who scheme and cheat, hide and deceive, for
+any reward in the world, whether it be money, fame, or the love of
+country. You were not made for those things, and when I saw you there,
+so utterly in my power, having deliberately taken your risk, I was
+angry. For a single moment I meant that you should realise the danger of
+the path you were treading. I think that I did make you realise it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes fell. He seemed to have established some compelling power over
+her. He had met her thoughts before they were uttered, and answered even
+her unspoken question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish you didn't make life so much like a kindergarten,&quot; she
+complained, with an almost pathetic smile at the corners of her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a very different place,&quot; he rejoined fervently, &quot;that I desire to
+make of life for you. Listen, please. I have spoken to you first the
+formal words which make all things possible between us, and now, if I
+may, I let my heart speak. Somewhere not far from Pekin I have a palace,
+where my lands slope to the river. For five months in the year my
+gardens are starred with blue and yellow flowers, sweet-smelling as the
+almond blossom, and there are little pagodas which look down on the blue
+water, pagodas hung with creepers, not like your English evergreens, but
+with blossoms, pink and waxen, which open as one looks at them and send
+out sweet perfumes. When you are there with me, dear one, then I shall
+speak to you in the language of my ancestors, which some day you will
+understand, and you shall know that love has its cradle in the East, you
+shall feel the flame of its birth, the furnace of its accomplishment.
+Here my tongue moves slowly, yet I stoop my knee to you, I show you my
+heart, and my lips tell you that I love. What that love is you shall
+learn some day, if you have the will and the confidence and the soul.
+Will you come back to China with me, Maggie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rested her fingers on his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a magician,&quot; she confessed. &quot;I am very English, and yet I want
+to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stood for a moment looking into her eyes. Then he stooped down and
+raised her hesitating fingers to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe that you will come,&quot; he said simply. &quot;I believe that you will
+ride over the clouds with me, back to the country of beautiful places.
+So now I speak to you of serious things. Of money there shall be what
+you wish, more than any woman even of your rank possesses in this
+country. I shall give you, too, the sister of my great <i>Black Dragon</i> so
+that in five days, if you wish, you can pass from any of my palaces to
+London. And further than that, behold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drew from his pocket a roll of papers. Maggie recognised it, and her
+heart beat faster. Curiously enough, just then she scarcely thought of
+its world importance. She remembered only those few moments of strange
+thrills, the wonder at finding him in that room, as he stood watching
+her, the horror and yet the thrill of his measured words. He laid the
+papers upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Read them,&quot; he invited. &quot;You will understand then the net that has been
+closing around your country. You will understand the better if I tell
+you this. China and Japan are one. It was my first triumph when
+patriotism urged me into the field of politics. We have a single motto,
+and upon that is based all that you may read there,&mdash;'<i>Europe for the
+Europeans, Asia for us</i>.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was conscious of a sudden sense of escape from her almost
+mesmeric state. The change in his tone, his calm references to things
+belonging to another and altogether different world, had dissolved a
+situation against the charm of which she had found herself powerless,
+even unwilling to struggle. Once more she was back in the world where
+for the last two years had lain her chief interests. She took the papers
+in her hand and began reading them quickly through. Every now and then a
+little exclamation broke from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will observe,&quot; her companion pointed out, looking over her
+shoulder, &quot;that on paper, at any rate, Japan is the great gainer. She
+takes Australia, New Zealand and India. China absorbs Thibet and
+re&euml;stablishes her empire of forty years ago. The arrangement is based
+very largely on racial conditions. China is a self-centered country. We
+have not the power of fusion of the Japanese. You will observe further,
+as an interesting circumstance, that the American foothold in Asia
+disappears as completely as the British.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But tell me,&quot; she demanded, &quot;how are these things to be brought about,
+and where does Immelan come in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan's position,&quot; he explained, &quot;is largely a sentimental one, yet
+on the other hand he saves his country from what might be a grave
+calamity. The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might
+seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.
+The point is this. He soothes his country of the pain which groans day
+by day in her limbs. He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great
+Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And France escapes,&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;France escapes,&quot; he assented. &quot;Rightly or wrongly, the whole of
+Germany's post-war animosity was directed against England. She
+considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen. She may have
+been right or wrong. I myself find the evidence conflicting. At this
+moment the matter does not concern us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And is Great Britain, then,&quot; Maggie asked, &quot;believed to be so helpless
+that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the
+will of China and Japan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great Britain,&quot; he reminded her, &quot;has taken the League of Nations to
+her heart. It was a very dangerous thing to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still,&quot; Maggie persisted, &quot;there remains the great thing which you have
+not told me. These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart
+of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I had signed the agreement,&quot; he replied, &quot;they could very easily
+have been carried into effect. You have heard already, have you not,
+through some of your agents, of the three secret cities? In the
+eastern-most of them is the answer to your question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that a challenge to me to come out and discover for myself all that
+I want to know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you come,&quot; he answered, &quot;you shall certainly know everything. There
+is another little matter, too, which waits for your decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me of it at once, please,&quot; she begged, with a sudden conviction of
+his meaning.</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I spoke just now,&quot; he reminded her, &quot;of the three secret cities. They
+are secret because we have taken pains to keep them so. One is in
+Germany, one in Russia, and one in China. A casual traveller could
+discover little in the German one, and little more, perhaps, in the
+Russian one. Enough to whet his curiosity, and no more. But in China
+there is the whole secret at the mercy of a successful spy. A man named
+Jesson, Lady Maggie&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I telephoned you about him before luncheon to-day,&quot; she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had your message,&quot; he replied, &quot;and the man is safe for the moment.
+At the same time, Lady Maggie, let me remind you that this is a game the
+rules of which are known the world over. Jesson has now in his
+possession the secret on which I might build, if I chose, plans to
+conquer the world. He knew the penalty if he was discovered, and he was
+discovered. To spare his life is sentimentalism pure and simple, yet if
+it is your will, so be it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very good to me,&quot; she declared gratefully, &quot;all the more good
+because half the time I can see that you scarcely understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I do not admit,&quot; he protested. &quot;I understand even where I do not
+sympathise. You make of life the greatest boon on earth. We of my race
+and way of thinking are taught to take it up or lay it down, if not with
+indifference, at any rate with a very large share of resignation.
+However, Jesson's life is spared. From what I have heard of the man, I
+imagine he will be very much surprised.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have given me a great deal of your confidence,&quot; she said
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it not clear,&quot; he answered, &quot;why I have done so? I ask of you the
+greatest boon a woman has to give. I do not seek to bribe, but if you
+can give me the love that will make my life a dream of happiness, then
+will it not be my duty to see that no shadow of misfortune shall come to
+you or yours? China stands between Japan and Russia, and I am China.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gave him her hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very wonderful,&quot; she declared. &quot;Remember that at a time like
+this, it is not a woman's will alone that speaks. It is her soul which
+lights the way. Prince Shan, I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I leave,&quot; he told her, &quot;on Friday, soon after dawn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She found herself trembling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a very short time,&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>They had both risen to their feet. He was close to her now, and she felt
+herself caught up in a passionate wave of inertia, an absolute inability
+to protest or resist. His arms were clasped around her lightly and with
+exceeding gentleness. He leaned down. She found herself wondering, even
+in that tumultuous moment, at the strange clearness of his complexion,
+the whiteness of his firm, strong teeth, the soft brilliance of his
+eyes, which caressed her even before his lips rested upon hers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that you will come,&quot; he whispered. &quot;I think that you will be
+very happy.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXIX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the following morning, to a
+state of intense activity. Taxi-cabs and motor-cars were lined along the
+street; a stream of callers came and went. That part of the
+establishment of which little was seen by the casual caller, the rooms
+where half a dozen secretaries conducted an immense correspondence,
+presided over by Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In his
+reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few of the callers, mostly
+journalists and politicians, to whom Li Wen gave the entr&eacute;e. One visitor
+even this most astute of secretaries found it hard to place. He took the
+card in to his master, who glanced at it thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Earl of Dorminster,&quot; he repeated. &quot;I will see him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet with a certain
+aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his favourite chair of plain black oak
+heaped with green silk cushions and held out his hand a little
+tentatively.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he said. &quot;I trust that
+you come to wish me fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That,&quot; Nigel replied, &quot;depends upon how you choose to seek it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am answered,&quot; was the prompt acknowledgment. &quot;One thing in your
+country I have at least learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of
+candour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have you come to speak to
+me as an ambassador from your cousin, or in any way on her behalf?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My business has nothing to do with Lady Maggie,&quot; Nigel assured him
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop,&quot; he begged. &quot;Do not explain your business. If it is a personal
+request, it is granted. If, on the other hand, you seek my advice on
+matters of grave importance, it is yours. Before other words are spoken,
+however, I myself desire to address you on the subject of Lady Maggie
+Trent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you please,&quot; Nigel answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not the custom of my country, or of my life,&quot; Prince Shan
+continued, &quot;to covet or steal the things which belong to another. If
+fate has made me a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady
+Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It is my great desire that
+she should become my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There was something in the
+other's measured speech, so fateful, so assured, that it seemed almost
+as though he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that had seemed
+to him impossible and unnatural in such an idea disappeared from that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You tell me this,&quot; Nigel began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I announce it to you as the head of the family,&quot; Prince Shan
+interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You tell it to me also,&quot; Nigel persisted, &quot;because you have heard the
+rumours which were at one time very prevalent&mdash;that Lady Maggie and I
+were or were about to become engaged to be married.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard such a rumour only very indirectly,&quot; Prince Shan
+confessed, &quot;and I cannot admit that it has made any difference in my
+attitude. I think, in my land and yours, we have at least one common
+convention. The woman who touches our heart is ours if we may win her.
+Love is unalterably selfish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for
+those who may suffer by our victory, we may have pity but no
+consideration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I to understand,&quot; Nigel asked bluntly, &quot;that Lady Maggie has
+consented to be your wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her alone with her thoughts.
+Every hour it is my hope to hear from her. She knows that I leave for
+China early to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So at the present moment you are in suspense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am in suspense,&quot; Prince Shan admitted, &quot;and perhaps,&quot; he went on,
+with one of his rare smiles, &quot;it occurred to me that it would be in one
+sense a relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears that are
+in my heart. You are the one person to whom I could speak, Lord
+Dorminster. You have not wished my suit well, but at least you have been
+clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you that a prince of
+China might venture to compete with a peer of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On the contrary,&quot; Nigel assented, &quot;I have the greatest admiration for
+the few living descendants of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a
+right to enter the lists, a right to win if you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what do you think of my prospects, if I may ask such a delicate
+question?&quot; Prince Shan enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot estimate them,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;I only know that Maggie is
+deeply interested.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think,&quot; his companion continued softly, &quot;that she will become my
+Princess. You have never visited China, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he went on,
+&quot;so you have little idea, perhaps, as to the manner of our lives. Some
+day I will hope to be your host, so until then, as I may not speak of my
+own possessions, may I go just so far as this? Your cousin will be very
+happy in China. This is a great country, but the very air you breathe is
+cloyed with your national utilitarianism. Mine is a country of beautiful
+thoughts, of beautiful places, of quiet-living and sedate people. I can
+give your cousin every luxury of which the world has ever dreamed,
+wrapped and enshrined in beauty. No person with a soul could be unhappy
+in the places where she will dwell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are at least confident,&quot; Nigel remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is because I am convinced,&quot; was the calm rejoinder. &quot;I shall take
+your cousin's happiness into my keeping without one shadow of misgiving.
+The last word, however, is with her. It remains to be seen whether her
+courage is great enough to induce her to face such a complete change in
+the manner of her life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will not be her lack of courage which will keep her in England,&quot;
+Nigel declared.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan bowed, with a graceful little gesture of the hands. The
+subject was finished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall now, Lord Dorminster,&quot; he said, &quot;take advantage of your kindly
+presence here to speak to you on a very personal matter, only this time
+it is you who are the central figure, and I who am the dummy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not follow you,&quot; Nigel confessed, with a slight frown.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I speak in tones of apology,&quot; Prince Shan went on, &quot;but you must
+remember that I am one of reflective disposition; Nature has endowed me
+with some of the gifts of my great ancestors, philosophers famed the
+world over. It seems very clear to me that, if I had not come, from
+sheer force of affectionate propinquity you would have married Lady
+Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel's frown deepened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prince Shan!&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p>Again the outstretched hand seemed as though the fingers were pressed
+against his mouth. He broke off abruptly in his protest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You would have lived a contented life, because that is your province,&quot;
+his companion continued. &quot;You would have felt yourself happy because you
+would have been a faithful husband. But the time would have come when
+you would both have realised that you had missed the great things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is idle prophecy,&quot; Nigel observed, a little impatiently. &quot;I came
+to see you upon another matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humour me,&quot; the Prince begged. &quot;I am going to speak to you even more
+intimately. I shall venture to do so because, after all, she is better
+known to me than to you. I am going to tell you that of all the women in
+the world, Naida Karetsky is the most likely to make you happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel drew himself up a little stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One does not discuss these things,&quot; he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I call that a touch of insularity?&quot; Prince Shan pleaded, &quot;because
+there is nothing else in the world so wonderful to discuss, in all
+respect and reverence, as the women who have made us feel. One last
+word, Lord Dorminster. The days of matrimonial alliances between the
+reigning families of Europe have come to an end under the influence of a
+different form of government, but there is a certain type of alliance,
+the utility of which remains unimpaired. I venture to say that you could
+not do your country a greater service, apart from any personal feelings
+you might have, than by marrying Mademoiselle Karetsky. There, you see,
+now I have finished. This is for your reflection, Lord Dorminster&mdash;just
+the measured statement of one who wears at least the cloak of philosophy
+by inheritance. Time passes. Your own reason for coming to see me has
+not yet been expounded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have come to ask you to visit the Prime Minister before you leave
+England,&quot; Nigel announced.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan changed his position slightly. His forehead was a little
+wrinkled. He was silent for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I pay more than a farewell visit of ceremony,&quot; he said, &quot;that is to
+say, if I speak with Mr. Mervin Brown on things that count, I must
+anticipate a certain decision at which I have not yet wholly arrived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel had a sudden inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are seeking to bribe Maggie!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not true,&quot; was the dignified reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then please explain,&quot; Nigel persisted.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan rose to his feet. He walked to the heavy silk curtains which
+led into his own bedchamber, pushed them apart, and looked for a moment
+at the familiar objects in the room. Then he came back, glancing on his
+way at the ebony cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One does not repeat one's mistakes,&quot; he said slowly, &quot;and although you
+and I, Lord Dorminster, breathe the common air of the greater world, my
+instinct tells me that of certain things which have passed between your
+cousin and myself it is better that no mention ever be made. I wish to
+tell you this, however. There is in existence a document, my signature
+to which would, without a doubt, have a serious influence upon the
+destinies of this country. That document, unsigned, would be one of my
+marriage gifts to Lady Maggie&mdash;and as you know I have not yet had her
+answer. However, if you wish it, I will go to the Prime Minister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Li Wen came silently in. He spoke to his master for a few minutes in
+Chinese. A faint smile parted the latter's lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can tell the person at the telephone that I will call within the
+next few minutes,&quot; he directed. &quot;You will not object,&quot; he added, turning
+courteously to Nigel, &quot;if I stop for a moment, on the way to Downing
+Street, at a small private hospital? An acquaintance of mine lies sick
+there and desires urgently to see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am entirely at your service,&quot; Nigel assured him.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan, with many apologies, left Nigel alone in the car outside a
+tall, grey house in John Street, and, preceded by the white-capped nurse
+who had opened the door, climbed the stairs to the first floor of the
+celebrated nursing home, where, after a moment's delay, he was shown
+into a large and airy apartment. Immelan was in bed, looking very ill
+indeed. He was pale, and his china-blue eyes, curiously protruding, were
+filled with an expression of haunting fear. A puzzled doctor was
+standing by the bedside. A nurse, who was smoothing the bedclothes,
+glanced around at Prince Shan's entrance. The invalid started
+convulsively, and, clutching the pillows with his right hand, turned
+towards his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you've come!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Stay where yon are! Don't go!
+Doctor&mdash;nurse&mdash;leave us alone for a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The nurse went at once. The doctor hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My patient is a good deal exhausted,&quot; he said. &quot;There are no dangerous
+symptoms at present, but&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will promise not to distress him,&quot; Prince Shan interrupted. &quot;I am
+myself somewhat pressed for time, and it is probable that your patient
+will insist upon speaking to me in private.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The doctor followed the nurse from the room. Prince Shan stood looking
+down upon the figure of quondam associate. There was a leaven of mild
+wonder in his clear eyes, a faintly contemptuous smile about the corners
+of his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you are afraid of death, my friend,&quot; he observed, &quot;afraid of the
+death you planned so skilfully for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a lie!&quot; Immelan declared excitedly. &quot;Sen Lu was never killed by
+my orders. Listen! You have nothing against me. My death can do you no
+good. It is you who have been at fault. You&mdash;Prince Shan&mdash;the great
+diplomatist of the world&mdash;are gambling away your future and the future
+of a mighty empire for a woman's sake. You have treated me badly enough.
+Spare my life. Call in the doctor here and tell him what to do. He can
+find nothing in my system. He is helpless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile upon the Prince's lips became vaguer, his expression more
+bland and indeterminate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Immelan,&quot; he murmured, &quot;you are without doubt delirious.
+Compose yourself, I beg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A light that was almost tragic shone in the man's face. He sat up with a
+sudden access of strength.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the love of God, don't torture me!&quot; he groaned. &quot;The pains grow
+worse, hour by hour. If I die, the whole world shall know by whose
+hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The expression on Prince Shan's face remained unchanged. In his eyes,
+however, there was a little glint of something which seemed almost like
+foreknowledge,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you die,&quot; he pronounced calmly, &quot;it will be by your own hand&mdash;not
+mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For some reason or other, Immelan accepted these measured words of
+prophecy as a total reprieve. The relief in his face was almost piteous.
+He seized his visitor's hand and would have fawned upon it. Prince Shan
+withdrew himself a little farther from the bed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan,&quot; he said, &quot;during my stay in England I have studied you and
+your methods, I have listened to all you have had to say and to propose,
+I have weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of the scheme you
+have outlined to me, and I only arrived at my decision after the most
+serious and unbiassed reflection. Your scheme itself was bold and almost
+splendid, but, as you yourself well know at the back of your mind, it
+would lay the seeds of a world tumult. I have studied history, Immelan,
+perhaps a little more deeply than you, and I do not believe in
+conquests. For the restoration to China of such lands as belong
+geographically and rightly to the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans.
+You, it seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to gratify your
+hatred of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A cat's-paw!&quot; Immelan gasped. &quot;Australia, New Zealand and India for
+Japan, new lands for her teeming population; Thibet for you, all
+Manchuria, and the control of the Siberian Railway!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These are dazzling propositions,&quot; Prince Shan admitted, &quot;and yet&mdash;what
+about the other side of the Pacific?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;America would be powerless,&quot; Immelan insisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you said before, in 1917,&quot; was the dry reminder. &quot;I did not come
+here, however, to talk world politics with you. Those things for the
+moment are finished. I came in answer to your summons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You meant what you said?&quot; he demanded, with hoarse anxiety. &quot;There was
+no poison? Swear that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan moved towards the door. His backward glance was coldly
+contemptuous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What I said, I meant,&quot; he replied. &quot;Extract such comfort from it as you
+may.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Immelan stared
+after him, hollow-eyed and anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing
+upon him once more.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove off to Downing Street.
+The former was silent for the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
+towards his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man Immelan is a coward,&quot; he declared. &quot;It is he whom I have just
+visited.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So many men are brave enough in a fight,&quot; he remarked, &quot;who lose their
+nerve on a sick bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bravery in battle,&quot; Prince Shan pronounced, &quot;is the lowest form of
+courage. The blood is stirred by the excitement of slaughter as by
+alcohol. With Immelan I shall have no more dealings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speaking politically as well as personally?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>The other smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I might go so far as to agree,&quot; he acquiesced, &quot;but in a sense,
+there are conditions. You shall hear what they are. I will speak before
+you to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign of my departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which hung down, here and
+there, from the blue sky, came the <i>Black Dragon</i>, her engines purring
+softly, her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched her for a
+moment in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start,&quot; Prince Shan announced. &quot;My
+pilot tells me that the weather conditions are wonderful, all the way
+from here to Pekin. We shall be there on Wednesday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You travel alone?&quot; Nigel enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have passengers,&quot; was the quiet reply. &quot;I am taking the English
+chaplain to your Church in Pekin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the two men met.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is an ingenious idea,&quot; Nigel admitted dryly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish to be prepared,&quot; his companion answered. &quot;It may be that he is
+my only companion. In that case, I go back to a life lonelier than I
+have ever dreamed of. It is on the knees of the gods. So far there has
+come no word, but although I am not by nature an optimist, my
+superstitions are on my side. All the way over on my last voyage, when I
+lay in my berth, awake and we sailed over and through the clouds, my
+star, my own particular star, seemed leaning always down towards me, and
+for that reason I have faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel glanced at his companion curiously but without speech. The car
+pulled up in Downing Street. The two men descended and found everything
+made easy for them. In two minutes they were in the presence of the
+Prime Minister.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXX'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a
+matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation. He received
+Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an
+earlier visit. To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to
+be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation,&quot; he said,
+&quot;bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have found his lordship,&quot; Prince Shan declared, &quot;one of the few
+Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside
+his own country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan,&quot; he
+said. &quot;They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the
+promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
+friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities. Lord
+Dorminster would have me believe that there is a still more terrible
+price for us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole outlook,
+abandon our belief in the League of Nations, and once more acknowledge
+the supremacy of force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Dorminster is right,&quot; Prince Shan pronounced. &quot;I have come here to
+tell you so, Mr. Mervin Brown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You come here as a friend of England?&quot; the latter asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I come here as one who hesitates to become her enemy,&quot; was the measured
+reply. &quot;I will be perfectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
+to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of China and Japan,
+would have resulted in the humiliation of your country and the
+gratification of Germany's eagerly desired revenge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You believe in the existence of that sentiment, then?&quot; the Prime
+Minister enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Any one short of a very insular Englishman,&quot; the Prince replied, &quot;would
+have realised it long ago. There is a great society in Germany, scarcely
+even a secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations of the last
+great war. Lord Dorminster tells me that you are to-day without a secret
+service. For that reason you have remained in ignorance of the mines
+beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans well and carefully. Her
+first and greatest weapon has been your sense of security. She has seen
+you contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious satisfaction,
+invincible France, regaining her wealth more slowly than you for the
+simple reason that half the man power of the country is absorbed by her
+military preparations. France is impregnable. A direct invasion of your
+country is in all probability impossible. Those two facts have seemed to
+you all-sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may say so, sir,
+very short-sighted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Germany has no power to transport troops in other directions,&quot; Mr.
+Mervin Brown observed.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have another enemy besides Germany,&quot; he pointed out, &quot;a great
+democracy who has never forgiven your lack of sympathy at her birth,
+your attempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne in agony and
+shame, yet containing the germs of worthy things which your statesmen in
+those days failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Russia stands
+hand in hand with Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But surely,&quot; the Prime Minister protested, &quot;you speak in the language
+of the past? The League of Nations still exists. Any directly predatory
+expedition would bring the rest of the world to arms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the first necessities of a tribunal,&quot; he expounded, &quot;is that
+that tribunal should have the power to punish. You yourself are one of
+the judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With what weapon will
+you chastise him? The culprit has grown mightier than the judge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;America&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;America,&quot; Prince Shan interrupted, &quot;can, when she chooses, strike a
+weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
+proceed outside her own sphere of influence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But she must protect her trade,&quot; the Prime Minister insisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
+instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
+mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
+as anxious to buy as she is to sell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am to figure to myself, then,&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, &quot;a
+combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
+Great Britain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned,&quot; Prince Shan
+assured him gravely. &quot;If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
+would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
+treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
+would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
+be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
+knowledge of this scheme,&quot; the Prime Minister confessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Official Germany would probably deny it,&quot; Prince Shan answered dryly.
+&quot;Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
+but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
+have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
+cities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales,&quot; Mr.
+Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless, they exist,&quot; Prince Shan continued, &quot;and they exist for
+the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
+have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
+The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
+design to conquer any country in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Armoured airships?&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air,&quot; Prince
+Shan explained. &quot;On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
+ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
+to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
+these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
+Government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember something of the sort,&quot; the Prime Minister assented. &quot;The
+inventor himself was an American, I believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Precisely! I believe he told you in plain words that whoever possessed
+his model might, if they chose, dominate the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But who wants to dominate the world by force?&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown
+demanded passionately. &quot;We have passed into a new era, an era of peace
+and the higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and money to
+create these horrible instruments of destruction. The League of Nations
+has decreed that they shall not be built.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless,&quot; Prince Shan declared, with portentous gravity, &quot;a
+thousand of these engines of destruction are now ready in a certain city
+of China. Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota of work
+in the shape of providing parts. China alone has put them together. I
+bought the secret, and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
+world remains at peace or moves on to war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You cannot hesitate, then?&quot; Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed anxiously. &quot;You
+yourself are an apostle of civilisation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is because we are strong,&quot; he said, &quot;that we love peace. It is
+because you are weak that you fear war. I am not here to teach you
+statesmanship. It is not for me to point out to you the means by which
+you can make your country safe and keep her people free. Call a meeting
+of what remains of the League of Nations and compare your strength with
+that of the nations who have crept outside and lie waiting. Then take
+the advice of experts and set your house in order. You sacrifice
+everything to-day to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dorminster
+here into your councils. You are not a nation of fools. Speak the truth
+at the next meeting of the League of Nations and see that it is properly
+reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dorminster?&quot; the Prime Minister
+invited, turning to Nigel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you will recreate the post of Minister for War, I will do so with
+pleasure,&quot; was the prompt reply.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is great responsibility upon your shoulders, Mr. Mervin Brown,&quot;
+he said. &quot;You will never know how near you have been to disaster. Try
+and wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call together your
+writers, your thinking men, your historians. Encourage the flagging
+spirit of patriotism in your public schools and universities. Is this
+presumption on my part that I give so much advice? If so, forgive me.
+Truth that sits in the heart will sometimes demand to be heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained behind. They both looked
+at the door through which Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown
+metaphorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a little dazed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that man real flesh and blood?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is as real and as near the truth,&quot; Nigel replied solemnly, &quot;as the
+things of which he has told us.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXXI'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>That night, Nigel gave a dinner party on Maggie's account at the
+fashionable London hotel of the moment. Invitations had been sent out by
+telephone, by hurried notes, in one or two cases were delivered by word
+of mouth. On the whole, the acceptances, considering the season was in
+full swing, were a little remarkable. Every one was anxious to come,
+because, as one of her girl friends put it, no one ever knew what Maggie
+was going to be up to next. One of the few refusals came from Prince
+Shan, and even he made use of compromise:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p><i>My dear Lord Dorminster, will you forgive me if in this instance I
+     do not break a custom to which I have perhaps a little too rigidly
+     adhered. The Prime Minister telephoned, a few minutes after we left
+     him, asking me to meet two of his colleagues from the Foreign
+     Office to-night, and I doubt whether our conference will have
+     concluded at the hour you name.</i></p>
+
+<p>     <i>However, if you will permit me, I will give myself the pleasure of
+     joining you later in the evening, to make my adieux to those of my
+     friends whom I am quite sure I shall find amongst your company.</i></p>
+
+<p>     <i>Sincerely yours</i>,</p>
+
+<p>     SHAN.</p></div>
+
+<p>Maggie passed the note back with a little smile. She made no comment
+whatever. Nigel watched her thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have carried out your orders,&quot; he observed. &quot;Everything has been
+attended to, even to the colour of your table decorations. Now tell me
+what it all means?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked him in the face quite frankly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can I?&quot; she answered. &quot;I do not know myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this by way of being a farewell party?&quot; he persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not know that,&quot; she assured him. &quot;The only thing is that if I do
+decide&mdash;to go&mdash;well, I shall have had a last glimpse of most of my
+friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As your nearest male relative, in fact your guardian,&quot; Nigel went on,
+with a touch of his old manner, &quot;I feel myself deeply interested in your
+present situation. If a little advice from one who is considerably your
+senior would be acceptable&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It wouldn't,&quot; Maggie interrupted quietly. &quot;There are just two things in
+life no girl accepts advice upon&mdash;the way she does her hair and the man
+she means to marry. You see, both are decided by instinct. I shall know
+before dawn to-morrow what I mean to do, but until then nothing that
+anybody could say would make any difference. Besides, your mind ought to
+be full of your own matrimonial affairs. I hear that Naida is talking
+of going back to Russia next week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My own affairs are less complex,&quot; Nigel replied. &quot;I am going to ask
+Naida to marry me&mdash;to-night if I have the opportunity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Maggie made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There goes my second string!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;Nigel, you are horribly
+callous. I have never been in the least sure that I haven't wanted to
+marry you myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel lit a cigarette and pushed the box across to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've frequently felt the same way,&quot; he confessed. &quot;The trouble of it is
+that when the really right person comes along, one hasn't any doubt
+about it whatever. I should have made you a stodgy husband, Maggie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sniffed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think that considering the way you've flirted with me,&quot; she declared,
+&quot;you ought at least to have given me the opportunity of refusing you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If Naida refuses me,&quot; he began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I decide that Asia is too far away,&quot; she interrupted&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We may come together, after all,&quot; he said, with a resigned little sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Glib tongue and empty heart,&quot; she quoted. &quot;Nigel, I would never trust
+you. I believe you're in love with Naida.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I'm not quite so sure about you,&quot; he observed, watching the colour
+rise quickly in her cheeks. &quot;Off with you to dress, young woman. It's
+past seven, and we must be there early. I still have the wine to order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dinner party was in its way a complete success. Prince Karschoff was
+there, benign and distinguished; Chalmers and one or two other young men
+from the American Embassy. There was a sprinkling of Maggie's girl
+friends, a leaven of the older world in Nigel's few intimates,&mdash;and
+Naida, very pale but more beautiful than ever in a white velvet gown,
+her hair brushed straight back, and with no jewellery save one long rope
+of pearls. Nigel who in his capacity as host had found little time for
+personal conversation during the service of dinner, deliberately led her
+a little apart when they passed out into the lounge for coffee and to
+watch the dancing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My duties are over for a time,&quot; he said. &quot;Do you realise that I have
+not had a word with you alone since our luncheon at Ciro's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have all been a little engrossed, have we not?&quot; she murmured. &quot;I
+hope that you are satisfied with the way things have turned out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing shall induce me to talk politics or empire-saving to-night,&quot; he
+declared, with a smile. &quot;I have other things to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me why you asked us all to dine so suddenly,&quot; she enquired. &quot;I do
+not know whether it is my fancy, but there seems to be an air of
+celebration about. Is there any announcement to be made?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None. The party was just a whim of Maggie's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They both looked across towards the ballroom, where she was dancing with
+Chalmers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maggie is very beautiful to-night,&quot; Naida said. &quot;I could scarcely
+listen to my neighbour's conversation at dinner time for looking at her.
+Yet she has the air all the time of living in a dream, as though
+something had happened which had lifted her right away from us all. I
+began to wonder,&quot; she added, &quot;whether, after all, Oscar Immelan had not
+told me the truth, and whether we should not be drinking her health and
+yours before the evening was over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You could scarcely believe that,&quot; he whispered, &quot;if you have any memory
+at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint touch of pink in her cheeks, a tinge of colour as
+delicate as the passing of a gleam of sunshine over a sea-glistening
+shell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Englishmen are so unfaithful,&quot; she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I at least am an exception,&quot; Nigel answered swiftly. &quot;The words
+which you checked upon my lips the last time we were alone together
+still live in my heart. I think, Naida, the time has come to say them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Their immediate neighbours had deserted them. He leaned a little
+towards her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know so well that I love you, Naida,&quot; he said. &quot;Will you be my
+wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him, half laughing, yet with tears in her eyes. With an
+impulsive little gesture, she caught his hand in hers for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How horribly sure you must have felt of me,&quot; she complained, &quot;to have
+spoken here, with all these people around! Supposing I had told you that
+my life's work lay amongst my own people, or that I had made up my mind
+to marry Oscar Immelan, to console him for his great disappointment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't have believed you,&quot; he answered, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Conceit!&quot; she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a sense, of course, I am conceited,&quot; he replied. &quot;I am the happiest
+and proudest man here. I really think that after all we ought to turn it
+into a celebration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The band was playing a waltz. Naida's head moved to the music, and
+presently Nigel rose to his feet with a smile, and they passed into the
+ballroom. Karschoff and Mrs. Bollington Smith watched them with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naida is looking very wonderful to-night,&quot; the latter remarked. &quot;And
+Nigel, too; I wonder if there is anything between them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The days of foreign alliances are past,&quot; Karschoff replied, &quot;but a few
+intermarriages might be very good for this country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you serious?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely! I would not suggest anything of the sort with Germany, but
+with this new Russia, the Russia of which Naida Karetsky is a daughter,
+why not? Although they will not have me back there, Russia is some day
+going to lay down the law to Europe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder whether Maggie has any ideas of the sort in her mind,&quot; Mrs.
+Bollington Smith observed. &quot;She seems curiously abstracted to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers came grumblingly up to Mrs. Bollington Smith, with whom he was
+an established favourite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Maggie is treating me disgracefully,&quot; he complained. &quot;She will
+scarcely dance at all. She goes around talking to every one as though it
+were a sort of farewell party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps it may be,&quot; Karschoff remarked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She isn't going away, is she?&quot; Chalmers demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who knows?&quot; the Prince replied. &quot;Lady Maggie is one of those strange
+people to whom one may look with every confidence for the unexpected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She herself came across to them, a few moments later.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something tells me,&quot; she declared, &quot;that you are talking about me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are always a very much discussed young lady,&quot; Karschoff rejoined,
+with a little bow.</p>
+
+<p>She made a grimace and sank into a chair by her aunt. She talked on
+lightly enough, but all the time with that slight suggestion of
+superficiality which is a sign of strain. She glanced often towards the
+entrance of the lounge, yet no one seemed less disturbed when at a few
+minutes before eleven Prince Shan came quietly in. He made his way at
+once to Mrs. Bollington Smith and bent over her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is so kind of you and Lord Dorminster,&quot; he said, &quot;to give me this
+opportunity of saying good-by to a few friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are leaving us so soon, Prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow, soon after dawn,&quot; he replied, his eyes wandering around the
+little circle. &quot;I wish to be in Pekin, if possible, by Wednesday, so my
+<i>Dragon</i> must spread his wings indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He said a few words to almost everybody. Last of all he came to Maggie,
+and no one heard what he said to her. There was no change in his face as
+he bent low over her fingers, no sign of anything which might have
+passed between them, as a few minutes later he turned to one side with
+Nigel. Maggie held out her hand to Chalmers. The strain seemed to have
+passed. Her lips were parted in a wonderful smile, her feet moved to the
+music.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come and dance,&quot; she invited.</p>
+
+<p>They moved a few steps away together, when Maggie came to an abrupt
+standstill. The two stood for a moment as though transfixed, their eyes
+upon the arched entrance which led from the restaurant into the lounge.
+A man was standing there, looking around, a strange, menacing figure, a
+man dressed in the garb of fashion but with the face of a savage, with
+eyes which burned in his head like twin dots of fire, with drawn, hollow
+cheeks and mouth a little open like a mad dog's. As his eyes fell upon
+the group and he recognised them, a look of horrible satisfaction came
+into his face. He began to approach quite deliberately. He seemed to
+take in by slow degrees every one who stood there,&mdash;Maggie herself and
+Chalmers, Naida, Nigel and Prince Shan. He moved forward. All the time
+his right hand was behind him, concealed underneath the tails of his
+dress coat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be careful!&quot; Maggie cried out. &quot;It is Oscar Immelan! He is mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Some of the party and many of the bystanders had shrunk away from the
+menacing figure. Naida stepped out from among the little group of those
+who were left.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oscar,&quot; she said firmly, &quot;what is the matter with you? You are not well
+enough to be here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He came to a standstill. At close quarters his appearance was even more
+terrible. Although by some means he had gotten into his evening clothes,
+he was only partly shaven, and there were gashes in his face where the
+hand which had held his razor had slipped. The pupils of his eyes were
+distended, and the eyes themselves seemed to have shrunk back into their
+sockets. His whole frame seemed to have suddenly lost vigour, even
+substance. He had the air of a man in clothes too large for him. Even
+his voice was shriller,&mdash;shriller and horrible with the slow and bestial
+satisfaction of his words.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So here you are, the whole nest of you together, eh?&quot; he exclaimed.
+&quot;Good! Very good indeed! Prince Shan, the poisoner! Dorminster, enjoying
+your brief triumph, eh? And you, Naida Karetsky, traitress to your
+country&mdash;deceiver&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will do, Immelan,&quot; Nigel interrupted sharply. &quot;We are all here.
+What do you want with us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That comes,&quot; Immelan replied. &quot;Soon you shall all know why I have come!
+Let me speak to my friend Shan for a moment. I carry your poison in my
+veins, but there is a chance&mdash;just a chance,&quot; he added slowly, with a
+horrible smile upon his lips, &quot;that you may go first, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nigel made a stealthy but rapid movement forward, drawing Naida gently
+out of the way. Immelan was too quick, however. He swung around, showing
+the revolver which he had been concealing behind him, and moved to one
+side until his back was against one of the pillars. By this time, most
+of the other occupants of the ballroom had either rushed screaming away
+altogether, or were hiding, peering out in fascinated horror from the
+different recesses. The chief ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel bravely held his ground and
+came to within a few paces of Immelan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can't have any brawling here,&quot; he said. &quot;Put that revolver away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan took no notice of the intervener, except that for a single
+moment the muzzle yawned in the latter's face. The ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel was a
+brave man, but he had a wife and family, and after all, it was not his
+affair. There were other men there to look after the ladies. He hurried
+off to call for the police. Almost as he went, Prince Shan stepped into
+the foreground. His voice was calm and expressionless. His eyes, in
+which there shone no shadow of fear, were steadily fixed upon Immelan.
+He spoke without flurry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you carry your own weapons to-night, Immelan,&quot; he said. &quot;That at
+least is more like a man. You seem to have a grievance against every
+one. Start with me. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were some of them who wondered why, at this juncture when he so
+clearly dominated his assailant, Prince Shan, whose courage was superb
+and whose <i>sang froid</i> absolutely unshaken did not throw himself upon
+this intruder and take his chance of bringing the matter to an end at
+the moment when the man's nerve was undoubtedly shaken. Then they looked
+towards the entrance, and they understood. Creeping towards the little
+gathering came Li Wen and another of the Prince's suite, a younger and
+even more active man. The two came on tiptoe, crouching and moving
+warily, with the gleam of the tiger in their anxious eyes. Maggie caught
+a warning glance from Nigel and looked away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are my murderer!&quot; Immelan cried hoarsely. &quot;It is through you I
+suffer these pains! I am dying of your accursed poison!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that were true,&quot; Prince Shan replied, with the air of one willing to
+discuss the subject impartially, &quot;might I remind you of Sen Lu, who died
+in my box at the Albert Hall? For whom was that dagger thrust meant,
+Immelan? Not for the man whom you had bought to betray me, the only one
+of my suite who has ever been tempted with gold. That dagger thrust was
+meant for me, and the assassin was one of your creatures. So even if
+your words were true, Immelan, and the poison which you imagine to be in
+your body were planted there by me, are we less than quits?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immelan's lie was unconvincing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know nothing of Sen Lu's death,&quot; he declared. &quot;I employ no assassins.
+When there is killing to be done, I can do it myself. I am here to-night
+for that purpose. You have deserted me at the last moment, Prince
+Shan&mdash;played me and my country false for the sake of the English woman
+whom you think to carry back with you to China. And you,&quot; he added,
+turning with a sudden furious glance at Naida, &quot;you have deceived the
+man who trusted you, the man who sent you here for one purpose, and one
+purpose only. You have done your best to ruin my scheme. Not only that,
+but you have given the love which was mine&mdash;mine, I say&mdash;to another&mdash;an
+Englishman! I hate you all! That is why I, a dying man, have crawled
+here to reap my little harvest of vengeance.&mdash;You, Naida&mdash;you shall be
+first&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida was suddenly swung on one side, and the shot which rang out passed
+through Nigel's coat sleeve, grazing his wrist,&mdash;the only shot that was
+fired. Prince Shan, watching for his moment, as his two attendants threw
+themselves upon the madman from behind, himself sprang forward, knocked
+Immelan's right hand up with a terrible blow, and sent the revolver
+crashing to the ground. It was a matter of a few seconds. Immelan, when
+he felt himself seized, scarcely struggled. The courage of his madness
+seemed to pass, the venom died out of his face, he shook like a man in
+an ague. Prince Shan kicked the revolver on one side and looked
+scornfully down upon him, now a nerveless wreck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immelan,&quot; he said, &quot;it is a pity that you did not wait until to-morrow
+morning. You would then have known the truth. You are no more poisoned
+than I am. If you had been in China&mdash;well, who knows? In England there
+is so much prejudice against the taking of a worthless life that as a
+guest I subscribed to it and mixed a little orris-root tooth powder
+with your vermouth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The man's eyes suddenly opened. He was feverishly, frantically anxious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me that again,&quot; he shrieked. &quot;You mean it? Swear that you mean
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan's gesture as he turned away was one of supreme contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Shan,&quot; he said, &quot;never needs to repeat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was the bustle of arriving police, the story of a revolver which
+had gone off by accident, a very puzzling contretemps expounded for
+their benefit. The situation, and the participants in it, seemed to
+dissolve with such facility that it was hard for any one to understand
+what had actually happened. Prince Shan, with Maggie on his arm, was
+talking to the leader of the orchestra, who had suddenly reappeared. The
+former turned to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not my custom to dance,&quot; he said, &quot;but the waltz that they were
+beginning to play seemed to me to have a little of the lure of our own
+music. Will you do me the honour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They moved away to the music. Chalmers stood and watched them, with one
+hand in his pocket and the other on Nigel's shoulder. He turned to
+Naida, who was on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing like a touch of melodrama for the emotions,&quot; he grumbled. &quot;Look
+at Lady Maggie! Her head might be touching the clouds, and I never saw
+her eyes shine like that when she danced with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't dance as well as Prince Shan, old fellow,&quot; Nigel told him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the Prince sails for China at dawn,&quot; Naida murmured.</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<br />
+<a name='CHAPTER_XXXII'></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Prince Shan stood in the tiny sitting room of his suite upon the <i>Black
+Dragon</i> and looked around him critically. The walls were of black oak,
+with white inlaid plaques on which a great artist had traced little
+fanciful figures,&mdash;a quaint Chinese landscape, a temple, a flower-hung
+pagoda. There were hangings of soft, blue silk tapestry, brought from
+one of his northern palaces. The cloth which covered the table was of
+the finest silk. There were several bowls of flowers, a couch, and two
+comfortable chairs. Through the open doors of the two bedchambers came a
+faint glimpse of snow-white linen, a perfume reminiscent at once of
+almond blossom, green tea, and crushed lavender, and in the little room
+beyond glistened a silver bath. Already attired for the voyage, his
+pilot stood on the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is all well, your Highness?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Everything is in order,&quot; Prince Shan replied. &quot;Ching Su is a perfect
+steward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reverend gentleman is in his room, your Highness,&quot; the pilot went
+on. &quot;All the supplies have arrived, and the crew are at their stations.
+At what hour will it please your Highness to start?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan looked through the open window, along the wooden platform,
+out to the broad stretch of road which led to London.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I announced the hour of my departure as six o'clock,&quot; he replied. &quot;I
+cannot leave before in case of any farewell message. Is the woman of
+whom I spoke to you here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is in attendance, your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She understands that she will not be required unless my other passenger
+should desire to accompany us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She understands perfectly, your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Shan stepped through his private exit on to the narrow wooden
+platform. Already the mighty engines had started, purring softly but
+deeply, like the deep-throated murmurings of a giant soon to break into
+a roar. It was a light, silvery morning, with hidden sunshine
+everywhere. On the other side of the vast amphitheatre of flat,
+cinder-covered ground, the Downs crept upwards, rolling away to the
+blue-capped summit of a distant range of hills. Northwards, the pall of
+London darkened the horizon. An untidy medley of houses and factories
+stretched almost to the gates of the vast air terminus. Listening
+intently, one could catch the faint roar of the city's awakening
+traffic, punctuated here and there by the shrill whistling of tugs in
+the river, hidden from sight by a shroud of ghostly mist. The dock on
+which Prince Shan stood was one apportioned to foreign royalty and
+visitors of note. A hundred yards away, the Madrid boat was on the point
+of starting, her whistles already blowing, and her engines commencing to
+beat. Presently the great machinery which assisted her flight from the
+ground commenced its sullen roar. There was a chorus of farewell shouts
+and she glided up into the air, a long row of people waving farewells
+from the windows. Prince Shan glanced at his watch,&mdash;twenty minutes to
+six. He paced the wooden boards and looked again,&mdash;ten minutes to six.
+Then he stopped suddenly. Along that gleaming stretch of private road
+came a car, driven at a rapid pace. Prince Shan stood and watched it,
+and as he watched, it seemed almost as though the hidden sun had caught
+his face and transfigured it. He stood as might stand a man who feels
+his feet upon the clouds. His lips trembled. There was no one there to
+see&mdash;his attendants stood respectfully in the background&mdash;but in his
+eyes was a rare moisture, and for a single moment a little choking at
+his throat. The car turned in under the arched roof. Prince Shan's
+servants, obeying his gesture, hurried forward and threw open the gates.
+The heavily laden limousine came to a standstill. Three people
+descended. Nigel and Naida lingered, watching the luggage being
+unloaded. Maggie came forward alone.</p>
+
+<p>They met a few yards from the entrance to the platform. Prince Shan was
+bare-headed, and Maggie, at least, saw those wonderful things in his
+face. He bent down and took her hands in his.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dear and sweet soul,&quot; he whispered, as his lips touched her fingers,
+&quot;may my God and yours grant that you shall find happiness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her own eyes were wet as she smiled up at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been so long making up my mind,&quot; she said, &quot;and yet I knew all
+the time. I am so glad&mdash;so happy that I have come. Think, too, how
+wonderful a start! We leave the earth for the clouds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a wonderful allegory,&quot; he answered, smiling. &quot;We will take it
+into our hearts, dear one. It rests within the power of every human
+being to search for happiness and, in searching, to find it. I am
+fortunate because I can take you to beautiful places. I can spell out
+for you the secrets of a new art and a new beauty. We can walk in fairy
+gardens. I can give you jewels such as Europe has never seen, but I can
+give you, Maggie, nothing so strange and wonderful, even to me who know
+myself, as the love which fills my heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her laugh was like music.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am going to be so happy,&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>The other two approached and they all shook hands. They looked over the
+amazing little rooms, watched the luggage stowed away in some marvellous
+manner, saw the crew, every one at his station like a motionless figure.
+Then a whistle was blown, and once more they all clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very soon,&quot; Prince Shan promised, as he and Maggie leaned from the
+window of the car, &quot;I shall send the <i>Black Dragon</i> for you, Lord
+Dorminster, and for the one other whom I think you may wish to bring.
+Asia is not so far off, these days, and Maggie will love to see her
+friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Almost imperceptibly the giant airship floated away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Watch, both of you,&quot; Maggie cried. &quot;I am sending you down a farewell
+present.&quot; She whispered to Prince Shan, who handed her something from
+his pocket, smiled, and gave an order. The great ship passed in a
+semicircle and hovered almost exactly above their heads. A little shower
+of small scraps of paper came floating down. Nigel picked one up,
+examined it, and understood. He waved his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is Maggie's farewell gift to England,&quot; he said, &quot;the treaty which
+Prince Shan never signed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They stood side by side, watching. With incredible speed, the <i>Black
+Dragon</i> passed into the clouds and out again. Then, as it roared away
+eastwards, the sun suddenly disclosed itself. The airship mounted
+towards it, shimmering and gleaming in every part. Naida passed her hand
+a little shyly through her companion's arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't that rather a wonderful way to depart in search of happiness?&quot;
+she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled down at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not think that we shall find the search very difficult, dear,&quot; he
+said, &quot;though our feet may remain upon the earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Naida's lip quivered for a moment. Then she caught a glimpse of his face
+and gave a little sigh of content.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is heaven everywhere,&quot; she whispered.</p>
+<br />
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN***</p>
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+</pre>
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+</html>
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+++ b/old/13123.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Prince Shan, by E. Phillips
+Oppenheim
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Great Prince Shan
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: August 6, 2004  [eBook #13123]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN
+
+by
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+1922
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"A club for diplomats and gentlemen," Prince Karschoff remarked, looking
+lazily through a little cloud of tobacco smoke around the spacious but
+almost deserted card room. "The classification seems comprehensive
+enough, yet it seems impossible to get even a decent rubber of bridge."
+
+Sir Daniel Harker, a many years retired plenipotentiary to one of the
+smaller Powers, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Personally, I have come to the conclusion," he declared, "that the
+_raison d'etre_ for the club seems to be passing. There is no diplomacy,
+nowadays, and every man who pays his taxes is a gentleman. Kingley, you
+are the youngest. Ransack the club and find a fourth."
+
+The Honourable Nigel Kingley smiled lazily from the depths of his
+easy-chair. He was a young Englishman of normal type, long-limbed,
+clean-shaven, with good features, a humorous mouth and keen grey eyes.
+
+"In actual years," he admitted, "I may have the advantage of you two,
+but so far as regards the qualities of youth, Karschoff is the youngest
+man here. Besides, no one could refuse him anything."
+
+"It is a subterfuge," the Prince objected, "but if I must go, I will go
+presently. We will wait five minutes, in case Providence should be kind
+to us."
+
+The three men relapsed into silence. They were seated in a comfortable
+recess of the card room of the St. Philip's Club. The atmosphere of the
+apartment seemed redolent with suggestions of faded splendour. There was
+a faint perfume of Russian calf from the many rows of musty volumes
+which still filled the stately bookcases. The oil paintings which hung
+upon the walls belonged to a remote period. In a distant corner, four
+other men were playing bridge, speechless and almost motionless, the
+white faces of two of them like cameos under the electric light and
+against the dark walls. There was no sound except the soft patter of the
+cards and the subdued movements of a servant preparing another bridge
+table by the side of the three men. Then the door of the room was
+quietly opened and closed. A man of youthful middle-age, carefully
+dressed, with a large, clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and fair hair
+sprinkled with grey, came towards them. He was well set up, almost
+anxiously ingratiating in manner.
+
+"You see now what Providence has sent," Sir Daniel Harker observed under
+his breath.
+
+"It is enough to make an atheist of one, this!" the Prince muttered.
+
+"Any bridge?" the newcomer enquired, seating himself at the table and
+shuffling one of the packs of cards.
+
+The three men rose to their feet with varying degrees of unwillingness.
+
+"Immelan is too good for us," Sir Daniel grumbled. "He always wins."
+
+"I am lucky," the newcomer admitted, "but I may be your partner; in
+which case, you too will win."
+
+"If you are my partner," the Prince declared, "I shall play for five
+pounds a hundred. I desire to gamble. London is beginning to weary me."
+
+"Mr. Kingley is a better player, though not so lucky," Immelan
+acknowledged, with a little bow.
+
+"Never believe it, with all due respect to our young friend here," Sir
+Daniel replied, as he cut a card. "Kingley plays like a man with brain
+but without subtlety. In a duel between you two, I would back Immelan
+every time."
+
+Kingley took his place at the table with a little gesture of
+resignation. He looked across the table to where Immelan sat displaying
+the card which he had just cut. The eyes of the two men met. A few
+seconds of somewhat significant silence followed. Then Immelan gathered
+up the cards.
+
+"I have the utmost respect for Mr. Kingley as an adversary," he said.
+
+The latter bowed a little ironically.
+
+"May you always preserve that sentiment! To-day, chance seems to have
+made us partners. Your deal, Mr. Immelan."
+
+"What stakes?" the Prince enquired, settling himself down in his chair.
+
+"They are for you to name," Immelan declared.
+
+The Prince laughed shortly.
+
+"I believe you are as great a gambler at heart as I am," he observed.
+
+"With Mr. Kingley for my partner, and the game one of skill," was the
+courteous reply, "I do not need to limit my stakes."
+
+A servant crossed the room, bringing a note upon a tray. He presented it
+to Kingley, who opened and read it through without change of
+countenance. When he had finished it, however, he laid his cards face
+downwards upon the table.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I owe you my most profound apologies. I am called
+away at once on a matter of urgent business."
+
+"But this is most annoying," the Prince declared irritably.
+
+"Here comes my saviour," Kingley remarked, as another man entered the
+card room. "Henderson will take my place. Glad I haven't to break you
+up, after all. Henderson, will you play a rubber?"
+
+The newcomer assented. Nigel Kingley made his adieux and crossed the
+room. Immelan watched him curiously.
+
+"What is our friend Kingley's profession?" he enquired.
+
+"He has no profession," Sir Daniel replied. "He has never come into
+touch with the sordid needs of these money-grubbing days. He is the
+nephew and heir of the Earl of Dorminster."
+
+Immelan looked away from the retreating figure.
+
+"Lord Dorminster," he murmured. "The same Lord Dorminster who was in the
+Government many years ago?"
+
+"He was Foreign Secretary when I was Governor of Jamaica," Sir Daniel
+answered. "A very brilliant man he was in those days."
+
+Immelan nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"I remember," he said.
+
+Nigel Kingley, on leaving the St. Philip's Club, was driven at once, in
+the automobile which he found awaiting him, to a large corner house in
+Belgrave Square, which he entered with the air of an habitue. The
+waiting major-domo took him at once in charge and piloted him across the
+hall.
+
+"His lordship is very much occupied, Mr. Nigel," he announced. "He is
+not seeing any other callers. He left word, however, that you were to be
+shown in the moment you arrived."
+
+"His lordship is quite well, I hope?"
+
+"Well in health, sir, but worried, and I don't wonder at it," the man
+replied, speaking with the respectful freedom of an old servant. "I
+never thought I'd live to see such times as these."
+
+A man in the early sixties, still good-looking, notwithstanding a
+somewhat worn expression, looked up from his seat at the library table
+on Kingley's entrance. He nodded, but waited until the door was closed
+behind the retreating servant before he spoke.
+
+"Good of you to come, Nigel," he said. "Bring your chair up here."
+
+"Bad news?" the newcomer enquired.
+
+"Damnable!"
+
+There was a brief silence, during which Nigel, knowing his uncle's
+humours, leaned back in his chair and waited. Upon the table was a
+little pile of closely written manuscript, and by their side several
+black-bound code books, upon which the "F.O.Private" still remained,
+though almost obliterated with time. Lord Dorminster's occupation was
+apparent. He was decoding a message of unusual length. Presently he
+turned away from the table, however, and faced his nephew. His hands
+travelled to his waistcoat pocket. He drew out a cigarette from a thin
+gold case, lit it and began to smoke. Then he crossed his legs and
+leaned a little farther back in his chair.
+
+"Nigel," he said, "we are living in strange times."
+
+"No one denies that, sir," was the grave assent.
+
+Lord Dorminster glanced at the calendar which stood upon the desk.
+
+"To-day," he continued, "is the twenty-third day of March, nineteen
+hundred and thirty-four. Fifteen years ago that terrible Peace Treaty
+was signed. Since then you know what the history of our country has
+been. I am not blowing my own trumpet when I say that nearly every man
+with true political insight has been cast adrift. At the present moment
+the country is in the hands of a body of highly respectable and
+well-meaning men who, as a parish council, might conduct the affairs of
+Dorminster Town with unqualified success. As statesmen they do not
+exist. It seems to me, Nigel, that you and I are going to see in reality
+that spectre which terrified the world twenty years ago. We are going to
+see the breaking up of a mighty empire."
+
+"Tell me what has happened or is going to happen," Nigel begged.
+
+"Well, for one thing," his uncle replied, "the Emperor of the East is
+preparing for a visit to Europe. He will be here probably next month.
+You know whom I mean, of course?"
+
+"Prince Shan!" Nigel exclaimed.
+
+"Prince Shan of China," Lord Dorminster assented. "His coming links up
+many things which had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what happens
+during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide the destinies of this
+country, and yet I wouldn't mind betting you a thousand to one that
+there isn't a single official of the Government who has the slightest
+idea as to why he is coming, or that he is coming at all."
+
+"Do you know?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan for the moment, Nigel. Now
+listen. You go about a great deal. What do people say about
+me--honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the light."
+
+"They call you a faddist and a scaremonger," Nigel confessed, "yet there
+are one or two, especially at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and
+ambassadors whose place in the world has passed away, who think and
+believe differently. You know, sir, that I am amongst them."
+
+Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.
+
+"Well," he said, "I fancy I am about to prove myself. Seven years ago,
+it was," he went on reminiscently, "when the new National Party came
+into supreme power. You know one of their first battle cries--'Down with
+all secret treaties! Down with all secret diplomacy! Let nothing exist
+but an honest commercial understanding between the different countries
+of the world!' How Germany and Russia howled with joy! In place of an
+English statesman with his country's broad interests at heart, we have
+in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen representatives of the great
+industries, whose object, in their own words, is, I believe, to develop
+friendly commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between the nations.
+Not only our ambassadors but our secret service were swept clean out of
+existence. I remember going to Broadley, the day he was appointed
+Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple question. I asked him whether
+he did not consider it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of
+the other great nations, however friendly they might seem, to keep
+himself assured that all these expressions of good will were honourable,
+and that in the heart of the German nation that great craving for
+revenge which is the natural heritage of the present generation had
+really become dissipated. Broadley smiled at me. 'Lord Dorminster,' he
+said, 'the chief cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We look
+upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It is the people of Germany
+with whom we are in touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
+of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides, there is the League
+of Nations.' Those were Broadley's views then, and they are his views
+to-day. You know what I did?"
+
+Nigel assented cautiously.
+
+"I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few of us," he observed. "You
+have been running an unofficial secret service of your own."
+
+"Precisely! I have had a few agents at work for over a year, and when I
+have finished decoding this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which
+will prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold of terrible
+events. The worst of it is--well, we have been found out."
+
+"What do you mean?" Nigel asked quickly.
+
+His uncle's sensitive lips quivered.
+
+"You knew Sidwell?"
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"Sidwell was found stabbed to the heart in a cafe in Petrograd, three
+weeks ago," Lord Dorminster announced. "An official report of the
+enquiry into his death informs his relatives that his death was due to a
+quarrel with some Russian sailors over one of the women of the quarter
+where he was found."
+
+"Horrible!" Nigel muttered.
+
+"Sidwell was one of those unnatural people, as you know," Lord
+Dorminster went on, "who never touched wine or spirits and who hated
+women. To continue. Atcheson was a friend of yours, wasn't he?"
+
+"Of course! He was at Eton with me. It was I who first brought him here
+to dine. Don't tell me that anything has happened to Jim Atcheson!"
+
+"This dispatch is from him," Lord Dorminster replied, indicating the
+pile of manuscript upon the table,--"a dispatch which came into my hands
+in a most marvellous fashion. He died last week in a nursing home
+in--well, let us say a foreign capital. The professor in charge of the
+hospital sends a long report as to the unhappy disease from which he
+suffered. As a matter of fact, he was poisoned."
+
+Nigel Kingley had been a soldier in his youth and he was a brave man.
+Nevertheless, the horror of these things struck a cold chill to his
+heart. He seemed suddenly to be looking into the faces of spectres, to
+hear the birth of the winds of destruction.
+
+"That is all I have to say to you for the moment," his uncle concluded
+gravely. "In an hour I shall have finished decoding this dispatch, and I
+propose then to take you into my entire confidence. In the meantime, I
+want you to go and talk for a few minutes to the cleverest woman in
+England, the woman who, in the face of a whole army of policemen and
+detectives, crossed the North Sea yesterday afternoon with this in her
+pocket."
+
+"You don't mean Maggie?" Nigel exclaimed eagerly.
+
+His uncle nodded.
+
+"You will find her in the boudoir," he said. "I told her that you were
+coming. In an hour's time, return here."
+
+Lord Dorminster rose to his feet as his nephew turned to depart. He laid
+his hand upon the latter's shoulder, and Nigel always remembered the
+grave kindliness of his tone and expression.
+
+"Nigel," he sighed, "I am afraid I shall be putting upon your shoulders
+a terrible burden, but there is no one else to whom I can turn."
+
+"There is no one else to whom you ought to turn, sir," the young man
+replied simply. "I shall be back in an hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Lady Maggie Trent, a stepdaughter of the Earl of Dorminster, was one of
+those young women who had baffled description for some years before she
+had commenced to take life seriously. She was neither fair nor dark,
+petite nor tall. No one could ever have called her nondescript, or have
+extolled any particular grace of form or feature. Her complexion had
+defied the ravages of sun and wind and that moderate indulgence in
+cigarettes and cocktails which the youth of her day affected. Her nose
+was inclined to be retrousse, her mouth tender but impudent, her grey
+eyes mostly veiled in expression but capable of wonderful changes. She
+was curled up in a chair when Nigel entered, immersed in a fashion
+paper. She held out her left hand, which he raised to his lips.
+
+"Well, Nigel, dear," she exclaimed, "what do you think of my new
+profession?"
+
+"I hate it," he answered frankly.
+
+She sighed and laid down the fashion paper resignedly.
+
+"You always did object to a woman doing anything in the least useful. Do
+you realise that if anything in the world can save this stupid old
+country, I have done it?"
+
+"I realise that you've been running hideous risks," he replied.
+
+She looked at him petulantly.
+
+"What of it?" she demanded. "We all run risks when we do anything worth
+while."
+
+"Not quite the sort that you have been facing."
+
+She smiled thoughtfully.
+
+"Do you know exactly where I have been?" she asked.
+
+"No idea," he confessed. "What my uncle has just told me was a complete
+revelation, so far as I was concerned. I believed, with the rest of the
+world, what the newspapers announced--that you were visiting Japan and
+China, and afterwards the South Sea Islands, with the Wendercombes."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Dad wanted to tell you," she said, "but it was I who made him promise
+not to. I was afraid you would be disagreeable about it. We arranged it
+all with the Wendercombes, but as a matter of fact I did not even start
+with them. For the last eight months, I have been living part of the
+time in Berlin and part of the time in a country house near the Black
+Forest."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Not a bit of it! I have been governess to the two daughters of Herr
+Essendorf."
+
+"Essendorf, the President of the German Republic?"
+
+Lady Maggie nodded.
+
+"He isn't a bit like his pictures. He is a huge fat man and he eats a
+great deal too much. Oh, the horror of those meals!" she added, with a
+little shudder. "Think of me, dear Nigel, who never eat more than an
+omelette and some fruit for luncheon, compelled to sit down every day to
+a _mittagessen_! I wonder I have any digestion left at all."
+
+"Do you mean that you were there under your own name?" he asked
+incredulously.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I secured some perfectly good testimonials before I left," she said.
+"They referred to a Miss Brown, the daughter of Prebendary Brown. I was
+Miss Brown."
+
+"Great Heavens!" Nigel muttered under his breath. "You heard about
+Atcheson?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Poor fellow, they got him all right. You talk about thrills, Nigel,"
+she went on. "Do you know that the last night before I left for my
+vacation, I actually heard that fat old Essendorf chuckling with his
+wife about how his clever police had laid an English spy by the heels,
+and telling her, also, of the papers which they had discovered and
+handed over. All the time the real dispatch, written by Atcheson when
+he was dying, was sewn into my corsets. How's that for an exciting
+situation?"
+
+"It's a man's job, anyhow," Nigel declared.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and abandoned the personal side of the
+subject.
+
+"Have you been in Germany lately, Nigel?" she enquired.
+
+"Not for many years," he answered.
+
+She stretched herself out upon the couch and lit a cigarette.
+
+"The Germany of before the war of course I can't remember," she said
+pensively. "I imagine, however, that there was a sort of instinctive
+jealous dislike towards England and everything English, simply because
+England had had a long start in colonisation, commerce and all the rest
+of it. But the feeling in Germany now, although it is marvellously
+hidden, is something perfectly amazing. It absolutely vibrates wherever
+you go. The silence makes it all the more menacing. Soon after I got to
+Berlin, I bought a copy of the Treaty of Peace and read it. Nigel, was
+it necessary to have been so bitterly cruel to a beaten enemy?"
+
+"Logically it would seem not," Nigel admitted. "Actually, we cannot put
+ourselves back into the spirit of those days. You must remember that it
+was an unprovoked war, a war engineered by Germany for the sheer
+purposes of aggression. That is why a punitive spirit entered into our
+subsequent negotiations."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I expect history will tell us some day," she continued, "that we needed
+a great statesman of the Beaconsfield type at the Peace table. However,
+that is all ended. They sowed the seed at Versailles, and I think we are
+going to reap the harvest."
+
+"After all," Nigel observed thoughtfully, "it is very difficult to see
+what practical interference there could be with the peace of the world.
+I can very well believe that the spirit is there, but when it comes to
+hard facts--well, what can they do? England can never be invaded. The
+war of 1914 proved that. Besides, Germany now has a representative on
+the League of Nations. She is bound to toe the line with the rest."
+
+"It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked," Maggie reminded him.
+"We seem somehow or other to have found our way into the bad books of
+every country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or what?"
+
+"I should attribute it," Nigel replied, "to the passing of our old
+school of ambassadors. After all, ambassadors are born, not made, and
+they should be--they very often were--men of rare tact and perceptions.
+We have no one now to inform us of the prejudices and humours of the
+nations. We often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many
+opportunities of a _rapprochement_. It is trade, trade, trade and
+nothing else, the whole of the time, and the men whom we sent to the
+different Courts to further our commercial interests are not the type to
+keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate matters which
+sometimes need adjustment between two countries."
+
+"That may be the explanation of all the bad feeling," Maggie admitted,
+"and you may be right when you say that any practical move against us is
+almost impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is terribly
+exercised about the coming of Prince Shan."
+
+"I must get him to talk to me," Nigel said. "As a matter of fact, I
+don't think that we need fear Asiatic intervention over here. Prince
+Shan is too great a diplomatist to risk his country's new prosperity."
+
+"Prince Shan," Maggie declared, "is the one man in the world I am
+longing to meet. He was at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel?"
+
+"For one year only. He went from there to Harvard."
+
+"Tell me what he was like," she begged.
+
+"I have only a hazy recollection of him," Nigel confessed. "He was a
+most brilliant scholar and a fine horseman. I can't remember whether he
+did anything at games."
+
+"Good-looking?"
+
+"Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved, though, and even in those
+days he was far more exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
+thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he would become Asia's great
+man. I'll tell you all that I can remember about him another time,
+Maggie. I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson's. Have you any
+idea what it is about?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"None at all. It is in the old Foreign Office cipher and it looks like
+gibberish. I only know that the first few lines he transcribed gave dad
+the jumps."
+
+"I wonder if he has finished it by now."
+
+"He'll send for you when he has. How do you think I am looking, Nigel?"
+
+"Wonderful," he answered, rising to his feet and standing with his elbow
+upon the mantelpiece, gazing down at her. "But then you _are_ wonderful,
+aren't you, Maggie? You know I always thought so."
+
+She picked up a mirror from the little bag by her side and scrutinized
+her features.
+
+"It can't be my face," she decided, turning towards him with a smile. "I
+must have charm."
+
+"Your face is adorable," he declared.
+
+"Are you going to flirt with me?" she asked, with a faint smile at the
+corners of her lips. "You always do it so well and so convincingly. And
+I hate foreigners. They are terribly in earnest but there is no finesse
+about them. You may kiss me just once, please, Nigel, the way I like."
+
+He held her for a moment in his arms, tenderly, but with a reserve to
+which she was accustomed from him. Presently she thrust him away. Her
+own colour had risen a little.
+
+"Delightful," she murmured. "Think of the wasted months! No one has
+kissed me, Nigel, since we said good-bye."
+
+"Have you made up your mind to marry me yet?" he asked.
+
+"My dear," she answered, patting his hand, "do restrain your ardour. Do
+you really want to marry me?"
+
+"Of course I do!"
+
+"You don't love me."
+
+"I am awfully fond of you," he assured her, "and I don't love any one
+else."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It isn't enough, Nigel," she declared, "and, strange to say, it's
+exactly how I feel about you."
+
+"I don't see why it shouldn't be enough," he argued. "Perhaps we have
+too much common sense for these violent feelings."
+
+"It may be that," she admitted doubtfully. "On the other hand, don't
+let's run any risk. I should hate to find an affinity, and all that sort
+of thing, after marriage--divorce in these days is such shocking bad
+form. Besides, honestly, Nigel, I don't feel frivolous enough to think
+about marriage just now. I have the feeling that even while the clock is
+ticking we are moving on to terrible things. I can't tell you quite what
+it is. I carried my life in my hands during those last few days abroad.
+I dare say this is the reaction."
+
+He smiled reassuringly.
+
+"After all, you are safe at home now, dear," he reminded her, "and I
+really am very fond of you, Maggie."
+
+"And I'm quite absurdly fond of you, Nigel," she acknowledged. "It makes
+me feel quite uncomfortable when I reflect that I shall probably have to
+order you to make love to some one else before the week is out."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the sort," he declared firmly. "I am not good at
+that sort of thing. And who is she, anyhow?"
+
+They were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door--not the discreet
+tap of a well-bred domestic, but a flurried, almost an imperative
+summons. Before either of them could reply, the door was opened and
+Brookes, the elderly butler, presented himself upon the threshold. Even
+before he spoke, it was clear that he brought alarming news.
+
+"Will you step down to the library at once, sir?" he begged, addressing
+Nigel.
+
+"What is the matter, Brookes?" Maggie demanded anxiously.
+
+"I fear that his lordship is not well," the man replied.
+
+They all hurried out together. Brookes was evidently terribly perturbed
+and went on talking half to himself without heeding their questions.
+
+"I thought at first that his lordship must have fainted," he said. "I
+heard a queer noise, and when I went in, he had fallen forward across
+the table. Parkins has rung for Doctor Wilcox."
+
+"What sort of a noise?" Nigel asked.
+
+"It sounded like a shot," the man faltered.
+
+They entered the library, Nigel leading the way. Lord Dorminster was
+lying very much as Brookes had described him, but there was something
+altogether unnatural in the collapse of his head and shoulders and his
+motionless body. Nigel spoke to him, touched him gently, raised him at
+last into a sitting position. Something on which his right hand seemed
+to have been resting clattered on to the carpet. Nigel turned around and
+waved Maggie back.
+
+"Don't come," he begged.
+
+"Is it a stroke?" she faltered.
+
+"I am afraid that he is dead," Nigel answered simply.
+
+They went out into the hall and waited there in shocked silence until
+the doctor arrived. The latter's examination lasted only a few seconds.
+Then he pointed to the telephone.
+
+"This is very terrible," he said. "I am afraid you had better ring up
+Scotland Yard, Mr. Kingley. Lord Dorminster appears either to have shot
+himself, as seems most probable," he added, glancing at the revolver
+upon the carpet, "or to have been murdered."
+
+"It is incredible!" Nigel exclaimed. "He was the sanest possible man,
+and the happiest, and he hadn't an enemy in the world."
+
+The physician pointed downwards to the revolver. Then he unfastened once
+more the dead man's waistcoat, opened his shirt and indicated a small
+blue mark just over his heart.
+
+"That is how he died," he said. "It must have been instantaneous."
+
+Time seemed to beat out its course in leaden seconds whilst they waited
+for the superintendent from Scotland Yard. Nigel at first stood still
+for some moments. From outside came the cheerful but muffled roar of the
+London streets, the hooting of motor horns, the rumbling of wheels, the
+measured footfall of the passing multitude. A boy went by, whistling;
+another passed, calling hoarsely the news from the afternoon papers. A
+muffin man rang his bell, a small boy clattered his stick against the
+area bailing. The whole world marched on, unmoved and unnoticing. In
+this sombre apartment alone tragedy reigned in sinister silence. On the
+sofa, Lord Dorminster, who only half an hour ago had seemed to be in
+the prime of life and health, lay dead.
+
+Nigel moved towards the writing-table and stood looking at it in wonder.
+The code book still remained, but there was not the slightest sign of
+any manuscript or paper of any sort. He even searched the drawers of the
+desk without result. Every trace of Atcheson's dispatch and Lord
+Dorminster's transcription of it had disappeared!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+On a certain day some weeks after the adjourned inquest and funeral of
+Lord Dorminster, Nigel obtained a long-sought-for interview with the
+Right Honourable Mervin Brown, who had started life as a factory
+inspector and was now Prime Minister of England. The great man received
+his visitor with an air of good-natured tolerance.
+
+"Heard of you from Scotland Yard, haven't I, Lord Dorminster?" he said,
+as he waved him to a seat. "I gather that you disagreed very strongly
+with the open verdict which was returned at the inquest upon your
+uncle?"
+
+"The verdict was absolutely at variance with the facts," Nigel declared.
+"My uncle was murdered, and a secret report of certain doings on the
+continent, which he was decoding at the time, was stolen."
+
+"The medical evidence scarcely bears out your statement," Mr. Mervin
+Brown pointed out dryly, "nor have the police been able to discover how
+any one could have obtained access to the room, or left it, without
+leaving some trace of their visit behind. Further, there are no
+indications of a robbery having been attempted."
+
+"I happen to know more than any one else about this matter," Nigel
+urged,--"more, even, than I thought it advisable to mention at the
+inquest--and I beg you to listen to me, Mr. Mervin Brown. I know that
+you considered my uncle to be in some respects a crank, because he was
+far-seeing enough to understand that under the seeming tranquillity
+abroad there is a universal and deep-seated hatred of this country."
+
+"I look upon that statement as misleading and untrue," the Minister
+declared. "Your late uncle belonged to that mischievous section of
+foreign politicians who believed in secret treaties and secret service,
+and who fostered a state of nervous unrest between countries otherwise
+disposed to be friendly. We have turned over a new leaf, Lord
+Dorminster. Our efforts are all directed towards developing an
+international spirit of friendliness and trust."
+
+"Utopian but very short-sighted," Nigel commented. "If my uncle had
+lived to finish decoding the report upon which he was engaged, I could
+have offered you proof not only of the existence of the spirit I speak
+of, but of certain practical schemes inimical to this country."
+
+"The papers you speak of have disappeared," Mr. Mervin Brown observed,
+with a smile.
+
+"They were taken away by the person who murdered my uncle," Nigel
+insisted.
+
+The Right Honourable gentleman nodded.
+
+"Well, you know my views about the affair," he said. "I may add that
+they are confirmed by the police. I am in no way prejudiced, however,
+and am willing to listen to anything you may have to say which will not
+take you more than a quarter of an hour," he added, glancing at the
+clock upon his table.
+
+"Here goes, then," Nigel began. "My uncle was a statesman of the old
+school who had no faith in the Utopian programme of the present
+Government of this country. When you abandoned any pretence of a
+continental secret service, he at his own expense instituted a small one
+of his own. He sent two men out to Germany and one to Russia. The one
+sent to Russia was the man Sidwell, whose murder in a Petrograd cafe you
+may have read of. Of the two sent to Germany, one has disappeared, and
+the other died in hospital, without a doubt poisoned, a few days after
+he had sent the report to England which was stolen from my uncle's desk.
+That report was brought over by Lady Maggie Trent, Lord Dorminster's
+stepdaughter, who was really the brains of the enterprise and under
+another name was acting as governess to the children of Herr Essendorf,
+President of the German Republic. Half an hour before his death, my
+uncle was decoding this dispatch in his library. I saw him doing it, and
+I saw the dispatch itself. He told me that so far as he had gone
+already, it was full of information of the gravest import; that a
+definite scheme was already being formulated against this country by an
+absolutely unique and dangerous combination of enemies."
+
+"Those enemies being?"
+
+Nigel shook his head.
+
+"That I can only surmise," he replied. "My uncle had only commenced to
+decode the dispatch when I last saw him."
+
+"Then I gather, Lord Dorminster," the Minister said, "that you connect
+your uncle's death directly with the supposed theft of this document?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"And the conclusion you arrive at, then?"
+
+"Is an absolutely logical one," Nigel declared firmly. "I assert that
+other countries are not falling into line with our lamentable abnegation
+of all secret service defence, and that, in plain words, my uncle was
+murdered by an agent of one of these countries, in order that the
+dispatch which had come into his hands should not be decoded and passed
+on to your Government."
+
+The Right Honourable gentleman smiled slightly. He was a man of some
+natural politeness, but he found it hard to altogether conceal his
+incredulity.
+
+"Well, Lord Dorminster," he promised, "I will consider all that you have
+said. Is there anything more I can do for you?"
+
+"Yes!" Nigel replied boldly. "Induce the Cabinet to reestablish our
+Intelligence Department and secret service, even on a lesser scale, and
+don't rest until you have discovered exactly what it is they are
+plotting against us somewhere on the continent."
+
+"To carry out your suggestions, Lord Dorminster," the Minister pointed
+out, "would be to be guilty of an infringement of the spirit of the
+League of Nations, the existence of which body is, we believe, a
+practical assurance of our safety."
+
+Nigel rose to his feet.
+
+"As man to man, sir," he said, "I see you don't believe a word of what I
+have been telling you."
+
+"As man to man," the other admitted pleasantly, as he touched the bell,
+"I think you have been deceived."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nigel, even as a prophet of woe, was a very human person and withal a
+philosopher. He strolled along Piccadilly and turned into Bond Street,
+thoroughly enjoying one of the first spring days of the season. Flower
+sellers were busy at every corner; the sky was blue, with tiny flecks of
+white clouds, there was even some dust stirred by the little puffs of
+west wind. He exchanged greetings with a few acquaintances, lingered
+here and there before the shop windows, and presently developed a fit of
+contemplation engendered by the thoughts which were all the time at the
+back of his mind. Bond Street was crowded with vehicles of all sorts,
+from wonderfully upholstered automobiles to the resuscitated victoria.
+The shop windows were laden with the treasures of the world, buyers were
+plentiful, promenaders multitudinous. Every one seemed to be cheerful
+but a little engrossed in the concrete act of living. Nigel almost ran
+into Prince Karschoff, at the corner of Grafton Street.
+
+"Dreaming, my friend?" the latter asked quietly, as he laid his hand
+upon Nigel's shoulder.
+
+"Guilty," Nigel confessed. "You are an observant man, Prince. Tell me
+whether anything strikes you about the Bond Street of to-day, compared
+with the Bond Street of, say, ten years ago?"
+
+The Russian glanced around him curiously. He himself was a somewhat
+unusual figure in his distinctively cut morning coat, his carefully tied
+cravat, his silk hat, black and white check trousers and faultless white
+spats.
+
+"A certain decline of elegance," he murmured. "And is it my fancy or has
+this country become a trifle Americanised as regards the headgear of its
+men?"
+
+Nigel smiled.
+
+"I believe our thoughts are moving in the same groove," he said. "To me
+there seems to be a different class of people here, as though the
+denizens of West Kensington, suddenly enriched, had come to spend their
+money in new quarters. Not only that, but there is a difference in the
+wares set out in the shops, an absence of taste, if you can understand
+what I mean, as though the shopkeepers themselves understood that they
+were catering for a new class of people."
+
+"It is the triumph of your _bourgeoisie_," the Russian declared. "Your
+aristocrat is no longer able to survive. _Noblesse oblige_ has no
+significance to the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he caters for
+the people who can write them. Let us pursue our reflections a little
+farther and in a different direction, my friend," he added, glancing at
+his watch. "Lunch with me at the Ritz, and we will see whether the
+cookery, too, has been adapted to the new tastes."
+
+Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he
+many times afterwards remembered.
+
+"I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two," he said
+doubtfully. "Besides, I had half promised to be at the club."
+
+"Not to-day," Karschoff insisted. "To-day let us listen to the call of
+the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant
+will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps 'One for you and one for
+me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat."
+
+The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two
+men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many
+acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of
+mind, pointed out many of the habitues of the place to his companion.
+
+"I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age," he declared,
+a little bitterly. "Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for
+a man without a country to do?"
+
+"You know everybody," Nigel replied, without reference to his
+companion's lament. "Tell me who the woman is who has just entered?"
+
+Karschoff glanced in the direction indicated, and for a moment his
+somewhat saturnine expression changed. A smile played upon his lips, his
+eyes seemed to rest upon the figure of the girl half turned away from
+them with interest, almost with pleasure. She was of an unusual type,
+tall and dark, dressed in black with the simplicity of a nun, with only
+a little gleam of white at her throat. Her hair--so much of it as showed
+under her flower-garlanded hat--was as black as jet, and yet, where she
+stood in the full glare of the sunlight, the burnish of it was almost
+wine-coloured. Her cheeks were pale, her expression thoughtful. Her
+eyes, rather heavily lidded, were a deep shade of violet. Her mouth was
+unexpectedly soft and red.
+
+"Ah, my friend, no wonder you ask!" Karschoff declared with enthusiasm.
+"That is a woman whom you must know."
+
+"Tell me her name," Nigel persisted with growing impatience.
+
+"Her name," Karschoff replied, "is Naida Karetsky. She is the daughter
+of the man who will probably be the next President of the Russian
+Republic. You see, I can speak those words without a tremor. Her father
+at present represents the shipping interests of Russia and England. He
+is one of the authorised consuls."
+
+"Is he of the party?"
+
+Karschoff scrutinised the approaching figures through his eyeglass and
+nodded.
+
+"Her father is the dark, broad-shouldered man with the square beard," he
+indicated. "Immelan, as you can see, is the third. They are coming this
+way. We will speak of them afterwards."
+
+Naida, with her father and Oscar Immelan, left some acquaintances with
+whom they had been talking and, preceded by a _maitre d'hotel_, moved in
+the direction of the two men. The girl recognised the Prince with a
+charming little bow and was on the point of passing on when she
+appeared to notice his companion. For a moment she hesitated. The
+Prince, anticipating her desire to speak, rose at once to his feet.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said, bending over her hand, "welcome back to
+England! You bring with you the first sunshine we have seen for many
+days."
+
+"Are you being meteorological or complimentary?" she asked, smiling.
+"Will you present your companion? I have heard of Mr. Kingley."
+
+"With the utmost pleasure," the Prince replied. "Mr. Kingley, through
+the unfortunate death of a relative, is now the Earl of
+Dorminster--Mademoiselle Karetsky."
+
+Nigel, as he made his bow, was conscious of an expression of something
+more than ordinary curiosity in the face of the girl who had herself
+aroused his interest.
+
+"You are the son, then," she enquired, "of Lord Dorminster who died
+about a month ago?"
+
+"His nephew," Nigel explained. "My uncle was unfortunately childless."
+
+"I met your uncle once in Paris," she said. "It will give me great
+pleasure to make your better acquaintance. Will you and my dear friend
+here," she added, turning to the Prince, "take coffee with us
+afterwards? I shall then introduce you to my father. Oscar Immelan you
+both know, of course."
+
+They murmured their delighted assent, and she passed on. Nigel watched
+her until she took her place at the table.
+
+"Surely that girl is well-born?" he observed. "I have never seen a more
+delightful carriage."
+
+"You are right," Karschoff told him. "Karetsky is a well-to-do man of
+commerce, but her mother was a Baroness Kolchekoff, a distant relative
+of my own. The Kolchekoffs lived on their estates, and as a matter of
+fact we never met. Naida has gone over to the people, though, body and
+soul."
+
+"She is extraordinarily beautiful," Nigel remarked.
+
+His companion was swinging his eyeglass back and forth by its cord.
+
+"Many men have thought so," he replied. "For myself, there is antagonism
+in my blood against her. I wonder whether I have done well or ill in
+making you two acquainted."
+
+Nigel felt a sudden desire to break through a certain seriousness which
+had come over his own thoughts and which was reflected in the other's
+tone. He shrugged his shoulders slightly and filled his glass with wine.
+
+"Every man in the world is the better," he propounded, "for adding to
+the circle of his acquaintances a beautiful woman."
+
+"Sententious and a trifle inaccurate," the Prince objected, with a
+sudden flash of his white teeth. "The beauty which is not for him has
+been many a man's undoing. But seriously, my quarrel with Naida is one
+of prejudice only. She is the confidante and the inspiration of
+Matinsky, and though one realises, of course, that so long as there is a
+Russian Republic there must be a Russian President, I suppose I should
+scarcely be human if I did not hate him."
+
+"Surely," Nigel queried, "she must be very much his junior?"
+
+"Matinsky is forty-four," Karschoff said. "Naida is twenty-six or
+twenty-seven. The disparity of years, you see, is not so great.
+Matinsky, however, is married to an invalid wife, and concerning Naida I
+have never heard one word of scandal. But this much is certain. Matinsky
+has the blandest confidence in her judgment and discretion. She has
+already been his unofficial ambassador in several capitals of Europe. I
+am convinced that she is here with a purpose. But enough of my
+country-people. We came here to be gay. Let us drink another bottle of
+wine."
+
+The joy of living seemed for a moment to reassert itself in Karschoff's
+face. His momentary fierceness, reminiscent of his Tartar ancestry, had
+passed, but it had left a shadow behind.
+
+"At least one should be grateful," he conceded a moment later, "for the
+distinction such a woman as Naida Karetsky brings into a room like this.
+Our Bond Street lament finds its proof here. Except for their
+clothes--so ill-worn, too, most of them--the women here remind one of
+Blackpool, and their men of Huddersfield. I am inclined to wish that I
+had taken you to Soho."
+
+Nigel shook his head. His eyes had strayed to a distant corner of the
+room, where Naida and her two companions were seated.
+
+"We cannot escape anywhere," he declared, "from this overmastering wave
+of mediocrity. A couple of generations and a little intermarriage may
+put things right. A Chancellor of the Exchequer with genius, fifteen
+years ago, might even have prevented it."
+
+"You can claim, at any rate, a bloodless and unapparent revolution," the
+Prince observed. "You chivied your aristocracy of birth out of existence
+with yellow papers, your aristocracy of mind with a devastating income
+tax. This is the class whom you left to gorge,--the war profiteers. I
+hope that whoever writes the history of these times will see that it is
+properly illustrated."
+
+In the lounge, they had barely seated themselves before Naida, with her
+father and Immelan, appeared. The little party at once joined up, and
+Naida seated herself next to Nigel. She talked very slowly, but her
+accent amounted to little more than a prolongation of certain syllables,
+which had the effect of a rather musical drawl. Her father, after the
+few words of introduction had been spoken, strolled away to speak to
+some acquaintances, and Immelan and the Prince discussed with measured
+politeness one of the commonplace subjects of the moment. Naida and her
+companion became almost isolated.
+
+"I met your uncle once," Naida said, "at a dinner party in Paris. I
+remember that he attracted me. He represented a class of Englishman of
+whom I had met very few, the thinking aristocrat with a sense for
+foreign affairs. It was some years ago, that. He remained outside
+politics, did he not, until his death?"
+
+"Outside all practical politics," Nigel assented. "He had his interests,
+though."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully.
+
+"Have you inherited them?" she asked.
+
+He declined the challenge of her eyes. After all, she belonged to the
+Russia whose growing strength was the greatest menace to European peace,
+and whose attitude towards England was entirely uncertain.
+
+"My uncle and I were scarcely intimate," he said. "I was never really in
+his confidence."
+
+"Not so much so as Lady Maggie Trent? She would be your cousin?"
+
+"It is not a relationship of blood," Nigel replied. "Lady Maggie was the
+daughter of my uncle's second wife."
+
+"She is very charming," Naida murmured.
+
+"I find her delightful," Nigel agreed.
+
+"She is not only charming, but she has intelligence," Naida continued.
+"I think that Lord Dorminster was very fond of her, that he trusted her
+with many of his secrets."
+
+"Had he secrets?" Nigel asked.
+
+She remained for a moment very thoughtful, smoking a thin cigarette
+through a long holder and watching the little rings of smoke.
+
+"You are right," she said at last. "I find your attitude the only
+correct one. Did you know that Maggie was a friend of mine, Lord
+Dorminster?"
+
+"I can very well believe it," he answered, "but I have never heard her
+speak of you."
+
+"Ah! But she has been away for some months. You have not seen much of
+her, perhaps, since her return?"
+
+"Very little," he acquiesced. "She only arrived in London just before my
+uncle's death, and since then I have had to spend some time at
+Dorminster."
+
+"As a matter of curiosity," Naida enquired, "when do you expect to see
+her again?"
+
+"This afternoon, I hope," he replied,--"directly I leave here, in fact."
+
+"Then you will give her a little message for me, please?"
+
+"With great pleasure!"
+
+"Tell her from me--mind she understands this, if you please--that she
+is not to leave England again until we have met."
+
+"Is this a warning?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him searchingly.
+
+"I wonder," she reflected, "how much of you is Lord Dorminster's
+nephew."
+
+"And I, in my turn," he rejoined, with sudden boldness, "wonder how much
+of you is Matinsky's envoy."
+
+She began to laugh softly.
+
+"We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster," she said. "I should like
+to see more of you."
+
+"You will permit me to call upon you," he begged eagerly.
+
+"Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for a little time. My father
+is trying to get a house. My sister is coming over to look after him. I
+am unfortunately only a bird of passage."
+
+"Then I shall not run the risk of missing you," he declared. "I shall
+call very soon."
+
+Immelan intervened,--grim, suspicious, a little disturbed. For some
+reason or other, the meeting between these two young people seemed to
+have made him uneasy.
+
+"Your father has desired me to present his excuses to Lord Dorminster,"
+he announced, "and to escort you back to the Milan. He has been
+telephoned for from the Consulate."
+
+Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluctance.
+
+"You will not delay your call too long, Lord Dorminster?" she enjoined,
+as she gave him her hand. "I shall expect you the first afternoon you
+are free."
+
+"I shall not delay giving myself the pleasure," he assured her.
+
+She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince. The two men stood together
+and watched her depart with her companion.
+
+"Really, one gains much through being an onlooker," the Prince
+reflected. "There go the spirit of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You
+dabble in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you guess what they
+are met for--for whom they wait?"
+
+"I might guess," Nigel replied, "but I would rather be told."
+
+"They wait for the master spirit," Karschoff declared, taking his arm.
+"They wait for the great Prince Shan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little room which the latter
+had used as a boudoir. They were discussing the question of her future
+residence there.
+
+"I am afraid," he declared, "that you will have to marry me."
+
+"It would have its advantages," she admitted thoughtfully. "I am really
+so fond of you, Nigel. I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's,
+Kensington, and have the Annersley children for bridesmaids. Don't you
+think I should look sweet in old gold and orange blossoms?"
+
+"Don't tantalise me," he begged.
+
+"We really must decide upon something," she insisted. "I hate giving up
+my rooms here, I should hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna,
+and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for us two to go on living
+here if I didn't. Are you quite sure that you love me, Nigel?"
+
+"I am not quite so sure as I was this morning," he confessed, holding
+out his cup for some more tea. "I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day
+at luncheon at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest, most
+wonderful figure you ever saw!"
+
+"Who was the cat?" Maggie enquired with asperity.
+
+"She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karetsky. Karschoff introduced me."
+
+Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a trace of the one
+expression he had never before seen in her face--fear--lurking in her
+eyes, even asserting itself in her tone.
+
+"Naida Karetsky?" she repeated. "Tell me exactly how you met her?"
+
+"She was lunching with her father and Oscar Immelan. She stopped to
+speak to Karschoff and asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited
+us to take coffee in the lounge."
+
+"She went out of her way to make your acquaintance, then?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose she did."
+
+"You know who she is?"
+
+"The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over here, I understood."
+
+"She is more than that," Maggie declared nervously. "She is the
+inspiration of the President himself. She is the most vital force in
+Russian politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to know, to whom I
+told you that I wished you to pay attentions. And now that you know her,
+I am afraid."
+
+"Where did you meet her?" he asked curiously.
+
+"We were at school together in Paris. She was two years older than I,
+but she stayed there until she was twenty. Afterwards we met in
+Florence."
+
+Nigel was greatly interested.
+
+"Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell me about her surprises me,"
+he admitted. "She has the air of counting for great things in the world.
+She is very beautiful, too."
+
+"She is beautiful enough," Maggie replied, "to have turned the head of
+the great Paul Matinsky himself. They say that he would give his soul to
+be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned Tsarina of Russia."
+
+Nigel frowned slightly.
+
+"Isn't that going rather a long way?" he objected.
+
+"Not when one remembers what manner of a man Matinsky is," Maggie
+replied. "He may have his faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far
+as regards his private life. There has never been a word of scandal
+concerning him and Naida, nor will there ever be. But in his eyes, Naida
+has that most wonderful gift of all,--she has vision. He once told a man
+with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was the one person in the world
+to whom a mistake was impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at
+all what she was over here for?"
+
+"Not as yet," he replied, "but she has asked me to go and see her."
+
+"Did she seem interested in you personally, or was it because your name
+is Dorminster?"
+
+Nigel sighed.
+
+"I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot tell. She asked me
+whether I had inherited my uncle's hobby."
+
+"What did you tell her?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after all she is in the enemy
+camp. She and Immelan seemed on particularly good terms."
+
+"Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet," Maggie declared.
+"She always used to speak so affectionately of England. Nigel, do you
+think that I have vision?"
+
+"I am sure that you have," he answered.
+
+"Very well, then, I will tell you what I see," she continued. "I see
+Naida Karetsky for Russia, Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and
+Sweden, and Prince Shan for Asia--here--meeting in London--within the
+next week or ten days, to take counsel together to decide whether the
+things which are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall not
+be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals it cleverly enough, but he
+hates England with all the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced.
+She is to be won. And Prince Shan--"
+
+"Well, what about him?" Nigel demanded, a little carried away by
+Maggie's earnestness.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I don't know," she confessed. "If the stories one hears about him are
+true, no man nor any woman could ever influence him. At least, though,
+one could watch and hope."
+
+"Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris, not to London," Nigel
+remarked.
+
+"If he goes to Paris," Maggie said, "Naida and Immelan will go. So shall
+we. If he comes here, it will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the
+Prime Minister?"
+
+"I saw him," Nigel replied, "but without the slightest result. He is
+clearly of the opinion that the open verdict was a merciful one. In
+other words, he believes that it was a case of suicide."
+
+"How wicked!" Maggie exclaimed.
+
+"I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a little high," Nigel
+remarked, "to ask him to believe that he was murdered in cold blood,
+here in the heart of London, by the secret service agent of a foreign
+Power. The strangest part of it all is that it is true. To think that
+those few pages of manuscript would have told us exactly what we have to
+fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand."
+
+"And I in my corsets!" Maggie groaned.
+
+They were both silent for a moment. Then Nigel moved towards the door
+and opened it.
+
+"Come downstairs into the library, will you, Maggie?" he begged. "Let us
+go in for a little reconstruction."
+
+They found Brookes in the hall and took him with them. The blinds in
+the room had never been raised, and there was still that nameless
+atmosphere which lingers for long in an apartment which has become
+associated with tragedy. Instinctively they all moved quietly and spoke
+in hushed voices. Nigel sat in the chair where his uncle had been found
+dead and made a mental effort to reconstruct the events which must have
+immediately preceded the tragedy.
+
+"I know that this was all thrashed out at the inquest, Brookes," he
+said, "but I want you to tell me once more. You see how far it is from
+this table to the door. My uncle must have had abundant warning of any
+one approaching. Was there no other way by which any one could have
+entered the room?"
+
+"There was, your lordship," the man replied, "and I have regretted
+several times since that I did not mention it at the inquest. The
+cleaners were here on the morning of that day, and the window at the
+farther end of the room was unfastened--I even believe that it was
+open."
+
+Nigel rose and examined the window in question. It was almost flush with
+the ground, and although there were iron railings separating it from the
+street, a little gate opening from the area entrance made ingress not
+only possible but easy. Nigel returned to his chair.
+
+"I can't understand this not having been mentioned at the inquest,
+Brookes," he said.
+
+"I was waiting for the question to be asked, your lordship. It was
+perfectly clear to every one there, if your lordship will excuse my
+saying so, that both the coroner and the police seemed to have made up
+their minds that it was a case of suicide."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"I had the same idea with reference to the coroner, at any rate,
+Brookes," he said. "So long as the verdict was returned in the form it
+was, I am not sure that it was not better so."
+
+He dismissed the man with a little nod and sat turning over the code
+books which still stood upon the table.
+
+"You and I, at any rate, Maggie, know the truth," he said, "and so long
+as we can get no help from the proper quarters, I think that we should
+do better to let the matter remain as it is. We don't want to direct
+people's attention to us. We want to lull suspicion so far as we can, to
+be free to watch the three."
+
+The telephone bell rang, and as Nigel moved his arm to take off the
+receiver, he knocked over one of the black, morocco-bound code books, A
+sheet of paper with a few words upon it came fluttering to the ground.
+Maggie picked it up, glanced at it carelessly at first and then with
+interest.
+
+"Nigel," she exclaimed, "you see whose handwriting this is? Could it be
+part of the decoded dispatch?"
+
+The telephone enquiry had been unimportant. Nigel pushed the instrument
+away. They both looked eagerly at the page of manuscript paper. It was
+numbered "8" at the top, and the few words written upon it in Lord
+Dorminster's writing were obviously the continuation of a paragraph:
+
+     The name of the middle one, then, of the three secret cities, into
+     which at all costs some one must find his way, is Kroten, and the
+     telephone number which is all the clue I have been able to get, up
+     to the present, to the London end of the affair, is Mayfair 146.
+
+"This is just where he got to in the decoding!" Nigel declared. "I
+wonder whether it's any use looking for the rest."
+
+They searched through every page of the heavy code books in vain. Then
+they returned to their study of the single page. Nigel dragged down an
+atlas and studied it.
+
+"Kroten," he muttered. "Here it is,--a small place about six hundred
+miles from Petrograd, apparently the centre of a barren, swampy
+district, population thirty thousand, birth rate declining, industries
+nil. Cheerful sort of spot it seems!"
+
+"I have more luck than you!" Maggie cried, her finger tracing out a
+line in the open telephone book. "Look!"
+
+Nigel glanced over her shoulder and read the entry to which she was
+pointing:
+
+"_Immelan Oscar, 13 Clarges Street, W. Mayfair 146._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Nigel played golf at Ranelagh, on the following Sunday morning, with
+Jere Chalmers, a young American in the Diplomatic Service, who had just
+arrived in London and brought a letter of introduction to him. They had
+a pleasant game and strolled off from the eighteenth green to the
+dressing rooms on the best of terms with each other.
+
+"Say, Dorminster," his young companion enjoined, "let's get through this
+fixing-up business quickly. I've had a kind of feeling for a cocktail,
+these last four holes, which I can't exactly put into words. Besides, I
+want to have a word or two with you before the others come down."
+
+"I shan't be a minute," Nigel promised. "I'm going to change into
+flannels after lunch--that is, if you don't mind playing a set or two at
+tennis. My cousin-in-law Maggie Trent, whom you'll meet at luncheon, is
+rather keen, and she doesn't care about golf."
+
+"I'm game for anything," the other agreed, lifting his head spluttering
+from the basin. "Gee, that's good! Get a move on, there's a good fellow.
+I have a fancy for just five minutes with you out on the lawn, with the
+ice chinking in our glasses."
+
+Nigel finished smoothing his hair, and the two men strolled through the
+hall, gave an order to a red-coated attendant, and found a secluded
+table under a marvellous tree in the gardens on the other side. Chalmers
+had become a little thoughtful.
+
+"Dorminster," he declared, "yours is a wonderful country."
+
+"Just how is it appealing to you at the moment?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"I'll try and tell you," was the meditative reply. "It's your
+extraordinary insouciance. It seems to me, as a budding diplomat, that
+you are running the most ghastly risks on earth."
+
+"In what direction?"
+
+The young American shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Well, you've got a thoroughly democratic Government--not such a bad
+Government, I should say, as things go. They've bled your _bourgeoisie_
+a bit, and serve 'em right, but with an empire to keep up you're losing
+all touch upon international politics. Your ambassadors have been
+exchanged for trade consuls, the whole of your secret service staff has
+been disbanded, you place your entire faith on this sacred League of
+Nations. Say, Dorminster, you're taking risks!"
+
+"You mustn't forget," Dorminster replied, "that it was your country who
+started the League of Nations."
+
+"President Wilson did," Chalmers grunted. "You can't say that the
+country ever backed him up. That's the worst of us on the other side--we
+so seldom really get a common voice."
+
+"The League of Nations was a thundering good idea," Nigel declared, "but
+it belongs to Utopia and not to this vulgar planet."
+
+"Just so," Chalmers rejoined, "and yet you are about the only nation who
+ever took it into her bosom and suckled it. To be perfectly frank with
+you, now, what other nation in the world is there, except yours, which
+is obeying the conventions strictly? I tell you frankly, we keep our eye
+on Japan, and we build a good many commercial ships which would astonish
+you if you examined them thoroughly. Our National Guard, too, know a bit
+more about soldiering than their grandfathers. You people, on the other
+hand, seem to have become infatuated pacifists. I can't tell tales out
+of school, but I don't like the way things are going on eastwards. Asia
+means something different now that that amazing fellow, Prince Shan, has
+made a great nation of China."
+
+"I am entirely in accord with you," Nigel agreed, "but what is one to do
+about it? Our present Government has a big majority, trade at home and
+abroad is prosperous, the income tax is down to a shilling in the pound
+and looks like being wiped out altogether. Everybody is fat and happy."
+
+"Just as they were in 1914," Chalmers remarked significantly.
+
+"More so," Dorminster asserted. "In those days we had our alarmists.
+Nowadays, they too seem to have gone to sleep. My uncle--"
+
+"Your uncle was an uncommonly shrewd man," Chalmers interrupted. "I was
+going to talk about him."
+
+"After lunch," Nigel suggested, rising to his feet. "Here come my cousin
+and some of her tennis friends. Karschoff is lunching with us, too. You
+know him, don't you? Come along and I'll introduce you to the others."
+
+It was a very cheerful party who, after a few minutes under the trees,
+strolled into luncheon and took their places at the round table reserved
+for them at the end of the room. Maggie at once took possession of
+Chalmers.
+
+"I have been so anxious to meet you, Mr. Chalmers," she said. "They tell
+me that you represent the modern methods in American diplomacy, and that
+therefore you have been made first secretary over the heads of half a
+dozen of your seniors. How they must dislike you, and how clever you
+must be!"
+
+"I don't know that I'm so much disliked," the young man answered, with a
+twinkle in his eyes, "but I flatter myself that I have brought a new
+note into diplomacy. I was always taught that there were thirty-seven
+different ways of telling a lie, which is to state a diplomatic fact. I
+have swept them all away. I tell the truth."
+
+"How daring," Maggie murmured, "and how wonderfully original! What
+should you say, now, if I asked you if my nose wanted powdering?"
+
+"I should start by saying that the question was outside the sphere of my
+activities," he decided. "I should then proceed to add, as a private
+person, that a little dab on the left side would do it no harm."
+
+"I begin to believe," she confessed, "that all I have heard of you is
+true."
+
+"Tell me exactly what you have heard," he begged. "Leave out everything
+that isn't nice. I thrive on praise and good reports."
+
+"To begin with, then, that you are an extraordinarily shrewd young man,"
+she replied, "that you speak seven languages perfectly and know your way
+about every capital of Europe, and that you have ideas of your own as to
+what is going to happen during the next six or seven years."
+
+"You've been moving in well-informed circles," he admitted. "Now shall I
+proceed to turn the tables upon you?"
+
+"You can't possibly know anything about me," she declared confidently.
+
+"I could tell you what I've discovered from personal observation," he
+replied.
+
+"That sounds like compliments or candour," she murmured. "I'm terrified
+of both."
+
+"Well, I guess I'm not out to frighten you," he assured her. "I'll keep
+the secrets of my heart hidden--until after luncheon, at any rate---and
+just ask you--how you enjoyed your stay in Berlin?"
+
+Maggie's manner changed. She lowered her voice.
+
+"In Berlin?" she repeated.
+
+"In the household of the erstwhile leather manufacturer, the present
+President, Herr Essendorf. I hope you liked those fat children. They
+always seemed to me loathsome little brats."
+
+"What do you know about my stay in Berlin?" she demanded.
+
+"Everything there is to be known," he answered. "To tell you the truth,
+our people there were a trifle anxious about you. I was the little angel
+watching from above."
+
+"You are, without a doubt," Maggie pronounced, "a most interesting young
+man. We will talk together presently."
+
+"A hint which sends me back to my mutton," the young man observed.
+"Dorminster," he added, turning to his host, "I heard the other day, on
+very good authority, that you were thinking of writing a novel. If you
+are, study the lady who has just entered. There is a type for you, an
+intelligence which might baffle even your attempts at analysis."
+
+Naida, escorted by her father and Immelan, took her place at an
+adjacent table. She bowed to Nigel and Karschoff before sitting down,
+and her eyes travelled over the rest of the party with interest. Then
+she recognised Maggie and waved her hand.
+
+"Immelan is a very constant admirer," Prince Karschoff remarked, a
+little uneasily.
+
+"Is that her father?" Maggie asked.
+
+The Prince nodded.
+
+"He is one of the ambassadors of commerce from my country," he said. "In
+place of diplomacy, he superintends the exchange of shipping cargoes and
+talks freights. I suppose Immelan and he are all the time comparing
+notes, but I scarcely see where my dear friend Naida comes in."
+
+"There is still the oldest interest in the world for her to fall back
+upon," Chalmers murmured. "One hears that Immelan is devoted."
+
+"Scandalmonger!" the Prince declared severely. "Young man from the New
+World," he proceeded, "get on with your lunch and drink your iced water.
+Let the vision of those two remind you that it was your people who
+foisted the League of Nations upon us, and be humble, even sorrowful,
+when you view one of the sad results."
+
+"I can't be responsible, directly or indirectly, for a political
+flirtation," Chalmers grumbled. "Besides, why should there be any
+politics about it at all? Mademoiselle Karetsky is quite attractive
+enough to turn the head even of a seasoned old boulevardier like you,
+Prince."
+
+"That young man," Karschoff said deliberately, "will find himself before
+long face to face with a blighted career. He has no respect for age, and
+he is shockingly lacking in finesse. All the same, on one point I am
+agreed. I don't think there is a man breathing who could resist Naida if
+she wished to call him to her."
+
+The little party broke up presently and wandered out into the gardens.
+They sat for a while upon the lawn, drinking their coffee and exchanging
+greetings with acquaintances. In the distance, the orchestra was playing
+soft music, with a fine regard for the atmosphere of the pleasant,
+almost languorous spring afternoon. Everywhere were signs of
+contentment, even gaiety, and here the alien streak of unfamiliar
+newcomers was far less pronounced. When the time came for tennis,
+Chalmers led the way with Maggie. As soon as they were out of hearing of
+the others, she turned towards him a little abruptly.
+
+"Tell me exactly what you know about my stay in Berlin," she demanded.
+
+"Everything," he answered gravely.
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"I mean that the New World to-day has progressed where the Old World
+seems to have been stricken with a terrible blindness. Our
+secret-service system has never been better, and frankly I hear many
+things which I don't like. I am going to talk to Lord Dorminster this
+afternoon very seriously, but in the meantime I wanted to speak to you.
+I heard a rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin."
+
+"I don't know how you heard it, but the rumour is not altogether
+untrue," she admitted. "I have not yet made up my mind."
+
+"Don't go," he begged.
+
+"You think they really do know all about me?"
+
+"I know that they do. I don't mind telling you that you had the shave of
+your life on the Dutch frontier last time, and I don't mind telling you,
+also, that we had two of our men shadowing you. One of them acted on his
+own initiative, or you would never have crossed the frontier."
+
+"I rather wondered why they let me out," she observed. "Perhaps you can
+explain why Frau Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my pseudonym of
+'Miss Brown' and to my reputed address in Lincolnshire, begging me to
+return."
+
+"I could tell you that, too," he replied. "They want you back in
+Berlin."
+
+"They really do know, then, that I brought over the dispatch from
+Atcheson?" she asked.
+
+"They know it," he assured her. "They know, too, that it was chiefly a
+wasted labour. Their London agents saw to that."
+
+"Perhaps," she suggested, "you know who their London agents are?"
+
+"Sooner or later in our conversation," he remarked, "we were bound to
+arrive at a point--"
+
+"Come along and let us make up a set then," she intervened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a taxicab to take him back
+to the purlieus of Piccadilly and auction bridge, sauntered along at the
+back of the tennis nets until she arrived at the court where Nigel and
+his party were playing.
+
+"I should like to watch this game for a few minutes," she told her
+companion. "The men are such opposite types and yet both so
+good-looking. And Lady Maggie fascinates me."
+
+Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down to watch the set.
+Nigel, with his clean, well-knit figure, looked his best in spotless
+white flannels. Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
+presented a fine appearance. The play was fast and sometimes brilliant.
+Nigel had Maggie for a partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
+set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned forward in her chair,
+following every stroke with interest.
+
+"I find this most fascinating," she murmured. "I hope that Lord
+Dorminster and his cousin will win. Your sympathies, of course, are on
+the other side."
+
+"You are right," Immelan assented. "My sympathies are on the other
+side."
+
+There was a lull in the game for a moment or two. The sun was
+troublesome, and the players were changing courts. Naida turned towards
+her companion thoughtfully.
+
+"My friend," she said, glancing around as though to be sure that they
+were not overheard, "there are times when you move me to wonder. In the
+small things as well as the large, you are so unchanging. I think that
+you would see an Englishman die, whether he were your friend or your
+enemy, very much as you kick a poisonous snake out of your path."
+
+"It is quite true," was the calm reply.
+
+"But America was once your enemy," she continued, watching Chalmers'
+powerful service.
+
+"With America we made peace," he explained. "With England, never. If you
+would really appreciate and understand the reason for that undying
+hatred which I and millions of my fellow countrymen feel, it will cost
+you exactly one shilling. Go to any stationer's and buy a copy of the
+Treaty of Versailles. Read it word by word and line by line. It is the
+most brutal document that was ever printed. It will help you to
+understand."
+
+She nodded slowly.
+
+"Paul always declared," she said, "that in those days England had no
+statesmen--no one who could feel what lay beyond the day-by-day
+horizon. When I think of that Treaty, my friend, I sympathise with you.
+It is not a great thing to forge chains of hate for a beaten enemy."
+
+"If you realise this, are you not then our friend?" Immelan asked.
+
+She appeared for a few moments to be engrossed in the tennis. Her
+companion, however, waited for her answer.
+
+"In a way," she acknowledged, "I find something magnificent in your
+wonderfully conceived plans for vengeance, and in the spirit which has
+evolved and kept them alive through all these years. Then, on the other
+hand, I look at home, and I ask myself whether you do not make what they
+would call over here a cat's-paw of my country."
+
+"Ours is the most natural and most beneficial of all possible
+alliances," Immelan insisted. "Germany and Russia, hand in hand, can
+dominate the world."
+
+"I am not sure that it is an equal bargain, though, which you seek to
+drive with us," she said. "Germany aims, of course, at world power, but
+you are still fettered by the terms of that Treaty. You cannot build a
+great fleet of warships or aeroplanes; you cannot train great armies; you
+cannot lay up for yourselves all the store that is necessary for a
+successful war. So you bring your brains to Russia, and you ask us to do
+these things; but Russia does not aim at world power. Russia seeks only
+for a great era of self-development. She, too, has a mighty neighbour
+at her gates. I am not sure that your bargain is a fair one."
+
+"It is the first time that I have heard you talk like this," Immelan
+declared, with a little tremor in his tone.
+
+"I have been in England twice during the last few months," Naida said.
+"You know very well at whose wish I came, I have been studying the
+conditions here, studying the people so far as I can. I find them such a
+kindly race. I find their present Government so unsuspicious, so
+genuinely altruistic. After all, that Treaty belongs to an England that
+has passed. The England of to-day would never go to war at all. They
+believe here that they have solved the problem of perpetual peace."
+
+Immelan smiled a little bitterly.
+
+"Dear lady," he said, "if I lose your help, if you go back to Petrograd
+and talk to Paul Matinsky as you are talking to me, do you know that you
+will break the heart of a nation?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Paul does not look upon me as infallible," she protested. "Besides,
+there are other considerations. And now, please, we will talk of the
+tennis. I do not know whether it is my fancy, but that man there to your
+left, in grey, seems to me to be taking an interest in our conversation.
+He cannot possibly overhear, and he has not glanced once in our
+direction, yet I have an instinct for these things."
+
+Immelan glanced in the direction of the stranger,--a quiet-looking,
+spare man dressed in a grey tweed suit, clean-shaven and of early
+middle-age. There was nothing about his appearance to distinguish him
+from a score or more of other loiterers.
+
+"You are quite right," her companion admitted. "One should not talk of
+these things even where the birds may listen, but it is so difficult. As
+for that man, he could not possibly hear, but there might be others. One
+passes behind on the grass so noiselessly."
+
+They relapsed into silence. Naida, leaning a little forward, became once
+more engrossed in the play. Her eyes were fixed upon Nigel. It was his
+movements which she followed, his strokes which she usually applauded.
+Immelan sat by her side and watched.
+
+"They are well matched," he remarked presently.
+
+"Mr. Chalmers has a wonderful service," she declared, "but Lord
+Dorminster has more skill. Oh, bravo!"
+
+The set at that moment was finished by a backhanded return from Nigel,
+which skimmed over the net at a great pace, completely out of reach of
+the opposing couple. The players strolled across to the seats under the
+trees. Naida smiled at Nigel, and he came over to her side. Once again
+he was conscious of that peculiar sense of pleasure and well-being
+which he felt in her company.
+
+"You play tennis very well, Lord Dorminster," she said.
+
+"I found inspiration," he answered.
+
+"In your partner?"
+
+"Maggie is always charming to play with. I was thinking of the
+onlookers."
+
+"Mr. Immelan is very interested in tennis," she remarked, with a smile
+which challenged him.
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Even more so."
+
+"Tell me about games in Russia," he begged, seating himself on the grass
+by her side.
+
+"We have none," she replied. "I learnt my tennis at Cannes, where,
+curiously enough, I saw you play three years ago."
+
+"You were there then?" he asked with interest.
+
+"For a few days only. We were motoring from Spain to Monte Carlo. Cannes
+was very crowded, but you see I remembered."
+
+Her voice seemed to have some lingering charm in it, some curiously
+potent suggestion of personal interest which stirred his pulses. He
+looked up and met her eyes. For a moment the world of tennis fields, of
+pleasant chatter and of holiday-makings, passed away. He rose abruptly
+to his feet. This time he avoided looking at her.
+
+"You must come over and speak to Maggie," he begged. "Perhaps Mr.
+Immelan will spare you for a few moments."
+
+Immelan bowed, sphinxlike but coldly furious. The two strolled away
+together.
+
+When the next set was over, Naida, who had rejoined her companion, had
+disappeared. On one of their vacated chairs was seated the quiet-looking
+stranger in grey. Chalmers passed his arm through Nigel's and led him in
+that direction.
+
+"I want you two to know each other," he said. "Jesson, this is Lord
+Dorminster--Mr. Gilbert Jesson--Lord Dorminster."
+
+The two men shook hands, Nigel a little vaguely. He was at first unable
+to place this newcomer.
+
+"Mr. Jesson," Chalmers explained, dropping his voice a little, "was a
+highly privileged and very much valued member of our Intelligence
+Department, until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if you
+could spare an hour or two any time this evening, Dorminster, it would
+interest you very much to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's
+resignation."
+
+"I should be very pleased indeed," Nigel replied. "Won't you both come
+and dine in Belgrave Square to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow,
+Chalmers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and my cousin will be
+hostess."
+
+"It will give me very great pleasure," Jesson acquiesced. "You will
+understand," he added, "that the information which Mr. Chalmers has
+just given you concerning myself is entirely confidential."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"We three will have a little talk to ourselves afterwards," he
+suggested. "At eight o'clock--Number 17, Belgrave Square."
+
+Jesson strolled away after a little desultory conversation. Chalmers
+looked after him thoughtfully.
+
+"Harmless-looking chap, isn't he?" he observed. "Yet I'll let you in on
+this, Dorminster: there isn't another living person who knows so much of
+what is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man."
+
+"Why has he chucked his job, then?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"He will tell you that to-night," was Chalmers' quiet reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"I don't think I shall marry you, after all," Maggie announced that
+evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors
+with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.
+
+"Why not?" Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.
+
+"You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity," she declared. "Your
+flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went
+out of your way to ask her to dine to-night."
+
+"I like that!" Nigel complained. "Supposing it were true, I should
+simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to
+her."
+
+"The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country," Maggie
+sighed. "However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you
+admire her very much, Nigel?"
+
+He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from
+self-consciousness.
+
+"Of course I do," he admitted. "She's a perfectly wonderful person,
+isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment," he added,
+looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of
+furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. "We'll go into
+the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and
+cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received formally, and
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreciate the cosmopolitan note of our
+welcome."
+
+"We do look a little too domestic, don't we?" Maggie replied, as she
+passed through the portiere which Nigel was holding up. "I'm not at all
+sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or
+anything. I must think of my reputation. I may decide to marry Mr.
+Chalmers, and Americans are very particular about that sort of thing."
+
+"From what I have seen of him, I should think that Chalmers would make
+you an excellent husband," Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. "You
+need a firm hand, and I should think he would be quite capable of using
+it."
+
+"You take the matter far too calmly," she objected. "I can assure you
+that I am getting peevish. I hate all Russian women with creamy
+complexions and violet-coloured eyes."
+
+"They are wonderful eyes," Nigel declared, after he had given Brookes an
+order.
+
+Maggie looked at him curiously.
+
+"Naida is for your betters, sir," she reminded him. "You must not forget
+that she is to rule over Russia some day."
+
+"Just at present," Nigel observed, "Paul Matinsky has a perfectly good
+wife of his own."
+
+"An invalid."
+
+"Invalids always live long."
+
+"Presidents and emperors can always get divorces," Maggie insisted,
+"especially in this irreligious age."
+
+"Matinsky isn't that sort," Nigel said cheerfully. "Even an old gossip
+like Karschoff calls him a purist, and you yourself have spoken of his
+principles."
+
+Maggie shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"All right," she remarked. "If you are determined to rush into danger, I
+suppose you must. There is just one more point to be considered, though.
+I suppose you know that if you succeed any farther with Naida, you will
+introduce a personal note into our coming struggle."
+
+"What do you mean?" Nigel demanded.
+
+"Why, Immelan, of course," she replied. "He's head over ears in love
+with Naida. Any one can see that."
+
+Nigel laughed scornfully.
+
+"My dear child," he protested, "can you imagine a woman like Naida
+thinking seriously of a fellow like Immelan?--a scheming, Teutonic
+adventurer, without even the breeding of his class!"
+
+Maggie laughed softly for several moments.
+
+"My dear Nigel," she exclaimed, "what a luxury to get at the man of
+you! I haven't seen your eyes flash like that for ages. The cocktails,
+thank goodness! Shake one for me till it froths all the way up the
+glass, please, and then give me a cigarette."
+
+Nigel obeyed orders, helped himself, and glanced at the clock as Brookes
+left the room.
+
+"How nice of you to come half an hour early, Maggie!" he remarked.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"The first time you have noticed it," she said dolefully. "Do you
+realise, Nigel, that it is nearly a week since you proposed to me? Apart
+from your penchant for Naida, don't you really want to marry me any
+more?"
+
+He came across the room and stood looking down at her thoughtfully. She
+was wearing a somewhat daringly fashioned black lace gown, which showed
+a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her brown hair was simply
+but artistically arranged. She was piquante, alluring, with a
+provocative smile at the corners of her lips and a challenging gleam in
+her eyes. The daintiness and femininity of her were enthralling.
+
+"You would make an adorable wife," he reflected.
+
+"For some one else?"
+
+"An unspeakable proposition," he assured her.
+
+"You're very nice-looking, Nigel," she murmured.
+
+"You're terribly attractive, Maggie!"
+
+"Then why is it," she sighed, "that we neither of us want to marry the
+other?"
+
+"If a serious proposition would really be of interest to you," he
+began,--
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"You heard them coming," she interrupted.
+
+The three expected guests arrived almost together, bringing with them,
+at any rate so far as Chalmers and Naida were concerned, an atmosphere
+of light-heartedness which was later on to make the little dinner party
+a complete success. Naida, too, was in black, a gown simpler than
+Maggie's but full of distinction. She wore no jewellery except a
+wonderful string of pearls. Her black hair was brushed straight back
+from her forehead but drooped a little over her ears. She seemed to
+bring with her a larger share of girlishness than any of them had
+previously observed in her, as though she had made up her mind for this
+one evening to cast herself adrift from the graver cares of life and to
+indulge in the frivolities which after all were the heritage of her
+youth. She sat at Nigel's right hand and plied him with questions as to
+the lighter side of his life,--his favourite sport, books, and general
+occupation. She gave evidences of humour which delighted everybody, and
+Nigel, though he would at times have welcomed, and did his best to
+initiate, an incursion into more serious subjects, found himself
+compelled to admire the tact with which she continually foiled him.
+
+"It is a mistake," she declared once, "to believe that a woman is ever
+serious unless she is forced to be. All our natural proclivities are
+towards gaiety. We are really butterflies by instinct, and we are at our
+best when we are natural. Don't you agree with me, Maggie?"
+
+"From the bottom of my heart," Maggie assented. "Nothing but conscience
+ever induces me to pull a long face and turn my thoughts to serious
+things. And I haven't a great deal of conscience."
+
+"So you see," Naida continued, smiling up at her host, "when you try to
+get a woman to talk politics or sociology with you, you are brushing a
+little of the down off her wings. We really want to be told--other
+things."
+
+"I should imagine," he replied, "that my sex frequently indulged you."
+
+"Not so much as I should desire," she assured him. "I have somehow or
+other acquired an undeserved reputation for brains. In Russia
+especially, when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my frock or
+the way my hair is done. They plunge instead into a subject of which I
+know nothing--philosophy or history, or international politics."
+
+"Do you know nothing of international politics?" Nigel asked.
+
+"A home thrust," she declared, laughing. "I suppose that is a subject
+upon which I have some glimmerings of knowledge. Really not very much,
+though, but then I have a theory about that. I think sometimes that the
+clearest judgments are formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a
+subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling in it half their lifetime and
+acquired prejudices. Do you always provide strawberries for your guests,
+Lord Dorminster? If so, I should like to come and live here."
+
+"If you will promise to come and live here," he replied, "I will provide
+strawberries if I have to start a nursery garden in Jersey."
+
+"Maggie," Naida announced across the table, "Lord Dorminster has
+proposed to me. The matter of strawberries has brought us together. I
+don't think I shall accept him. There are no means of making him keep
+his bargain."
+
+"He'd make an awfully good husband," Maggie declared. "If no one else
+wants me, I shall probably marry him myself some day."
+
+Naida shook her head.
+
+"Lord Dorminster is more my type," she declared. "Besides, you have had
+your chance if you really wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia
+who prophesies that I shall never marry. That does not please me. I
+think not to be married is the worst fate that can happen to any woman."
+
+"The remedy," Nigel told her, "is in your own hands."
+
+Jesson, quieter than the others, was still an interesting personality,
+often intervening with a shrewd remark and listening to the sallies of
+the others with a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes. When at
+last the girls left them for a time, Nigel led the way at once into the
+library, where coffee and liqueurs were served.
+
+"I expect the others will find their way here in a few minutes," he
+said, as the door closed behind Brookes and his satellite. "You had
+something to say to me, Chalmers, about Mr. Jesson here."
+
+"All that I have to say is in the nature of a testimonial," the young
+American replied. "Jesson was easily one of our best men in Europe. He
+resigned a few months ago simply because he wants a job with you
+fellows."
+
+"I don't quite understand," Nigel began.
+
+"Let me explain," Jesson begged. "I spent the last three years poking
+about Europe, and so far as the United States is concerned, there's
+nothing doing. My reports aren't worth much more than the paper they are
+written on, and while I'm drawing my money from Washington, it's not my
+business to collect information that affects other countries. That's why
+I've sent in my resignation. There are great events brewing eastwards,
+Lord Dorminster, and I want to take a hand in the game."
+
+"Do you want to work for us?" Nigel asked.
+
+"You're right," was the quiet reply. "I guess that's how I've figured it
+out. You see, I'm one of those Americans who still consider themselves
+half English. Next to the United States, Great Britain is the country
+for me. I know what I'm talking about, Lord Dorminster, and I've come to
+the conclusion that there's a lot of trouble in store for you people."
+
+"I'm pretty well convinced of that myself," Nigel agreed, "but you know
+how things are with us. We have a democratic Government who have placed
+their whole faith in the League of Nations, and who are absolutely and
+entirely anti-militarist. On paper, the governments of Russia, Germany,
+and most of the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk. Some of
+us--my uncle was one--who have studied history and who know something of
+the science of international politics, realise perfectly well that no
+Empire can be considered secure under such conditions. This country
+swarms with foreign secret-service men. What they are planning against
+us, Heaven knows!"
+
+"Heaven and Naida Karetsky," Chalmers intervened softly.
+
+"You believe that she is our enemy?" Nigel asked, with a look of trouble
+in his eyes.
+
+"She is Immelan's friend," Chalmers reminded him.
+
+"There was a man named Atcheson," Jesson began quietly--
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The first one was stabbed in
+Petrograd. Jim Atcheson was poisoned and died in Berlin."
+
+"There was rather a scare in a certain quarter about Atcheson," Jesson
+observed. "He was supposed to have got a report through to the late Lord
+Dorminster."
+
+"He got it through all right," Nigel replied. "My uncle was busy
+decoding it, seated in this room, at that table, when he died."
+
+"His death was very sudden," Jesson ventured.
+
+"I have not the faintest doubt but that he was murdered," Nigel
+declared. "The document upon which he was working disappeared entirely
+except for one sheet."
+
+"You have that one sheet?" Jesson asked eagerly.
+
+Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed it cut, and laid it upon
+the table.
+
+"There are two things worth noticing here," he pointed out. "The first
+is that the actual name of a town in Russia is given, and a telephone
+number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It seems to be an
+unimportant place in a very desolate region. The telephone number is
+Oscar Immelan's."
+
+"That is interesting, though not surprising," Jesson declared. "Immelan,
+as you of course know, is one of your enemies, one of those who are
+working in this country for purposes of his own. But as regards Kroten,
+may I ask where you obtained your information about the place?"
+
+Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them the paragraph. Jesson read
+it with a faint smile upon his lips.
+
+"I fancy," he remarked, "that this is a little out of date. I should
+like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week."
+
+"Good heavens! Why?" Nigel exclaimed.
+
+"I can scarcely answer that question," Jesson said. "I am like a man
+with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those
+pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here," he
+said, "is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities,
+situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their
+way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have
+heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
+have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled.
+Kroten is the next, and of the third I have still to discover the
+whereabouts. Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act for you
+abroad? I require no salary or remuneration of any sort. I am a wealthy
+man, and investigations of this kind are my one hobby. I shall not move
+without your permission, although I recognise, of course, that your own
+position is entirely an unofficial one. If you will trust me, however, I
+promise that all my energies shall be devoted to the interests of this
+country."
+
+Nigel held out his hand.
+
+"It is a pact," he decided. "Before you leave, I will give you the whole
+of my uncle's brief correspondence with Sidwell. You may be able to
+gather from it what he was after. Sidwell, you remember, was stabbed in
+a cafe in the slums of Petrograd."
+
+"I remember quite well," Jesson admitted quietly. "I knew Sidwell. He
+was a clever person in his way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I
+fancy that I hear the voices of the ladies coming. I shall just have
+time to tell you rather a curious coincidence."
+
+The two men waited eagerly. Jesson touched with his forefinger the sheet
+of paper which he had been studying.
+
+"Sidwell," he concluded, "could not have been so far off the mark. The
+man with whom he was spending the evening in that cafe was a mechanic
+from Kroten."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Naida, early one afternoon, a few days after the dinner at Belgrave
+Square, raised herself on one elbow from the sofa on which she was
+resting, glanced at the roses and the card which the maid had presented
+for her inspection, and waved them impatiently away.
+
+"The gentleman waits," the woman reminded her.
+
+Naida glanced out of the window across a dull and apparently uninviting
+prospect of roofs and chimneys, to where in the background a faint line
+of silver and a wheeling flock of sea gulls became dimly visible through
+the branches of the distant trees. The window itself was flung wide
+open, but the slowly moving air had little of freshness in it. Sparrows
+twittered around the window-sill, and a little patch of green shone out
+from the Embankment Gardens. The radiance of spring here found few
+opportunities.
+
+"The gentleman waits," the serving woman repeated stolidly, speaking in
+her native Russian.
+
+"You can show him up," her mistress replied a little wearily.
+
+Immelan entered, a few moments later, spruce and neat in a well-fitting
+grey suit, and carrying a grey Homburg hat. He was redolent of soaps
+and perfumes. His step was buoyant, almost jaunty, yet in his blue eyes,
+as he bent over the hand of the woman upon whom he had come to call,
+lurked something of the disquietude which, notwithstanding his most
+strenuous efforts, was beginning to assert itself.
+
+"You make me very happy, my dear Naida," he began, "that you receive me
+thus so informally. Your good father is smoking in the lounge. He bade
+me come up."
+
+She beckoned him to a seat.
+
+"A thousand thanks for your flowers, my friend," she said. "Now tell me
+why you are possessed to see me at this untimely hour. I always rest for
+a time after luncheon, and I am only here because the sunshine filled my
+room and made me restless."
+
+"There is a little matter of news," he announced slowly. "I thought it
+might interest you. I hoped it would."
+
+She turned her head and looked at him.
+
+"News?" she repeated. "News from you means only one thing. Is it good or
+bad?"
+
+"It is good," he replied, "because it saves me a long and tedious
+journey, because it saves me also from a separation which I should have
+found detestable."
+
+"Your journey to China, then, is abandoned?"
+
+"It is rendered unnecessary. Prince Shan has decided after all to
+adhere to his original plan and come to Europe."
+
+"You are sure?"
+
+"I have an official intimation," he replied. "I may probably have to go
+to Paris, but no farther. It is even possible that I might leave
+to-night."
+
+She was genuinely interested.
+
+"There is no one in the whole world," she declared, "whom I have wanted
+to meet so much as Prince Shan."
+
+"You will not be disappointed," he promised her. "There is no one like
+him. When he enters the room, you know that you are in the presence of a
+great man. The three of us together! Naida, we will remake the map of
+the world."
+
+She frowned a little uneasily.
+
+"Do not take too much for granted, Oscar," she enjoined. "Remember that
+I am here to watch and to report. It is not for me to make decisions."
+
+"Then for whom else?" he demanded. "Paul Matinsky himself wrote me that
+you had his entire confidence--that you possessed full powers for
+action. You will not be faint-hearted, Naida?"
+
+"I shall never be false to my convictions," she replied.
+
+There was a brief silence. He was not altogether satisfied, but he
+judged the moment unpropitious for any further reference to the coming
+of Prince Shan.
+
+"My plans, as you see, are changed," he said at last, "and for that
+reason a promise which I made to myself will not now be kept."
+
+She rose to her feet a little uneasily, shook out her fluffy morning
+gown, and retreated towards the door leading to the apartments beyond.
+He watched her without movement. She picked up a pile of letters from a
+table in the middle of the room, glanced at them, and threw them down.
+
+"It is as well," she warned him, "to keep all promises."
+
+"As for this one," he replied, "I have no responsibility save to myself.
+I absolve myself. I give myself permission to speak. Your father is even
+wishful that I should do so. I crave from you, Naida, the happiness
+which only you can bring into my life. I ask you to become my wife."
+
+She looked at him without visible change of expression. Her lips,
+however, were a little parted. The air of aloofness with which she moved
+through the world seemed suddenly more marked. He would have been a
+brave man, or one entirely without perceptions, who would have advanced
+towards her at that moment.
+
+"That is quite impossible," she pronounced.
+
+"I do not admit it," he contended. "No, I will never admit that. The
+fates brought us together. It will take something stronger than fate to
+drive us apart. I had not meant to speak yet. I had meant to wait until
+the great pact was sealed and the glory to come assured, but during
+these last few days I have suffered. A strange fancy has come to me. I
+seem to feel something between us, so I speak before it can grow. I
+speak because without you life for me would be a thing not worth having.
+You are my life and my soul. You will not send me away?"
+
+Naida was troubled but unhesitating. It was perhaps at that moment that
+a hidden characteristic of her features showed itself. Her mouth,
+sometimes almost too voluptuous in its softness, had straightened into a
+firm line of scarlet. The deeper violet of her eyes had gone. So a woman
+might have looked who watched suffering unmoved, the woman of the bull
+or prize fight.
+
+"I am glad that you have spoken, Oscar," she said. "I know a thing now
+which has been a source of doubt and anxiety to me. What you ask is
+impossible. I do not love you. I shall never love you. A few days ago, I
+asked myself the very question you have just asked me, and I could not
+answer it. Now I know."
+
+Pain and anger struggled in his face. He was suffering, without a doubt,
+but for a moment it seemed as though the anger would predominate. His
+great shoulders heaved, his hands were clenched until the signet ring on
+his left finger cut into the flesh, his eyes were like glittering points
+of fire.
+
+"It is the old dream concerning Paul?" he demanded.
+
+"It has nothing to do with Paul," she assured him. "Concerning him I
+will admit that I have had my weak moments. I think that those have
+passed. It was such a wonderful dream," she went on reflectively, "the
+dream of ruling the mightiest nation in the world, a nation that even
+now, after many years of travail, is only just finding its way through
+to the light. It seemed such a small thing that stood in the way. Since
+then I have met Paul's wife. She does not understand, but at least she
+loves."
+
+"She is a poor fool, no helpmate for any man," Immelan declared. "Yet it
+is not his cause I plead, but mine. I, too, can minister to your
+ambitions. Be my wife, and I swear to you that before five years have
+passed I will be President of the German Republic. Germany is no strange
+country to you," he went on passionately. "It is you who have helped in
+the great _rapprochement_. At times when Paul has been difficult, you
+have smoothed the way. I would not speak against your country, I would
+not speak against anything which lies close to your heart, but let me
+tell you that when the day of purification comes, the day when God gives
+us leave to pour out the vials of vengeance, there will be no prouder,
+no more glorious people than ours. Our triumph will be yours, Naida. You
+yourself will help to cement the great alliance of these years."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am a woman," she said simply. "Incidentally, I am a politician and
+something of an altruist, but when it comes to marriage, I am a woman. I
+do not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you."
+
+There was a darker shade upon his face now. Unconsciously he had drawn a
+little nearer to her.
+
+"Listen," he begged; "it is perhaps possible that I have not been
+mistaken--that a certain change has crept up in you even within the last
+few days? Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way into your
+heart? No, I will not say heart! It could not be your heart in so short
+a time. Into your fancy? Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you are
+thinking?"
+
+"That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only," she answered haughtily.
+
+A weaker woman he would have bullied. His veins were filled with anger.
+His tongue ached to spend itself. Naida's bearing cowed him. She
+remained a dominating figure. The unnatural restraint imposed upon
+himself, however, made his voice sound hard and unfamiliar. There were
+little patches of white around his mouth; his teeth showed, when he
+spoke, more than usual.
+
+"If there were any one else," he declared, "and that some one else
+should chance to be an Englishman, I would find a new hell for him."
+
+"There is no one else," she answered calmly, "but if there ever should
+be, Oscar Immelan, and if you ever interfered with him, either in this
+country or any other, my arm would follow you around the world. Remember
+that."
+
+She turned away for a moment, eager to gain a brief respite from his
+darkening face. When she looked around, he was gone. She heard his
+footsteps passing down the corridor, the bell ringing for the lift, the
+clank of the gates as he stepped in. Once more she gazed out over the
+uninspiring prospect. There was a little more sunshine upon the river;
+more of the dusty chimney-pots seemed bathed in its silvery radiance. As
+she stood there, she felt herself growing calmer. The tension passed
+from her nerves. Her eyes grew soft again. Then an impulse came to her.
+She stretched out her hand for the telephone book, turned over the pages
+restlessly, looked through the "D's" until she found the name for which
+she was searching. For a long time she hesitated. When at last she took
+up the receiver and asked for a number, she was conscious of a slight
+thrill, a sense of excitement which in moments of more complete
+self-control would at least have served as a warning to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The curtain fell upon the first act of "Louise." The lights were turned
+up, the tenseness relaxed, men made dives for their hats, and the
+unmusical murmured the usual platitudes. Naida leaned forward from the
+corner of her box to the man who was her sole companion.
+
+"Father," she said, "I am expecting a caller with whom I wish to
+speak--Lord Dorminster. If he comes, will you leave us alone? And if any
+one else should be here, please take them away."
+
+"More mysteries," her father muttered, not unkindly. "Who is this man
+Dorminster?"
+
+Naida leaned back in her chair and fanned herself slowly.
+
+"No one I know very much about," she acknowledged. "I have selected him
+in my mind, however as being a typical Englishman of his class. I wish
+to talk to him, to appreciate his point of view. You know what Paul said
+when he gave you the appointment and sent us over here: 'Find out for me
+what sort of men these Englishmen are.'"
+
+"Matinsky should know," her father observed. "He was here twelve years
+ago. He came over with the first commission which established regular
+relations with the British Government."
+
+"No doubt," she said equably, "he was able to gauge the official
+outlook, but this country, during the last ten years, has gone through
+great vicissitudes. Besides, it is not only the official outlook in
+which Paul is interested. He doesn't understand, and frankly I don't,
+the position of what they call over here 'the man in the street.' You
+see, he must be either a fool, or he must be grossly deceived."
+
+"So far as my dealings with him go, I should never call the Englishman a
+fool," Karetsky confessed.
+
+"There are degrees and conditions of fools," his daughter declared
+calmly. "A man with a perfectly acute brain may have simply idiotic
+impulses towards credulity, and a credulous man is always a fool.
+Anyhow, I know what Paul wants."
+
+There was a knock at the door. Karetsky opened it and stood aside to let
+Nigel pass in. Naida held out her hand to the latter with a smile.
+
+"I am so glad that you have come," she said, raising her eyes for a
+minute to his. "Father, you remember Lord Dorminster?"
+
+The two men exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Then Karetsky reached
+for his hat.
+
+"Your arrival, Lord Dorminster," he observed, "leaves me free to make a
+few calls myself. We shall, I trust, meet again."
+
+Nigel murmured a few courteous words and watched the retreating figure
+with some curiosity.
+
+"Your father is very typical," he declared. "He reminds me of your
+country itself. He is massive, has suggestions of undeveloped strength."
+
+"Add that he is a little ponderous," Naida said lightly, "slow to make
+up his mind, but as obstinate as the Urals themselves, and you have
+described him. Now tell me what you think of a young woman who rings you
+up without the slightest encouragement and invites you to come to the
+Opera purposely to visit her box."
+
+"I deny the absence of encouragement, and I am very grateful for the
+opportunity of coming," Nigel answered. "And if I were to tell you all
+that I think of you," he added, after a moment's pause, "it would take
+me a great deal longer than this quarter of an hour's interval."
+
+These were their first few moments absolutely alone. Neither of them was
+unduly emotional, neither wholly free from experience, yet they looked
+and spoke and felt as though the coming of new things was at hand. The
+atmosphere of music, still present, was a wonderful background to the
+intensified sensations of which both were conscious. Naida had the
+utmost difficulty in steadying her voice.
+
+"I wanted to talk to you seriously because you can help me very much if
+you will," she began. "In a sense, I am over here upon a mission. Some
+of us in Russia feel that your nation is imperfectly understood there.
+We are bearing grudges against you which may not be wholly justified.
+You see, to speak very plainly, we are under the constant influence of a
+people which cherishes no feelings of friendship towards you."
+
+For a moment the personal element had disappeared. Nigel remembered who
+his companion was and all that she stood for. He drew his chair a little
+nearer to hers.
+
+"If you are looking for a typical Englishman," he said, "I fear that I
+shall be a disappointment to you. The typical Englishman of to-day is
+hiding his head in the sand. I am not disposed to do anything of the
+sort. I recognise a great coming danger, and I am afraid of your
+country."
+
+"The attitude of the official Englishman I know," she declared, a little
+eagerly. "What I want to find out is whether there are many like
+yourself, who are awake."
+
+"I am afraid that I am in the minority," he confessed. "I am trying to
+carry on the work which my uncle commenced. I am trying to secure firm
+and definite evidence of a certain plot which I believe to be brewing in
+your country and in Germany."
+
+"Tell me exactly what you know," she begged.
+
+Nigel looked at her for several moments in silence. She was wearing a
+Russian headdress, a low tiara of bound coils of pearls. A rope of
+pearls hung from her neck. Her white net gown was trimmed with ermine.
+At her first appearance in the front of the box she had created almost a
+sensation among those to whom she was visible. In these darker shadows
+the sensuous disturbance of which he had been conscious since his
+entrance swept over him once more with overmastering power.
+
+"You are very beautiful," he said, a little abruptly.
+
+"I am glad you think so," she murmured, with a very sweet answering
+light in her eyes, "but I am hoping that you have other things to tell
+me."
+
+"You are the friend of Immelan," he reminded her.
+
+"To some extent, yes," she assented, "but I admit of no prejudices. The
+greatest friend I have in the world is Paul Matinsky, and it is at his
+wish that I am here. He is anxious above all things not to make a
+mistake."
+
+"Your country is very much under the dominance of Germany," he ventured.
+
+"Very much, I admit, but not utterly so. You must remember that after
+the cataclysm of 1917, Russia has been born again in travail and agony.
+No hand was outstretched to help her, save that of Germany alone, for
+her own sake ultimately, perhaps, but nevertheless with invaluable
+results to Russia. We had vast resources which Germany exploited,
+magnificent human material which Germany has educated and disciplined.
+The two nations have grown together for their common interest. At the
+same time, Paul Matinsky and very many others have always felt that
+there is one of Germany's great ambitions in which Russia ought not
+necessarily to become involved. I think--I hope that you understand me."
+
+"In plain words," Nigel said, "you refer to this projected plan of
+isolating England."
+
+"In plain words, I do," she admitted. "Russia's intentions concerning
+that are trembling in the balance. Germany is pressing her hard. Nothing
+will be finally decided until I return to Petrograd. You see, I speak to
+you quite openly, for I myself have had some experience of your present
+statesmen. I believe if you were to repeat this conversation to any one
+of them, if, even, you could open their eyes to what is happening, they
+would only shrug their shoulders and say that they relied for their
+protection on the League of Nations."
+
+"You are unhappily right," Nigel groaned, "yet one perseveres, and after
+all there is an element of mystery about the whole affair. The French,
+as you know, have not imitated our blind credulity. Their frontier would
+seem to be impregnable, and the difficulties of invading England, even
+from the air, are very much as they were during the last war. It was
+these considerations which made my uncle persevere in his attempt at
+secret-service work on the Continent. Everything depends upon our
+knowing exactly what is in store for us."
+
+"And have you discovered that?" she enquired.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Everything that we have learnt so far has been of negative value," he
+replied. "The German citizen army is large, but not threateningly so. So
+far as we have been able to discover, they do not seem to have any
+secret store of guns or ammunition. Their docks hold no secrets. Yet we
+know that there is something brewing. Both the men upon whom my uncle
+relied have been murdered."
+
+"But one of them succeeded in getting a dispatch through, did he not?"
+she asked quietly.
+
+"Yes, he succeeded," Nigel acknowledged. "My uncle was murdered,
+however, in the act of decoding it, and the dispatch itself was stolen."
+
+"You are very frank," she said. "I suppose I ought to feel flattered
+that you treat me with so little reserve."
+
+"If you are a friend to Germany," he replied, "you probably know all
+that I can tell you. If you are inclined towards friendship with us,
+then it is as well that you should know everything."
+
+"That is reasonable," she admitted. "Now listen. This conversation can
+only last a few minutes longer. It is true that Oscar Immelan is my
+father's old friend and also mine, but my judgment in all matters which
+relate to the welfare of my country is not influenced by that fact."
+
+"There was a report once," Nigel said, taking his courage into both
+hands, "that you were engaged to be married to him."
+
+She looked him in the eyes. Against the whiteness of his skin, the
+colour of her own seemed more wonderful than ever.
+
+"That is not true," she replied. "It will never be true."
+
+"I am glad," he declared fervently.
+
+There was a brief pause. Both seemed conscious of a renewal of that air
+of disturbance which had reigned between them during their first few
+moments alone. It was Naida who made an effort to restore their
+conversation to its former tone.
+
+"If Germany has any scheme against this country," she said, "believe me,
+it will not be so obvious as you seem to think. It will be a scheme
+which can only be carried out with the assistance of other countries,
+and that assistance is not yet wholly promised. I cannot betray to you
+my knowledge of certain things," she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, "but I can at least give you this warning. It is not for his
+health alone that Prince Shan is flying from China to Paris. If there is
+a single member of your Government who has the least apprehension of
+world politics, now is the time for action."
+
+"There is no one," Nigel answered gloomily.
+
+The box was suddenly invaded. Karetsky reappeared with several other
+men. In the rear of the little procession came Immelan. His face
+darkened as he recognised Nigel. Naida looked across at him with a
+slight frown upon her forehead.
+
+"You have changed your mind?" she remarked. "I thought you were for
+Paris to-night?"
+
+"A fortunate chance intervened," Immelan replied.
+
+"Fortunate?"
+
+Immelan watched Nigel's retreating figure with a menacing frown.
+
+"I find it so," he replied. "Our wonderful prima donna is in great voice
+to-night--and I like to be prepared for all possible combinations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Maggie came suddenly into the library at Belgrave Square, where Jesson,
+Chalmers and Nigel were talking together. She carried in her hand a
+note, which she handed to the latter.
+
+"Naida is a dear, after all," she declared. "There is one person at
+least who does not wish to have me pass away in a German nursing home or
+fall a victim to Frau Essendorf's cooking."
+
+Nigel read the note aloud. It consisted of only a sentence or two and
+was dated from the Milan Court that morning:
+
+     Maggie dear, this is just a line of advice from your friend. You
+     must not go back to Germany.
+
+     Naida.
+
+"I fear," Maggie sighed, "that my little expedition is scotched, even if
+I had been able to persuade you others to let me go. Every one seems to
+have made up their mind that I shall not go to Germany. It will be such
+a disappointment to those flaxen-haired atrocities, Gertrud and Bertha.
+Their so-much-loved Miss Brown can never return to them again."
+
+"In any case, the game was scarcely worth the candle," Nigel observed.
+"We have already all the evidence we require that some scheme inimical
+to this country is being proposed and fostered by Immelan. Our next move
+must be to find out the nature of this scheme--whether it be naval,
+military, or political. I don't think Essendorf would be at all likely
+to give away any more interesting information in the domestic circle."
+
+"What are we all going to do, then?" Maggie asked.
+
+"We are met here to discuss it," Nigel replied. "Jesson is off to Russia
+this afternoon. I asked him to come round and have a few last words with
+us, in case there was anything to suggest for us stay-at-homes."
+
+"We shall have to rely very largely upon luck," Jesson declared. "There
+are three places, in any of which we might discover what we want to
+know. One is Kroten, another is Paris, provided that Prince Shan really
+goes there, and the third London."
+
+"London?" Maggie repeated.
+
+"There are two people in London," Jesson declared, "who know everything
+we are seeking to discover. One is Immelan and the other Naida
+Karetsky."
+
+"It seems to me," Maggie said, "that if that is so, the place for us is
+where those two people are. What is the importance of Kroten, Mr.
+Jesson?"
+
+"Kroten," Jesson replied, "is the second of what I have seen referred
+to in a private diplomatic report, written in an enemy country, as the
+three mystery cities of the world. The first one is in Germany, and I
+have already explored it. I have information, but information which
+without its sequel is valueless. Kroten is the second. Ten years ago it
+was a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. To-day there are at least
+two hundred thousand people there, and it is growing all the time."
+
+"Say, how can a town of that size," Chalmers enquired, "be termed a
+mystery city in any sense of the word? Travelling's free in Russia. I
+guess any one that wanted could take a ticket to Kroten."
+
+"A good many do," Jesson assented calmly, "and some never come back.
+America and Russia are on friendly terms, yet two men in my branch of
+the service--good fellows they were, too--started out from Washington
+for Kroten six months ago. Neither of them has been heard of since;
+neither ever will be."
+
+"How's it done?" Chalmers asked curiously.
+
+"In the first place," Jesson explained, "the city itself stands at the
+arm of the river, in a sort of cul-de-sac, with absolutely untraversable
+mountains on three sides of it. All the roads have to come around the
+plain and enter from eastwards. There is only one line of railway, so
+that all the approaches into the city are easily guarded."
+
+"That's all right geographically, of course," Nigel admitted, "but what
+earthly excuse can any one make for keeping tourists or travellers out
+of the place if they want to go there?"
+
+"That is perhaps the most ingenious thing of all," Jesson replied. "You
+know that Russia is now practically a tranquil country, but there are
+certain bands of the extreme Bolshevistic faction who never gave in to
+authority and who practically exist in the little-known places by means
+of marauding expeditions. The mountains about Kroten are supposed to
+have been infested by these nomadic companies. Whether the outrages set
+down to them are really committed or not, I don't suppose any one knows,
+but my point of view is that the presence of these people is absolutely
+encouraged by the Government, to give them an excuse for the most
+extraordinary precautions in issuing passports or allowing any one from
+the outside world to pass into the city. If you get in, I understand you
+are waited upon by the police within half an hour and have to tell them
+the story of your past life and your future intentions. After that you
+are allowed to go about on parole. If you get too inquisitive, you are
+discovered to be in touch with the robber bands, and--well--that's an
+end of you."
+
+"A nice, salubrious spot," Nigel murmured.
+
+"It sounds most interesting," Maggie declared. "I think a woman would
+be less likely to cause suspicion," she added hopefully.
+
+"Utterly out of the question," Jesson pronounced. "Kroten is the one
+place that must be left in my hands. I know more about the getting there
+than any of you, and I know the tricks of changing my identity."
+
+"I should rather like to go with you," Nigel confessed.
+
+"Impossible!" was the brief reply.
+
+"Why?"
+
+Jesson smiled.
+
+"To be perfectly frank," he said, "because you are developing an
+interest in the one person in the world who might give success over into
+our hands. It is necessary for you to remain where you can encourage
+that interest."
+
+Nigel was a little staggered.
+
+"My friendship with Mademoiselle Karetsky," he protested, "is scarcely
+likely to influence her political views."
+
+"I am a somewhat close observer," Jesson continued. "You will not ask me
+to believe that your conversation with mademoiselle in her box at the
+Opera last night related all the time to--well, shall we say music?"
+
+"Nigel, you never told me you were at the Opera," Maggie intervened.
+"What made you go?"
+
+"I think that it was a message from Mademoiselle Karetsky," Jesson
+suggested quietly.
+
+Nigel smiled.
+
+"Upon my word, I think you're going to be a success, Jesson," he
+declared. "Perhaps you can tell me what we did talk about?"
+
+"I believe I almost could," was the calm reply. "In any case, I think I
+see the situation as it exists. Mademoiselle Karetsky is a wonderful
+woman. She has a great, open mind. To a certain extent, of course, she
+has seen things from the point of view of Paul Matinsky, Immelan, and
+that little coterie of Russo-Germans who see a future for both countries
+only in an alliance of the old-fashioned order. Matinsky, however, has
+always had his doubts. That is why he sent over here the one person whom
+he trusted. Presently she will make a report, and the whole issue will
+remain with her. Immelan knows this and pays her ceaseless court. My
+impression, however, is that his influence is waning. I believe that
+to-day he is terrified at the bare reflection of how much Naida Karetsky
+knows."
+
+"You believe that she does know exactly what is intended?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I am perfectly certain of it," Jesson replied. "If she could be induced
+to tell us everything, my journey to Kroten might just as well be
+abandoned. Yet somehow I do not think she will go so far as that. The
+most that we can hope for is that she will advise Matinsky to reject
+Immelan's proposals, and that she will perhaps bring some influence to
+bear in the same direction upon Prince Shan."
+
+"I am inclined to agree with Jesson," Nigel pronounced, "inasmuch as I
+believe that Mademoiselle Karetsky is disposed to change or modify her
+views concerning us. You see, after all, this threatened blow against
+England is purely a private affair of Germany's. There is really no
+reason why Russia or any other country should be dragged into it. She is
+the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for her most dangerous
+rival."
+
+"Matinsky might be brought to think that way," Chalmers observed, "but
+they say half the members of his Cabinet are under German influence."
+
+"If Matinsky believed that," Nigel declared, "he is quite strong enough
+to clear them all out and make a fresh start."
+
+"In the meantime," Maggie interposed, "I should like to know in what way
+you propose to use poor little me? I am not to go to Germany, the man
+whom I at one time seriously thought of marrying is told off to engage
+the attentions of another woman, Mr. Jesson here is going to Kroten, and
+he doesn't show the slightest inclination to take me with him. Am I to
+sit here and do nothing?"
+
+"There remains for you the third enterprise," Jesson replied, "one in
+which, so far as I can see," he continued, with a smile, "you have not
+the faintest chance of success."
+
+"Tell me what it is, at least?" she begged.
+
+"The conversion of Prince Shan."
+
+Maggie made a little grimace.
+
+"Aren't you trying me a little high?" she murmured.
+
+"Very high indeed," Jesson acknowledged. "Prince Shan, for all his
+wonderful statesmanship and his grip upon world affairs, is reputed to
+be almost an anchorite in his daily life. No woman has ever yet been
+able to boast of having exercised the slightest influence over him. At
+the same time, he is an extraordinarily human person, and success with
+him would mean the end of your enemies."
+
+"It sounds a bit of a forlorn hope," Maggie remarked cheerfully, "but
+I'll do my little best."
+
+"Prince Shan has abandoned his idea of landing at Paris," Jesson
+continued. "He is coming direct to London. I have to thank Chalmers for
+that information. Immelan will meet him directly he arrives, and their
+first conversations will make history. Afterwards, if things go well,
+Mademoiselle Karetsky will join the conference."
+
+"I fear," Maggie sighed, "that there will be difficulties in the way of
+my establishing confidential relations with Prince Shan."
+
+"There will be difficulties," Jesson assented, "but the thing is not so
+impossible as it would be in Paris. Prince Shan has a very fine house
+in Curzon Street, which is kept in continual readiness for him. He will
+probably entertain to some extent. You will without doubt have
+opportunities of meeting him socially."
+
+Maggie glanced at herself in the glass.
+
+"A Chinaman!" she murmured.
+
+"I guess that doesn't mean what it did," Chalmers pointed out. "Prince
+Shan is an aristocrat and a born ruler. He has every scrap of culture
+that we know anything about and something from his thousand-year-old
+family that we don't quite know how to put into words. Don't you worry
+about Prince Shan, Lady Maggie. Ask Dorminster here what they called him
+at Oxford."
+
+"The first gentleman of Asia," Nigel replied. "I think he deserves the
+title."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+On the morning following the conclave in Belgrave Square, the Right
+Honourable Mervin Brown received two extremely distinguished visitors in
+Downing Street. It was doubtful whether the Prime Minister was
+altogether at his best. There was a certain amount of irritability
+rankling beneath his customary air of bonhommie. He motioned his callers
+to take chairs, however, and listened attentively to the few words of
+introduction which his secretary thought necessary.
+
+"This is General Dumesnil, sir, of the French Staff, and Monsieur
+Pouilly of the French Cabinet. They have called according to
+appointment, on Government business."
+
+"Very glad to see you, gentlemen," was the Prime Minister's brisk
+welcome. "Sorry I can't talk French to you. Politics, these last ten
+years, haven't left us much time for the outside graces."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly at once took the floor. He was a thin, dark man with a
+beautifully trimmed black beard, flashing black eyes, and thoughtful,
+delicate features. He was attired in the frock coat and dark trousers of
+diplomatic usage, and he appeared to somewhat resent the brown tweed
+suit and soft collar of the man who was receiving him.
+
+"Mr. Mervin Brown," he began, "you will kindly look upon our visit as
+official. We are envoys from Monsieur le President and the French
+Government. General Dumesnil has accompanied me, in case our
+conversation should turn upon military matters here or at the War
+Office."
+
+The General saluted. The Prime Minister bowed a little awkwardly.
+
+"So far as I am concerned," the latter declared, "I will be perfectly
+frank with you from the start. I know nothing whatever about military
+affairs. My job is to govern this country, to make the most of its
+resources, and to bring prosperity to its citizens from the English
+Channel to the North Sea. We don't need soldiers and never shall, that I
+can see. I am firmly convinced that the days of wars are over. The
+government of every country in the world is getting into the hands of
+the democracy, and the democracy don't want war and never did. If any of
+the more quarrelsome folk on the continent get scrapping, well, my
+conception of my duty is to keep out of it."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly restrained himself. To judge from his appearance,
+however, it was not altogether an easy matter.
+
+"You belong, sir," he said, "to a type of statesman whose rise to power
+in this country some of us have watched with a certain amount of
+concern, for although it is not my mission here to-day to talk politics,
+I am yet bound to remind you that you do not stand alone. The very
+League of Nations upon which you rely imposes certain obligations upon
+you, some actual, some understood. It is to discuss the situation
+arising from your neglect to make the provisions called for in that
+agreement that I am here to-day."
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown glanced at some figures which his secretary had laid
+before him.
+
+"You complain, I presume, of the reduction of our standing army?" he
+observed.
+
+"We complain of that," Monsieur Pouilly replied, "and we complain also
+of the gradually decreasing interest shown by your Government in matters
+of aeronautics, artillery, and naval construction. We learnt our lesson
+in 1914. If trouble should come again, our country would once more be
+the sufferer. You would no doubt do everything that was expected of you,
+in time. Before you were ready, however, France would be ruined. You
+entered into certain obligations under the League of Nations. My
+Government begs to call your attention to the fact that you are not
+fulfilling them."
+
+"It is my intention within the course of the next few months," Mervin
+Brown declared, "to lay before the League of Nations a scheme for total
+disarmament."
+
+Monsieur Pouilly was staggered. A little exclamation escaped the
+General.
+
+"What about those nations," the latter enquired, "who were left outside
+the League? What of Russia, for instance?"
+
+"Russia is a great and peaceful republic," Mervin Brown replied. "All
+her efforts are devoted towards industrial development. No nation would
+have less to gain by a return to militarism."
+
+"Pardon, monsieur, but how do you know anything about Russia?" Monsieur
+Pouilly asked. "You have not a single secret service agent there, and
+your ambassadors are ambassadors of commerce."
+
+"I know what every one else knows," Mervin Brown declared. "Our
+commercial travellers are our secret service agents. They travel where
+they please in Russia."
+
+"And Germany?" the General queried.
+
+"I defy you to say that there is the slightest indication of any
+militarism in Germany," the Prime Minister insisted. "I was there myself
+only a few months ago. The country is quiet and moving on now to a new
+prosperity. I am absolutely and entirely convinced that the world has
+nothing to fear from either Russia or Germany."
+
+"Have you any theory, sir," General Dumesnil enquired, "as to why Russia
+refused to join the League of Nations?"
+
+"None whatever," was the genial acknowledgment. "Russia was left out at
+the start through jealous statesmanship, and afterwards she preferred
+her independence. I have every sympathy with her attitude."
+
+"One more question," the soldier begged. "Are you aware, sir, that since
+Japan left the League of Nations on the excuse of her isolation, she has
+been building aeroplanes and battleships on a new theory, instigated, if
+you please, by China?"
+
+"And look at her last balance sheet as a result of it," was the prompt
+retort. "If a nation chooses to make herself a bankrupt by building war
+toys, no one in the world can help her. Legislation of that sort is
+foolish and simply an incitement to revolution. Look at the difference
+in our country. Our income tax is practically abolished, our industrial
+troubles are over. Our credit never stood so high, the wealth of the
+country was never so great. We are satisfied. A peaceful nation makes
+for peace. The rattling of the sabre incites military disturbance. Do
+not ask us, gentlemen, to train armies or build ships."
+
+"We ask you only to keep your covenant," Monsieur Pouilly pronounced
+stiffly.
+
+"Who does keep it?" the Prime Minister demanded. "The world is governed
+now by common sense and humanity. I look upon a war of aggression on the
+part of any country as a sheer impossibility."
+
+"What about a war of revenge?" the General enquired quietly.
+
+"You can search Germany from end to end," Mervin Brown declared, "and
+find no trace of any spirit of the sort. I am sorry if I am a
+disappointment to you, gentlemen, but the present Government views your
+attitude without sympathy. General Richardson is expecting a visit from
+you this morning at the War Office, and he will give you any information
+you desire. An appointment has also been made for you this afternoon at
+the Admiralty. You are doing me the honour of dining with me here
+to-morrow night to meet certain members of my Cabinet, and we will, if
+you choose, discuss the matter further then. I have thought it best to
+place my views clearly before you, however, at the outset of your visit
+here."
+
+The Frenchmen rose a few minutes later and took their leave,
+ceremoniously but with obvious discontent. The Prime Minister leaned
+back in his chair and awaited his secretary's return with a
+well-satisfied smile. In a few minutes the latter presented himself.
+
+"Well, Franklin," the great man said, "I've let them hear the truth for
+once. Plain speaking, eh?"
+
+The young man bowed.
+
+"They certainly know your views, sir."
+
+The Minister glanced at his subordinate sharply.
+
+"What's the matter with you this morning, Franklin?" he demanded.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me, thank you, sir," was the quiet
+reply.
+
+"You're not going to tell me that you disapprove of my attitude?"
+
+"By no means, sir," the young man assured his Chief hastily,--"not
+altogether, that is to say. At the same time, one wonders how far those
+two men represent the feeling of France."
+
+His Chief shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The military spirit is hard to kill," he said. "It is in the blood of
+most Frenchmen. They are not big enough to understand that the world is
+moving on to greater things. What did they say to you before they left?"
+
+"Nothing much, sir. The General just asked me whether I thought you
+would soon be content to leave London unpoliced."
+
+"What rubbish! Any one else for me to see this morning?"
+
+"You promised to give Lord Dorminster ten minutes," the young man
+reminded him. "He is in the anteroom now."
+
+The Prime Minister frowned.
+
+"Dorminster," he repeated. "He is a nephew of the man who was always
+worrying the Government to reestablish the secret service. I remember he
+came to see me the other day, declared that his uncle had been
+murdered, and a secret dispatch from Germany stolen. I wonder he didn't
+wind up with a report that the Chinese were on their way to seize
+Ireland!"
+
+"It is the same man, sir."
+
+"Well, I suppose I'd better see him and get it over," his Chief declared
+irritably. "If only one could make these people realize how far behind
+the times they are!"
+
+Nigel was shown in, a few minutes later. Mr. Mervin Brown was gracious
+but terse.
+
+"I haven't had the opportunity of congratulating you upon becoming one
+of our hereditary legislators, Lord Dorminster, since you took your seat
+in the House of Lords," he said. "Pray let me do so now. I hope that we
+may count upon your support."
+
+"My support, sir," Nigel replied, "will be given to any Party which will
+take the urgent necessary steps to protect this country against a great
+danger."
+
+"God bless my soul!" the Prime Minister exclaimed. "Another of you!"
+
+"I can only guess who my predecessors were," Nigel continued, smiling,
+"but I will frankly confess that the object of my visit is to beg you to
+reestablish our secret service in Germany, Russia and China."
+
+"Nothing," the other declared, "would induce me to do anything of the
+sort."
+
+"Are you aware," Nigel enquired, "that there is a considerable foreign
+secret service at work in this country at the present moment?"
+
+"I am not aware of it, and I don't believe it," was the blunt retort.
+
+"I have absolute proof," Nigel insisted. "Not only that, but two
+ex-secret service men whom my uncle sent out to Germany and Russia on
+his own account were murdered there as soon as they began to get on the
+track of certain things which had been kept secret. A report from one of
+these men got through and was stolen from my uncle's library in Belgrave
+Square on the day he was murdered. You will remember that I placed all
+these facts before you on the occasion of a previous visit."
+
+Mervin Brown nodded.
+
+"Anything else?" he asked patiently.
+
+"You know that a special envoy from China is on his way here at the
+present moment to meet Immelan?"
+
+"Oscar Immelan, the German Commissioner?"
+
+"The same," Nigel assented.
+
+"A most delightful fellow," the Prime Minister declared warmly, "and a
+great friend to this country."
+
+"I must take the liberty of disagreeing with you," Nigel rejoined,
+"because I know very well that he is our bitter enemy. Prince Shan, who
+is on his way from China to meet him, is the envoy of the one country
+outside Europe whom we might fear. We sit still and do nothing. We have
+no means of knowing what may be plotted against us here in London. At
+least a polite request might be sent to Prince Shan to ask him to pay
+you a visit and disclose the nature of his conference with Immelan."
+
+"If he cares to come, we shall be glad to see him," Mervin Brown
+replied, "but I for one shall not go out of my way to talk politics."
+
+"Do you know what politics are, sir?" Nigel asked, in a sudden fury.
+
+The Prime Minister's eyes flashed for a moment. He controlled himself,
+however, and rang the bell.
+
+"I have an idea that I do," he answered. "A few millions of my fellow
+countrymen believe the same thing, or I should not be here. I think that
+you know what my principles are, Lord Dorminster. I am here to govern
+this country for the benefit of the people. We don't want to govern any
+one else's country, we don't want to meddle in any one else's affairs.
+Least of all do we want to revert to the times when your uncle was a
+young man, and every country in Europe was sitting with drawn sword,
+trusting nobody, fearing everybody, living in a state of nerves, with
+the roll of the drum always in their ears. The best preventative of war,
+in my opinion, is not to believe in it. Good morning, Lord Dorminster."
+
+It was a dismissal against which there was no appeal. Nigel followed the
+secretary from the room.
+
+"You found the Chief a little bit ratty this morning, I expect, Lord
+Dorminster," the latter remarked. "We've had the French Mission here."
+
+"Mr. Mervin Brown has at least the virtue of knowing his own mind,"
+Nigel replied dryly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The automobile turned in through the great entrance gates of the South
+London Aeronautic Terminus and commenced a slow ascent along the broad
+asphalted road to what, a few years ago, had been esteemed a new wonder
+of the world. Maggie rose to her feet with a little exclamation of
+wonder.
+
+"Do you know I have never been here at night before?" she exclaimed.
+"Isn't it wonderful!"
+
+"Marvellous!" Nigel replied. "It's the largest aeronautic station in the
+world--bigger, they say, than all our railway termini put together. Look
+at the flares, Maggie! No wonder the sky from the housetop at Belgrave
+Square seems always to be on fire at night!"
+
+They were approaching now the first of the huge sheds which were
+arranged in circular fashion around an immense stretch of perfectly
+level asphalted ground. Every shed was as big as an ordinary railway
+station, its arched opening framed with electric illuminations. Inside
+could be seen the crowds of people waiting on the platforms; in many of
+them, the engine of a great airship was already throbbing, waiting to
+start. In the background was a huge wireless installation, and around,
+at regular intervals, enormous pillars, on the top of which flares of
+different-coloured fire were burning. The automobile came to a
+standstill before a large electrically illuminated time chart. Nigel
+alighted for a moment and spoke to one of the inspectors.
+
+"Which station for the _Black Dragon_, private ship from China?" he
+enquired.
+
+The man glanced at the chart.
+
+"Number seven, on the other side," he replied. "You can drive around."
+
+"How is she for time?"
+
+"She crossed the North Sea punctually," he replied. "We should see her
+violet lights in ten minutes. Mind the traffic as you pass number three.
+The North ship from Norway is just in."
+
+Nigel addressed a word of caution to the chauffeur, and they drove on.
+From the first shed they passed a stream of vehicles was pouring
+out,--porters with luggage, jostling throngs of newly arrived passengers
+on their way to the Electric Underground. They drove into number seven
+shed, left the car, and walked to the end of the long platform. The
+great arc of glass-covered roof above them was brilliantly illuminated,
+throwing a queer downward light upon the long line of waiting porters,
+the refreshment rooms, the kiosks and newspaper stalls. In the far end,
+a huge airship, bound for the East, was already filling up. Maggie and
+her companion stood for a few minutes gazing into the huge void of
+space.
+
+"Tell me about Naida," the former begged, a little abruptly.
+
+"Naida is a wonderful woman," Nigel declared enthusiastically. "We
+lunched at Ciro's. She wore a black and white muslin gown which arrived
+this morning from Paris. Afterwards we went down to Ranelagh and sat
+under the trees."
+
+"Throwing yourself thoroughly into your little job, aren't you!" Maggie
+sniffed.
+
+"You'll have a chance to catch me up before long," he replied. "Naida
+has promised that she will arrange a meeting with the Prince."
+
+"I wonder what Oscar Immelan will have to say about it," Maggie
+reflected.
+
+"To tell you the truth," Nigel said hopefully, "I believe that Immelan
+is losing ground. His whole scheme is too selfish. Of course, Naida
+won't discuss these things with me in plain words, but she gives me a
+hint now and then. Amongst her gifts, she has a marvellous sense of
+justice and a hatred of any form of bribery. That is where I feel
+convinced that she and Immelan will never come together. Immelan could
+never see more than the selfish side, even of a world upheaval. Naida
+searches everywhere for motive. She has the altruistic instinct. I
+wonder no longer at Matinsky. She is a born ruler herself."
+
+"I'm glad you are getting along with her," Maggie remarked. "Look!" she
+broke off, catching at his arm. "The violet lights!"
+
+High up in the sky outside, two violet specks of light suddenly rose and
+fell like airballs. A crowd of mechanics appeared through subterranean
+doors and stood about in the vast arena. Very soon the airship came into
+sight, her cars brilliantly illuminated. She circled slowly round and
+came noiselessly to the ground, and with the mechanics running by her
+side, and her engines now scarcely audible, came slowly into the shed
+and to a standstill by the side of the platform. Maggie and her
+companion stood well in the background.
+
+"There he is," the latter whispered.
+
+Immelan, suddenly appeared as though from the bowels of the earth, was
+shaking hands warmly with a tall, slender man who was one of the first
+to descend from the airship. They talked rapidly together for a few
+minutes. Then they disappeared, walking down towards the
+luggage-clearing station. Maggie watched the retreating figures
+earnestly.
+
+"He doesn't look in the least Chinese," she declared.
+
+"I told you he didn't," Nigel replied. "He was considered the
+best-looking man of his year up at Oxford."
+
+Maggie was unusually silent on their way back.
+
+"It was perhaps scarcely worth our while, this little expedition of
+ours," Maggie said thoughtfully.
+
+"You're not sorry that we came?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head. "I think not," she replied.
+
+"Why only 'think'?"
+
+She roused herself with an effort.
+
+"I don't know, Nigel," she confessed. "I can't imagine what is wrong
+with me. I feel shivery--nervous--as though something were going to
+happen."
+
+He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie whom he scarcely
+recognised.
+
+"Presentiments?" he asked.
+
+"Absurd, isn't it!" she replied, with a weak smile. "I'll get over it
+directly. I don't think I am going to like Prince Shan, Nigel."
+
+"Well, you haven't been long making up your mind," he observed. "I
+shouldn't have thought you had been able even to see his face."
+
+"I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it," she reflected. "To me it
+seemed as though it were carved out of granite, and as though all that
+was human about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he hadn't been
+looking."
+
+"Are you flattering yourself that he will recognise you?" Nigel asked.
+
+"I know that he will," she answered simply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at the Ritz on the
+following evening, Prince Shan and Immelan dined tete-a-tete, Immelan in
+the best of spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world,
+drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities; Prince Shan, his
+features and expression unchanging, and his face as white as the
+perfectly fitting shirt he wore. His clothes were fashionable and
+distinctive, his black pearls unobtrusive but wonderful, his smoothly
+brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger nails, his skilfully tied tie
+all indicative of his close touch with western civilization. There was
+nothing, in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly
+unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air of personal
+detachment, to denote the Oriental. He drank water, he ate sparingly, he
+preserved an almost unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one giving
+courteous attention to everything which his companion said and finding
+interest in it. Only once he asked a question.
+
+"You are well acquainted here, my host," he said. "You know the trio at
+the table just behind the entrance--the attractive young lady with her
+chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must be an old college
+acquaintance whose name I have forgotten. Tell me some more about them
+in their private capacity, and not as saviours of their country."
+
+Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across the room.
+
+"There is not much to tell," he answered, without enthusiasm. "The young
+lady is, as you know, Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white
+hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their escort is Lord
+Dorminster. You would probably know him by the name of Kingley--he has
+only just succeeded to the title."
+
+Prince Shan was looking straight across the room, his eyes travelling
+over the heads of the many brilliant little groups of diners to rest
+apparently upon an empty space in the white-and-gold walls. He had been
+a great traveller, but always his first evening, when he came once more
+into touch with a civilisation more meretricious but more poignant than
+his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His
+companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.
+
+"They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is
+only gossip, however."
+
+For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His
+eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully _soignee_, very
+alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not
+actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more
+he felt the disturbance of the West.
+
+"If we should chance to come together naturally," he said, "it would
+gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very
+naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that
+evening, and the table towards which an attentive _maitre d'hotel_
+conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by
+Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was
+bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently,
+to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after
+the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to
+offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.
+
+"This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie," he said. "I am
+fortunate."
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted her unspoken invitation
+and seated himself on the lounge by her side.
+
+"We who come from the self-contained countries of the world," he
+explained, "and China is one of them, come always with the desire and
+longing for new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite for these
+is insatiable."
+
+"And am I a new sensation?" Maggie asked, glancing up at him innocently
+enough, but with a faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.
+
+"You are," he answered placidly. "You reveal--or rather you suggest--the
+things of which in my country we know nothing."
+
+"But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised over there," Maggie
+observed. "Please tell me at once what it is that I possess which your
+womenkind do not."
+
+"If I answered all that your question implies," he said, "I should make
+use of speech too direct for the conventions of the world in which you
+live. I would simply remind you that whereas we men in China may claim,
+I think, to have reached the same standard of culture and civilisation
+as Europeans, we have left our womenkind far behind in that respect. The
+Chinese woman, even the noble lady, does not care for serious affairs.
+The God of the Mountains, as they call him, made her a flower to pluck,
+a beautiful plaything for her chosen mate. She remains primitive. That
+is why, in time, man wearies of her, why the person of imagination looks
+sometimes westward, finds a new joy and a strange new fascination in a
+wholly different type of femininity."
+
+"But you have many European women now living in China," Maggie reminded
+him,--"American women, too, and they are so much admired everywhere."
+
+"The Chinese, especially we of the nobility," Prince Shan replied, "are
+born with racial prejudices. An individual may forgive an affront, a
+nation never. The days of retaliation by force of arms may indeed have
+passed, but the gentleman of China, even of these days, is not likely to
+take to his heart the woman of America."
+
+"Dear me," Maggie murmured, "isn't it rather out of date to persevere in
+these ancient feuds?"
+
+"Feeling of all sorts is out of date," he admitted patiently, "yet there
+are some things which endure. I should be honoured by your friendship,
+Lady Maggie."
+
+"This is very sudden," she laughed. "I am very flattered--but what does
+it mean?"
+
+"Permission to call upon you--and your aunt," he added, glancing around
+the little circle.
+
+"We shall be delighted," Maggie replied, "but you won't like my aunt.
+She is a little deaf, and she has no sense of humour. She has come to
+live with us because Lord Dorminster and I are not really related,
+although we call ourselves cousins, and I should hate to leave Belgrave
+Square. You shall take me out to tea to-morrow afternoon instead, if you
+like."
+
+A smouldering fire burned for a moment in his eyes.
+
+"That will make me very happy," he said. "I shall attend you at four
+o'clock."
+
+Thenceforward, conversation became general. Prince Shan, with the air
+of one who has achieved his immediate object, left his place by Maggie's
+side and talked with grave courtesy to her aunt. Presently the little
+party broke up, bound, it seemed, for the same theatre. Nigel had become
+a little serious.
+
+"Well, you've made a good start, Maggie," he remarked, leaning forward
+in his place in the limousine.
+
+"Have I?" Maggie answered thoughtfully. "I wonder!"
+
+"I wish we could get at him in some different fashion," her companion
+observed uneasily.
+
+"My dear man, I'm hardened to these enterprises," Maggie assured him. "I
+even let the President of the German Republic hold my hand once when his
+wife wasn't looking. Nothing came of it," she added, with a little sigh.
+"These Germans are terribly sentimental when it doesn't cost them
+anything. They've no idea of a fair exchange."
+
+"By a 'fair exchange' you mean," her aunt suggested, a little
+censoriously, "that you expected him to barter his country's secrets for
+a touch of your fingers?"
+
+"Or my lips, perhaps," Maggie added, with a little grimace. "Please
+don't look so serious, Aunt. I'm not really in love with Prince Shan,
+you know, and to-night I rather feel like marrying Nigel, if I can get
+him back again. I like his waistcoat buttons, and the way he has tied
+his tie."
+
+"Too late, my dear," Nigel warned her. "I give you formal notice. I
+have transferred my affections."
+
+"That decides me," Maggie declared firmly. "I shall collect you back
+again. I hate to lose an admirer."
+
+"The nonsense you young people talk!" Mrs. Bollington Smith observed, as
+they reached the theatre.
+
+Chalmers joined them soon after they had reached their box. He sank into
+the empty place by Maggie's side which Nigel had just vacated and leaned
+forward confidentially.
+
+"So you've started the campaign," he whispered.
+
+"How do you know?" she enquired.
+
+"I was at the Ritz to-night," he told her, "at the far end of the room
+with my Chief and two other men. We were behind you in the lounge
+afterwards."
+
+"I was so engrossed," Maggie murmured.
+
+Chalmers paused for a moment to watch the performance. When he spoke
+again, his voice, was, for him, unusually serious.
+
+"Young lady," he said, "I told you on our first meeting my idea of
+diplomacy. Truth! No beating about the bush--just the plain, unvarnished
+truth! I have conceived an affection for you."
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Maggie exclaimed softly. "Are you going to
+propose?"
+
+"Nothing," he assured her, "is farther from my thoughts. Lest I should
+be misunderstood, let me substitute the term 'affectionate interest' for
+'affection.' I have felt uneasy ever since I saw Prince Shan watching
+you across the restaurant to-night."
+
+"Did he really watch me?" Maggie asked complacently.
+
+"He not only watched you," Chalmers assured her, "but he thought about
+you--and very little else."
+
+"Congratulate me, then," she replied. "I am on the way to success."
+
+Chalmers frowned.
+
+"I'm not quite so sure," he said. "You'll think I'm an illogical sort of
+person, but I've changed my mind about your role in this little affair."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I am afraid of Prince Shan," he answered deliberately.
+
+She looked at him from behind her fan. Her eyes sparkled with interest.
+If there were any other feeling underneath, she showed no trace of it.
+
+"What a queer word for you to use!"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know it. I would back you, Lady Maggie, to hold your own against any
+male creature breathing, of your own order and your own race, but Prince
+Shan plays the game differently. He possesses every gift which women and
+men both admire, but he hasn't our standards. Life for him means power.
+A wish for him entails its fulfilment."
+
+"You are afraid," Maggie suggested, still with the laughter in her eyes,
+"that he will trifle with my affections?"
+
+"Something like that," he admitted bluntly. "Prince Shan will be here
+for a week--perhaps a fortnight. When he goes, he goes a very long
+distance away."
+
+"I may decide to marry him," Maggie said. "One gets rather tired here of
+the regular St. George's, Hanover Square, business, and all that comes
+afterwards."
+
+"Dear Lady Maggie," Chalmers replied, "that is the trouble. Prince Shan
+would never marry you."
+
+"Why not?" she asked simply.
+
+"First of all," Chalmers went on, after a moment's hesitation, "because
+Prince Shan, broad-minded though he seems to be and is on all the great
+questions of the world, still preserves something of what we should call
+the superstition of his country and order. I believe, in his own mind,
+he looks upon himself as being one of the few elect of the earth. He
+travels, he is gracious everywhere, but though his manner is the
+perfection of form, in his heart he is still aloof. He rides through the
+clouds from Asia, and he leaves always something of himself over there
+on the other side. Let me tell you this, Lady Maggie. I have never
+forgotten it. He was at Harvard in my year, and so far as he unbent to
+any one, he sometimes unbent to me. I asked him once whether he were
+ever going to marry. He shook his head and sighed. 'I can never marry,'
+he replied. 'Why not?' I asked him. 'Because there are no women of the
+Shan line alive,' he answered. Later, he took pity on my bewilderment.
+He let me understand. For two thousand years, no Shan has married, save
+one of his own line. To ally himself with a princess of the royal house
+of England would be a mesalliance which would disturb his ancestors in
+their graves. Of course, this sounds to us very ridiculous, but to him
+it isn't. It is part of the religion of his life."
+
+"You are not very encouraging, are you?" Maggie remarked. "Perhaps he
+has changed since those days."
+
+Her companion shook his head.
+
+"I should say not," he replied, "the Prince is not of the order of those
+who change."
+
+"Is it matrimony alone," she asked, "which he denies himself?"
+
+Chalmers glanced towards Mrs. Bollington Smith, whose eyes were closed.
+Then he nodded towards the stage.
+
+"You see the woman who has just come upon the stage?"
+
+Maggie glanced downwards. A very wonderful little figure in white satin,
+lithe and sinuous as a cat, Chinese in the subtlety of her looks,
+European in her almost sinister over-civilisation, stood smiling
+blandly at the applauding audience.
+
+"La Belle Nita," Maggie murmured. "I thought she was in Paris. Well,
+what of her?"
+
+"She is reputed to be a protegee of Prince Shan. You see how she looks
+up at his box."
+
+Maggie was conscious of a queer and almost incomprehensible stab at the
+heart. She answered without hesitation or change of expression, however.
+
+"The Prince must be kind to a fellow countrywoman," she declared
+indulgently. "You are talking terrible scandal."
+
+La Belle Nita danced wonderfully, sang like a linnet, danced again and
+disappeared, notwithstanding the almost wild calls for an encore. With
+the end of her turn came a selection from the orchestra and a general
+emptying of the boxes. Presently Chalmers went in search of Nigel. A few
+moments later there was a knock at the door. Maggie gripped the sides of
+her chair tightly. She was moved almost to fury by the turmoil in which
+she found herself. Her invitation to enter was almost inaudible.
+
+"I am deserted," Prince Shan explained, as he made his bow and took the
+chair to which Maggie pointed. "My friend Immelan has left me to visit
+acquaintances, and I chance to be unattended this evening. I trust that
+I do not intrude."
+
+"You are very welcome here," Maggie replied. "Will you listen to the
+orchestra, or talk to me?"
+
+"I will talk, if I may," he answered. "Lord Dorminster is not with
+you?"
+
+"Nigel went to look up a friend whom he wants to bring to supper. He is
+one of those people who seem to discover friends and acquaintances in
+every quarter of the globe."
+
+"And to that fortunate chance," her visitor continued, dropping his
+voice a little, "I owe the happiness of finding you alone."
+
+Maggie glanced towards her aunt, who was leaning back in her seat.
+
+"Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't," she declared. "She is really a
+very efficient chaperon. Talk to me about China, please, and tell me
+about your _Dragon_ airship. Is it true that you have silver baths, and
+that Gauteron painted the walls of your dining salon?"
+
+"One is in the air five days on the way over," he answered
+indifferently. "It is necessary that one's surroundings should be
+agreeable. Perhaps some day I may have the honour of showing it to you.
+In the darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to be seen."
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"You knew that I was there, then?"
+
+"Yours was the first face I saw when I descended from the car," he told
+her. "You stood apart, watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that
+you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I came there. As a rule,
+I do not dine in public."
+
+"How could you possibly know that I was going to be there?" Maggie asked
+curiously.
+
+"I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through the names of those who
+had booked tables," he answered. "It was very simple."
+
+"It was only a chance that the table was reserved in my name," she
+reminded him.
+
+"It was chance which brought us together," he rejoined. "It is chance
+under another name to which I trust in life."
+
+For the first time in her life, in her relations with the other sex,
+Maggie felt a queer sensation which was almost fear. She felt herself
+losing poise, her will governed, her whole self dominated. Unconsciously
+she drew herself a little away. Her eyes travelled around the crowded
+house and suddenly rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
+Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly forward, her eyes fixed
+intently upon Prince Shan, was La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown
+around her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure in the
+semi-obscurity.
+
+"You have some one waiting for you in your box," Maggie told him.
+
+He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his feet. She gave him
+credit for the adroitness of mind which rejected the obvious
+explanation of her presence there.
+
+"I must go," he said simply, "but I have many things which I desire to
+say to you. You will not forget to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"I shall not forget," she answered, in a low tone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince Shan's eyes as he sat
+back in the dim recesses of his box and scrutinised his visitor. La
+Belle Nita had learnt all that Paris and London could teach her.
+
+"You are very beautiful, Nita," he said.
+
+"Many men tell me so," she answered.
+
+"Life has gone well with you since we met last?" he asked reflectively.
+
+"The months have passed," she replied.
+
+"You have been faithful?"
+
+"Fidelity is of the soul."
+
+He paused, as though pondering over her answer. A famous French comedian
+was holding the stage, and the house rocked with laughter.
+
+"You have the same apartment?"
+
+She pressed the clasp of a black velvet bag which rested on the edge of
+the box, opened it, and passed him a key.
+
+"It is the same."
+
+He held the key in his fingers for a moment, but he had the air of a man
+to whom the action had no significance.
+
+"You have enough money?" he asked.
+
+"I have saved a million francs," she told him. "I am waiting for my
+lord to speak of things that matter. The woman in the box over
+there--who is she?"
+
+"An English spy," he answered calmly.
+
+She lowered her eyes for a moment, as though to conceal the sudden soft
+flash.
+
+"An English spy," she repeated. "My rival in espionage."
+
+"You have no rival, Nita," he replied, "and she is in the opposite
+camp."
+
+Her two red lips were distorted into a pout.
+
+"Is it over, my task?" she asked. "I am weary of Paris. I love it over
+here better. I am weary of French officers, of these solemn officials
+who come to my room like guilty schoolboys, and who speak of themselves
+and their importance with bated breath, as though their whisper would
+rock the world. My master has enough information?"
+
+"More than enough," he assured her. "You have done your work
+wonderfully."
+
+"Shall I now deal with her?" she continued, with a slight, eager
+movement of her head towards the opposite box.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"She is harmless, she and her entourage," he replied. "Some stroke of
+good fortune brought them word of the meeting between myself and
+Immelan, and beyond that they guessed at its significance. They were at
+the shed to watch my arrival. Now, with their mouths open, they sit and
+wait for the information which they hope will drop in. They are very
+ingenuous, these Anglo-Saxons, but they are not diplomats."
+
+She turned her head and looked across the auditorium. Maggie was talking
+to a man whom Nigel had just brought in, and who was bending over her in
+obvious admiration. Nita, with her wealth of cosmetics, her over-red
+lips, stared curiously at this possible rival, with her clear skin, her
+beautiful neck and shoulders, her hair dressed close to her head, her
+air of quiet, almost singular distinction.
+
+"The young lady," she confessed, "wears her clothes well for an English
+woman. She is _bien soignee_, but she looks a little difficult."
+
+His eyes followed the direction of hers, and her object was achieved.
+She read correctly the light that gleamed in them.
+
+"I may come to-night?" she asked quietly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Not again," he replied.
+
+A violinist now held the stage, a Pole newly come to London. La Belle
+Nita closed her eyes. For a few minutes her sorrow seemed to throb to
+the minor music to which she was listening.
+
+"For all my work, then," she said presently, "for the suffering and the
+risk, there is to be nothing?"
+
+"Is it nothing for you to be invited to live in whatsoever manner you
+choose?" he remonstrated.
+
+"It is little," she replied steadily. "There are a dozen who would do
+this for me, who pray every day that they may do so. What are all these
+things beside the love of my master?"
+
+He looked at her a little sadly, yet without any sign of real feeling.
+To him she represented nothing more than a doll with brains, from whose
+intelligence he had profited, but of whose beauty he was weary.
+
+"You know what our poet says, Nita," he reminded her. "'Love is like the
+rustling of the wind in the almond trees before dawn.' We cannot command
+it. It comes to us or leaves us without reason."
+
+She looked across the auditorium once more and spoke with her head
+turned away from her companion.
+
+"There is no one in the East," she said, "because those who write me
+weekly send news of my lord's doings. There is no one in the East,
+because there they give the body who know nothing of the soul. And so my
+Prince is safe amongst them. But here--these western women have other
+gifts. Is that she, master of my life and soul?"
+
+"I met her this evening for the first time," he replied.
+
+She laughed drearily.
+
+"Eyes may meet in the street without speech, a glance may burn its way
+into the soul. Once I thought that I might love again, because a
+stranger smiled at me in the Bois, and he had grey eyes, and that look
+about his mouth which a woman craves for. He passed on, and I forgot.
+You see, my lord was still there.--So this is the woman."
+
+"Who knows?" he answered.
+
+Immelan came into the box a little abruptly. There was a cloud upon his
+face which he did his best to conceal. Almost simultaneously, a
+messenger from behind the scenes arrived for Nita. She rose to her feet
+and wrapped her green cloak closely around her lissom figure.
+
+"In a quarter of an hour," she said, "I have to appear again. It is to
+be good-night, then?"
+
+She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the appeal which knows no
+nationality shone out of their velvety depths. She stood before him
+simply, like a slave who pleads. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face
+moved.
+
+"It is to be good-night, Nita," he answered calmly.
+
+Her head drooped, and she passed out. She had the air of a flower whose
+petals have been bruised. Immelan looked after her curiously, almost
+compassionately.
+
+"It is finished, then, with the little one, Prince?" he enquired.
+
+"It is finished," was the calm reply.
+
+Immelan stroked his short moustache thoughtfully.
+
+"Is it wise?" he ventured. "She has been faithful and assiduous. She
+knows many things."
+
+Prince Shan's eyes were filled with mild wonder.
+
+"She has had some years of my occasional companionship," he said. "It is
+surely as much as she could hope for or expect. We are not like you
+Westerners, Immelan," he went on. "Our women are the creatures of our
+will. We call them, or we send them away. They know that, and they are
+prepared."
+
+"It seems a little brutal," Immelan muttered.
+
+"You prefer your method?" his companion asked. "Yet you practise deceit.
+Your fancy wanders, and you lie about it. You lose your dignity, my
+friend. No woman is worth a man's lie."
+
+Immelan was leaning back in his chair, gazing steadfastly across the
+crowded theatre.
+
+"Your principles," he said, "are suited to your own womenkind. La Belle
+Nita has become westernised. Are you sure that she accepts the situation
+as she would if she dwelt with you in Pekin?"
+
+"I am her master," Prince Shan declared calmly. "I have made no promises
+that I have not fulfilled."
+
+"The promise between a man and a woman is an unspoken one," Immelan
+persisted. "You have not been in Europe for five months. All that time
+she has awaited you."
+
+"Something else has happened," Prince Shan said deliberately.
+
+"Since your arrival in London?"
+
+"Since my arrival in London, since I stepped out of my ship last night."
+
+Immelan was frankly incredulous.
+
+"You mean Lady Maggie Trent?"
+
+"Certainly! I have always felt that some day or other my thoughts would
+turn towards one of these strange, western women. That time has come.
+Lady Maggie possesses those charms which come from the brain, yet which
+appeal more deeply than any other to the subtle desires of the poet, the
+man of letters and the philosopher. She is very wonderful, Immelan. I
+thank you for your introduction."
+
+Immelan ceased to caress his moustache. He leaned back in his chair and
+gazed at his companion. For many years he and the Prince had been
+associates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even begun to
+understand him.
+
+"But you forget, Prince," he said, "that Lady Maggie and her friends are
+in the opposite camp. When our agreement is concluded and known to the
+world, she will look upon you as an enemy."
+
+"As yet," Prince Shan answered calmly, "our agreement is not concluded."
+
+Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat
+prevented an expression of anger.
+
+"But, Prince," he expostulated, "apart from political considerations,
+you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you
+and Lady Maggie?"
+
+"Why not?" was the cool reply.
+
+"Lady Maggie is of the English nobility," Immelan pointed out. "Neither
+she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in
+the nature of a morganatic alliance."
+
+"It would not be necessary," Prince Shan declared. "It is in my mind to
+offer her marriage."
+
+Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his
+pocket. He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.
+
+"Marriage?" he muttered. "You are not serious!"
+
+"I am entirely serious," the Prince insisted. "I can understand your
+amazement, Immelan. When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it
+as I would at a weed. But we who have studied in the West have learnt
+certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.
+All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.
+From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity: devotion to our country
+and singleness of purpose. Over here, though, one has also learnt
+something. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the Shans must seek not
+for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate. If
+their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of
+his life."
+
+Immelan was speechless. There was something final and convincing in his
+companion's measured words. His own protest, when at last he spoke,
+sounded paltry.
+
+"But supposing it is true that she is already engaged to Lord
+Dorminster?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled very quietly.
+
+"That," he said, "can easily be disposed of."
+
+"But do you seriously believe that you would be able to induce her to
+return with you to Pekin?" Immelan persisted.
+
+At that moment it chanced that Maggie turned her head and looked across
+at the two men. Prince Shan leaned a little forward to meet her gaze.
+His face was expressionless. The lines of his mouth were calm and
+restful, yet in his eyes there glowed for a single moment the fire of a
+man who looks upon the thing he covets.
+
+"I seriously believe it," he answered under his breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Maggie leaned back in her chair with a little sigh of content. The
+scarlet-coated waiter had just removed their tea tray, a pleasant breeze
+was rustling through the leaves of the trees under which she and Prince
+Shan were seated. From the distance came the low strains of a military
+band. Everywhere on the lawns and along the paths men and women were
+promenading.
+
+"Confess that this is better than Rumpelmayer's or the Ritz," she
+murmured lazily.
+
+"It is better," he admitted. "It is a very wonderful place."
+
+"You have nothing like it in China?" she asked him.
+
+"It would not be possible," he answered. "Democracy there is confined to
+politics. In other respects, our class prejudices are far more rigid
+than yours. But then I see a great change in this country since I was
+here as a student."
+
+"You have lost your affection for it, perhaps?" she ventured, looking at
+him through half-closed eyes.
+
+"On the contrary," he assured her, "my gratitude towards her was never
+so great as at this moment. Your country has given me nothing I prize
+so much, Lady Maggie, as my knowledge of you."
+
+She looked away from his very earnest eyes, and the light retort died
+away upon her lips. The men and women whom she watched so steadfastly
+seemed like puppets, the flowers artificial, the music unreal. Already
+she was beginning to resent the influence which he was establishing over
+her. The art of badinage in which she was so proficient stood her in no
+stead. Words, even the power of light speech, had deserted her.
+
+"Tell me about the changes that you see," she asked.
+
+"Perhaps," he replied, after a moment's hesitation, "it is because I am
+an occasional visitor that differences seem so marked to me, but look at
+the tables there. That is the Duke of Illinton, is it not? At the next
+table, the man in the strange clothes and uncomfortable hat--it seems to
+me that I have seen him somewhere under different circumstances."
+
+Maggie nodded.
+
+"Life is a terrible hotchpotch nowadays," she admitted. "After the war,
+our gentry and aristocracy who were not wealthy were taxed out of
+existence. The profiteers, and the men who had made fortunes during the
+war, took their place. It has made the country prosperous but less
+picturesque."
+
+"You put things very clearly," he said. "To-day in England is certainly
+the day of the shopkeeper's triumph. Wealth is a great thing, but it is
+great only for what it leads to. I think your philosopher of the
+streets, your new school of politicians, have alike forgotten that."
+
+"You have lost sympathy with England, have you not, Prince Shan?" Maggie
+asked him.
+
+He turned towards her, a faint but kindly smile upon his lips, a light
+in his eyes which she did not altogether understand.
+
+"Lady Maggie," he said quietly, "they tell me that you are interested in
+the political side of my visit to this country."
+
+"Who tells you that?" she demanded. "What have I to do with politics?"
+
+"You have been gifted with great intelligence," he continued, "and you
+are the confidante of your connection, Lord Dorminster. Lord Dorminster
+is one of those few Englishmen who realise the ill direction of the
+destinies of this country. You would like to help him in his present
+very strenuous efforts to ascertain the truth as to certain movements
+directed against the British Empire. That is so, is it not?"
+
+"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 assured 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
+peacocks 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 passion 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 assurance 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 assured him. "As for the
+purpose of your mission, I assure 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 passed 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 masses 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 attitude 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 attitude 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 class 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 gods 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 God 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 passing of Monsieur
+Senn into the sunlit street. The latter entered his waiting automobile
+and drove at once to the French Embassy. The Ambassador 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 Ambassador 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.
+
+Karschoff's face was suddenly grave. He seemed on the point of saying
+something but checked himself and turned away with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+"Each one to his taste," he murmured. "For my aperitif, a dash of
+absinthe in my cocktail; for Dorminster here, the lure of a woman's
+smile. Perhaps he gains. Who knows?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Nigel waited for his luncheon companion in the crowded vestibule of
+London's most famous club restaurant. He was to a certain extent out of
+the picture among the crowd of this new generation of pleasure seekers,
+on the faces of whom opulence and acquisitiveness had already laid its
+branding hand. The Mecca alike of musical comedy and the Stock Exchange,
+the place, however, still preserved a curious attraction for the foreign
+element in London, so that when at last Naida appeared, she was
+exchanging courtesies with an Italian Duchess on one side and a
+celebrated Russian dancer on the other. Nigel led her at once to the
+table which he had selected in the balcony.
+
+"I have obeyed your wishes to the letter," he said, "and I think that
+you are right. Up here we are entirely alone, and, as you see, they have
+had the sense to place the tables a long way apart. Am I to blame, I
+wonder, for asking you to do so unconventional a thing as to lunch here
+again alone with me?"
+
+She drew off her gloves and smiled across the table at him. Her plain,
+tailor-made gown, with its high collar, was the last word in elegance.
+The simplicity of her French hat was to prove the despair of a
+well-known modiste seated downstairs, who made a sketch of it on the
+menu and tried in vain to copy it. Even to Nigel's exacting taste she
+was flawless.
+
+"Is it unconventional?" she asked carelessly. "I do not study those
+things. I lunch or dine with a party, generally, because it happens so.
+I lunch alone with you because it pleases me."
+
+"And for this material side of our entertainment?" he enquired, smiling,
+as he handed her the menu card.
+
+"A grapefruit, a quail with white grapes, and some asparagus," she
+replied promptly. "You see, in one respect I am an easy companion. I
+know exactly what I want. A mixed vermouth, if you like, yes. And now,
+tell me your news?"
+
+"There is news," he announced, "which the whole world will know of
+before many hours are past. France has broken her pact with England."
+
+"It is my opinion," she said deliberately, "that France has been very
+patient with you."
+
+"And mine," he acknowledged. "We have now to see what will become of a
+fat and prosperous country with a semi-obsolete fleet and a comic opera
+army."
+
+"Must we talk of serious things?" she asked softly. "I am weary of the
+clanking wheels of life."
+
+He sighed.
+
+"And yet for you," he said, "they are not grinding out the fate of your
+country."
+
+"Nevertheless, I too hear them all the time," she rejoined. "And I hate
+them. They make one lose one's sense of proportion. After all, it is our
+own individual and internal life which counts. I can understand Nero
+fiddling while Rome burned, if he really had no power to call up fire
+engines."
+
+"Are you an individualist?" he asked.
+
+"Not fundamentally," she replied, "but I am caught up in the throes of a
+great reaction. I have been studying events, which it is quite true may
+change the destinies of the world, so intently that I have almost
+forgotten that, after all, the greatest thing in the world, my world, is
+the happiness or ill-content of Naida Karetsky. It is really of more
+importance to me to-day that my quail should be cooked as I like it than
+that England has let go her last rope."
+
+"You are not an Englishwoman," he reminded her.
+
+"That is of minor importance. We are all so much immersed in great
+affairs just now that we forget it is the small ones that count. I want
+my luncheon to be perfect, I want you to seem as nice to me as I have
+fancied you, and I want you to chase completely away the idea that you
+are cultivating my acquaintance for interested motives."
+
+"That I can assure you from the bottom of my heart is not the case," he
+replied. "Whatever other interests I may feel in you," he added, after
+a moment's hesitation, "my first and foremost is a personal one."
+
+She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes for his understanding.
+
+"A woman in my position," she complained, "is out of place. A man ought
+to come over and study your deservings or your undeservings and pore
+over the problem of the future of Europe. I am a woman, and I am not big
+enough. I am too physical. I have forgotten how to enjoy myself, and I
+love pleasure. Now am I a revelation to you?"
+
+"You have always been that," he told her. "You are so truthful
+yourself," he went on boldly, "that I shall run the risk of saying the
+most banal thing in the world, just because it happens to be the truth.
+I have felt for you since our first meeting what I have felt for no
+other woman in the world."
+
+"I like that, and I am glad you said it," she declared lightly enough,
+although her lips quivered for a moment. "And they have put exactly the
+right quantity of Maraschino in my grapefruit. I feel that I am on the
+way to happiness. I am going to enjoy my luncheon.--Tell me about
+Maggie."
+
+"I saw her yesterday," he answered. "We have arranged for her to come
+and live at Belgrave Square, after all."
+
+"My terrible altruism once more," she sighed. "I had meant not to speak
+another serious word, and yet I must. Maggie is very clever, amazingly
+clever, I sometimes think, but if she had the brains of all of her sex
+rolled into one, she would still be facing now an impossible situation."
+
+"Just what do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
+
+"Maggie seems determined to measure her wits with those of Prince Shan,"
+she said. "Believe me, that is hopeless."
+
+She looked up at him and laughed softly.
+
+"Oh, my dear friend," she went on, "that wooden expression is wonderful.
+You do not quite know where I stand, except--may I flatter myself?--as
+regards your personal feelings for me. Am I for Immelan and his schemes,
+or for your own foolish country? You do not know, so you make for
+yourself a face of wood."
+
+"Where do you stand?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"Sufficiently devoted to your interests to beg you this," she replied.
+"Do not let your little cousin think that she can deal with a man like
+Prince Shan. There can be only one end to that."
+
+Nigel moved a little uneasily in his place.
+
+"Prince Shan is only an ordinary human being, after all," he protested.
+
+"That is just where you are mistaken," she declared. "Prince Shan is one
+of the most extraordinary human beings who ever lived. He is one of the
+most farseeing men in the world, and he is absolutely the most
+powerful."
+
+"But China," Nigel began--
+
+"His power extends far beyond China," she interrupted, "and there is no
+brain in the world to match his to-day."
+
+"If he were a god wielding thunderbolts," Nigel observed, "he could
+scarcely do much harm to Maggie here in London."
+
+"There was an artist once," she said reflectively, "who drew a
+caricature of Prince Shan and sent it to the principal comic paper in
+America. It was such a success that a little time later on he followed
+it up with another, which included a line of Prince Shan's ancestors.
+Within a month's time the artist was found murdered. Prince Shan was in
+China at the time."
+
+"Are you suggesting that the artist was murdered through Prince Shan's
+contrivance?"
+
+"Am I a fool?" she answered. "Do you not know that to speak
+disrespectfully of the ancestors of a Chinaman is unforgivable? To all
+appearances Prince Shan never moved from his wonderful palace in Pekin,
+many thousands of miles away. Yet he lifted his little finger and the
+man died."
+
+"Isn't this a little melodramatic?" Nigel murmured.
+
+"Melodrama is often nearer the truth than people think," she said.
+"Shall I give you another instance? I know of several."
+
+"One more, then."
+
+"Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incognito," she continued.
+"There was at the time a small but very fashionable restaurant in the
+Bois, close to the Pre Catelan. He presented himself one night there for
+dinner, accompanied, I believe, by La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who
+is in London to-day. As you know, there is little in Prince Shan's
+appearance to denote the Oriental, but for some reason or other the
+proprietor refused him a table. Prince Shan made no scene. He left and
+went elsewhere. Three nights later, the cafe was burnt to the ground,
+and the proprietor was ruined."
+
+"Anything else?" Nigel asked.
+
+"Only one thing more," she replied. "I have known him slightly for
+years. In Asia he ranks to all men as little less than a god. His
+palaces are filled with priceless treasures. He has the finest
+collection of jewels in the world. His wealth is simply inexhaustible.
+His appearance you appreciate. Yet I have never seen him look at a woman
+as he looked at your cousin the first time he met her. I was at the Ritz
+with my father, and I watched. I know you think that I am being foolish.
+I am not. I am a person with a very great deal of common sense, and I
+tell you that Prince Shan has never desired a thing in life to which he
+has not helped himself. Maggie is a clever child, but she cannot toss
+knives with a conjuror."
+
+Nigel was impressed and a little worried.
+
+"It seems absurd to think that anything could happen to Maggie here in
+London," he said, "after--"
+
+He paused abruptly. Naida smiled at him.
+
+"After her escape from Germany, I suppose you were going to say? You
+see, I know all about it. There was no Prince Shan in Berlin."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Well," he admitted, "I don't quite bring myself to believe in your
+terrible ogre, so I shall not worry. Tell me what news you have from
+Russia?"
+
+"Political?"
+
+"Any news."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I notice," she said, "that English people are changing their attitude
+towards my country. A few years ago she seemed negligible to them. Now
+they are beginning to have--shall I call them fears? Even my kind host,
+I think, would like to know what is in Paul Matinsky's heart as he hears
+the friends of Oscar Immelan plead their cause."
+
+"I admit it," he told her frankly. "I will go farther. I would give a
+great deal to know what is in your own mind to-day concerning us and our
+destiny. But these things are not for the moment. It was not to discuss
+or even to think of them that I asked you here to-day."
+
+"Why did you invite me, then?" she asked, smiling.
+
+"Because I wanted the pleasure of having you opposite me," he
+replied,--"because I wanted to know you better."
+
+"And are you progressing?"
+
+"Indifferently well," he acknowledged. "I seem to gain a little and
+slide back again. You are not an easy person to know well."
+
+"Nothing that is worth having is easy," she answered, "and I can assure
+you, when my friendship is once gained, it is a rare and steadfast
+thing."
+
+"And your affection?" he ventured.
+
+Her eyes rested upon his for a moment and then suddenly drooped. A
+little tinge of colour stole into her cheeks. For a moment she seemed to
+have lost her admirable poise.
+
+"That is not easily disturbed," she told him quietly. "I think that I
+must have an unfortunate temperament, there are so few people for whom I
+really care."
+
+He took his courage into both hands.
+
+"I have heard it rumoured," he said, "that Matinsky is the only man who
+has ever touched your heart."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That is not the truth. Paul Matinsky cares for me in his strange way,
+and he has a curiously exaggerated appreciation of my brain. There have
+been times," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "when I myself
+have been disturbed by fancies concerning him, but those times have
+passed."
+
+"I am glad," he said quietly.
+
+His fingers, straying across the tablecloth, met hers. She did not
+withdraw them. He clasped her hand, and it remained for a moment passive
+in his. Then she withdrew it and leaned back in her chair.
+
+"Is that meant to introduce a more intimate note into our conversation?"
+she asked, with a slight wrinkling of the forehead and the beginnings of
+a smile upon her lips.
+
+"If I dared, I would answer 'yes'," he assured her.
+
+"They tell me," she continued pensively, "that Englishmen more than any
+other men in the world have the flair for saying convincingly the things
+which they do not mean."
+
+"In my case, that would not be true," he answered. "My trouble is that I
+dare not say one half of what I feel."
+
+She looked across the table at him, and Nigel suddenly felt a great
+weight of depression lifted from his heart. He forgot all about his
+country's peril. Life and its possibilities seemed somehow all
+different. He was carried away by a rare wave of emotion.
+
+"Naida!" he whispered.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+Her eyes were soft and expectant. Something of the gravity had gone from
+her face. She was like a girl, suddenly young with new thoughts.
+
+"You know what I am going to say to you?"
+
+"Do not say it yet, please," she begged. "Somehow it seems to me that
+the time has not come, though the thought of what may be in your heart
+is wonderful. I want to dream about it first," she went on. "I want to
+think."
+
+He laughed, a strange sound almost to his own ears, for Nigel, since his
+uncle's death, had tasted the very depths of depression.
+
+"I obey," he agreed. "It is well to dally with the great things.
+Meanwhile, they grow."
+
+She smiled across at him.
+
+"I hope that they may," she answered. "And you will ask me to lunch
+again?"
+
+"Lunch or dine or walk or motor--whatever you will," he promised.
+
+She reflected for a moment and then laughed. She was drawing on her
+gloves now, and Nigel was paying the bill.
+
+"There are some people who will not like this," she said.
+
+"And one," he declared, "for whom it is going to make life a Paradise."
+
+They passed out into the street and strolled leisurely westwards. As
+they crossed Trafalgar Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
+spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion seemed suddenly
+surrounded by placards, all with the same headlines. They paused to
+read:
+
+              _TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR_
+          _HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT_
+           _TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX_
+
+They walked on. Naida said nothing, although she shook her head a little
+sorrowfully. Nigel glanced across the Square and down towards
+Westminster.
+
+"They will shout themselves hoarse there this afternoon," he groaned.
+
+For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of coming events.
+
+"It is amazing," she whispered, "for the writing on the wall is already
+there."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert Hall, in the
+gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff officer in the Russian Imperial
+Forces, Prince Karschoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
+other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene below and around.
+The greatest city the world has ever known seemed in those days to have
+entered upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in history. Every box
+and every yard of dancing space on the floor beneath was crowded with
+men and women in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked with
+jewels which eager merchants had brought together from every market of
+the world; even the men, in their silks and velvets and ruffles,
+carrying out the dominant note of wealth. It was a ball given for
+charity and under royal patronage.
+
+"All our friends seem to be here to-night," the Prince remarked,
+glancing around. "I saw Naida with her father and the eternal Oscar
+Immelan. Chalmers is here with an exceedingly gay party, and yonder sits
+his Imperial Highness, looking very much the barbaric prince.--By the
+by," he added, glancing towards Maggie, "I thought that he was not
+coming?"
+
+Maggie, who seemed a little tired, nodded quietly. It was a week or ten
+days later, and an early season was now in full swing.
+
+"He told me that he was not coming," she said. "I suppose the temptation
+to wear that gorgeous raiment was too much for him."
+
+"Apropos of that, there is one curious thing to be noted here with
+regard to clothes," the Prince continued. "Amongst the men, you find
+Venetian Doges, Chancellors, gallants of every age, but scarcely a
+single uniform. In a way, this seems typical of the passing of the
+militarism of your country. You are beginning to remind me of Venice in
+the Middle Ages. There is a new type of brain dominant here, fat instead
+of muscle, a citizen aristocracy instead of the lean, clear-eyed,
+athletic type."
+
+Maggie moved in her place a little irritably.
+
+"I am tired of warnings," she declared. "I wish some one could do
+something."
+
+"It is impossible," the Prince pronounced solemnly. "Napoleon earned for
+himself a greater claim to immortality when he christened the English a
+nation of shopkeepers than when he won the Battle of Austerlitz. If the
+Englishman of to-day saw his material prosperity slipping away from him,
+then indeed he would be nervous and restless, ready to lean towards
+every wind that blew, to listen to every disquieting rumour. To-day his
+bank balance is prodigious, and all's well with the world.--How
+wonderfully Prince Shan lives up to his part to-night!"
+
+They looked across towards the opposite box, whose single occupant, in
+the bright green robes of a mandarin, sat looking down upon the gay
+throng with an absolutely immovable expression. There was something
+almost regal about his air of detachment, his solitude amidst such a gay
+scene.
+
+"There is one of the strangest and most consistent figures in history,"
+Karschoff, who was in a talkative frame of mind, went on reflectively.
+"I honestly believe that Prince Shan considers himself to be of
+celestial descent, to carry in his person the honour of countless
+generations of Manchus. He has no intimates. Even Immelan usually has to
+seek an audience. What his pleasures may be, who knows?--because
+everything that happens with him happens behind closed walls. To-night,
+the door of his box is guarded as though he were more than royalty. No
+one is allowed to enter unless he has special permission."
+
+"There is some one entering now," Maggie pointed out, "for the first
+time. Watch!"
+
+La Belle Nita stood for a moment in the front of the box. She was
+dressed in the gala costume of a Chinese lady, in a cherry-coloured robe
+with wide sleeves, her hair, with its many jewelled ornaments, like a
+black pool of night, her face ghastly white with a superabundance of
+powder. Prince Shan turned his head slightly towards her, and though no
+muscle of his face moved, it was obvious that her coming was unwelcome.
+She began to talk. He listened with the face of a sphinx. Presently she
+drew back into the shadows of the box. She had thrown herself into a
+chair, and her face was hidden.
+
+"La Belle Nita has made a mistake," Maggie observed. "His Serene
+Highness evidently had no wish to be disturbed."
+
+Karschoff's eyes rested upon the figure in green silk, and they were
+filled with an unwilling admiration.
+
+"That man is magnificent," he declared. "Watch his face now that he is
+speaking. Not a muscle moves, not a flash in his eyes, yet one has the
+fancy that he is saying terrible things."
+
+It was obvious, a moment later, that La Belle Nita had left the box.
+Maggie sprang up. Her colour was a little heightened. There was a rare
+nervousness in her tone.
+
+"Let us walk around and find some of the others," she suggested, turning
+to Nigel. "I want to dance."
+
+They all three passed out and mingled with the dancers. Maggie put on
+her mask and deliberately glided into the crowd as though with the
+intention of losing herself. It was not until she was underneath Prince
+Shan's box and out of sight of its occupant that she paused. Her
+thoughts were in a turmoil. His presence there, after his deliberate
+assurance to her that he had no intention of coming, his calm and
+unnoticing regard of her and every one else, seemed to confirm in every
+way the wave of pessimism which she as well as Nigel was experiencing.
+She had passed Immelan in the entrance, and there was something
+ominously disturbing in his cool, triumphant smile. She pictured to
+herself the agreement signed, some nameless terror already launched. She
+remembered that Nigel had complained of Naida's inaccessibility during
+the last few days. She herself had been surprised at Prince Shan's
+apparent withdrawal, temporary though it might be, from the peculiar but
+impressive position which he had taken up with regard to her.
+
+She stood back against the wall, in a dark corner, striving to collect
+her thoughts, thankful for the brief respite from conversation. A man in
+the costume of a monk, who had followed her across the room, touched her
+on the shoulder. He spoke in a quiet, unfamiliar voice with a foreign
+accent,
+
+"You are Lady Maggie Trent?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Will you please go to box number fourteen, on the second tier? There is
+some one there who waits for you."
+
+"Who is it?" she asked.
+
+The monk had glided away. Maggie, after a few minutes' reflection,
+slipped out into the corridor, mounted one flight of stairs, and passed
+along the semicircular balcony. The door of box number fourteen was
+ajar. She pushed it gently open and glanced in. Seated so as to be out
+of sight of the whole house was La Belle Nita. For a moment the two
+looked at each other. Then the Chinese girl sprang to her feet, made a
+quaint little bow, and, gliding around, closed the door behind her
+visitor.
+
+"Sit down, please," she invited. "I will tell you things you may like to
+hear."
+
+A sudden thought flashed into Maggie's mind. She began to see light. She
+obeyed at once. The two women sat well back and out of sight of the
+house. La Belle Nita held the handle of the door in her hand while she
+spoke, as though to prevent any one entering.
+
+"I have an enemy who was once a friend," she said, "and I wish to do him
+evil. He is not only my enemy, but he is yours. He is the enemy of all
+you English people, because it is a great disaster which he plans to
+bring upon you."
+
+"You speak of Prince Shan?" Maggie exclaimed.
+
+Even at the mention of his name, the girl shook. She looked around as
+though fearing the shadows. She rattled the door to make sure that it
+was closed.
+
+"For him whom you call Prince Shan I have worked many years, first of
+all in Paris, now here. I was content with small reward. That reward he
+now takes from me. It is my wish to betray him."
+
+"Why do you send for me?" Maggie asked.
+
+"Because you have been an English spy," was the quiet reply. "It may
+surprise you that I know that, but I do know. I have been a spy for
+Prince Shan in Paris. You were a spy for England in Berlin. You were a
+spy for your country's sake; I was a spy for love. Now I betray for
+hate."
+
+"Please go on."
+
+"Prince Shan came this time to Europe with two schemes in his mind," the
+girl continued. "One concerned France. That one he has discarded.
+Through me he learned of the military strength of France, her secret
+resources, of her tireless watch upon the Rhine. So he listens to
+Immelan, and Immelan and he together, oh, English lady, they have made a
+wonderful plan!"
+
+"Are you going to tell me what it is?" Maggie asked, her eyes bright
+with excitement.
+
+"I cannot tell you because I do not know," was the unwilling admission,
+"but I will make it so that you can discover for yourself. A few hours
+ago, the plan was submitted to Prince Shan. It lies in the third drawer
+of an ebony cabinet, in the room on the left-hand side of the hall after
+you have entered his house in Curzon Street."
+
+"But no one can enter it!" Maggie exclaimed. "The place is like a fort.
+No stranger may pass the threshold even. The Prince has told me himself
+that he receives no visitors."
+
+La Belle Nita smiled. From a pocket somewhere within the folds of her
+flowing gown, she produced two small keys.
+
+"Listen," she said. "The house in Curzon Street has been called the
+House of Silence. There are many servants there, but they come only from
+beneath and when they are summoned. There is what no other person has
+ever possessed--the key of the front door. There is also the key of the
+cabinet. Prince Shan has ordered his automobile for two o'clock. It is
+now barely midnight."
+
+The keys lay in the palm of Maggie's hand. Her heart had begun to beat
+quickly. Somehow or other, she was conscious of a thrill of excitement
+which she had never before experienced, even when she had sat back in
+her corner of the railway carriage, watching for the frontier, knowing
+that the wires were busy with her name, and that men who knew no mercy
+were on her track.
+
+"If the servants should hear me?" she faltered.
+
+"You say only 'I await the Prince'," La Belle Nita murmured. "That key
+never leaves his own person save for one in great favour. They will
+believe that he gave it to you. You will be unmolested."
+
+A queer sensation suddenly assailed Maggie. She felt extraordinarily
+primitive, ridiculously feminine. She looked at the girl opposite to
+her, the girl whose body was draped in perfumed silks, whose face was
+thick with rice powder, whose eyes were sad. She felt no pity. What
+feeling she had, she did not care to analyse.
+
+"Is this your key?" she asked.
+
+"It was mine once, but its use has been forbidden to me," the girl
+replied. "Prince Shan is a changed man. Something has come into his life
+of which I know nothing, but as it has come, so must I go. I give you
+your chance, lady, but already I weaken. Go quickly, if you go at all.
+Please leave me, for I am very unhappy."
+
+Maggie stole quietly out and made her way through the jostling throng
+back to her own box, which for the moment was empty. She slipped on her
+cloak, and from the hidden spaces where she stood she looked across the
+auditorium. The silent figure in green silk robes was still seated in
+his place, his eyes following the movements of the dancers, his head a
+little thrown back, a slight weariness in his face. He was still alone.
+He still had the air of being alone because it was his desire. Once he
+looked up towards the box in which she was, and Maggie, although she
+knew she was invisible, shrank back against the wall. She set her teeth
+hard and looked back through the slightly misty space. An unfamiliar
+feeling for a moment almost choked her. She waited until she had
+vanquished it, then adjusted her mask and left the box.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+From the moment when the taxicab drove away and left her in the deserted
+street, Maggie was conscious of a strange sense of suppressed
+excitement, something more poignant and mysterious, even, than the
+circumstances of her adventure might account for. It was exciting
+enough, in its way, to play the part of a marauding thief, to find
+herself unexpectedly face to face with a possible solution of the great
+problem of Prince Shan's intentions. But beneath all this there was
+another feeling, more entirely metaphysical, which in a sense steadied
+her nerves because it filled her with a strange impression that she had
+lost her own identity, that she was playing somebody else's part in a
+novel and thrilling drama.
+
+The street was empty when she inserted the little key in the front door.
+There was not a soul there to see her step in as it swung open and then
+softly, noiselessly, but without any conscious effort of hers, closed
+again behind her. She held her breath and looked around.
+
+The hall was round, painted white and dimly lit by an overhead electric
+globe. In the centre was a huge green vase filled with great branches of
+some sort of blossoms. Not a picture hung upon the walls, nor was there
+any hall stand, chest, closet for coats or hats, or any of the usual
+furbishings of such a place. There were three rugs upon the polished
+floor and nothing else except a yawning stairway and closed doors.
+Whatever servants might be in attendance were evidently in a distant
+part of the building. Not a sound was to be heard. Still without any
+lack of courage, but oppressed with that curious sense of unreality, she
+turned almost automatically towards the door on the left and opened it.
+Again it closed behind her noiselessly. She realised that she was in one
+of the principal reception rooms of the house, dimly lit as the hall
+from a dome-shaped globe set into the ceiling. She moved a yard or two
+across the threshold and stood looking about her. Here again there was
+an almost singular absence of furniture. The walls were hung with
+apple-green silk, richly embroidered. There were some rugs upon the
+polished floor, a few quaintly carved chairs set with their backs
+against the wall, and opposite to her the ebony cabinet of which La
+Belle Nita had spoken. She moved towards it. Somehow or other, she found
+herself with the other key in her hand, stooping down. She counted the
+drawers--one, two three--fitted in the key, turned it, and realised with
+a little start the presence in the drawer of a roll of parchment, tied
+around with tape and sealed with a black seal. She laid her hand upon
+it, but even at that moment she felt a shiver pass through her body.
+There had been no sound in the room, which she could have sworn had been
+empty when she entered it, yet she had now a conviction that she was not
+alone. She turned slowly around, her lips parted, breathing quickly.
+Standing in the middle of the room, a grim, commanding figure in his
+flowing green robes, the dim light flashing upon the great diamonds in
+his belt, stood Prince Shan.
+
+To Maggie at that moment came a great throbbing in her ears, a sense of
+remoteness from this terrible happening, followed by an intense and
+vital consciousness of danger. The man who had brought new things into
+her life, the polished gentleman of the world, with his fascinating
+brain and gentle courtesy, had gone. It was Prince Shan of China who
+stood there. She felt the chill of his contempt and disapproval in her
+heart. She had forfeited her high estate. She was a convicted thief,--an
+adventuress!
+
+She gripped at the side of the cabinet. Her poise had gone. She had the
+air of a trapped animal.
+
+"You!" she exclaimed. "How did you get here?"
+
+He answered her without change of expression. A sense of crisis seemed
+to have made his tone more level, his face stony.
+
+"It is my house," he said. "I do not often leave it. I sat in my
+sleeping chamber behind"--he pointed to the silken curtains through
+which he had passed--"I heard your entrance and guessed with pain and
+regret at your mission."
+
+"But a quarter of an hour ago you were at the ball!"
+
+"You are mistaken," he replied. "I do not attend such gatherings. I had
+given you my word that I should not be there."
+
+"But I saw you," she persisted, "in that same costume!"
+
+"Surely not," he dissented. "The person whom you saw was a gentleman
+from my suite, who wore the dress of an inferior mandarin. He is
+sometimes supposed to resemble me. I should have believed that your
+apprehension of such things would have informed you that no Prince of my
+line would wear the garments of his order for a public show."
+
+Her fingers had left the drawer now. She stood upright, pale and
+desperate.
+
+"That woman of your country, then--La Belle Nita--did she lie to me?"
+
+"How can I tell?" he answered coldly, "because I do not know what she
+said."
+
+Maggie made an effort to test her position.
+
+"I came here as a thief," she confessed. "I am detected. What are your
+intentions?"
+
+He moved very slowly a little closer to her. Maggie felt her sense of
+excitement grow.
+
+"You came here as a thief," he repeated, "as a spy. Why did you not ask
+me for the information you desired?"
+
+"Because you would not have told me," she replied, "at least you would
+not have told me the truth."
+
+"For a price," he said, "the truth would have been yours for the asking.
+For a different price it is yours now."
+
+Again without noticeable movement he seemed to have drawn nearer. The
+edge of that cool ebony cabinet seemed to be burning her fingers. Try
+however hard, she could not frame the question which had risen to her
+lips.
+
+"The price," he continued, "is you--yourself. A few hours ago it was
+your love I craved for. Now it is yourself."
+
+He was so near to her now that she faced the steady radiance of his
+wonderful eyes, so near that she could trace the faint lines about his
+mouth, the strong, stern immobility of his perfectly shaped,
+olive-tinted features.
+
+"You are too wonderful," he went on, "to remain a daughter of the crude
+West. I want to take you back with me to the land where life still moves
+to poetry, to the land where one can live in a world unknown by these
+struggling hordes. You shall live in a palace where the perfume of
+flowers lingers always, with the sound of running water in your ears, a
+palace from which all sordid things and all manner of ugliness are
+banished because we alone have found the key to the garden of
+happiness."
+
+He raised his hand, and it seemed as though unseen eyes watched them
+from every quarter. The silken curtains through which he had issued were
+drawn back by invisible hands, and the inner apartment was disclosed.
+Its faint illumination was obscured with purple shades. There was a high
+lacquer bedstead, with little ivory ladders on either side, a bedstead
+hung with silks of black and purple and mauve. There was a huge couch, a
+shrine opposite the bed, in which was a kneeling figure of black marble.
+A faint odour, as though from thousand-year-old sachets, very faint
+indeed and yet with its mead of intoxication, seemed to steal out from
+the room, which had borrowed from its curious hangings, its marvellous
+adornments, its strangely attuned atmosphere, all the mysticism of a
+fabled world.
+
+"You have come," he said. "Will you stay?" The inertia seemed suddenly
+to leave her limbs. She threw up her head as though gasping for air,
+escaped, somehow or other, from the thrall of his eyes, and passed
+across the smooth floor with flying footsteps. Her fingers seized the
+handle of the door and turned it, only to find it held by some invisible
+fastening. She shook it passionately. There was not even sound. She
+turned back once more. Prince Shan had only slightly changed his
+position. He stood upon the threshold of the inner room, and his arms
+were outstretched in invitation.
+
+"Am I a prisoner?" she sobbed.
+
+"You came of your own free will," he replied. "You will stay for my
+pleasure and for the joy of my being. As for these things," he went on,
+moving slowly to the cabinet, picking up the pile of papers and throwing
+them on one side contemptuously, "these are only one's amusements. I
+pass my lighter hours with them. They interest me in the same manner as
+a chess problem. We do not care, we in the mighty East, which of you
+holds your head highest this side of Suez. All you western nations are
+to us a peck of dust outside our palace gates. Listen, dear one. We can
+leave, if you will, to-night, and top the clouds before sunrise. And I
+promise you this," he went on, "when you pass from the greyness of these
+sordid lands into the everlasting sunshine of the East, you will not
+care any longer about these people who go about the world on all fours.
+Day by day you will know what life and love mean. You will find the
+cloying weight of material things pass from your brain and body, and the
+joy of holy and wonderful living take their place."
+
+Her whole being was in a turmoil. She drew nearer to the papers upon the
+table. She was now within a yard of Prince Shan himself. He made no
+effort to intercept her, no movement of any sort to stop her. Only his
+eyes never left her face, and she felt a madness which seemed to be
+choking the life out of her, a pounding of her heart against her ribs, a
+strange and wonderful joy, a joy in which there was no fear, a joy of
+new things and new hopes. With the papers for which she had come only a
+few yards away, she forgot them. She turned her head slowly. His arms
+seemed to steal out from those long, silken sleeves. She suddenly felt
+herself held in a wonderful embrace.
+
+"Dear lady of all my desires," he whispered in her ear, "you shall make
+me happy and find the secret of happiness yourself in giving, in
+suffering, in love."
+
+For a long and wonderful moment she lay in his arms. She felt the soft
+burning of his kisses, the call of the room with its intoxicating, yet
+strangely ascetic perfume, the room to which all the time he seemed to
+be gently leading her. And then a flood of strange, alien recollections
+and realisations seemed to bring her from a better place back to a
+worse,--the sound of a passing taxicab, the distant booming of Big Ben,
+sounds of the world outside, the actual day-by-day world, with its
+day-by-day code of morals, the world in which she lived, and her
+friends, and all that had made life for her. She drew away, and he
+watched the change in her.
+
+"I want to go!" she cried. "Let me go!"
+
+"You are no prisoner," he assured her sadly.
+
+He clapped his hands. She had reached the door by now and found the
+handle yield to her fingers. Outside in the hall, the front door stood
+open, and a heavy rain was beating in on the white flags. She looked
+around. She was in her own atmosphere here. Their eyes met, and his were
+very sorrowful.
+
+"My servants are assembling," he said. "You will find a car at your
+service."
+
+Even then she hesitated. There was a strange return of the wonderful
+emotion of a few minutes ago. She hoped almost painfully that he would
+call. Instead, he lifted the silk hangings and passed out of sight.
+Somehow or other, she made her way down the hall. A butler stood upon
+the steps, another servant was holding open the door of a limousine just
+drawn up. She had no distinct recollection of giving any address. She
+simply threw herself back amongst the cushions. It was not until they
+were in Piccadilly that she suddenly remembered that she had left upon
+the table the papers he had scornfully offered her. Then she began to
+laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+It chanced that the box was empty when Maggie, with flying footsteps,
+hastened down the corridor and pushed open the door. She sank into a
+chair, her knees trembling, her senses still dazed. Deliberately,
+although with hot and trembling fingers, she folded over and tore into
+small pieces a programme of the dances, which she had picked up from an
+adjoining chair. The action, insignificant though it was, seemed to
+bring her back into touch with the real and actual world, the world of
+music and wild gayety, of swiftly moving feet, of laughter and
+languorous voices. For a brief space of time she had escaped, she had
+wandered a little way into an unknown country, a country from whose
+thrilling dangers she had emerged with a curious feeling that life would
+never be altogether the same again. She glanced at the clock at the back
+of the box. She had been absent from the Hall altogether only about an
+hour and twenty minutes. There was still at least an hour before it
+would be possible for her to plead weariness and escape. And opposite,
+in the shadows of the distant box, the mock Prince Shan seemed always to
+be gazing at her with that cryptic smile upon his lips.
+
+Presently the door was stealthily opened. A face as pale as death, with
+black eyes like pieces of coal, was framed for a moment in the shadowed
+slit. A little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle Nita, her
+flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she recognised the sole occupant
+of the box, crept through the opening and closed the door again.
+
+"You are here?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Your courage failed you?
+You did not go?"
+
+"I have been and returned," Maggie answered. "Now tell me what I have
+done that you should have plotted this thing against me?"
+
+The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a moment hummed the refrain
+of a sad chant, as she rocked slowly backwards and forwards.
+
+"'What have you done?' the rose asked the butterfly. 'What have you
+done?' the mimosa blossom asked the little blue bird, whose wings
+fluttered amongst her leaves. 'You have taken love from me, love which
+is the blossom of life.'"
+
+"It sounds very picturesque," Maggie said coldly, "but I do not follow
+your allegory. What I want to know is why you lied to me, why you sent
+me to that house to meet Prince Shan?"
+
+"How did I lie to you?" Nita demanded. "The papers you sought were
+there. Were they not yours for the asking, or was the price too great?"
+
+"The papers were there, certainly," Maggie acquiesced, "but you knew
+very well--"
+
+She stopped short. Slowly the Oriental idea of it all was beginning to
+frame itself in her mind. She dimly understood the bewilderment in the
+other's face.
+
+"The papers were there, and he, the most wonderful of all men, was
+there," Nita murmured, "yet you leave him while the night is yet young,
+you return here without them!"
+
+Maggie rose from her chair, moved to the side table and poured herself
+out a glass of wine, which she drank hastily. Anything to escape from
+the scornful wonder of those questioning eyes!
+
+"I did not go there," she said, "to make bargains with Prince Shan. I
+believed as you wished me to believe, that he was here in that box. I
+believed that I should have found the house empty, should have found
+what I wanted and have escaped with it. Why did you do this thing? Why
+did you send me on that errand when you knew that Prince Shan was
+there?"
+
+"It was my desire that he should know that you are no different from
+other women," was the calm reply. "I was a spy for him. You are a
+spy--against him."
+
+"It was a deliberate plot, then!" Maggie exclaimed, trying to feel the
+anger which she imparted to her tone.
+
+La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a bird.
+
+"You very, very foolish Englishwoman," she said. "A hand leaned down
+from Heaven, and you liked better to stay where you were, but I am
+glad."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because I have been his slave," the girl continued. "At odd, strange
+moments he has shown me a little love, he has let me creep into a small
+corner of his heart. Now I am cast out, and there is no more life for me
+because there is no more love, and there is no more love because, having
+felt his, no other can come after. Here have I sat with all the tortures
+of Hell burning in my blood because I knew that you and he were there
+alone, because I was never sure that, after all, I was not doing my
+lord's will. And now I know that I suffered in vain. You did not
+understand."
+
+Maggie looked across at her visitor reflectively. She was beginning to
+regain her poise.
+
+"Listen," she said, "did you seriously expect me to accept Prince Shan
+as a lover?"
+
+The girl's eyes were round with wonder.
+
+"It would be your great good fortune," she murmured, "if he should offer
+you so wonderful a thing."
+
+Maggie laughed,--persisted in her laugh, although it sounded a little
+hard and the mirth a little forced.
+
+"I cannot reason with you," she declared, "because you would not
+understand. If you love him so much, why not go back to him? You will
+find him quite alone. I dare say you know the secrets of his lockless
+doors and hordes of unseen servants."
+
+La Belle Nita rose to her feet. About her lips there flickered the
+faintest smile.
+
+"Young English lady," she said, "I shall not go, because I am shut for
+ever out of his heart. But listen; would you have me go?"
+
+For a moment Maggie's poise was gone again. A strange uncertainty was
+once more upon her. She was terrified at her own feelings. The smile on
+the other's lips deepened and then passed away.
+
+"Ah," she murmured, as with a little bow she turned towards the door,
+"you are not all snow and ice, then! There is something of the woman in
+you. He must have known that. I am better content."
+
+Alone in the box, Maggie was confronted once more with spectres. She
+felt all the fear and the sweetness of this new awakening. The old
+dangers and problems, the danger of life and death, the problem of her
+well-ordered days, fell away from her as trifles. There was wilder music
+in the world than any to which she had yet listened,--music which seemed
+to be awakening vibrant melodies in her terrified heart. The curtain
+which hung about the forbidden world had been suddenly lifted. Little
+shivers of fear convulsed her. Her standards were confused, her whole
+sense of values disturbed. Her primal virginity, left to itself because
+it had never needed a guard, had suddenly become a questioning thing.
+She sat there face to face with this new phase in her life. She was not
+even conscious of the abrupt pause in the music, the agitated murmur of
+voices, the sudden cessation of that rhythmical sweep of footsteps on
+the floor below.
+
+The door of the box was once more opened. Naida, attired as a lady of
+the Russian Court, entered, followed by Nigel. Both were obviously
+disturbed. Nigel, who was in ordinary evening dress, carrying his
+discarded mask in his hand, was paler than usual and exceedingly grave.
+Naida's dark eyes, too, seemed filled with a sense of awesome things.
+Almost at the same moment, Maggie realised for the first time that the
+music had ceased, that there was a hush outside, curiously perceptible,
+almost audible.
+
+"What has happened?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+Nigel had poured out a glass of wine and was holding it to Naida's lips.
+
+"Something very terrible," he said quietly. "Prince Shan was murdered in
+his box there a few minutes ago."
+
+Maggie half rose to her feet. The walls seemed spinning round. Then she
+looked across the great empty space. The still figure in the apple-green
+coat had disappeared.
+
+"Prince Shan was murdered in that box," she repeated, "a few minutes
+ago?"
+
+"Yes!" Nigel assented gravely. "He seems to have feared something of the
+sort, for he had two servants on guard outside and announced that he
+was not receiving visitors to-night. No one knows any particulars, but a
+number of people in the auditorium saw him fall sideways from his chair.
+When he was picked up, there was a small dagger through his heart."
+
+"Through Prince Shan's heart?" Maggie persisted wildly.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+Suddenly she began to laugh. It was a strange, hysterical ebullition of
+feeling, frankly horrifying. Naida gazed at her with distended eyes.
+
+"Prince Shan has never been here!" Maggie explained brokenly. "He has
+never left his house in Curzon Street! He is there now!"
+
+Nigel shook his head.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Maggie?" he demanded. "Every one has seen
+Prince Shan here. You spoke of him yourself. He was in the box exactly
+opposite."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That was one of his suite," she cried. "I know! I tell you I know!" she
+went on, her voice rising a little. "Prince Shan is safe in his house in
+Curzon Street."
+
+"How can you possibly know this, Maggie?" Naida intervened eagerly.
+
+"Because I left him there half an hour ago," was the tremulous reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+There is in the Anglo-Saxon temperament an almost feverish desire to
+break away from any condition of strain, a sort of shamefaced impulse to
+discard emotionalism. The strange hush which had lent a queer sensation
+of unreality to all that was passing in the great building was without
+any warning brought to an end. Whispers swelled into speech, and speech
+into almost a roar of voices. Then the music struck up, although at
+first there were few who cared to dance. There were many who, like
+Maggie and her companions, silently left their places and hurried
+homewards.
+
+In the limousine scarcely a word was spoken. Maggie leaned back in her
+seat, her face dazed and expressionless. Opposite to her, Nigel sat with
+set, grim face, looking with fixed stare out of the window at the
+deserted streets. Of the three, Naida seemed more on the point of giving
+way to emotion. They had passed Hyde Park Corner, however, before a word
+was spoken. Then it was she who broke the silence.
+
+"Where do we go to first?" she demanded.
+
+"To the Milan Court," Nigel replied.
+
+"You are taking me home first, then?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+She was silent for a moment. Then she leaned forward and touched the
+window.
+
+"Pull that down, please," she directed. "I am stifling."
+
+He obeyed, and the rush of cold, wet air had a curiously quietening
+effect upon the nerves of all of them. Raindrops hung from the leaves of
+the lime trees and still glittered upon the windowpane. On the way
+towards the river, the masses of cloud were tinged with purple, and
+faintly burning stars shone out of unexpectedly clear patches of sky.
+The night of storm was over, but the wind, dying away before the dawn,
+seemed to bring with it all the sweetness of the cleansed places, to be
+redolent even of the budding trees and shrubs,--the lilac bushes,
+drooping with their weight of moisture, and the pink and white chestnut
+blossoms, dashed to pieces by the rain but yielding up their lives with
+sweetness. The streets, in that single hour between the hurrying
+homewards of the belated reveller and the stolid tramp of the early
+worker, were curiously empty and seemed to gain in their loneliness a
+new dignity. Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the
+background, became almost classical; Whitehall the passageway for
+heroes.
+
+"What does it all mean?" Naida asked, almost pathetically.
+
+It was Maggie who answered. Her tone was lifeless, but her manner
+almost composed.
+
+"It means that the attempt to assassinate Prince Shan has failed," she
+said. "Prince Shan told me himself that he had no intention of going to
+the ball. He kept his word. The man who was murdered was one of his
+suite."
+
+"But how do you know this?" Naida persisted.
+
+"You heard what I told you in the box," was the quiet reply. "I shall
+explain--as much as I can explain--to Nigel when we get home. He can
+tell you everything later on to-day at lunch-time, if you like."
+
+"It has been one of the strangest nights I ever remember," Naida
+declared, after a brief pause. "Oscar Immelan, who was dining with us,
+arrived half an hour late. I have never seen him in such a condition
+before. He had the air of a broken man."
+
+"Have you any idea of what had happened?" Nigel asked.
+
+"Only this," Naida replied. "We saw Prince Shan last night. He spent
+several hours with us. I may be wrong, but I came to the conclusion then
+that he had at any rate modified his views about the whole situation
+since his arrival in England."
+
+Again there was a brief silence. The minds of all three of them were
+busy with the same thought. Prince Shan's word had been spoken and
+Immelan's hopes dashed to the ground,--and within a few hours, this
+murder! They nursed the thought, but no one put it into words.
+
+A sleepy-eyed porter opened the door of the car outside the Milan Court.
+Naida gathered herself together with a little shiver.
+
+"I think that after to-night," she said quietly, "there need be no
+secrets between any of us."
+
+Nigel held her hand in his. Their eyes met, and both of them were
+conscious, in that moment, of closer personal relations, of the passing
+of a certain sense of strain. She even smiled as she turned away.
+
+"To-morrow," she concluded, "there must be a great exchange of
+confidences. I am lunching at Belgrave Square, if Maggie has not
+forgotten, and I shall tell you then what I have written to Paul
+Matinsky. I showed it to Prince Shan yesterday. Good night!"
+
+She patted Maggie's hand affectionately and flitted away. The revolving
+doors closed behind her, and the car swung out once more into the
+Strand, glided down the Mall, past Buckingham Palace, and stopped at
+last before the great, lifeless house in Belgrave Square. Nigel opened
+the front door with a latchkey and turned on the light.
+
+"You won't mind sparing me a few minutes?" he begged.
+
+"I suppose not," she answered, shivering.
+
+He led the way to the study. She threw off her cloak and sank into the
+depths of one of the big easy-chairs. She looked very frail and rather
+pathetic as she leaned her head against the chair back. Now that the
+excitement was over, the strain of the emotion she had experienced
+showed in the violet shadows under her eyes and in the droop of her
+shoulders.
+
+"I am tired," she said plaintively.
+
+Nigel came over and sat on the arm of her chair.
+
+"Tell me what happened to-night, Maggie."
+
+"The little Chinese girl sent for me to go to her box," she explained.
+"She told me where in Prince Shan's house were hidden the papers which
+revealed the understanding between Immelan and himself. She gave me a
+key of the house and a key of the cabinet. We could both see the man
+whom I believed to be Prince Shan seated in his box. She assured me that
+he would be there for the next two hours. I went to the house in Curzon
+Street."
+
+"Well?"
+
+His monosyllable was sharp and incisive. His face was grey and anxious.
+She herself remained lifeless. All that there was of emotion between
+them seemed to have become vested in his searching eyes.
+
+"I found what I believe to have been the papers. They were in the
+cabinet, just where she had told me. Then I turned around and found
+Prince Shan watching me. He had been there all the time."
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"At first he said little, but I knew that he was very angry. I have
+never felt so ashamed in my life."
+
+"You must tell me the rest, please."
+
+She stirred uneasily in her chair.
+
+"It is very difficult," she confessed frankly.
+
+"Remember," he persisted, "that in a way, Maggie, I am your guardian. I
+am responsible, too, for anything which may happen to you whilst you are
+engaged in work for the good of our cause. You seem to have walked into
+a trap. Did he threaten you, or what?"
+
+"There was nothing definite," she answered, "and yet--he made me
+understand."
+
+"Made you understand what?"
+
+"His wishes," she replied, looking up coolly. "He offered me the
+papers."
+
+"That damned Chinaman!"
+
+There was a cold light in her eyes which Nigel had met with before and
+dreaded.
+
+"You forget yourself, Nigel," she said. "Prince Shan is a great
+nobleman."
+
+"The rest? Tell me the rest," he demanded.
+
+"I am here," she reminded him.
+
+"And the papers?"
+
+"I came away without them."
+
+He turned, and, walking to the window, threw it open. The dawn had
+become almost silvery, and the leaves of the overhanging trees were
+rustling in the faintest of breezes. Presently he came back.
+
+"What exactly are your feelings for this man, Maggie?" he asked.
+
+For the first time he was struck with a certain pathos in her immobile
+face. She looked up at him, and there was a gleam almost of fear in her
+eyes.
+
+"I don't know, Nigel," she confessed.
+
+He moved restlessly about the room, seemed to notice for the first time
+the whisky and soda set out upon the sideboard and the open box of
+cigarettes. He helped himself and came back.
+
+"Did you read the papers?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I had no chance."
+
+"You don't know for certain what they were about?"
+
+"I think I do," she replied. "I believe they contained the text of the
+agreement between Immelan and Prince Shan. I believe they would have
+shown us exactly what we have to fear."
+
+He stood there for a moment thoughtfully.
+
+"To-night," he said, "I find it difficult to concentrate upon these
+things. Naida was extraordinarily hopeful. She has seen Prince Shan, and
+between them I believe that they have decided to let Oscar Immelan's
+scheme alone. Karschoff, too, has heard rumours. He is of the same
+opinion. Somehow or other, though, I seem to have lost my sense of
+perspective. A greater fear has come into my heart, Maggie."
+
+She rose to her feet and laid her hands upon his shoulders.
+
+"Nigel," she whispered, "I cannot answer you. I cannot say what you
+would like me to say, although, on the other hand, there is no surety of
+what you seem to fear. I am going to bed. I am very tired."
+
+A feeble shaft of sunlight stole into the room, flickered and passed
+away, then suddenly reappeared. Nigel turned and opened the door, and
+she passed out, curiously silent and absorbed. He looked after her,
+perplexed and worried. Suddenly a strangely commonplace, yet--in the
+silence of the house and the great hall--an almost dramatic sound
+startled him. The front doorbell rang sharply. After a moment's
+hesitation, he hurried to it himself. Karschoff stood upon the steps,
+still in his evening clothes, his face a little drawn and haggard in the
+bright light.
+
+"I could not resist coming in, Nigel," he said. "I saw the light in the
+study from outside. Is there any definite news?"
+
+Nigel drew him inside.
+
+"There are indications," he replied cautiously, "that the present danger
+is passing."
+
+Karschoff nodded.
+
+"I gathered so from Naida," he admitted. "Prince Shan, though, is the
+pivot upon which the whole thing turns. You have heard nothing final
+from him?"
+
+"Nothing! Tell me, was any one arrested at the Albert Hall?"
+
+"No one. The murdered man, as I suppose you have heard, was Sen Lu, one
+of the Prince's secretaries."
+
+"The whole thing seems strange," Nigel remarked. "Do you suppose Prince
+Shan knew that an attempt upon his life was likely to-night?"
+
+Karschoff shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"It is difficult to say. These Orientals contrive to surround themselves
+with such an atmosphere of mystery. But from what I know of Prince
+Shan," he went on, "I do not think that he is one to shirk danger--even
+from the assassin's dagger."
+
+A milk cart drew up with a clatter outside. There was the sound of the
+area gate being opened. Karschoff put on his hat. He looked Nigel in the
+face.
+
+"Maggie," he began--
+
+Nigel nodded understandingly as he threw open the front door.
+
+"I'll tell you about it to-morrow," he promised, "or rather later on
+to-day. She's a little overwrought. Otherwise--there's nothing."
+
+Karschoff turned away with a sigh of relief.
+
+"I am glad," he said. "Prince Shan is the soul of honour according to
+his own standard, but these Orientals--one never knows. I am glad,
+Nigel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+In his spacious reception room, with its blue walls, the high vases of
+flowers, the faint odour of incense, its indefinable ascetic charm,
+Prince Shan sat in his high-backed chair whilst Li Wen, his trusted
+secretary talked. Li Wen was very eloquent. His tone was never raised,
+he never forgot that he was speaking to a being of a superior world. He
+had a great deal to say, however, and he was eager to say it. Prince
+Shan, as he listened, smoked a long cigarette in a yellow tube. He wore
+a ring in which was set an uncut green stone on the fourth finger of his
+left hand. Although the hour was barely nine o'clock, he was shaved and
+dressed as though for a visit of ceremony. He listened to Li Wen gravely
+and critically.
+
+"I am sorry about the little one," he said, looking through the cloud of
+tobacco smoke up towards the ceiling. "Nita has been very useful. She
+has been as faithful, too, as is possible for a woman."
+
+Li Wen bowed and waited. He knew better than to interrupt.
+
+"It was through the information which Nita brought me," his master went
+on, "that I have been able to check the truth of Immelan's statement as
+to the French dispositions and the _rapprochement_ with Italy. Nita has
+served me very well indeed. What she has done in this matter, she has
+done in a moment of caprice."
+
+"My lord," Li Wen ventured, "a woman is of no account in the plans of
+the greatest. She is like a leaf blown hither or thither on the winds of
+love or jealousy. She may be used, but she must be discarded."
+
+"It is a strange world, this western world," Prince Shan mused. "In our
+own country, Li Wen, we plot or we fight, we build the great places,
+climb to the lofty heights, and when we rest we pluck flowers, and women
+are our flowers. But here, while one builds, the women are there; while
+one climbs, the women are in the way. They jostle the thoughts, they
+disturb the emotions, not only of the poet and the pleasure seeker, but
+of the man who hews his way upwards to the goal he seeks. And it is very
+deliberate, Li Wen. An Englishman eats and drinks in public and places
+opposite him a flower he has plucked or hopes to pluck. He drugs himself
+deliberately. Half the time when he should be soaring in his thoughts,
+he descends of deliberate intent. Instead of his flower, he makes his
+woman the partner of his grossness."
+
+"The master speaks," Li Wen murmured. "But what of the woman? She awaits
+your pleasure."
+
+"I shall hear what she has to say," Prince Shan decided.
+
+Walking backwards as nimbly as a cat, his head drooped, his hands in
+front of him, Li Wen left his master's presence. A moment later he
+reappeared, ushering in La Belle Nita. Prince Shan waved him away. The
+girl came slowly forward, pale and trembling, smouldering fires in her
+narrow eyes. Not a muscle of Prince Shan's face moved. He watched her
+approach in silence. She sank on to the floor by the side of his chair.
+
+"What is my master's will?" she asked.
+
+Prince Shan looked downwards at her, and she began to tremble again.
+There was nothing threatening in his eyes, nothing menacing in his
+expression. Nevertheless, she felt the chill of death.
+
+"You have done me many good and faithful services, Nita," he said. "What
+evil spirit has put it into your brain that it would be a good thing to
+deceive me?"
+
+Her scarlet lips opened and closed again.
+
+"How have I deceived?" she faltered. "I gave the keys to the woman with
+the blue eyes, and I sent her to my lord. It was a hard thing to do
+that, but I did it. Was there any risk of evil? My lord was here to deal
+with her."
+
+"Why did you do this thing, Nita?" he asked.
+
+"My lord knows," she answered simply. "I did it to bring evil upon this
+English woman whom he has preferred. I did it that he might understand.
+It was my lord himself who told me that she was a spy. Now it is
+proved."
+
+Prince Shan's fingers stole into the pocket of his coat. He held out a
+crumpled sheet of paper, on which was written a single sentence. The
+girl began to shiver.
+
+"You have been very anxious indeed, Nita," he said, "to bring evil upon
+this woman. This is the message you sent to Immelan. Do you recognise
+your words? Listen, these are your words:
+
+"'The greatest of all will desert you, if the Englishwoman whom he loves
+is not speedily removed. Even to-night he may give papers into her hand,
+and your secret will be known.'"
+
+The girl sat transfixed. She seemed to have lost all power of speech.
+
+"That is a copy of the message which you sent to Immelan," he told her
+sternly.
+
+"It is the terrible Li Wen," she faltered. "He has the second sight. The
+devil walks with him."
+
+"The devil is sometimes a useful confederate," her companion continued
+equably. "You warned Immelan that it was in my mind to refuse his terms
+and to open my heart to the Englishwoman, and you seduced Sen Lu to
+carry your message. Yet your judgment was at fault. The hand of Immelan
+was stretched out against me, and me alone. But for my knowledge of
+these things, I might have sat in the place of Sen Lu, who rightly died
+in my stead. What have you to say?"
+
+She rose to her feet. He made no movement, but his eyes watched her, and
+the muscles of his body stiffened. He watched the white hand which stole
+irresolutely towards the loose folds of her coat.
+
+"You ask me why I have done this," she cried, "but you already know. It
+is because you have taken this woman with the blue eyes into your
+heart."
+
+"If that were true," he answered, "of what concern is it to others? I am
+Prince Shan."
+
+"You sent me here to breathe this cursed western atmosphere," she
+moaned, "to drink in their thoughts and see with their eyes. I see and
+know the folly of it all, but who can escape? Jealousy with us is a
+disease. Over there one creeps away like a hurt animal because there is
+nothing else. Here it is different. The Frenchwoman, the Englishwoman,
+who loses her lover--she does not fold her hands. She strikes, she is a
+wronged creature. I too have felt that."
+
+Her master sat for long in silence.
+
+"You are right," he pronounced. "I shall try to be just. You are a
+person of small understanding. You have never made any effort to live
+with your head in the clouds. Let that be so. The fault was mine."
+
+"I do not wish to live," she cried.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Live or die--what does it matter?" he answered indifferently. "With
+life there is pain, and with death there is none, but if you choose
+life, remember this. The woman with the blue eyes, as you call her, has
+become the star of my life. If harm should come to her, not only you,
+but every one of your family and race, in whatsoever part of the world
+they may be, will leave this life in agony."
+
+The girl stood and wondered.
+
+"My lord thinks so much of a plaything?" she murmured.
+
+Prince Shan frowned. His finely shaped, silky eyebrows almost met. She
+covered her eyes and drooped her head.
+
+"We of the East," he said, "although we are the mightier race, progress
+slowly, because the love of new things is not with us. Something of
+western ways I have learned, and the love of woman. It is not for a
+plaything I desire her whom we will not name. She shall sit by my side
+and rule. I shall wed her with my brain as with my body. Our minds will
+move together. We shall feel the same shivering pleasure when we rule
+the world with great thoughts as when our bodies touch. I shall teach
+her to know her soul, even as my own has been revealed to me."
+
+"No woman is worthy of this, my lord," the girl faltered.
+
+He waved his hand and she stole away. At the door he stopped her.
+
+"Do you go to life or death, Nita?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him with a great sorrow.
+
+"I am a worthless thing," she replied. "I go where my lord's words have
+sent me."
+
+Li Wen reappeared presently for an appointed audience. He brought
+messages.
+
+"Highness," he announced, "there is a code dispatch here from Ki-Chou.
+An American gained entrance to the City last week. Yesterday he left by
+aeroplane for India. He was overtaken and captured. It is feared,
+however, that he has agents over the frontier, for no papers were found
+upon him."
+
+"It was a great achievement," Prince Shan said thoughtfully. "No other
+foreigner has ever passed into our secret city. Is there word as to how
+he got there?"
+
+"He came as a Russian artificer from that city in Russia of which we do
+not speak," Li Wen replied. "He brought letters, and his knowledge was
+great."
+
+"His name?" the Prince asked.
+
+"Gilbert Jesson, Highness. His passport and papers refer to Washington,
+but his message, if he sent one, is believed to have come to London."
+
+"The man must die," the Prince said calmly. "That, without doubt, he
+expects. Yet the news is not serious. My heart has spoken for peace, Li
+Wen."
+
+Li Wen bowed low. His master watched him curiously.
+
+"If I had asked it, Li Wen, where would your counsel have led?"
+
+"Towards peace, Highness. I do not trust Immelan. It is not in such a
+manner that China's Empire shall spread. There are ancestors of mine who
+would turn in their graves to find China in league with a western
+Power."
+
+"You are a wise man, Li Wen," his master declared. "We hold the mastery
+of the world. What shall we do with it?"
+
+"The mightiest sword is that which enforces peace," was the calm reply.
+"Highness, the lady whom you were expecting waits in the anteroom."
+
+Prince Shan nodded. He welcomed Naida, who was ushered in a moment or
+two later, with rather more than his usual grave and pleasant courtesy,
+leading her himself to a chair.
+
+"I wondered," she confessed, "if I were ever to be allowed to see inside
+your wonderful house."
+
+"It is my misfortune to be compelled to pay so brief a visit to this
+country," he replied. "As a rule, it gives me great pleasure to open my
+rooms three evenings and entertain those who care to come and see me."
+
+"I have heard of your entertainments," she said, smiling. "Prima donnas
+sing. You rob the capitals of Europe to find your music. Then the great
+Monsieur Auguste is lured from Paris to prepare your supper, and not a
+lady leaves without some priceless jewel."
+
+"I entertain so seldom," he reminded her. "I fear that the fame of my
+feasts has been exaggerated."
+
+"When do you leave, Prince?" she asked him.
+
+"Within a few days," he replied.
+
+"I come for your last word," she announced. "All that I have written to
+Paul Matinsky you know."
+
+"The last word is not yet to be spoken," he said. "This, however, you
+may tell Matinsky. The scheme of Oscar Immelan has been laid before me.
+I have rejected it."
+
+"In what other way, then, would you use your power?" she asked.
+
+He made no answer. She watched him with a great and growing curiosity.
+
+"Prince," she said, "they tell me that you are a great student of
+history."
+
+"I have read what is known of the history of most of the countries of
+the world," he admitted.
+
+"There have been men," she persisted, "who have dealt in empires for the
+price of a woman's smile."
+
+"Such men have loved," he said, "as I love."
+
+"Yet for you life has always been a great and lofty thing," she reminded
+him. "You could not stand where you do if you had not realised the
+beauty and wonder of sacrifice. Fate has given the peace of the world
+into your keeping. You will not juggle with the trust?"
+
+He rose to his feet. A servant stood almost immediately at the open
+door.
+
+"Fate and an American engineer," he remarked with a smile. "I thank you,
+dear lady, for your visit. You will hear my news before I leave."
+
+She looked into his eyes for a moment.
+
+"It is a great decision," she said, "which rests with you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+An hour or so later, Prince Shan left his house in Curzon Street and,
+followed at a discreet distance by two members of his household,
+strolled into the Park. It had pleased him that morning to conform
+rigorously to the mode of dress adopted by the fashionable citizens of
+the country which he was visiting. Few people, without the closest
+observation, would have taken him for anything but a well-turned-out,
+exceedingly handsome and distinguished-looking Englishman. He carried
+himself with a faint air of aloofness, as though he moved amongst scenes
+in which he had no actual concern, as though he were living, in thought
+at any rate, in some other world. The morning was brilliantly sunny, and
+both the promenade and the Row were crowded. Slightly hidden behind a
+tree, he stood and watched. A gay crowd of promenaders passed along the
+broad path, and the air was filled with the echo of laughter, the jargon
+of the day, intimate references to a common world, invitations lightly
+given and lightly accepted. It was Sunday morning, in a season when
+colour was the craze of the moment, and the women who swept by seemed to
+his rather mystical fancy like the flowers in some of the great open
+spaces he knew so well, stirred into movement by a soft wind. They were
+very beautiful, these western women; handsome, too, the men with whom
+they talked and flirted. Always they had that air, however, of absolute
+complacency, as though they felt nothing of the quest which lay like a
+thread of torture amongst the nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was
+no more distinguished figure among the men there than he himself, and
+yet the sense of alienation grew in his heart as he watched. There were
+many familiar faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one who would
+not have greeted him with interest, even with gratification. And yet he
+had never been so deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
+oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid self-assurance of
+these westerners, so well-content with the earth upon which their feet
+fell. He had judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held in
+their thoughts and estimation. He was something of a curiosity, his
+title half a joke, the splendour of his long race a thing unrealisable
+by these scions of a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
+new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan had been a shade
+more eloquent, had pleaded his cause upon a higher level, that Naida
+Karetsky also had formed a different impression of the world which he
+was studying so earnestly,--what a transformation he could have brought
+upon this light-hearted and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly
+balanced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious of a certain faint
+contempt for the almost bovine self-satisfaction of a nation without
+eyes. Literature and painting, art in all its far-flung branches, even
+science, were suffering in these days from a general and paralysing
+inertia. Life which demanded no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of
+everything in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the only
+incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long in this fat land the only
+brake upon an era of self-indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his
+own millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in their ears, and
+it seemed to his elastic fancy that he was inhaling a long breath of
+cooler and more vigorous life.
+
+The current of his reflections was broken. He had moved a little towards
+the rails, and he was instantly aware of the girl cantering towards
+him,--a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay horse. She
+wore a simple brown habit and bowler hat, and she sat her horse with
+that complete lack of self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
+horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she cantered towards him,
+with no thought of the crowds passing along the promenade. Yet, as she
+drew nearer, she suddenly glanced down, and their eyes met. As though
+obeying his unspoken wish, she reined in her horse and came close to the
+rails behind which he stood for a moment bareheaded. There was the
+faintest smile upon her lips. She was amazingly composed. She had asked
+herself repeatedly, almost in terror, how they should meet when the time
+came. Now that it had happened, it seemed the most natural thing in the
+world. She was scarcely conscious even of embarrassment.
+
+"You are demonstrating to the world," she remarked, "that the reports of
+your death this morning were exaggerated?"
+
+"I had forgotten the incident," he assured her calmly.
+
+His callousness was so unaffected that she shivered a little.
+
+"Yet this Sen Lu, this man for whom you were mistaken, was an intimate
+member of your household, was he not?"
+
+"Sen Lu was a very good friend," Prince Shan answered. "He did his duty
+for many years. If he knows now that his life was taken for mine, he is
+happy to have made such atonement."
+
+She manoeuvred her horse a little to be nearer to him.
+
+"Why was Sen Lu murdered?" she asked.
+
+"There are those," he replied, "of whom I myself shall ask that question
+before the day is over."
+
+"You have an idea, then?" she persisted.
+
+"If," he said, "you desire my whole confidence, it is yours."
+
+She sat looking between her horse's ears.
+
+"To tell you the truth," she confessed, "I do not know what I desire.
+Your philosophy, I suppose, does not tolerate moods. I shall escape from
+them some time, I expect, but just now I seem to have found my way into
+a maze. The faces of these people don't even seem real to me, and as for
+you, I am perfectly certain that you have never been in China in your
+life."
+
+"Tell me the stimulant that is needed to raise you from your apathy," he
+asked. "Will you find it in the rapid motion of your horse--a very noble
+animal--in the joy of this morning's sunshine and breeze, or in the
+toyland where these puppets move and walk?" he added, glancing down the
+promenade. "Dear Lady Maggie, I beg permission to pay you a visit of
+ceremony. Will you receive me this afternoon?"
+
+She knew then what it was that she had been hoping for. She looked down
+at him and smiled.
+
+"At four o'clock," she invited.
+
+She nodded, touched her horse lightly with the whip, and cantered off.
+Prince Shan found himself suddenly accosted by a dozen acquaintances,
+all plying him with questions. He listened to them with an amused smile.
+
+"The whole affair is a very simple one," he said. "A member of my
+household was assassinated last night. It was probably a plot against my
+own life. Those things are more common with us, perhaps, than over
+here."
+
+"Jolly country, China, I should think," one of the younger members of
+the group remarked. "You can buy a man's conscience there for
+ninepence."
+
+Prince Shan looked across at the speaker gravely.
+
+"The market value here," he observed, "seems a little higher, but the
+supply greater."
+
+"_Touche_!" Karschoff laughed. "There is another point of view, too. The
+further east you go, the less value life has. Westwards, it becomes an
+absolute craze to preserve and coddle it, to drag it out to its
+furthermost span. The American millionaire, for example, has a resident
+physician attached to his household and is likely to spend the aftermath
+of his life in a semi-drugged and comatose condition. And in the East,
+who cares? If not to-day--to-morrow! Inevitability, which is the
+nightmare of the West, is the philosophy of the East. By the by,
+Prince," he added, "have you any theory as to last night's attempt?"
+
+"That is just the question," Prince Shan replied, "which two very
+intelligent gentlemen from Scotland Yard asked me this morning. Theory?
+Why should I have a theory?"
+
+"The attempt was without a doubt directed against you," Karschoff
+observed. "Do you imagine that it was personal or political?"
+
+"How can I tell?" the Prince rejoined carelessly. "Why should any one
+desire my death? These things are riddles. Ah! Here comes my friend
+Immelan!" he went on. "Immelan, help us in this discussion. You are not
+one of those who place the gift of life above all other things in the
+world!"
+
+"My own or another's?" Immelan asked, with blunt cynicism.
+
+"I trust," was the bland reply, "that you are, as I have always esteemed
+you, an altruist."
+
+"And why?"
+
+Prince Shan shrugged his shoulders. He was a very agreeable figure in
+the centre of the little group of men, the hands which held his malacca
+cane behind his back, the smile which parted his lips benign yet
+cryptic.
+
+"Because," he explained, "it is a great thing to have more regard for
+the lives of others than for one's own, and there are times," he added,
+"when it is certainly one's own life which is in the more precarious
+state."
+
+There was a little dispersal of the crowd, a chorus of congratulations
+and farewells. Immelan and Prince Shan were left alone. The former
+seemed to have turned paler. The sun was warm, and yet he shivered.
+
+"Just what do you mean by that, Prince?" he asked.
+
+"You shall walk with me to my house, and I will tell you," was the quiet
+reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+"I suppose," Immelan suggested, as the two men reached the house in
+Curzon Street, "it would be useless to ask you to break your custom and
+lunch with me at the Ritz or at the club?"
+
+His companion smiled deprecatingly.
+
+"I have adopted so many of your western customs," he said
+apologetically. "To this lunching or dining in public, however, I shall
+never accustom myself."
+
+Immelan laughed good-naturedly. The conversation of the two men on their
+way from the Park had been without significance, and some part of his
+earlier nervousness seemed to be leaving him.
+
+"We all have our foibles," he admitted. "One of mine is to have a pretty
+woman opposite me when I lunch or dine, music somewhere in the distance,
+a little sentiment, a little promise, perhaps."
+
+"It is not artistic," Prince Shan pronounced calmly. "It is not when the
+wine mounts to the head, and the sense of feeding fills the body, that
+men speak best of the things that lie near their hearts. Still, we will
+let that pass. Each of us is made differently. There is another thing,
+Immelan, which I have to say to you."
+
+They passed into the reception room, with its shining floor, its
+marvellous rugs, its silken hangings, and its great vases of flowers.
+Prince Shan led his companion into a recess, where the light failed to
+penetrate so completely as into the rest of the apartment. A wide
+settee, piled with cushions, protruded from the wall in semicircular
+shape. In front of it was a round ebony table, upon which stood a great
+yellow bowl filled with lilies. Prince Shan gave an order to one of the
+servants who had followed them into the room and threw himself at full
+length among the cushions, his head resting upon his hand, his face
+turned towards his guest.
+
+"They will bring you the aperitif of which you are so fond," he said,
+"also cigarettes. Mine, I know, are too strong for you."
+
+"They taste too much of opium," Immelan remarked.
+
+Prince Shan's eyes grew dreamy as he gazed through a little cloud of
+odorous smoke.
+
+"There is opium in them," he admitted. "Believe me, they are very
+wonderful, but I agree with you that they are not for the ordinary
+person."
+
+The soft-footed butler presented a silver tray, upon which reposed a
+glassful of amber liquid. Immelan took it, sipped it appreciatively, and
+lit a cigarette.
+
+"Your man, Prince," he acknowledged, "mixes his vermouths wonderfully."
+
+"I am glad that what he does meets with your approval," was the
+courteous reply. "He came to me from one of your royal palaces. I simply
+told him that I wished my guests to have of the best."
+
+"Yet you never touch this sort of drink yourself," Immelan observed
+curiously.
+
+The Prince shook his head.
+
+"Sometimes I take wine," he said. "That is generally at night. A few
+evenings ago, for instance," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I
+drank Chateau Yquem, smoked Egyptian cigarettes, ate some muscatel
+grapes, and read 'Pippa Passes.' That was one of my banquets."
+
+"As a matter of fact," Immelan remarked thoughtfully, "you are far more
+western in thought than in habit. The temperance of the East is in your
+blood."
+
+"I find that my manner of life keeps the brain clear," Prince Shan said
+slowly. "I can see the truth sometimes when it is not very apparent. I
+saw the truth last night, Immelan, when I sent Sen Lu to die."
+
+Immelan's expression was indescribable. He sat with his mouth wide open.
+The hand which held his glass shook. He stared across the bowl of lilies
+to where his host was looking up through the smoke towards the ceiling.
+
+"Sen Lu was a traitor," the latter went on, "a very foolish man who with
+one act of treachery wiped out the memory of a lifetime of devotion. In
+the end he told the truth, and now he has paid his debt."
+
+"What do you mean?" Immelan demanded, in a voice which he attempted in
+vain to control. "How was Sen Lu a traitor?"
+
+"Sen Lu," the Prince explained, "was in the pay of those who sought to
+know more of my business than I chose to tell--who sought, indeed, to
+anticipate my own judgment. When they gathered from him, and, alas! from
+my sweet but frail little friend Nita, that the chances were against my
+signing a certain covenant, they came to what, even now, seems to me a
+strange decision. They decided that I must die. There I fail wholly to
+follow the workings of your mind, Immelan. How was my death likely to
+serve your purpose?"
+
+Immelan was absolutely speechless. Three times he opened his lips, only
+to close them again. Some instinct seemed to tell him that his companion
+had more to say. He sat there as though mesmerised. Meanwhile, the
+Prince lit another cigarette.
+
+"A blunder, believe me, Immelan," he continued thoughtfully. "Death will
+not lower over my path till my task is accomplished. I am young--many
+years younger than you, Immelan--and the greatest physicians marvel at
+my strength. Against the assassin's knife or bullet I am secure. You
+have been brought up and lived, my terrified friend, in a country where
+religion remains a shell and a husk, without comfort to any man. It is
+not so with me, I live in the spirit as in the body, and my days will
+last until the sun leans down and lights me to the world where those
+dwell who have fulfilled their destiny."
+
+Immelan drained the contents of the glass which his unsteady hand was
+holding. Then he rose to his feet. The veins on his forehead were
+standing out, his blue eyes were filled with rage.
+
+"Blast Sen Lu!" he muttered. "The man was a double traitor!"
+
+"He has atoned," his companion said calmly. "He made his peace and he
+went to his death. It seems very fitting that he should have received
+the dagger which was meant for my heart. Now what about you, Oscar
+Immelan?"
+
+Immelan laughed harshly.
+
+"If Sen Lu told you that I was in this plot against your life, he lied!"
+
+The Prince inclined his head urbanely.
+
+"Such a man as Sen Lu goes seldom to his death with a lie upon his
+lips," he said. "Yet I confess that I am puzzled. Why should you plan
+this thing, Immelan? You cannot know what is in my mind concerning your
+covenant. I have not yet refused to sign it."
+
+"You have not refused to sign it," Immelan replied, "but you will
+refuse."
+
+"Indeed?" the Prince murmured.
+
+"You are even now trifling with the secrets confided to you," Immelan
+went on. "You know very well that the woman who came to you last night
+is a spy whose whole time is spent in seeking to worm our secret from
+you."
+
+"Your agents keep themselves well informed," was the calm comment.
+
+"Yours still have the advantage of us," Immelan answered bitterly. "Now
+listen to me. I have heard it said of you--I have heard that you claim
+yourself--that you have never told a falsehood. We have been allies.
+Answer me this question. Have you parted with any of our secrets?"
+
+"Not one," the Prince assured him. "A certain lady visited this house
+last night, not, as you seem to think, at my invitation, but on her own
+initiative. She was not successful in her quest."
+
+"She would not pay the price, eh?" Immelan sneered. "By the gods of your
+ancestors, Prince Shan, are there not women enough in the world for you
+without bartering your honour, and the great future of your country, for
+a blue-eyed jade of an Englishwoman?"
+
+The Prince sat slowly up. His appearance was ominous. His face had
+become set as marble; there was a look in his eyes like the flashing of
+a light upon black metal. He contemplated his visitor across the lilies.
+
+"A man so near to death, Immelan," he enjoined, "might choose his words
+more carefully."
+
+Immelan laughed scornfully.
+
+"I am not to be bullied," he declared. "Your doors with their patent
+locks have no fears for me. When you walk abroad, you are followed by
+members of your household. When you come to my rooms, they attend you. I
+am not a prince, but I, too, have a care for my skin. Three of my secret
+service men never let me out of their sight. They are within call at
+this moment."
+
+His host smiled.
+
+"This is very interesting," he said, "but you should know me better,
+Immelan, than to imagine that mine are the clumsy methods of the dagger
+or the bullet. The man whom I will to die--drinks with me."
+
+He pointed a long forefinger at the empty glass. Immelan gazed at it,
+and the sweat stood out upon his forehead.
+
+"My God!" he muttered. "There was a queer taste! I thought that it was
+aniseed!"
+
+"There was nothing in that glass," the Prince declared, "which the
+greatest chemist who ever breathed could detect as poison, yet you will
+die, my friend Immelan, without any doubt. Shall I tell you how? Would
+you know in what manner the pains will come? No? But, my friend, you
+disappoint me! You showed so much courage an hour ago. Listen. Feel for
+a swelling just behind--Ah!"
+
+Immelan was already across the room. The Prince touched a bell, the
+doors were opened. Ghastly pale, his head swimming, the tortured man
+dashed out into the street. The Prince leaned back amongst his cushions,
+untied a straw-fastened packet of his long cigarettes, lit one, and
+closed his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Nigel was just arriving at Dorminster House when Maggie returned from
+her ride. He assisted her to dismount and entered the house with her.
+
+"There is something here I should like to show you, Maggie," he said, as
+he drew a dispatch from his pocket. "It was sent round to me half an
+hour ago by Chalmers, from the American Embassy."
+
+"It's about Gilbert Jesson!" Maggie exclaimed, holding out her hand for
+it.
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"There's a note inside, and an enclosure," he said. "You had better read
+both."
+
+Maggie opened out the former:
+
+     MY DEAR DORMINSTER,
+
+     I am afraid there is rather bad news about Jesson. One of our
+     regular line of airships, running from San Francisco to
+     Vladivostok, has picked up a wireless which must have come from
+     somewhere in the South of China. They kept it for a few days, worse
+     luck, thinking it was only nonsense, as it was in code. Washington
+     got hold of it, however, and cabled it to us last night. I enclose
+     a copy, decoded.
+
+     Sincerely yours,
+
+     JERE CHALMERS.
+
+The copy was brief enough. Maggie felt her heart sink as she glanced
+through the few lines:
+
+     Report dispatched London. Fear escape impossible. Good-by.
+
+     JESSON.
+
+"Horrible!" Maggie exclaimed, with a shiver. "I thought he was in
+Russia."
+
+"So did we all," Nigel replied. "He must have come to the conclusion
+that the key to the riddle he was trying to solve was in China, and gone
+on there. Look here, Maggie," he continued, after a moment's hesitation,
+"do you think anything could be done for Jesson with Prince Shan?"
+
+Maggie was silent. They were standing in a shaded corner of the hall,
+but a fleck of sunshine shone in her hair. She was still a little out of
+breath with the exercise, her cheeks full of healthy colour, her eyes
+bright. She tapped her skirt with her riding whip. Nigel watched her a
+little uneasily.
+
+"Prince Shan is calling here this afternoon," Maggie announced. "I hope
+you don't mind."
+
+"What are you going to say to him?" Nigel asked bluntly.
+
+There was a short, tense silence. Even at the thought of the crisis
+which she knew to be so close at hand, Maggie felt herself unnerved and
+in dubious straits.
+
+"I do not know," she said at last. "For one thing, I do not know what he
+wants."
+
+"What he wants seems perfectly plain to me," Nigel replied gravely. "He
+wants you."
+
+Maggie made a desperate effort to regain the lightheartedness of a few
+weeks ago.
+
+"If you believe that," she said, "your composure is most unflattering."
+
+There was a ring at the front doorbell, and a familiar voice was heard
+outside. Maggie turned away to the staircase with a little sigh of
+relief.
+
+"Naida!" she exclaimed. "I remember now I asked her for a quarter past
+one instead of half-past. You must entertain her, Nigel. I'll change
+into something quickly. And of course I'll speak to Prince Shan. We
+mustn't lose a minute about that. I'll telephone from my room in a few
+minutes, Naida. Nigel will look after you."
+
+Naida came down the hall, cool and exquisitely gowned in a creation of
+shimmering white. Nigel led her into the rarely used drawing-room and
+found a chair for her between the open window and the conservatory. At
+first they exchanged but few words. The sense of her near presence
+affected Nigel as nothing of the sort had ever done before. She for her
+part seemed quite content with a silence which had in it many of the
+essentials of eloquence.
+
+"If the history of these days is ever written by an irascible German
+historian," Naida remarked at length, "he will probably declare that the
+destinies of the world have been affected during this last month by an
+outburst of primitivism. Do you know that I have written quite nice
+things to Paul about you English people? Honest things, of course, but
+still things which you helped me to discover. And Prince Shan, too. I
+think that when he rode here through the clouds, he believed in his
+heart that he was coming as a harbinger of woe."
+
+"You really think, then, that the crisis is past?" Nigel asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am almost sure of it. Prince Shan returns to China within the course
+of the next few days."
+
+"We have lived so long," Nigel observed, "in dread of the unknown. I
+wonder whether we shall ever understand the exact nature of the danger
+with which we were faced."
+
+"It depends upon Prince Shan," she replied. "The terms were Immelan's,
+but the method was his."
+
+"Do you believe," he asked a little abruptly, "that the attempt on
+Prince Shan's life last night was made by Immelan?"
+
+There was a touch, perhaps, of her Muscovite ancestry in the cool
+indifference with which she considered the matter.
+
+"I should think it most likely," she decided. "Prince Shan never changes
+his mind, and I believe that he has decided against Immelan's scheme.
+Immelan's only chance would be in Prince Shan's successor."
+
+"Why is China so necessary?" Nigel asked.
+
+She turned and smiled at her companion.
+
+"Alas!" she sighed, "we have reached an _impasse_. The great English
+diplomat asks too many questions of the simple Russian girl."
+
+"It is unfortunate," he replied, in the same vein, "because I feel like
+asking more."
+
+"As, for example?"
+
+"Whether you would be content to live for the rest of your life in any
+other country except Russia."
+
+"A woman is content to live anywhere, under certain circumstances," she
+murmured.
+
+Karschoff, discreetly announced, entered the room with flamboyant ease.
+
+"It is well to be young!" he exclaimed, as he bent over Naida's fingers.
+"You look, my far-away but much beloved cousin, as though you had slept
+peacefully through the night and spent the morning in this soft, sunlit
+air, with perhaps, if one might suggest such a thing, an hour at a Bond
+Street beauty parlour. Here am I with crow's-feet under my eyes and
+ghosts walking by my side. Yet none the less," he added, as the door
+opened and Maggie appeared, "looking forward to my luncheon and to hear
+all the news."
+
+"There is no news," Naida declared, as the butler announced the service
+of the meal. "We have reached the far end of the ways. The next
+disclosures, if ever they are made, will come from others. At luncheon
+we are going to talk of the English country, the seaside, the meadows,
+and the quiet places. The time arrives when I weary, weary, of the
+brazen ticking of the clock of fate."
+
+"I shall tell you," Nigel declared, "of a small country house I have in
+Devonshire. There are rough grounds stretching down to the sea and
+crawling up to the moors behind. My grandfather built it when he was
+Chancellor of England, or rather he added to an old farmhouse. He called
+it the House of Peace."
+
+"My father built a house very much in the same spirit," Naida told them.
+"He called it after an old Turkish inscription, engraven on the front of
+a villa in Stamboul--'The House of Thought and Flowers.'"
+
+Maggie smiled across the table approvingly.
+
+"I like the conversation," she said. "Naida and I are, after all, women
+and sentimentalists. We claim a respite, an armistice--call it what you
+will. Prince Karschoff, won't you tell me of the most beautiful house
+you ever dwelt in?"
+
+"Always the house I am hoping to end my days in," he answered. "But let
+me tell you about a villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People
+used to speak of it as one of the world's treasures."
+
+When the two men were seated alone over their coffee, Nigel passed
+Chalmers' note and the enclosure across to his companion.
+
+"You remember I told you about Chalmers' friend, Jesson, the secret
+service man who came over to us?" he said. "Chalmers has just sent me
+round this."
+
+Karschoff nodded and studied the message through his great horn-rimmed
+eyeglass.
+
+"I thought that he was going to Russia for you," he said.
+
+"So he did. He must have gone on from there."
+
+"And the message comes from Southern China," Prince Karschoff reflected.
+
+Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Germany! Prince Shan in
+England, negotiating with Immelan! And behind, sinister, menacing,
+mysterious--Japan!
+
+"Supposing," he propounded at last, "there really does exist a secret
+treaty between China and Japan?"
+
+"If there is," Prince Karschoff observed, "one can easily understand
+what Immelan has been at. Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I
+know they are afraid of something of the sort in the States. An American
+who was in the club yesterday told us they had spent over a hundred
+millions on their west coast fortifications in the last two years."
+
+"One can understand, too, in that case," Nigel continued, "why Japan
+left the League of Nations. That stunt of hers about being outside the
+sphere of possible misunderstandings never sounded honest."
+
+"It was unfortunate," Prince Karschoff said, "that America was dominated
+for those few months by an honest but impractical idealist. He had the
+germ of an idea, but he thrust it on the world before even his own
+country was ready for it. In time the nations would certainly have
+elaborated something more workable."
+
+"You cannot keep a full-blooded man from clenching his fist if he's
+insulted," Nigel pointed out, "and nations march along the same lines as
+individuals. Its existence has never for a single moment weakened
+Germany's hatred of England, and the stronger she grows, the more she
+flaunts its conditions. France guards her frontiers, night and day, with
+an army ten times larger than she is allowed. Russia has become the
+country of mysteries, with something up her sleeve, beyond a doubt, and
+there are cities in modern China into which no European dare penetrate.
+Japan quite frankly maintains an immense army, the United States is
+silently following suit--and God help us all if a war does come!"
+
+"You are right," Karschoff assented gloomily. "The last glamour of
+romance has gone from fighting. There were remnants of it in the last
+war, especially in Palestine and Egypt and when we first overran
+Austria. To-day, science would settle the whole affair. The war would be
+won in the laboratory, the engine room and the workshop. I doubt
+whether any battleship could keep afloat for a week, and as to the
+fighting in the air, if a hundred airships were in action, I do not
+suppose that one of them would escape. Then they say that France has a
+gun which could carry a shell from Amiens to London, and more mysterious
+than all, China has something up her sleeve which no one has even a
+glimmering of."
+
+"Except Jesson," Nigel muttered.
+
+"And Jesson's gleam of knowledge, or suspicion," Prince Karschoff
+remarked, "seems to have brought him to the end of his days. Can
+anything be done with Prince Shan about him, do you think?"
+
+"Only indirectly, I am afraid," Nigel replied. "Maggie is seeing him
+this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I believe she telephoned to him
+before luncheon, but I haven't heard anything yet. When a man goes out
+on that sort of a job, he burns his boats. And Jesson isn't the first
+who has turned eastwards, during the last few months. I heard only
+yesterday that France has lost three of her best men in China--one who
+went as a missionary and two as merchants. They've just disappeared
+without a word of explanation."
+
+The telephone extension bell rang. Nigel walked over to the sideboard
+and took down the receiver.
+
+"Is that Lord Dorminster?" a man's voice asked.
+
+"Speaking," Nigel replied.
+
+"I am David Franklin, private secretary to Mr. Mervin Brown," the voice
+continued. "Mr. Mervin Brown would be exceedingly obliged if you would
+come round to Downing Street to see him at once."
+
+"I will be there in ten minutes," Nigel promised.
+
+He laid down the receiver and turned to Karschoff.
+
+"The Prime Minister," he explained.
+
+"What does he want you for?"
+
+"I think," Nigel replied, "that the trouble cloud is about to burst."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown on this occasion did not beat about the bush. His old
+air of confident, almost smug self-satisfaction, had vanished. He
+received Nigel with a new deference in his manner, without any further
+sign of that good-natured tolerance accorded by a busy man to a kindly
+crank.
+
+"Lord Dorminster," he began, "I have sent for you to renew a
+conversation we had some little time since. I will be quite frank with
+you. Certain circumstances have come to my notice which lead me to
+believe that there may be more truth in some of the arguments you
+brought forward than I was willing at the time to believe."
+
+"I must confess that I am relieved to hear you say so," Nigel replied.
+"All the information which I have points to a crisis very near at hand."
+
+The Prime Minister leaned a little across the table.
+
+"The immediate reason for my sending for you," he explained, "is this.
+My friend the American Ambassador has just sent me a copy of a wireless
+dispatch which he has received from China from one of their former
+agents. The report seems to have been sent to him for safety, but the
+sender of it, of whose probity, by the by, the American Ambassador
+pledges himself, appears to have been sent to China by you."
+
+"Jesson!" Nigel exclaimed. "I have heard of this already, sir, from a
+friend in the American Embassy."
+
+"The dispatch," Mr. Mervin Brown went on, "is in some respects a little
+vague, but it is, on the other hand, I frankly admit, disturbing. It
+gives specific details as to definite military preparations on the part
+of China and Russia, associated, presumably, with a third Power whose
+name you will forgive my not mentioning. These preparations appear to
+have been brought almost to completion in the strictest secrecy, but the
+headquarters of the whole thing, very much to my surprise, I must
+confess, seems to be in southern China."
+
+"In that case," Nigel pointed out, "if you will permit me to make a
+suggestion, sir, you have a very simple course open to you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Send for Prince Shan."
+
+"Prince Shan," the Prime Minister replied, with knitted brows, "is not
+over in this country officially. He has begged to be excused from
+accepting or returning any diplomatic courtesies."
+
+"Nevertheless," Nigel persisted, "I should send for Prince Shan. If it
+had not been," he went on slowly, "for the complete abolition of our
+secret service system, you would probably have been informed before now
+that Prince Shan has been having continual conferences in this country
+with one of the most dangerous men who ever set foot on these
+shores--Oscar Immelan."
+
+"Immelan has no official position in this country," the Prime Minister
+objected.
+
+"A fact which makes him none the less dangerous," Nigel insisted. "He is
+one of those free lances of diplomacy who have sprung up during the last
+ten or fifteen years, the product of that spurious wave of altruism
+which is responsible for the League of Nations. Immelan was one of the
+first to see how his country might benefit by the new regime. It is he
+who has been pulling the strings in Russia and China, and, I fear,
+another country."
+
+"What I want to arrive at," Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently,
+"is something definite."
+
+"Let me put it my own way," Nigel begged. "A very large section of our
+present-day politicians--you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin
+Brown--have believed this country safe against any military dangers,
+because of the connections existing between your unions of working men
+and similar bodies in Germany. This is a great fallacy for two reasons:
+first because Germany has always intended to have some one else pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for her, and second because we cannot
+internationalise labour. English and German workmen may come together
+on matters affecting their craft and the conditions of their labour, but
+at heart one remains a German and one an Englishman, with separate
+interests and a separate outlook."
+
+"Well, at the end of it all," Mr. Mervin Brown said, "the bogey is war.
+What sort of a war? An invasion of England is just as impossible to-day
+as it was twenty years ago."
+
+Nigel nodded.
+
+"I cannot answer your question," he admitted. "I was looking to Jesson's
+report to give us an idea as to that."
+
+"You shall see it to-morrow," Mr. Mervin Brown promised. "It is round at
+the War Office at the present moment."
+
+"Without seeing it," Nigel went on, "I expect I can tell you one
+startling feature of its contents. It suggested, did it not, that the
+principal movers against us would be Russian and China and--a country
+which you prefer just now not to mention?"
+
+"But that country is our ally!" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed.
+
+Nigel smiled a little sadly.
+
+"She has been," he admitted. "Still, if you had been _au fait_ with
+diplomatic history thirty years ago, Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know
+that she was on the point of ending her alliance with us and
+establishing one with Germany. It was only owing to the genius of one
+English statesman that at the last moment she almost reluctantly
+renewed her alliance with us. She is in the same state of doubt
+concerning our destiny to-day. She has seen our last two Governments
+forget that we are an Imperial Power and endeavour to apply the
+principles of sheer commercialism to the conduct of a great nation. She
+may have opened her eyes a thousand years later than we did, but she is
+awake enough now to know that this will not do. There is little enough
+of generosity amongst the nations; none amongst the Orientals. I have a
+conviction myself that there is a secret alliance between China and this
+other Power, a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance."
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in thought. Somehow or other
+his face had gained in dignity since the beginning of the conversation.
+The nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look of deep and
+solemn anxiety.
+
+"If you are right, Lord Dorminster," he pronounced presently, "the world
+has rolled backwards these last ten years, and we who have failed to
+mark its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility thrust upon
+us."
+
+"Politically, I am afraid I agree with you," Nigel replied. "Only the
+idealist, and the prejudiced idealist, can ignore the primal elements in
+human nature and believe that a few lofty sentiments can keep the
+nations behind their frontiers. War is a terrible thing, but human life
+itself is a terrible thing. Its principles are the same, and force will
+never be restrained except by force. If the League of Nations had been
+established upon a firmer and less selfish basis, it certainly might
+have kept the peace for another thirty or forty years. As it is, I
+believe that we are on the verge of a serious crisis."
+
+"War for us is an impossibility," Mr. Mervin Brown declared frankly,
+"simply because we cannot fight. Our army consists of policemen; science
+has defeated the battleship; and practically the same conditions exist
+in the air."
+
+"You sent for me, I presume, to ask for my advice," Nigel said. "At any
+rate, let me offer it. I have reason to believe that the negotiations
+between Prince Shan and Oscar Immelan have not been entirely successful.
+Send for Prince Shan and question him in a friendly fashion."
+
+"Will you be my ambassador?" the Prime Minister asked.
+
+Nigel hesitated for a moment.
+
+"If you wish it," he promised. "Prince Shan is in some respects a
+strangely inaccessible person, but just at present he seems well
+disposed towards my household."
+
+"Arrange, if you can," Mr. Mervin Brown begged, "to bring him here
+to-morrow morning. I will try to have available a copy of the dispatch
+from Jesson. It refers to matters which I trust Prince Shan will be able
+to explain."
+
+Nigel lingered for a moment over his farewell.
+
+"If I might venture upon a suggestion, sir," he said, "do not forget
+that Prince Shan is to all intents and purposes the autocrat of Asia. He
+has taught the people of the world to remodel their ideas of China and
+all that China stands for. And further than this, he is, according to
+his principles, a man of the strictest honour. I would treat him, sir,
+as a valued _confrere_ and equal."
+
+The Prime Minister smiled.
+
+"Don't look upon me as being too intensely parochial, Dorminster," he
+said. "I know quite well that Prince Shan is a man of genius, and that
+he is a representative of one of the world's greatest families. I am
+only the servant of a great Power. He is a great Power in himself."
+
+"And believe me," Nigel concluded fervently, as he made his adieux, "the
+greatest autocrat that ever breathed. If, when you exchange farewells
+with him, he says--'There will be no war'--we are saved, at any rate for
+the moment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Maggie, very cool and neat, a vision of soft blue, a wealth of colouring
+in the deep brown of her closely braided hair, her lips slightly parted
+in a smile of welcome, felt, notwithstanding her apparent composure, a
+strange disturbance of outlook and senses as Prince Shan was ushered
+into her flower-bedecked little sitting room that afternoon. The unusual
+formality of his entrance seemed somehow to suit the man and his manner.
+He bowed low as soon as he had crossed the threshold and bowed again
+over her fingers as she rose from her easy-chair.
+
+"It makes me very happy that you receive me like this," he told her
+simply. "It makes it so much easier for me to say the things that are in
+my heart."
+
+"Won't you sit down, please?" Maggie invited. "You are so tall, and I
+hate to be completely dominated."
+
+He obeyed at once, but he continued to talk with grave and purposeful
+seriousness.
+
+"I wish," he said, "to bring myself entirely into accord, for these few
+minutes, with your western methods and customs. I address you,
+therefore, Lady Maggie, with formal words, while I keep back in my
+heart much that is struggling to express itself. I have come to ask you
+to do me the great honour of becoming my wife."
+
+Maggie sat for a few moments speechless. The thing which she had half
+dreaded and half longed for--the low timbre of his caressing voice--was
+entirely absent. Yet, somehow or other, his simple, formal words were at
+least as disturbing. He leaned towards her, a quiet, dignified figure,
+anxious yet in a sense confident. He had the air of a man who has
+offered to share a kingdom.
+
+"Your wife," Maggie repeated tremulously.
+
+"The thought is new to you, perhaps," he went on, with gentle tolerance.
+"You have believed the stories people tell that in my youth I was vowed
+to celibacy and the priesthood. That is not true. I have always been
+free to marry, but although to-day we figure as a great progressive
+nation, many of the thousand-year-old ideas of ancient China have dwelt
+in my brain and still sit enshrined in my heart. The aristocracy of
+China has passed through evil times. There is no princess of my own
+country whom I could meet on equal terms. So, you see, although it
+develops differently, there is something of the snobbishness of your
+western countries reflected in our own ideas."
+
+"But I am not a princess," Maggie murmured.
+
+"You are the princess of my soul," he answered, lowering his eyes for a
+moment almost reverently. "I cannot quite hope to make you understand,
+but if I took for my wife a Chinese lady of unequal mundane rank, I
+should commit a serious offence against those who watch me from the
+other side of the grave, and to whom I am accountable for every action
+of my life. A lady of another country is a different matter."
+
+"But I am an Englishwoman," Maggie said, "and I love my country. You
+know what that means."
+
+"I know very well," he admitted. "I had not meant to speak of those
+things until later, but, for your country's sake, what greater alliance
+could you seek to-day than to become the wife of him who is destined to
+be the Ruler of Asia?"
+
+Maggie caught hold of her courage. She looked into his eyes
+unflinchingly, though she felt the hot colour rise into her cheeks.
+
+"You did not speak to me of these things, Prince Shan, when I came to
+your house last night," she reminded him.
+
+His smile was full of composure. It was as though the truth which sat
+enshrined in the man's soul lifted him above all the ordinary emotions
+of fear of misunderstandings.
+
+"For those few minutes," he confessed, "I was very angry. It brings
+great pain to a man to see the thing he loves droop her wings, flutter
+down to earth, and walk the common highway. It is not for you, dear one,
+to mingle with that crowd who scheme and cheat, hide and deceive, for
+any reward in the world, whether it be money, fame, or the love of
+country. You were not made for those things, and when I saw you there,
+so utterly in my power, having deliberately taken your risk, I was
+angry. For a single moment I meant that you should realise the danger of
+the path you were treading. I think that I did make you realise it."
+
+Her eyes fell. He seemed to have established some compelling power over
+her. He had met her thoughts before they were uttered, and answered even
+her unspoken question.
+
+"I wish you didn't make life so much like a kindergarten," she
+complained, with an almost pathetic smile at the corners of her lips.
+
+"It is a very different place," he rejoined fervently, "that I desire to
+make of life for you. Listen, please. I have spoken to you first the
+formal words which make all things possible between us, and now, if I
+may, I let my heart speak. Somewhere not far from Pekin I have a palace,
+where my lands slope to the river. For five months in the year my
+gardens are starred with blue and yellow flowers, sweet-smelling as the
+almond blossom, and there are little pagodas which look down on the blue
+water, pagodas hung with creepers, not like your English evergreens, but
+with blossoms, pink and waxen, which open as one looks at them and send
+out sweet perfumes. When you are there with me, dear one, then I shall
+speak to you in the language of my ancestors, which some day you will
+understand, and you shall know that love has its cradle in the East, you
+shall feel the flame of its birth, the furnace of its accomplishment.
+Here my tongue moves slowly, yet I stoop my knee to you, I show you my
+heart, and my lips tell you that I love. What that love is you shall
+learn some day, if you have the will and the confidence and the soul.
+Will you come back to China with me, Maggie?"
+
+She rested her fingers on his hand.
+
+"You are a magician," she confessed. "I am very English, and yet I want
+to go."
+
+He stood for a moment looking into her eyes. Then he stooped down and
+raised her hesitating fingers to his lips.
+
+"I believe that you will come," he said simply. "I believe that you will
+ride over the clouds with me, back to the country of beautiful places.
+So now I speak to you of serious things. Of money there shall be what
+you wish, more than any woman even of your rank possesses in this
+country. I shall give you, too, the sister of my great _Black Dragon_ so
+that in five days, if you wish, you can pass from any of my palaces to
+London. And further than that, behold!"
+
+He drew from his pocket a roll of papers. Maggie recognised it, and her
+heart beat faster. Curiously enough, just then she scarcely thought of
+its world importance. She remembered only those few moments of strange
+thrills, the wonder at finding him in that room, as he stood watching
+her, the horror and yet the thrill of his measured words. He laid the
+papers upon the table.
+
+"Read them," he invited. "You will understand then the net that has been
+closing around your country. You will understand the better if I tell
+you this. China and Japan are one. It was my first triumph when
+patriotism urged me into the field of politics. We have a single motto,
+and upon that is based all that you may read there,--'_Europe for the
+Europeans, Asia for us_.'"
+
+Maggie was conscious of a sudden sense of escape from her almost
+mesmeric state. The change in his tone, his calm references to things
+belonging to another and altogether different world, had dissolved a
+situation against the charm of which she had found herself powerless,
+even unwilling to struggle. Once more she was back in the world where
+for the last two years had lain her chief interests. She took the papers
+in her hand and began reading them quickly through. Every now and then a
+little exclamation broke from her lips.
+
+"You will observe," her companion pointed out, looking over her
+shoulder, "that on paper, at any rate, Japan is the great gainer. She
+takes Australia, New Zealand and India. China absorbs Thibet and
+reestablishes her empire of forty years ago. The arrangement is based
+very largely on racial conditions. China is a self-centered country. We
+have not the power of fusion of the Japanese. You will observe further,
+as an interesting circumstance, that the American foothold in Asia
+disappears as completely as the British."
+
+"But tell me," she demanded, "how are these things to be brought about,
+and where does Immelan come in?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"Immelan's position," he explained, "is largely a sentimental one, yet
+on the other hand he saves his country from what might be a grave
+calamity. The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might
+seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.
+The point is this. He soothes his country of the pain which groans day
+by day in her limbs. He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great
+Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise."
+
+"And France escapes," she murmured.
+
+"France escapes," he assented. "Rightly or wrongly, the whole of
+Germany's post-war animosity was directed against England. She
+considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen. She may have
+been right or wrong. I myself find the evidence conflicting. At this
+moment the matter does not concern us."
+
+"And is Great Britain, then," Maggie asked, "believed to be so helpless
+that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the
+will of China and Japan?"
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"Great Britain," he reminded her, "has taken the League of Nations to
+her heart. It was a very dangerous thing to do."
+
+"Still," Maggie persisted, "there remains the great thing which you have
+not told me. These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart
+of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?"
+
+"If I had signed the agreement," he replied, "they could very easily
+have been carried into effect. You have heard already, have you not,
+through some of your agents, of the three secret cities? In the
+eastern-most of them is the answer to your question."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Is that a challenge to me to come out and discover for myself all that
+I want to know?"
+
+"If you come," he answered, "you shall certainly know everything. There
+is another little matter, too, which waits for your decision."
+
+"Tell me of it at once, please," she begged, with a sudden conviction of
+his meaning.
+
+He obeyed without hesitation.
+
+"I spoke just now," he reminded her, "of the three secret cities. They
+are secret because we have taken pains to keep them so. One is in
+Germany, one in Russia, and one in China. A casual traveller could
+discover little in the German one, and little more, perhaps, in the
+Russian one. Enough to whet his curiosity, and no more. But in China
+there is the whole secret at the mercy of a successful spy. A man named
+Jesson, Lady Maggie--"
+
+"I telephoned you about him before luncheon to-day," she interrupted.
+
+"I had your message," he replied, "and the man is safe for the moment.
+At the same time, Lady Maggie, let me remind you that this is a game the
+rules of which are known the world over. Jesson has now in his
+possession the secret on which I might build, if I chose, plans to
+conquer the world. He knew the penalty if he was discovered, and he was
+discovered. To spare his life is sentimentalism pure and simple, yet if
+it is your will, so be it."
+
+"You are very good to me," she declared gratefully, "all the more good
+because half the time I can see that you scarcely understand."
+
+"That I do not admit," he protested. "I understand even where I do not
+sympathise. You make of life the greatest boon on earth. We of my race
+and way of thinking are taught to take it up or lay it down, if not with
+indifference, at any rate with a very large share of resignation.
+However, Jesson's life is spared. From what I have heard of the man, I
+imagine he will be very much surprised."
+
+She gave a little sigh of relief.
+
+"You have given me a great deal of your confidence," she said
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Is it not clear," he answered, "why I have done so? I ask of you the
+greatest boon a woman has to give. I do not seek to bribe, but if you
+can give me the love that will make my life a dream of happiness, then
+will it not be my duty to see that no shadow of misfortune shall come to
+you or yours? China stands between Japan and Russia, and I am China."
+
+She gave him her hands.
+
+"You are very wonderful," she declared. "Remember that at a time like
+this, it is not a woman's will alone that speaks. It is her soul which
+lights the way. Prince Shan, I do not know."
+
+He smiled gravely.
+
+"I leave," he told her, "on Friday, soon after dawn."
+
+She found herself trembling.
+
+"It is a very short time," she faltered.
+
+They had both risen to their feet. He was close to her now, and she felt
+herself caught up in a passionate wave of inertia, an absolute inability
+to protest or resist. His arms were clasped around her lightly and with
+exceeding gentleness. He leaned down. She found herself wondering, even
+in that tumultuous moment, at the strange clearness of his complexion,
+the whiteness of his firm, strong teeth, the soft brilliance of his
+eyes, which caressed her even before his lips rested upon hers.
+
+"I think that you will come," he whispered. "I think that you will be
+very happy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the following morning, to a
+state of intense activity. Taxi-cabs and motor-cars were lined along the
+street; a stream of callers came and went. That part of the
+establishment of which little was seen by the casual caller, the rooms
+where half a dozen secretaries conducted an immense correspondence,
+presided over by Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In his
+reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few of the callers, mostly
+journalists and politicians, to whom Li Wen gave the entree. One visitor
+even this most astute of secretaries found it hard to place. He took the
+card in to his master, who glanced at it thoughtfully.
+
+"The Earl of Dorminster," he repeated. "I will see him."
+
+Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet with a certain
+aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his favourite chair of plain black oak
+heaped with green silk cushions and held out his hand a little
+tentatively.
+
+"You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster," he said. "I trust that
+you come to wish me fortune."
+
+"That," Nigel replied, "depends upon how you choose to seek it."
+
+"I am answered," was the prompt acknowledgment. "One thing in your
+country I have at least learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of
+candour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have you come to speak to
+me as an ambassador from your cousin, or in any way on her behalf?"
+
+"My business has nothing to do with Lady Maggie," Nigel assured him
+gravely.
+
+Prince Shan held out his hand.
+
+"Stop," he begged. "Do not explain your business. If it is a personal
+request, it is granted. If, on the other hand, you seek my advice on
+matters of grave importance, it is yours. Before other words are spoken,
+however, I myself desire to address you on the subject of Lady Maggie
+Trent."
+
+"As you please," Nigel answered.
+
+"It is not the custom of my country, or of my life," Prince Shan
+continued, "to covet or steal the things which belong to another. If
+fate has made me a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady
+Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It is my great desire that
+she should become my wife."
+
+Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There was something in the
+other's measured speech, so fateful, so assured, that it seemed almost
+as though he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that had seemed
+to him impossible and unnatural in such an idea disappeared from that
+moment.
+
+"You tell me this," Nigel began--
+
+"I announce it to you as the head of the family," Prince Shan
+interrupted.
+
+"You tell it to me also," Nigel persisted, "because you have heard the
+rumours which were at one time very prevalent--that Lady Maggie and I
+were or were about to become engaged to be married."
+
+"I have heard such a rumour only very indirectly," Prince Shan
+confessed, "and I cannot admit that it has made any difference in my
+attitude. I think, in my land and yours, we have at least one common
+convention. The woman who touches our heart is ours if we may win her.
+Love is unalterably selfish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for
+those who may suffer by our victory, we may have pity but no
+consideration."
+
+"Am I to understand," Nigel asked bluntly, "that Lady Maggie has
+consented to be your wife?"
+
+"Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her alone with her thoughts.
+Every hour it is my hope to hear from her. She knows that I leave for
+China early to-morrow."
+
+"So at the present moment you are in suspense."
+
+"I am in suspense," Prince Shan admitted, "and perhaps," he went on,
+with one of his rare smiles, "it occurred to me that it would be in one
+sense a relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears that are
+in my heart. You are the one person to whom I could speak, Lord
+Dorminster. You have not wished my suit well, but at least you have been
+clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you that a prince of
+China might venture to compete with a peer of England."
+
+"On the contrary," Nigel assented, "I have the greatest admiration for
+the few living descendants of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a
+right to enter the lists, a right to win if you can."
+
+"And what do you think of my prospects, if I may ask such a delicate
+question?" Prince Shan enquired.
+
+"I cannot estimate them," Nigel replied. "I only know that Maggie is
+deeply interested."
+
+"I think," his companion continued softly, "that she will become my
+Princess. You have never visited China, Lord Dorminster," he went on,
+"so you have little idea, perhaps, as to the manner of our lives. Some
+day I will hope to be your host, so until then, as I may not speak of my
+own possessions, may I go just so far as this? Your cousin will be very
+happy in China. This is a great country, but the very air you breathe is
+cloyed with your national utilitarianism. Mine is a country of beautiful
+thoughts, of beautiful places, of quiet-living and sedate people. I can
+give your cousin every luxury of which the world has ever dreamed,
+wrapped and enshrined in beauty. No person with a soul could be unhappy
+in the places where she will dwell."
+
+"You are at least confident," Nigel remarked.
+
+"It is because I am convinced," was the calm rejoinder. "I shall take
+your cousin's happiness into my keeping without one shadow of misgiving.
+The last word, however, is with her. It remains to be seen whether her
+courage is great enough to induce her to face such a complete change in
+the manner of her life."
+
+"It will not be her lack of courage which will keep her in England,"
+Nigel declared.
+
+Prince Shan bowed, with a graceful little gesture of the hands. The
+subject was finished.
+
+"I shall now, Lord Dorminster," he said, "take advantage of your kindly
+presence here to speak to you on a very personal matter, only this time
+it is you who are the central figure, and I who am the dummy."
+
+"I do not follow you," Nigel confessed, with a slight frown.
+
+"I speak in tones of apology," Prince Shan went on, "but you must
+remember that I am one of reflective disposition; Nature has endowed me
+with some of the gifts of my great ancestors, philosophers famed the
+world over. It seems very clear to me that, if I had not come, from
+sheer force of affectionate propinquity you would have married Lady
+Maggie."
+
+Nigel's frown deepened.
+
+"Prince Shan!" he began.
+
+Again the outstretched hand seemed as though the fingers were pressed
+against his mouth. He broke off abruptly in his protest.
+
+"You would have lived a contented life, because that is your province,"
+his companion continued. "You would have felt yourself happy because you
+would have been a faithful husband. But the time would have come when
+you would both have realised that you had missed the great things."
+
+"This is idle prophecy," Nigel observed, a little impatiently. "I came
+to see you upon another matter."
+
+"Humour me," the Prince begged. "I am going to speak to you even more
+intimately. I shall venture to do so because, after all, she is better
+known to me than to you. I am going to tell you that of all the women in
+the world, Naida Karetsky is the most likely to make you happy."
+
+Nigel drew himself up a little stiffly.
+
+"One does not discuss these things," he muttered.
+
+"May I call that a touch of insularity?" Prince Shan pleaded, "because
+there is nothing else in the world so wonderful to discuss, in all
+respect and reverence, as the women who have made us feel. One last
+word, Lord Dorminster. The days of matrimonial alliances between the
+reigning families of Europe have come to an end under the influence of a
+different form of government, but there is a certain type of alliance,
+the utility of which remains unimpaired. I venture to say that you could
+not do your country a greater service, apart from any personal feelings
+you might have, than by marrying Mademoiselle Karetsky. There, you see,
+now I have finished. This is for your reflection, Lord Dorminster--just
+the measured statement of one who wears at least the cloak of philosophy
+by inheritance. Time passes. Your own reason for coming to see me has
+not yet been expounded."
+
+"I have come to ask you to visit the Prime Minister before you leave
+England," Nigel announced.
+
+Prince Shan changed his position slightly. His forehead was a little
+wrinkled. He was silent for a moment.
+
+"If I pay more than a farewell visit of ceremony," he said, "that is to
+say, if I speak with Mr. Mervin Brown on things that count, I must
+anticipate a certain decision at which I have not yet wholly arrived."
+
+Nigel had a sudden inspiration.
+
+"You are seeking to bribe Maggie!" he exclaimed.
+
+"That is not true," was the dignified reply.
+
+"Then please explain," Nigel persisted.
+
+Prince Shan rose to his feet. He walked to the heavy silk curtains which
+led into his own bedchamber, pushed them apart, and looked for a moment
+at the familiar objects in the room. Then he came back, glancing on his
+way at the ebony cabinet.
+
+"One does not repeat one's mistakes," he said slowly, "and although you
+and I, Lord Dorminster, breathe the common air of the greater world, my
+instinct tells me that of certain things which have passed between your
+cousin and myself it is better that no mention ever be made. I wish to
+tell you this, however. There is in existence a document, my signature
+to which would, without a doubt, have a serious influence upon the
+destinies of this country. That document, unsigned, would be one of my
+marriage gifts to Lady Maggie--and as you know I have not yet had her
+answer. However, if you wish it, I will go to the Prime Minister."
+
+Li Wen came silently in. He spoke to his master for a few minutes in
+Chinese. A faint smile parted the latter's lips.
+
+"You can tell the person at the telephone that I will call within the
+next few minutes," he directed. "You will not object," he added, turning
+courteously to Nigel, "if I stop for a moment, on the way to Downing
+Street, at a small private hospital? An acquaintance of mine lies sick
+there and desires urgently to see me."
+
+"I am entirely at your service," Nigel assured him.
+
+Prince Shan, with many apologies, left Nigel alone in the car outside a
+tall, grey house in John Street, and, preceded by the white-capped nurse
+who had opened the door, climbed the stairs to the first floor of the
+celebrated nursing home, where, after a moment's delay, he was shown
+into a large and airy apartment. Immelan was in bed, looking very ill
+indeed. He was pale, and his china-blue eyes, curiously protruding, were
+filled with an expression of haunting fear. A puzzled doctor was
+standing by the bedside. A nurse, who was smoothing the bedclothes,
+glanced around at Prince Shan's entrance. The invalid started
+convulsively, and, clutching the pillows with his right hand, turned
+towards his visitor.
+
+"So you've come!" he exclaimed. "Stay where yon are! Don't go!
+Doctor--nurse--leave us alone for a moment."
+
+The nurse went at once. The doctor hesitated.
+
+"My patient is a good deal exhausted," he said. "There are no dangerous
+symptoms at present, but--"
+
+"I will promise not to distress him," Prince Shan interrupted. "I am
+myself somewhat pressed for time, and it is probable that your patient
+will insist upon speaking to me in private."
+
+The doctor followed the nurse from the room. Prince Shan stood looking
+down upon the figure of quondam associate. There was a leaven of mild
+wonder in his clear eyes, a faintly contemptuous smile about the corners
+of his lips.
+
+"So you are afraid of death, my friend," he observed, "afraid of the
+death you planned so skilfully for me."
+
+"It is a lie!" Immelan declared excitedly. "Sen Lu was never killed by
+my orders. Listen! You have nothing against me. My death can do you no
+good. It is you who have been at fault. You--Prince Shan--the great
+diplomatist of the world--are gambling away your future and the future
+of a mighty empire for a woman's sake. You have treated me badly enough.
+Spare my life. Call in the doctor here and tell him what to do. He can
+find nothing in my system. He is helpless."
+
+The smile upon the Prince's lips became vaguer, his expression more
+bland and indeterminate.
+
+"My dear Immelan," he murmured, "you are without doubt delirious.
+Compose yourself, I beg."
+
+A light that was almost tragic shone in the man's face. He sat up with a
+sudden access of strength.
+
+"For the love of God, don't torture me!" he groaned. "The pains grow
+worse, hour by hour. If I die, the whole world shall know by whose
+hand."
+
+The expression on Prince Shan's face remained unchanged. In his eyes,
+however, there was a little glint of something which seemed almost like
+foreknowledge,
+
+"When you die," he pronounced calmly, "it will be by your own hand--not
+mine."
+
+For some reason or other, Immelan accepted these measured words of
+prophecy as a total reprieve. The relief in his face was almost piteous.
+He seized his visitor's hand and would have fawned upon it. Prince Shan
+withdrew himself a little farther from the bed.
+
+"Immelan," he said, "during my stay in England I have studied you and
+your methods, I have listened to all you have had to say and to propose,
+I have weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of the scheme you
+have outlined to me, and I only arrived at my decision after the most
+serious and unbiassed reflection. Your scheme itself was bold and almost
+splendid, but, as you yourself well know at the back of your mind, it
+would lay the seeds of a world tumult. I have studied history, Immelan,
+perhaps a little more deeply than you, and I do not believe in
+conquests. For the restoration to China of such lands as belong
+geographically and rightly to the Chinese Empire, I have my own plans.
+You, it seems to me, would make a cat's-paw of all Asia to gratify your
+hatred of England."
+
+"A cat's-paw!" Immelan gasped. "Australia, New Zealand and India for
+Japan, new lands for her teeming population; Thibet for you, all
+Manchuria, and the control of the Siberian Railway!"
+
+"These are dazzling propositions," Prince Shan admitted, "and yet--what
+about the other side of the Pacific?"
+
+"America would be powerless," Immelan insisted.
+
+"So you said before, in 1917," was the dry reminder. "I did not come
+here, however, to talk world politics with you. Those things for the
+moment are finished. I came in answer to your summons."
+
+Immelan raised himself a little in the bed.
+
+"You meant what you said?" he demanded, with hoarse anxiety. "There was
+no poison? Swear that?"
+
+Prince Shan moved towards the door. His backward glance was coldly
+contemptuous.
+
+"What I said, I meant," he replied. "Extract such comfort from it as you
+may."
+
+He left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Immelan stared
+after him, hollow-eyed and anxious. Already the cold fears were seizing
+upon him once more.
+
+Prince Shan rejoined Nigel, and the two men drove off to Downing Street.
+The former was silent for the first few minutes. Then he turned slightly
+towards his companion.
+
+"The man Immelan is a coward," he declared. "It is he whom I have just
+visited."
+
+Nigel shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"So many men are brave enough in a fight," he remarked, "who lose their
+nerve on a sick bed."
+
+"Bravery in battle," Prince Shan pronounced, "is the lowest form of
+courage. The blood is stirred by the excitement of slaughter as by
+alcohol. With Immelan I shall have no more dealings."
+
+"Speaking politically as well as personally?" Nigel enquired.
+
+The other smiled.
+
+"I think I might go so far as to agree," he acquiesced, "but in a sense,
+there are conditions. You shall hear what they are. I will speak before
+you to the Prime Minister. See, up above is the sign of my departure."
+
+Out of a little bank of white, fleecy clouds which hung down, here and
+there, from the blue sky, came the _Black Dragon_, her engines purring
+softly, her movements slow and graceful. Both men watched her for a
+moment in silence.
+
+"At six o'clock to-morrow morning I start," Prince Shan announced. "My
+pilot tells me that the weather conditions are wonderful, all the way
+from here to Pekin. We shall be there on Wednesday."
+
+"You travel alone?" Nigel enquired.
+
+"I have passengers," was the quiet reply. "I am taking the English
+chaplain to your Church in Pekin."
+
+The eyes of the two men met.
+
+"It is an ingenious idea," Nigel admitted dryly.
+
+"I wish to be prepared," his companion answered. "It may be that he is
+my only companion. In that case, I go back to a life lonelier than I
+have ever dreamed of. It is on the knees of the gods. So far there has
+come no word, but although I am not by nature an optimist, my
+superstitions are on my side. All the way over on my last voyage, when I
+lay in my berth, awake and we sailed over and through the clouds, my
+star, my own particular star, seemed leaning always down towards me, and
+for that reason I have faith."
+
+Nigel glanced at his companion curiously but without speech. The car
+pulled up in Downing Street. The two men descended and found everything
+made easy for them. In two minutes they were in the presence of the
+Prime Minister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a
+matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation. He received
+Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an
+earlier visit. To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to
+be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.
+
+"Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation," he said,
+"bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you."
+
+"I have found his lordship," Prince Shan declared, "one of the few
+Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside
+his own country."
+
+The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.
+
+"Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan," he
+said. "They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the
+promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
+friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities. Lord
+Dorminster would have me believe that there is a still more terrible
+price for us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole outlook,
+abandon our belief in the League of Nations, and once more acknowledge
+the supremacy of force."
+
+"Lord Dorminster is right," Prince Shan pronounced. "I have come here to
+tell you so, Mr. Mervin Brown."
+
+"You come here as a friend of England?" the latter asked.
+
+"I come here as one who hesitates to become her enemy," was the measured
+reply. "I will be perfectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
+to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of China and Japan,
+would have resulted in the humiliation of your country and the
+gratification of Germany's eagerly desired revenge."
+
+"You believe in the existence of that sentiment, then?" the Prime
+Minister enquired.
+
+"Any one short of a very insular Englishman," the Prince replied, "would
+have realised it long ago. There is a great society in Germany, scarcely
+even a secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations of the last
+great war. Lord Dorminster tells me that you are to-day without a secret
+service. For that reason you have remained in ignorance of the mines
+beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans well and carefully. Her
+first and greatest weapon has been your sense of security. She has seen
+you contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious satisfaction,
+invincible France, regaining her wealth more slowly than you for the
+simple reason that half the man power of the country is absorbed by her
+military preparations. France is impregnable. A direct invasion of your
+country is in all probability impossible. Those two facts have seemed to
+you all-sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may say so, sir,
+very short-sighted."
+
+"Germany has no power to transport troops in other directions," Mr.
+Mervin Brown observed.
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"You have another enemy besides Germany," he pointed out, "a great
+democracy who has never forgiven your lack of sympathy at her birth,
+your attempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne in agony and
+shame, yet containing the germs of worthy things which your statesmen in
+those days failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Russia stands
+hand in hand with Germany."
+
+"But surely," the Prime Minister protested, "you speak in the language
+of the past? The League of Nations still exists. Any directly predatory
+expedition would bring the rest of the world to arms."
+
+Prince Shan shook his head.
+
+"One of the first necessities of a tribunal," he expounded, "is that
+that tribunal should have the power to punish. You yourself are one of
+the judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With what weapon will
+you chastise him? The culprit has grown mightier than the judge."
+
+"America--"
+
+"America," Prince Shan interrupted, "can, when she chooses, strike a
+weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
+proceed outside her own sphere of influence."
+
+"But she must protect her trade," the Prime Minister insisted.
+
+"She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
+instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
+mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
+as anxious to buy as she is to sell."
+
+"I am to figure to myself, then," Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, "a
+combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
+Great Britain?"
+
+"There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned," Prince Shan
+assured him gravely. "If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
+would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
+treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
+would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
+be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer."
+
+"It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
+knowledge of this scheme," the Prime Minister confessed.
+
+"Official Germany would probably deny it," Prince Shan answered dryly.
+"Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
+but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
+have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
+cities?"
+
+"I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales," Mr.
+Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.
+
+"Nevertheless, they exist," Prince Shan continued, "and they exist for
+the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
+have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
+The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
+design to conquer any country in the world."
+
+"Armoured airships?" Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.
+
+"Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air," Prince
+Shan explained. "On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
+ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
+to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
+these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
+Government."
+
+"I remember something of the sort," the Prime Minister assented. "The
+inventor himself was an American, I believe."
+
+"Precisely! I believe he told you in plain words that whoever possessed
+his model might, if they chose, dominate the world."
+
+"But who wants to dominate the world by force?" Mr. Mervin Brown
+demanded passionately. "We have passed into a new era, an era of peace
+and the higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and money to
+create these horrible instruments of destruction. The League of Nations
+has decreed that they shall not be built."
+
+"Nevertheless," Prince Shan declared, with portentous gravity, "a
+thousand of these engines of destruction are now ready in a certain city
+of China. Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota of work
+in the shape of providing parts. China alone has put them together. I
+bought the secret, and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
+world remains at peace or moves on to war."
+
+"You cannot hesitate, then?" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed anxiously. "You
+yourself are an apostle of civilisation."
+
+Prince Shan smiled.
+
+"It is because we are strong," he said, "that we love peace. It is
+because you are weak that you fear war. I am not here to teach you
+statesmanship. It is not for me to point out to you the means by which
+you can make your country safe and keep her people free. Call a meeting
+of what remains of the League of Nations and compare your strength with
+that of the nations who have crept outside and lie waiting. Then take
+the advice of experts and set your house in order. You sacrifice
+everything to-day to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dorminster
+here into your councils. You are not a nation of fools. Speak the truth
+at the next meeting of the League of Nations and see that it is properly
+reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you."
+
+"Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dorminster?" the Prime Minister
+invited, turning to Nigel.
+
+"If you will recreate the post of Minister for War, I will do so with
+pleasure," was the prompt reply.
+
+Prince Shan held out his hand.
+
+"There is great responsibility upon your shoulders, Mr. Mervin Brown,"
+he said. "You will never know how near you have been to disaster. Try
+and wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call together your
+writers, your thinking men, your historians. Encourage the flagging
+spirit of patriotism in your public schools and universities. Is this
+presumption on my part that I give so much advice? If so, forgive me.
+Truth that sits in the heart will sometimes demand to be heard."
+
+At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained behind. They both looked
+at the door through which Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown
+metaphorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a little dazed.
+
+"Is that man real flesh and blood?" he demanded.
+
+"He is as real and as near the truth," Nigel replied solemnly, "as the
+things of which he has told us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+That night, Nigel gave a dinner party on Maggie's account at the
+fashionable London hotel of the moment. Invitations had been sent out by
+telephone, by hurried notes, in one or two cases were delivered by word
+of mouth. On the whole, the acceptances, considering the season was in
+full swing, were a little remarkable. Every one was anxious to come,
+because, as one of her girl friends put it, no one ever knew what Maggie
+was going to be up to next. One of the few refusals came from Prince
+Shan, and even he made use of compromise:
+
+     _My dear Lord Dorminster, will you forgive me if in this instance I
+     do not break a custom to which I have perhaps a little too rigidly
+     adhered. The Prime Minister telephoned, a few minutes after we left
+     him, asking me to meet two of his colleagues from the Foreign
+     Office to-night, and I doubt whether our conference will have
+     concluded at the hour you name._
+
+     _However, if you will permit me, I will give myself the pleasure of
+     joining you later in the evening, to make my adieux to those of my
+     friends whom I am quite sure I shall find amongst your company._
+
+     _Sincerely yours_,
+
+     SHAN.
+
+Maggie passed the note back with a little smile. She made no comment
+whatever. Nigel watched her thoughtfully.
+
+"I have carried out your orders," he observed. "Everything has been
+attended to, even to the colour of your table decorations. Now tell me
+what it all means?"
+
+She looked him in the face quite frankly.
+
+"How can I?" she answered. "I do not know myself."
+
+"Is this by way of being a farewell party?" he persisted.
+
+"I do not know that," she assured him. "The only thing is that if I do
+decide--to go--well, I shall have had a last glimpse of most of my
+friends."
+
+"As your nearest male relative, in fact your guardian," Nigel went on,
+with a touch of his old manner, "I feel myself deeply interested in your
+present situation. If a little advice from one who is considerably your
+senior would be acceptable--"
+
+"It wouldn't," Maggie interrupted quietly. "There are just two things in
+life no girl accepts advice upon--the way she does her hair and the man
+she means to marry. You see, both are decided by instinct. I shall know
+before dawn to-morrow what I mean to do, but until then nothing that
+anybody could say would make any difference. Besides, your mind ought to
+be full of your own matrimonial affairs. I hear that Naida is talking
+of going back to Russia next week."
+
+"My own affairs are less complex," Nigel replied. "I am going to ask
+Naida to marry me--to-night if I have the opportunity."
+
+Maggie made a little grimace.
+
+"There goes my second string!" she exclaimed. "Nigel, you are horribly
+callous. I have never been in the least sure that I haven't wanted to
+marry you myself."
+
+Nigel lit a cigarette and pushed the box across to his companion.
+
+"I've frequently felt the same way," he confessed. "The trouble of it is
+that when the really right person comes along, one hasn't any doubt
+about it whatever. I should have made you a stodgy husband, Maggie."
+
+She sniffed.
+
+"I think that considering the way you've flirted with me," she declared,
+"you ought at least to have given me the opportunity of refusing you."
+
+"If Naida refuses me," he began--
+
+"And I decide that Asia is too far away," she interrupted--
+
+"We may come together, after all," he said, with a resigned little sigh.
+
+"Glib tongue and empty heart," she quoted. "Nigel, I would never trust
+you. I believe you're in love with Naida."
+
+"And I'm not quite so sure about you," he observed, watching the colour
+rise quickly in her cheeks. "Off with you to dress, young woman. It's
+past seven, and we must be there early. I still have the wine to order."
+
+The dinner party was in its way a complete success. Prince Karschoff was
+there, benign and distinguished; Chalmers and one or two other young men
+from the American Embassy. There was a sprinkling of Maggie's girl
+friends, a leaven of the older world in Nigel's few intimates,--and
+Naida, very pale but more beautiful than ever in a white velvet gown,
+her hair brushed straight back, and with no jewellery save one long rope
+of pearls. Nigel who in his capacity as host had found little time for
+personal conversation during the service of dinner, deliberately led her
+a little apart when they passed out into the lounge for coffee and to
+watch the dancing.
+
+"My duties are over for a time," he said. "Do you realise that I have
+not had a word with you alone since our luncheon at Ciro's?"
+
+"We have all been a little engrossed, have we not?" she murmured. "I
+hope that you are satisfied with the way things have turned out."
+
+"Nothing shall induce me to talk politics or empire-saving to-night," he
+declared, with a smile. "I have other things to say."
+
+"Tell me why you asked us all to dine so suddenly," she enquired. "I do
+not know whether it is my fancy, but there seems to be an air of
+celebration about. Is there any announcement to be made?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"None. The party was just a whim of Maggie's."
+
+They both looked across towards the ballroom, where she was dancing with
+Chalmers.
+
+"Maggie is very beautiful to-night," Naida said. "I could scarcely
+listen to my neighbour's conversation at dinner time for looking at her.
+Yet she has the air all the time of living in a dream, as though
+something had happened which had lifted her right away from us all. I
+began to wonder," she added, "whether, after all, Oscar Immelan had not
+told me the truth, and whether we should not be drinking her health and
+yours before the evening was over."
+
+"You could scarcely believe that," he whispered, "if you have any memory
+at all."
+
+There was a faint touch of pink in her cheeks, a tinge of colour as
+delicate as the passing of a gleam of sunshine over a sea-glistening
+shell.
+
+"But Englishmen are so unfaithful," she sighed.
+
+"Then I at least am an exception," Nigel answered swiftly. "The words
+which you checked upon my lips the last time we were alone together
+still live in my heart. I think, Naida, the time has come to say them."
+
+Their immediate neighbours had deserted them. He leaned a little
+towards her.
+
+"You know so well that I love you, Naida," he said. "Will you be my
+wife?"
+
+She looked up at him, half laughing, yet with tears in her eyes. With an
+impulsive little gesture, she caught his hand in hers for a moment.
+
+"How horribly sure you must have felt of me," she complained, "to have
+spoken here, with all these people around! Supposing I had told you that
+my life's work lay amongst my own people, or that I had made up my mind
+to marry Oscar Immelan, to console him for his great disappointment."
+
+"I shouldn't have believed you," he answered, smiling.
+
+"Conceit!" she exclaimed.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"In a sense, of course, I am conceited," he replied. "I am the happiest
+and proudest man here. I really think that after all we ought to turn it
+into a celebration."
+
+The band was playing a waltz. Naida's head moved to the music, and
+presently Nigel rose to his feet with a smile, and they passed into the
+ballroom. Karschoff and Mrs. Bollington Smith watched them with
+interest.
+
+"Naida is looking very wonderful to-night," the latter remarked. "And
+Nigel, too; I wonder if there is anything between them."
+
+"The days of foreign alliances are past," Karschoff replied, "but a few
+intermarriages might be very good for this country."
+
+"Are you serious?" she asked.
+
+"Absolutely! I would not suggest anything of the sort with Germany, but
+with this new Russia, the Russia of which Naida Karetsky is a daughter,
+why not? Although they will not have me back there, Russia is some day
+going to lay down the law to Europe."
+
+"I wonder whether Maggie has any ideas of the sort in her mind," Mrs.
+Bollington Smith observed. "She seems curiously abstracted to-night."
+
+Chalmers came grumblingly up to Mrs. Bollington Smith, with whom he was
+an established favourite.
+
+"Lady Maggie is treating me disgracefully," he complained. "She will
+scarcely dance at all. She goes around talking to every one as though it
+were a sort of farewell party."
+
+"Perhaps it may be," Karschoff remarked quietly.
+
+"She isn't going away, is she?" Chalmers demanded.
+
+"Who knows?" the Prince replied. "Lady Maggie is one of those strange
+people to whom one may look with every confidence for the unexpected."
+
+She herself came across to them, a few moments later.
+
+"Something tells me," she declared, "that you are talking about me."
+
+"You are always a very much discussed young lady," Karschoff rejoined,
+with a little bow.
+
+She made a grimace and sank into a chair by her aunt. She talked on
+lightly enough, but all the time with that slight suggestion of
+superficiality which is a sign of strain. She glanced often towards the
+entrance of the lounge, yet no one seemed less disturbed when at a few
+minutes before eleven Prince Shan came quietly in. He made his way at
+once to Mrs. Bollington Smith and bent over her fingers.
+
+"It is so kind of you and Lord Dorminster," he said, "to give me this
+opportunity of saying good-by to a few friends."
+
+"You are leaving us so soon, Prince?"
+
+"To-morrow, soon after dawn," he replied, his eyes wandering around the
+little circle. "I wish to be in Pekin, if possible, by Wednesday, so my
+_Dragon_ must spread his wings indeed."
+
+He said a few words to almost everybody. Last of all he came to Maggie,
+and no one heard what he said to her. There was no change in his face as
+he bent low over her fingers, no sign of anything which might have
+passed between them, as a few minutes later he turned to one side with
+Nigel. Maggie held out her hand to Chalmers. The strain seemed to have
+passed. Her lips were parted in a wonderful smile, her feet moved to the
+music.
+
+"Come and dance," she invited.
+
+They moved a few steps away together, when Maggie came to an abrupt
+standstill. The two stood for a moment as though transfixed, their eyes
+upon the arched entrance which led from the restaurant into the lounge.
+A man was standing there, looking around, a strange, menacing figure, a
+man dressed in the garb of fashion but with the face of a savage, with
+eyes which burned in his head like twin dots of fire, with drawn, hollow
+cheeks and mouth a little open like a mad dog's. As his eyes fell upon
+the group and he recognised them, a look of horrible satisfaction came
+into his face. He began to approach quite deliberately. He seemed to
+take in by slow degrees every one who stood there,--Maggie herself and
+Chalmers, Naida, Nigel and Prince Shan. He moved forward. All the time
+his right hand was behind him, concealed underneath the tails of his
+dress coat.
+
+"Be careful!" Maggie cried out. "It is Oscar Immelan! He is mad!"
+
+Some of the party and many of the bystanders had shrunk away from the
+menacing figure. Naida stepped out from among the little group of those
+who were left.
+
+"Oscar," she said firmly, "what is the matter with you? You are not well
+enough to be here."
+
+He came to a standstill. At close quarters his appearance was even more
+terrible. Although by some means he had gotten into his evening clothes,
+he was only partly shaven, and there were gashes in his face where the
+hand which had held his razor had slipped. The pupils of his eyes were
+distended, and the eyes themselves seemed to have shrunk back into their
+sockets. His whole frame seemed to have suddenly lost vigour, even
+substance. He had the air of a man in clothes too large for him. Even
+his voice was shriller,--shriller and horrible with the slow and bestial
+satisfaction of his words.
+
+"So here you are, the whole nest of you together, eh?" he exclaimed.
+"Good! Very good indeed! Prince Shan, the poisoner! Dorminster, enjoying
+your brief triumph, eh? And you, Naida Karetsky, traitress to your
+country--deceiver--"
+
+"That will do, Immelan," Nigel interrupted sharply. "We are all here.
+What do you want with us?"
+
+"That comes," Immelan replied. "Soon you shall all know why I have come!
+Let me speak to my friend Shan for a moment. I carry your poison in my
+veins, but there is a chance--just a chance," he added slowly, with a
+horrible smile upon his lips, "that you may go first, after all."
+
+Nigel made a stealthy but rapid movement forward, drawing Naida gently
+out of the way. Immelan was too quick, however. He swung around, showing
+the revolver which he had been concealing behind him, and moved to one
+side until his back was against one of the pillars. By this time, most
+of the other occupants of the ballroom had either rushed screaming away
+altogether, or were hiding, peering out in fascinated horror from the
+different recesses. The chief maitre d'hotel bravely held his ground and
+came to within a few paces of Immelan.
+
+"We can't have any brawling here," he said. "Put that revolver away."
+
+Immelan took no notice of the intervener, except that for a single
+moment the muzzle yawned in the latter's face. The maitre d'hotel was a
+brave man, but he had a wife and family, and after all, it was not his
+affair. There were other men there to look after the ladies. He hurried
+off to call for the police. Almost as he went, Prince Shan stepped into
+the foreground. His voice was calm and expressionless. His eyes, in
+which there shone no shadow of fear, were steadily fixed upon Immelan.
+He spoke without flurry.
+
+"So you carry your own weapons to-night, Immelan," he said. "That at
+least is more like a man. You seem to have a grievance against every
+one. Start with me. What is it?"
+
+There were some of them who wondered why, at this juncture when he so
+clearly dominated his assailant, Prince Shan, whose courage was superb
+and whose _sang froid_ absolutely unshaken did not throw himself upon
+this intruder and take his chance of bringing the matter to an end at
+the moment when the man's nerve was undoubtedly shaken. Then they looked
+towards the entrance, and they understood. Creeping towards the little
+gathering came Li Wen and another of the Prince's suite, a younger and
+even more active man. The two came on tiptoe, crouching and moving
+warily, with the gleam of the tiger in their anxious eyes. Maggie caught
+a warning glance from Nigel and looked away.
+
+"You are my murderer!" Immelan cried hoarsely. "It is through you I
+suffer these pains! I am dying of your accursed poison!"
+
+"If that were true," Prince Shan replied, with the air of one willing to
+discuss the subject impartially, "might I remind you of Sen Lu, who died
+in my box at the Albert Hall? For whom was that dagger thrust meant,
+Immelan? Not for the man whom you had bought to betray me, the only one
+of my suite who has ever been tempted with gold. That dagger thrust was
+meant for me, and the assassin was one of your creatures. So even if
+your words were true, Immelan, and the poison which you imagine to be in
+your body were planted there by me, are we less than quits?"
+
+Immelan's lie was unconvincing.
+
+"I know nothing of Sen Lu's death," he declared. "I employ no assassins.
+When there is killing to be done, I can do it myself. I am here to-night
+for that purpose. You have deserted me at the last moment, Prince
+Shan--played me and my country false for the sake of the English woman
+whom you think to carry back with you to China. And you," he added,
+turning with a sudden furious glance at Naida, "you have deceived the
+man who trusted you, the man who sent you here for one purpose, and one
+purpose only. You have done your best to ruin my scheme. Not only that,
+but you have given the love which was mine--mine, I say--to another--an
+Englishman! I hate you all! That is why I, a dying man, have crawled
+here to reap my little harvest of vengeance.--You, Naida--you shall be
+first--"
+
+Naida was suddenly swung on one side, and the shot which rang out passed
+through Nigel's coat sleeve, grazing his wrist,--the only shot that was
+fired. Prince Shan, watching for his moment, as his two attendants threw
+themselves upon the madman from behind, himself sprang forward, knocked
+Immelan's right hand up with a terrible blow, and sent the revolver
+crashing to the ground. It was a matter of a few seconds. Immelan, when
+he felt himself seized, scarcely struggled. The courage of his madness
+seemed to pass, the venom died out of his face, he shook like a man in
+an ague. Prince Shan kicked the revolver on one side and looked
+scornfully down upon him, now a nerveless wreck.
+
+"Immelan," he said, "it is a pity that you did not wait until to-morrow
+morning. You would then have known the truth. You are no more poisoned
+than I am. If you had been in China--well, who knows? In England there
+is so much prejudice against the taking of a worthless life that as a
+guest I subscribed to it and mixed a little orris-root tooth powder
+with your vermouth."
+
+The man's eyes suddenly opened. He was feverishly, frantically anxious.
+
+"Tell me that again," he shrieked. "You mean it? Swear that you mean
+it."
+
+Prince Shan's gesture as he turned away was one of supreme contempt.
+
+"A Shan," he said, "never needs to repeat."
+
+There was the bustle of arriving police, the story of a revolver which
+had gone off by accident, a very puzzling contretemps expounded for
+their benefit. The situation, and the participants in it, seemed to
+dissolve with such facility that it was hard for any one to understand
+what had actually happened. Prince Shan, with Maggie on his arm, was
+talking to the leader of the orchestra, who had suddenly reappeared. The
+former turned to his companion.
+
+"It is not my custom to dance," he said, "but the waltz that they were
+beginning to play seemed to me to have a little of the lure of our own
+music. Will you do me the honour?"
+
+They moved away to the music. Chalmers stood and watched them, with one
+hand in his pocket and the other on Nigel's shoulder. He turned to
+Naida, who was on the other side.
+
+"Nothing like a touch of melodrama for the emotions," he grumbled. "Look
+at Lady Maggie! Her head might be touching the clouds, and I never saw
+her eyes shine like that when she danced with me."
+
+"You don't dance as well as Prince Shan, old fellow," Nigel told him.
+
+"And the Prince sails for China at dawn," Naida murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Prince Shan stood in the tiny sitting room of his suite upon the _Black
+Dragon_ and looked around him critically. The walls were of black oak,
+with white inlaid plaques on which a great artist had traced little
+fanciful figures,--a quaint Chinese landscape, a temple, a flower-hung
+pagoda. There were hangings of soft, blue silk tapestry, brought from
+one of his northern palaces. The cloth which covered the table was of
+the finest silk. There were several bowls of flowers, a couch, and two
+comfortable chairs. Through the open doors of the two bedchambers came a
+faint glimpse of snow-white linen, a perfume reminiscent at once of
+almond blossom, green tea, and crushed lavender, and in the little room
+beyond glistened a silver bath. Already attired for the voyage, his
+pilot stood on the threshold.
+
+"Is all well, your Highness?" he asked.
+
+"Everything is in order," Prince Shan replied. "Ching Su is a perfect
+steward."
+
+"The reverend gentleman is in his room, your Highness," the pilot went
+on. "All the supplies have arrived, and the crew are at their stations.
+At what hour will it please your Highness to start?"
+
+Prince Shan looked through the open window, along the wooden platform,
+out to the broad stretch of road which led to London.
+
+"I announced the hour of my departure as six o'clock," he replied. "I
+cannot leave before in case of any farewell message. Is the woman of
+whom I spoke to you here?"
+
+"She is in attendance, your Highness."
+
+"She understands that she will not be required unless my other passenger
+should desire to accompany us?"
+
+"She understands perfectly, your Highness."
+
+Prince Shan stepped through his private exit on to the narrow wooden
+platform. Already the mighty engines had started, purring softly but
+deeply, like the deep-throated murmurings of a giant soon to break into
+a roar. It was a light, silvery morning, with hidden sunshine
+everywhere. On the other side of the vast amphitheatre of flat,
+cinder-covered ground, the Downs crept upwards, rolling away to the
+blue-capped summit of a distant range of hills. Northwards, the pall of
+London darkened the horizon. An untidy medley of houses and factories
+stretched almost to the gates of the vast air terminus. Listening
+intently, one could catch the faint roar of the city's awakening
+traffic, punctuated here and there by the shrill whistling of tugs in
+the river, hidden from sight by a shroud of ghostly mist. The dock on
+which Prince Shan stood was one apportioned to foreign royalty and
+visitors of note. A hundred yards away, the Madrid boat was on the point
+of starting, her whistles already blowing, and her engines commencing to
+beat. Presently the great machinery which assisted her flight from the
+ground commenced its sullen roar. There was a chorus of farewell shouts
+and she glided up into the air, a long row of people waving farewells
+from the windows. Prince Shan glanced at his watch,--twenty minutes to
+six. He paced the wooden boards and looked again,--ten minutes to six.
+Then he stopped suddenly. Along that gleaming stretch of private road
+came a car, driven at a rapid pace. Prince Shan stood and watched it,
+and as he watched, it seemed almost as though the hidden sun had caught
+his face and transfigured it. He stood as might stand a man who feels
+his feet upon the clouds. His lips trembled. There was no one there to
+see--his attendants stood respectfully in the background--but in his
+eyes was a rare moisture, and for a single moment a little choking at
+his throat. The car turned in under the arched roof. Prince Shan's
+servants, obeying his gesture, hurried forward and threw open the gates.
+The heavily laden limousine came to a standstill. Three people
+descended. Nigel and Naida lingered, watching the luggage being
+unloaded. Maggie came forward alone.
+
+They met a few yards from the entrance to the platform. Prince Shan was
+bare-headed, and Maggie, at least, saw those wonderful things in his
+face. He bent down and took her hands in his.
+
+"Dear and sweet soul," he whispered, as his lips touched her fingers,
+"may my God and yours grant that you shall find happiness!"
+
+Her own eyes were wet as she smiled up at him.
+
+"I have been so long making up my mind," she said, "and yet I knew all
+the time. I am so glad--so happy that I have come. Think, too, how
+wonderful a start! We leave the earth for the clouds."
+
+"It is a wonderful allegory," he answered, smiling. "We will take it
+into our hearts, dear one. It rests within the power of every human
+being to search for happiness and, in searching, to find it. I am
+fortunate because I can take you to beautiful places. I can spell out
+for you the secrets of a new art and a new beauty. We can walk in fairy
+gardens. I can give you jewels such as Europe has never seen, but I can
+give you, Maggie, nothing so strange and wonderful, even to me who know
+myself, as the love which fills my heart."
+
+Her laugh was like music.
+
+"I am going to be so happy," she murmured.
+
+The other two approached and they all shook hands. They looked over the
+amazing little rooms, watched the luggage stowed away in some marvellous
+manner, saw the crew, every one at his station like a motionless figure.
+Then a whistle was blown, and once more they all clasped hands.
+
+"Very soon," Prince Shan promised, as he and Maggie leaned from the
+window of the car, "I shall send the _Black Dragon_ for you, Lord
+Dorminster, and for the one other whom I think you may wish to bring.
+Asia is not so far off, these days, and Maggie will love to see her
+friends."
+
+Almost imperceptibly the giant airship floated away.
+
+"Watch, both of you," Maggie cried. "I am sending you down a farewell
+present." She whispered to Prince Shan, who handed her something from
+his pocket, smiled, and gave an order. The great ship passed in a
+semicircle and hovered almost exactly above their heads. A little shower
+of small scraps of paper came floating down. Nigel picked one up,
+examined it, and understood. He waved his hat.
+
+"It is Maggie's farewell gift to England," he said, "the treaty which
+Prince Shan never signed."
+
+They stood side by side, watching. With incredible speed, the _Black
+Dragon_ passed into the clouds and out again. Then, as it roared away
+eastwards, the sun suddenly disclosed itself. The airship mounted
+towards it, shimmering and gleaming in every part. Naida passed her hand
+a little shyly through her companion's arm.
+
+"Isn't that rather a wonderful way to depart in search of happiness?"
+she murmured.
+
+He smiled down at her.
+
+"I do not think that we shall find the search very difficult, dear," he
+said, "though our feet may remain upon the earth."
+
+Naida's lip quivered for a moment. Then she caught a glimpse of his face
+and gave a little sigh of content.
+
+"There is heaven everywhere," she whispered.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN***
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:41:24 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:41:24 -0700
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