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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Game and the Candle, by Eleanor M. Ingram
+
+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 Game and the Candle
+
+Author: Eleanor M. Ingram
+
+Illustrator: P. D. Johnson
+
+Release Date: April 1, 2011 [EBook #35740]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAME AND THE CANDLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     THE GAME AND THE CANDLE
+
+                      By ELEANOR M. INGRAM
+
+
+    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+    P. D. JOHNSON
+
+    INDIANAPOLIS
+    THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+    PUBLISHERS
+
+    COPYRIGHT 1909
+    THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+    OCTOBER
+
+    PRESS OF
+    BRAUNWORTH & CO.
+    BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS
+    BROOKLYN, N. Y.
+
+    TO THAT GRACIOUS FAMILY
+    CIRCLE OF WHICH I HAVE
+    THE HAPPINESS TO BE ONE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: He carried her back to the cream-tinted boudoir.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I THE DECISION
+
+II THE KEY TO THE DOOR
+
+III HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
+
+IV THE BOND
+
+V THE NEW DAY
+
+VI "THE KING IS DEAD--LONG LIVE THE KING"
+
+VII ALLEGIANCE
+
+VIII TO MEET THE EMPEROR
+
+IX GUINEVERE OF THE SOUTH
+
+X A STANIEF'S OWN
+
+XI IN THE REGENT'S STUDY
+
+XII THE TURN IN THE ROAD
+
+XIII THE INTERVENTION OF ADRIAN
+
+XIV THE ORDEAL
+
+XV AT THE GATES OF CHANGE
+
+XVI FIRE LILIES
+
+XVII AN ARABIAN NIGHT
+
+XVIII THE LAST WEEK
+
+XIX ADRIAN'S DAY
+
+XX CLOSED
+
+
+
+
+THE GAME AND THE CANDLE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE DECISION
+
+
+"It will last about six months," stated John Allard. "Afterward--"
+
+His brother looked up at him helplessly.
+
+"Afterward?" he echoed drearily.
+
+"Afterward there must be more. It is not possible, simply is _not_, for
+poverty to approach Theodora and Aunt Rose. Look around you, Robert."
+
+Under the clear California moonlight the jade-green lawns and terraces
+dropped one below the other to the distant road. Through them writhed
+the long serpentine drive and paths; dotted over them stood dark masses
+of flowering bushes or trees, with here and there the snowy gleam of a
+statue; over all floated the rhythmic tinkle of the central fountain.
+Untroubled calm was the spirit of the place, hereditary comfort.
+
+"I have looked so often, John. Yet, I find nothing."
+
+"We must find not a little money, but a fortune, and we must find it in
+six months," John answered, his low voice just reaching his listener.
+"There is no way to earn it, we know. Inside the law there are ways to
+acquire it. Wall Street, for instance; a new popular song or two, an
+inexplicable conjuring trick, or a fresh breakfast food. But we have no
+such talents, you and I; we are just the ordinary gentlemen of
+leisure,--dilettanti. We are useless, within the limits set for us.
+Outside the limits, outside the law--"
+
+The suggestion was left unfinished, the two men falling silent before
+it. They were young; so young that the morning mists of romance still
+blurred the sharp landscape of reality, and for the moment, daring
+appealed more than endurance.
+
+"We could not do anything low," Robert demurred hesitatingly. "Not about
+the mortgages or business tangles, John."
+
+"No, no," John agreed, flushing. "Of course not that. I suppose there is
+an honor even in crime, a class distinction. Sir Henry Morgan probably
+despised a common thief, and Paul Clifford would not pick his neighbor's
+pocket at dinner. No; we will pay our inherited debts, if we have to
+steal for it. What a _comedie-heroique_!"
+
+Robert regarded him seriously.
+
+"You are just playing?" he doubted.
+
+"I am not playing at all; only looking at things. For the time left us
+is not long. If we do nothing, this place will go, and with it all that
+Theodora and Aunt Rose call life. We must then take these women, Aunt
+Rose an invalid, Theo a spoiled and petted patrician, to some cheap city
+lodging, and there strive to support them. How, I haven't any idea. Some
+one might employ us as clerks, possibly. I have traveled all over
+Europe and speak French and Italian; that is all my stock in trade,
+except an education."
+
+"Mine is less."
+
+"We have wasted our time thoroughly, if innocently. Now we pay. Do you
+wonder that I look at the outlaw's path that offers itself?"
+
+His brother moved, startled.
+
+"Offers itself, John?"
+
+"Yes; I did not think of this without the prompting of circumstance. Are
+you dismayed, or shocked?"
+
+"I can not see very clearly," Robert answered simply. "Or, rather, I
+keep seeing the wrong things. Nothing dismays me to-night except the
+idea of pain coming to Theo and her mother. I do not say it should be
+so; merely that it is. We are more ornamental than useful, we Allards,
+as you point out, but we have the art of loving. I think most people
+have a less capacity for it; I believe it is a certain intensity born
+with one--a gift, a talent. And we have it. Tell me more."
+
+"I shall not tell you very much, because the work is only for one of
+us," John said. "One of us must go, the other stay here and live as
+always. One must still be master of Sun-Kist, still the head of this
+household of ours and an irreproachable citizen. He had better not know
+too accurately what the one who goes is doing."
+
+"John!"
+
+John Allard slipped impulsively from the veranda rail and came to sit on
+the arm of Robert's chair, drawing him into a caressing embrace.
+
+"I know; we've always played together, dear old fellow. School and
+college, and the short time since,--the two years' difference between us
+got lost pretty early. But we must learn to go alone at last. And if we
+undertake this insanity--for it is little better--we must stand without
+flinching all it brings. Is it worth while? I do not know, but I know
+many a man has gone into the underworld to protect a woman. How many
+cashiers have misused funds entrusted to them, how many business men
+have stooped to illegal methods, in order to give their wives--not
+necessities, but luxuries? We see it every day, this cowardice for some
+one loved. Only they do it by degrees, and we do it all at once."
+
+Robert laid his hand over the one on his shoulder.
+
+"It does not sound very pretty," he acknowledged wistfully. "It is the
+old legend of selling your ego to Mephistopheles. Only, I wouldn't so
+much mind going to Hades afterward; it is the clasping Mephisto's smudgy
+fingers that hurts."
+
+"I am not asking you to do it, Bertie. We will just forget this
+half-hour, if you like. You know it was a suggestion, not a conviction,
+I voiced. You are right, of course. But I was ready for rebellion
+against all laws to-day; and then Desmond came to me--"
+
+"Desmond! He is out of prison?"
+
+"A week ago. He came to me for money to go East. 'Do you mind how you
+and Master Robert used to sneak away from your nurse to play with
+Tommy, the coachman's boy?' he said to me. 'And now Tommy Desmond is
+nursed by the police far and near. I am a master at my trade, I am.' He
+has not changed much since we recognized him at his trial, five years
+ago, and tried to help him."
+
+Robert turned to see the face above him in the moonlight.
+
+"He said more than that."
+
+"He was very frank," John answered laconically.
+
+"Then, go on, please. I never meant that we should give up the last
+chance because it was unpleasant, or unsafe. Theo--she has just tasted
+her girlhood, just commenced to live; how can we let her lose it all? I
+would rather smudge my fingers in saving her than wear the bar sinister
+of cowardice. There are laws I know you will not break, because, being
+yourself, you can not. Go on, and tell me what Desmond said."
+
+A white moth, hunting some star across the dark, dashed itself against
+Allard's coat and hung quivering there. He paused to disentangle the
+delicate wings before replying, the careful seriousness of the little
+action in itself a characterization.
+
+"There has been shown to me a way to make enough money to thrust poverty
+out of sight for the present and find comfort for the future. A way to
+save Sun-Kist in the short time left us to command. But it is by a
+crime, a crime which the world calls as ugly as forgery. You know for
+what Desmond was punished. Yet it is in a certain sense the crime
+magnificent, in that one wrongs a government instead of an individual,
+and dashes the gauntlet into the face of the state itself. It is the
+crime that to the least degree smudges, because, after all, it offers a
+fair equivalent for value received."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"The old mine is no longer worth operating; but there is silver in small
+quantities," Allard replied quietly. "Enough for Desmond's use.
+Naturally, he never dreamed of making such a proposition to me. He
+simply told me how the affair could be carried out, as he told me a
+dozen other amazing possibilities and reminiscences. I encouraged him to
+talk, at first merely to dull the clamor of thought at my inner ear. In
+the end, I kept him near here."
+
+"It's so real, John?"
+
+"It's so real and so possible. I have satisfied myself of that. Either
+of us could carry the plan through, with Desmond; but we must realize
+that the one who undertakes it steps out of this life. For, facing the
+fact, disaster in the end is almost certain. The government machinery is
+very perfect; he who breaks the law can scarcely hope to escape arrest
+sooner or later. And if that happens, our world must never guess.
+Whoever accepts the work must leave here for an indefinite journey
+abroad, ostensibly; and in reality lose his identity absolutely
+somewhere. The one who goes must endure in silence whatever happens;
+the one who stays--"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"The one who stays," John finished gently, "must not interfere or try to
+save."
+
+Robert shuddered slightly and sat still for an instant.
+
+"It is for the women," he said, his boyish voice quite steady. "Shall we
+draw lots, or will you let me go?"
+
+"Bertie, Bertie!" John exclaimed, and, rising abruptly, walked to the
+rail.
+
+When he came back to the seat beside his brother, it was with his face
+turned from the silver light pouring through the arches of the veranda.
+
+"We are spared the pain of choosing our roles, Bertie," he declared with
+grave finality. "The decision is not ours. Theodora cares for one of us.
+Aunt Rose admitted as much to me, although she herself could not say
+which. Of course that one is the one who stays. You see I am just
+taking it for granted that we both love her. We have never talked about
+it, but we knew, I think."
+
+"Yes."
+
+John waited, but no more was volunteered.
+
+"You agree with me?" he at last questioned.
+
+"Oh, I suppose so!" Robert flung savagely. "John, I am not blind; if you
+propose this, it is because you are satisfied Theo will choose me. If
+you sacrifice everything to save Sun-Kist for the women, it is because
+you mean the sacrifice to be yourself. Tell the truth; if I were to go,
+you would refuse to carry out the plan."
+
+"I said either of us could do the work."
+
+"Yes, but you mean to do it yourself."
+
+"I mean to leave the decision to Theodora."
+
+"Honestly?"
+
+"Honestly. And our time is short, Robert; ask her to-night when she
+comes home."
+
+"I will not," he refused flatly. "Take your right as eldest and tell her
+your story before I tell mine. I will not take that advantage of you.
+Oh, if she were only less delicate, less fastidiously reared, less
+unable to endure even vexation! If we could fight it out, you and I!"
+
+"Hush, hush; this is the fight. We are paying the penalty of being fit
+for no better battle; he who can use neither sword nor gun must be sent
+to dig in the muddy trenches."
+
+"We could take care of ourselves."
+
+"Without doubt, or starve decently. But we have to take care of others."
+
+"John, let me go."
+
+"Play fair, Bertie."
+
+"John--"
+
+"And Theo?"
+
+The younger dropped his head against the other's knee.
+
+"I think your part will be harder than mine," John rejoined, after a
+long silence. "It is less difficult to suffer than to watch another
+endure. I can very well believe we are taking the wrong way, but I do
+not see a better. And for the--smudge--I have one consolation."
+
+"That is, John?"
+
+"The crime chosen is one the state finds it advisable to condemn for
+reasons of policy. It is not so actual a wrong to our fellow-men as a
+fortune made in Wall Street or in speculating on their necessities. I am
+going to break man's regulations, not God's law."
+
+"I hope you are right," said Robert with equal reverence. "But you are
+taking an unblazed trail, and the safe road lies far aside."
+
+Down the smooth slope of the country-side crept the vibrating throb of
+an automobile, accompanied by laughter and the faint sound of gay
+voices. Some one in the party was singing--a man whose clear tenor
+reached the two on the veranda, filtered to purest pathos through the
+veil of distance:
+
+    "_Sconto col sangue mio
+    L'amor que posi in te!
+    Non ti scordar--non ti scordar di me--_"
+
+"That is Billy Clive," Robert identified wearily. "He is an arrant
+humbug, is Billy; I do not believe he ever had a serious moment in his
+life. Theo is coming; will you speak to her? It may be you, after all,
+you know."
+
+"I think not, Bertie."
+
+"But you will try?"
+
+Through the night air pierced the crescendo wail of a horn, startling
+the insect choirs into silence and waking a sleepy bird in the wistaria
+vines. Both men rose.
+
+"If I must," John yielded. "Yet I have an idea it will not matter who
+speaks first, and perhaps you are not quite up to the task to-night.
+Yes, I will try."
+
+"And try fairly. I," as the white lights of the car swung into the
+avenue, "I am going in."
+
+Their hands met in passing, Robert turning to the house door and John
+descending the wide steps to greet the arrival.
+
+"The most delicious time," pealed the sweet, high voice of a girl above
+the noise of the halted automobile. "Good night, Mrs. Preston. Until
+to-morrow, Sue and Billy. Oh, John, you!"
+
+"Come over to-morrow, Allard," rang the merry chorus.
+
+"Don't forget the hunt."
+
+"Bring Robert, old man."
+
+"_Adios_, Theo."
+
+The car started noisily, and whirled down the driveway.
+
+"I am so tired," sighed the girl on the steps, gathering up her
+shimmering skirts and throwing back the hood of her cloak. "Mama has
+gone to bed, John? Oh, and I do want tea! Why should I not have tea at
+midnight, if I like? I love to be revolutionary."
+
+"Why not, indeed? Sit down there in your chosen divan, my lady."
+
+"You will bring me tea?"
+
+"Wait only."
+
+She sank laughing into a chair and began to draw off her long gloves,
+watching him as he moved to the little tea-table in a nook of the
+veranda. Allard possessed an almost feminine deftness at such tasks;
+perhaps it was as well that Robert was not busied with the fragile
+china and glass that evening.
+
+"It was a nice dance," Theodora mused aloud. "But then, almost
+everything is nice. Only I missed you and Robert. A dance without Robert
+is like a salad without cayenne."
+
+"And a salad with cayenne?"
+
+"Is the chief joy of life's dinner."
+
+He brought the cup and she extended a slim, jeweled hand to receive it.
+Theodora had a somewhat oriental taste; odors of sandalwood and rose
+breathed from her laces, her white wrist sparkled with slender
+bracelets, and the high comb in her blonde hair held the glint of gems.
+
+"Why do you not laugh at my epigram?" she demanded. "Thank you; I would
+say you were adorable if you did not already know it. Please give me a
+biscuit, and give yourself some tea. Why are you so serious to-night?"
+
+"I had something to tell you, I think."
+
+She waved a commanding spoon.
+
+"Then sit down and begin."
+
+But Allard remained silent, regarding her. It was not easy to begin.
+Moreover, the glamour of the future had fallen away, leaving the naked
+ugliness; and he was held by a prescient certainty that to-night ended
+for ever this gracious life.
+
+[Illustration: Allard remained silent, regarding her.]
+
+"Robert is not up?" Theodora queried presently, too fine to insist on
+the suggested confidence.
+
+"No. Are you sorry, Theo?"
+
+Surprised at the tone, she glanced up, but the shadows were heavy where
+he sat.
+
+"Why, yes, of course." And recovering herself, "Certainly; how could we
+exist without him?"
+
+"How, indeed?" he echoed, rather too quietly for naturalness. "Suppose
+he were to go away?"
+
+"I should expire immediately of ennui. You see, he and I have a bond of
+frivolity; while against you we all lean for support. You are very
+supporting, John; now, this tea," she laughed gleefully. "Robert
+probably would have pressed champagne upon me, because it is less
+trouble to get."
+
+"You might have made tea yourself," he suggested, drawing a branch of
+the wistaria to shade his face more completely.
+
+"I hate to do things for myself. I hope that I never will have to."
+
+"I hope not. But I promised to tell you something. I am going on a trip
+to South America; part business, part restlessness."
+
+"You!"
+
+"Why not? I can not play all the time, you know, not being a girl
+myself. I may be away only a few months, or--much longer. But let me be
+quite frank; surely you are aware Robert loves you, Theo. If I should
+not be home before you are married, still you will understand how much
+good I wish you both, and remember that I said this now. Forgive me for
+speaking of this; it is ventured because I start to-morrow."
+
+She sat very still, and he heard her hurried breathing in the hush.
+
+"I did not know you meant that," she said at last, her accents unsure.
+
+"Or you would not have confessed? Never mind my blundering interference,
+little cousin; I have no wish so dear as that you two should care for
+each other. You are not angry?"
+
+She rose abruptly to set down the cup, the shadows now a cloak for her.
+
+"Angry? Oh, no; I have never learned to be angry with you. I--It is damp
+out here; I must go in. Good night, John."
+
+"Good night, Theo," he responded with all gentleness. It was so
+wonderful, this exquisite timidity, this virginal shyness that only
+Robert should have seen. He saw her quivering as she passed him in the
+moonlight, her head averted.
+
+But in the doorway she turned back.
+
+"John, as we entered the avenue to-night, there was a man standing near
+the olive-trees. Mr. Preston stopped the car and called to ask what he
+did there. The man answered that he was waiting to see you about some
+gardening work, but it was so late that you must have forgotten. He
+sounded honest, but Mr. Preston bade me warn you, saying that a man,
+once your father's servant, had just been released from prison, and
+might use a knowledge of Sun-Kist to attempt burglary. You will be
+careful?"
+
+"I will be careful," he answered calmly. "Thank you, dear."
+
+She slipped hurriedly across the threshold, as if in escape, ruthlessly
+tearing her thin gown upon the door-latch. Allard wearily rested his
+head against the column behind him, and so remained.
+
+At the end of an hour he rose and went down across the moon-blanched
+lawns, walking steadily and directly toward the group of olive-trees. He
+knew for what Desmond was waiting, knew what answer would be given, and
+it seemed to him that he had already severed the connection between the
+present and the future. It seemed to him that not to-morrow, but
+to-night, he was taking leave of all things; that the unblazed trail
+led straight on from behind those dark trees just beyond him.
+
+The white statues stirred with the wavering shadows as he passed; the
+rich scent of the tuberoses called as a familiar voice; like a patter of
+tiny footsteps the ripple of the fountain followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE KEY TO THE DOOR
+
+
+"The road you called, and I believed to be, an unblazed trail through a
+grave forest, I am beginning to see is just the old sordid, musty Bridge
+of Sighs across which common malefactors are led," wrote John Allard to
+Robert three months after his departure from Sun-Kist. "But if we can
+agree with Browning's dictum, there is a certain virtue simply in
+keeping on at a task assumed, even if the end be questionable. And I am
+keeping on. Do not fancy I am saying this to trouble you, or in weak
+regret. All is going better than we dared hope, as you know; and I see
+no danger near, at present. No; it is only that I have been fearing I
+gave you some edged doctrines; do not close your hand upon them, for
+they cut. You can not write to me, of course, since you do not know
+where I am. Nor shall I myself write again, even with this guarded and
+unsigned precaution. When this venture ends, I am going away from
+America; I think I shall enlist in France's Foreign Legion. Not because
+I am afraid, but because I want to work. Yet, in spite of success, it
+seems to me that, like Saxon Harold, I hear a cry in the night:
+'_Sanguelac, the arrow, the arrow!_'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was nothing in the quiet, sun-filled, little hut nestled on the
+mountain-side, to indicate that here rested one end of the _Ponte degli
+Sospiri_. Yet to one of the two men here at bay, the dark bridge arched
+away as a thing visible.
+
+A siege had been held there all the June afternoon, until now this
+grateful lull had fallen,--a siege whose tale was punctuated with the
+snap of bullets, the crash of loosened stones down the cliff, and the
+shouts of men below. No one yet had ventured on the steep, narrow path
+winding up to the hut, although there was but one defender, and so far
+the battle had been bloodless. But neither the big Irishman leaning by
+the door, nor John Allard, lying helpless on a rough cot, had any doubt
+of the final result. They were simply waiting for the end to come.
+
+"Desmond, have you hurt any of them?" Allard asked suddenly, rousing
+himself from a reverie bordering on stupor.
+
+"I have not," answered the other in accents just touched with Hibernian
+softness. "But I am thinking they will not come up until dusk. Bird shot
+scatters."
+
+"Our own men have gone safely?"
+
+"They have. And if you had not slipped through that hole in the old
+floor and broken your ankle--"
+
+Allard raised himself on his elbow. Fever lent an artificial brightness
+to his firm young face and shadowed gray eyes, the waving chestnut hair
+clung boyishly around a forehead which had acquired one straight line
+between the brows during the five months since he had left Sun-Kist.
+
+"You should not have stayed, Desmond," he said earnestly. "You can not
+help me; I have my own way out of this. You must go now, at least, and
+try the mountain. I ask you to go."
+
+"And if I do, it must be at dusk. Look out that door; not a cloud or a
+shade--and me with a hundred yards of bare mountain-side to cross. Lie
+easy, sir."
+
+"Desmond!"
+
+"Oh, it's a word slipped! Old times are close enough for their ways to
+come to my tongue in the rush."
+
+Allard shook his head, but sank back upon the pillow and let his gaze go
+out the open door opposite. Far below, the silver and azure Hudson
+widened into the Tappan Zee, set in purple and emerald hills which
+curved softly away to the distant outposts of the Palisades. Fair and
+tranquil, warmly palpitating under the summer sunshine, the scene was
+cruel in its placid indifference to the struggle here upon the
+cliff-like mountain. The very breeze that fluttered in brought taunting
+perfumes of cedar and blossom from a country-side out of reach; poised
+airily between earth and sky, a snowy sea-gull flaunted its unvalued
+liberty. Sighing, the Californian dropped the curtain of his lashes
+before a world no longer his. He had been so near safety, the arrow had
+been held so long upon the cord, that disaster came now with a double
+keenness of stroke.
+
+"Desmond," he said, after a pause, "we have nothing to do with old times
+or titles. I can trust your will, I know; but do not let your memory
+betray me. I mean, words _must_ not slip. I hope you are going to get
+out of this safely; I can not, of course. After my--capture," a curious
+expression flickered across his face, "no matter how things end, you may
+count that I will say nothing of you or the others. Will you, at all
+times in the future, remember that I am just Leroy?"
+
+"I will," the big man replied briefly. "And the others don't know
+anything."
+
+"No; there is only you. You it would not help if the truth were made
+public; it would only excite more attention. You yourself do not want
+your former record connected with your stay here. If you escape, you
+will be free and comparatively rich; leave me my secret, Desmond; I
+shall have nothing else."
+
+"You needn't worry about me," Desmond reassured, his eyes on the ribbon
+of path that was visible. "It might be better, I'm thinking, to do the
+worrying about how you'll come out of this."
+
+"_Fiat justicia_," Allard returned, with a cool endurance quite free
+from bitterness. "Or, more intelligibly, I must pay for my cakes and
+ale. Only carry your part through, and do not talk."
+
+"You needn't worry. There's a man around that big boulder down there!
+Will I have to shoot bird seed at his legs, I wonder?"
+
+"Not if you can avoid!"
+
+"Oh, I'm not playing at it; rest easy. And don't fear they'll be
+believing it's you. When they find me gone and you not able to stand,
+they'll guess who was shooting. I'll put all the guns beyond your
+reaching them, to help, before I go to-night."
+
+"No!"
+
+The swift monosyllable fell with an energy that brought Desmond's glance
+at once to the speaker.
+
+"I shall want my revolver," Allard added more quietly. "I might need
+it."
+
+"Just so," assented the other, regarding him oddly, and presently
+returned to his guard of the door.
+
+There was a long silence. Gradually the fluffily piled clouds in the
+west became tinged with ruddy gold, clouds which bore a fanciful
+resemblance to Elysian mountain peaks, as if heaped so in sport by some
+imitative baby Titan who had patterned them from the hills below. Sunset
+was at hand, and from its brightness Allard wearily averted his face.
+Suffering, mental and physical, keyed his nerves to exquisite
+sensitiveness; a passionate desire for darkness and silence possessed
+him.
+
+Suddenly the roaring crash of the huge shotgun set the cottage
+vibrating, and echoed heavily back and forth among the cliffs.
+
+"It's only to scare them," explained Desmond, as his companion started
+up. "But I doubt they will wait past dusk. And we needed just one week
+more!"
+
+"You mean they will rush the place by daylight? You will go now?"
+
+"I need the dusk more than they do. Still, I won't wait long. You--shall
+I get you water?--you moved too quick!"
+
+"It is nothing," Allard panted. But he drank gratefully from the tin
+dipper, nevertheless, and in returning it searched with gentler eyes the
+hard, intelligent countenance of the giver. "It is nothing I can not
+face, all this, if I can be certain you will keep silence."
+
+"I will," he said, and walked back to the door in cautious vigilance.
+
+Allard lay still. Evening: Theodora would be on the veranda in her
+pretty dinner gown, perhaps with a flower tucked over her little ear in
+the Spanish fashion she mimicked, if this were home. Aunt Rose would be
+reading in her favorite chair, Robert lounging near them and pouring out
+his usual flood of sparkling gaiety and nonsense. Allard smiled tenderly
+and with a touch of defiance; after all, he had won the battle fought
+for them, had carried out the task set, before to-day's ruin overtook
+him. Moreover, he had his own way of escape, resolved upon since the
+first. He almost could be content.
+
+"It's growing dark," broke in Desmond's voice after a time. "I'm
+thinking they'll be making that rush mighty soon. I'd give something to
+take you along, instead of having to climb like a cat up the bluff."
+
+Allard roused himself.
+
+"Not possible! You should have gone with the rest instead of being here
+now." He held out his hot hand for the other's clasp. "Good-by, Desmond.
+Without you this thing would never have worked at all."
+
+"It's not so. Many a time this game has been tried and has fallen
+through half-way; and it's not thousands are made at it. You did it,
+with the gentleman's brain and knowledge and wit. Not that it matters
+now."
+
+"Not very much. You are forgetting my revolver."
+
+"No, I am not forgetting. You will not need it." He turned away to add
+the last one to the pile of weapons in the opposite corner.
+
+Allard rose on his arm, his eyes flashing wide and keen.
+
+"You have no idea what I need, Desmond. Give me that revolver."
+
+"You would shoot no one, and it would be of no use."
+
+"Desmond, we have been friends; give me that."
+
+"I can't," he answered sullenly.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I know for what you want it, sir."
+
+Allard flung back his head and confronted the defiant face opposite with
+the fevered anger of his own.
+
+"And if so, is it your affair? Have you, you who have led your life,
+grown sentimental? You, who know from where I come and to where I am
+going,--you will interfere? You are wasting our time; give me my
+revolver, and go."
+
+But the other made no move, although sending an anxious glance through
+the doorway.
+
+"One gets out of prison," he said obstinately, "as I've tried myself.
+But that that you mean--there's no coming back. You are over young for
+that, sir."
+
+"You have been paid for helping me," Allard retorted, his voice savage
+with pain, "not for teaching me philosophy. Go take your liberty, if you
+can, and leave me mine. There is one door out for me, and one key. I
+trusted you; I might have kept the thing with me if I had imagined
+this."
+
+Desmond flushed, but turned coolly.
+
+"I'll go, it's time. If I was paid for helping, I gave the help. I never
+was paid for this you are asking."
+
+"Desmond, Desmond, you leave me so!"
+
+He turned on the threshold, a square, obstinate figure against the
+violet twilight.
+
+"I'd never do it," he said quite gently, "if I didn't know you'd thank
+me some day."
+
+"Desmond--"
+
+"Good-by, sir."
+
+"Desmond--"
+
+The doorway was empty; the evening serenata of a robin filled the hush.
+Allard's head sank on his arm in the darkest moment of the last somber
+months.
+
+But presently he looked up again. Still dressed as when the accident had
+happened a few hours before, he possessed a tiny box of cartridges, and
+only the width of the room separated him from his desire. He
+impulsively tossed aside the blanket and slipped to the floor.
+
+The fall drew a gasp of pain. All before faded to insignificance beside
+the anguish of movement. It was not the ankle only; the injury had gone
+farther than that. Colorless, catching his breath with difficulty,
+Allard dragged himself inch by inch toward the goal.
+
+Desmond was almost forgotten when the first shot on the mountain-side
+rang out. Startled from the mists of suffering, Allard paused an
+instant. Then as a very fusillade reverberated among the cliffs, he
+toiled on with redoubled haste. They would come next for him.
+
+It had a pearl and silver handle, that revolver. He had treasured it
+because it was a gift from Robert, and a souvenir too frequently
+duplicated to betray his identity. Now the pearl shone a glistening spot
+in the surrounding grayness, beckoning, tantalizing. It was so far
+across the room, so very far!
+
+Shots again! He struggled yet more desperately, and the resulting pang
+brought waves of faintness above his head. If he could only rest, so.
+
+Some one was shouting, half exultantly, half fearfully, and other voices
+replied in equal excitement. Some one was killed, they were saying, had
+fallen from the cliff. Desmond, perhaps? Allard roused himself fiercely
+and saw with gratitude how near the coveted object lay. A little
+farther, only a little; but it cost.
+
+The rush and patter of feet grew louder,--the steady approach of the
+hunters. It hardly mattered, for the cool white handle was in the grasp
+of his outstretched hand. He had won, won doubly. He had accomplished
+his task, and he held the key to the door. Robert's face leaned toward
+him, warm with relief and praise; Theodora was in the room, bringing
+fragrances of sandalwood and rose--
+
+Once more he drove back the mists and dragged the revolver to him,
+smiling, but with knit brows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
+
+
+They looked at each other steadily, the distinguished visitor and the
+prisoner who polished a brass railing. Beside them an official was
+droning a particularly monotonous and dreary account of the institution,
+his eyes half-closed with the mental exertion of recollection, his
+thoughts turned inward and absorbed. There were several gentlemen and
+officers of the building in the bare room, chatting with one another in
+varying degrees of boredom and interest, and completely ignoring the
+quiet prisoner who had been John Allard. Yet he was perhaps the only one
+present, with the exception of the man facing him, who escaped the
+commonplace.
+
+"You have something to say?" questioned the grave, lustrous dark eyes of
+the visitor; eyes southern in their long-lashed softness, northern in
+their directness.
+
+And Allard's gray eyes returned assent with an utter calm which overlay
+the surface of tragedy.
+
+"On the east bank of the Hudson, six miles above Tarrytown," went on the
+droning voice of the official, then broke as the visitor's cool,
+slightly imperious tones fell across the monologue:
+
+"Ah, and is it permitted to speak with your inmates, if one has the
+fancy?"
+
+The official stared, but smiled vaguely.
+
+"Certainly, sir; if _you_ wish," he replied.
+
+Again the eloquent glances of the other two crossed.
+
+"You have much of this work?" queried the visitor, the words scarcely
+heeded either by speaker or listener in the deeper search for a means of
+communication.
+
+Allard answered in French, the fluent, barely-accented French of a
+traveled American:
+
+"That man in gray who accompanies you, monsieur, the man near the
+window, is not to be trusted. He was released from this place last year,
+after serving a term for his share in some Paterson anarchistic
+outrages. He is dangerous, and he watches you constantly."
+
+The visitor was trained to self-control; he did not commit the mistake
+of looking toward the man in question. But he could not quite check the
+flash of blended emotions which crossed his own expression.
+
+"Thank you," he said. And after an instant, "I thought I recognized you
+when I saw you on entering; now you have spoken, I am certain. Yet--"
+
+Allard flushed from throat to temples, the color dying out again to
+leave even his lips white. But his reply was steadily given.
+
+"There is no one here whom you know, monsieur, or who knows you. Even a
+prison has its courtesies. Turn your head away, and go past," he said.
+
+"Would you have done so, finding a friend in such a strait?"
+
+"I have no friends."
+
+"Then why did you warn me against Dancla, my anarchistic secretary
+yonder?"
+
+The question was unexpected, and left Allard momentarily disconcerted.
+
+"Confess we knew each other very well five years ago," the visitor added
+gently, and paused to consider.
+
+A few paces off the official stood stupidly enjoying the respite from
+exertion; placidly indifferent to an incomprehensible conversation
+inspired by a whim of the guest. The other three or four men were
+admiring the view from a window facing the river, and listening to their
+cicerone.
+
+"I wish you would go away, monsieur," Allard said only, when he had
+recovered perfect command of himself.
+
+"Be patient with me yet a moment. We were both avowedly masquerading
+during those weeks of boyish frolic at Palermo; do you know who I am?"
+
+"No more than I knew then: that you were a European, and evidently of
+position."
+
+"You have more liberty than some of those here, I think."
+
+"Yes; I am what they call a trusty;" the straight line between the fine
+brows deepened markedly.
+
+"I beg your pardon; I do not ask from curiosity. My yacht is anchored
+before this place--if I return through here in an hour, on my way to it,
+can you be here still?"
+
+Allard hesitated.
+
+"I believe so, but I would prefer not. I can aid you no further; and--"
+
+"And?"
+
+For an instant the curtain was withdrawn from the prisoner's clear eyes.
+
+"You wake what is better asleep. It is not pleasant for me to meet you,
+monsieur."
+
+The visitor caught his breath. It came to him with a shock of
+realization that many days and nights might pass before he could forget
+that straight glance of quivering pain and humiliation, of proudly
+endured hopelessness.
+
+"Yet I ask it," he insisted.
+
+"Very well. If I am not here it will be because it was not possible."
+
+The visitor turned away with well-assumed carelessness.
+
+"I fancied your prisoner there was a fellow-countryman," he remarked to
+the official, in passing on. "But he appears to be French."
+
+"Yes, sir. He said he came from the South, at his trial."
+
+The man had necessarily kept beside the visitor to reply, and they
+walked down the room so together.
+
+"What is he here for?" came the idle inquiry.
+
+"Counterfeiting, sir. Right over on that mountain across the river, they
+captured him and killed one of his comrades. The rest got away in time,
+and they never were found because this man would tell nothing, even to
+save himself. He might have turned state's evidence and got off with a
+light sentence, for he was young and not known to the police. But he
+wouldn't and he got the whole thing. Leroy, his name is. The officers
+who captured him believe he never meant to be taken alive; for they
+found him unconscious, with a little pistol in his hand, and they
+guessed that he fainted before he could use it. He had to spend weeks in
+a hospital before he could be tried, getting over a broken ankle and
+some other worse injuries. But he and his fellows had done clever work,
+no one knows how much. This Leroy might have been from across the water,
+as you say, sir; no one knows him here."
+
+"How long has he been here?"
+
+"Two years, sir."
+
+"And his sentence?"
+
+"Fifteen."
+
+The visitor shuddered involuntarily. Pleased by his interest, the
+official brightened to offer further diversion:
+
+"If you'll come to the inner building, sir, I can show you some more.
+We've some in for life--"
+
+"Thank you," the visitor refused bruskly, and moved aside to rejoin his
+companions.
+
+The little group fell silent and expectant at the approach of the one
+whose escort they were. It was rather a brilliant group against the
+somber prison background. Dancla, "the man in gray" of Allard's warning,
+was the only member not in uniform, with the exception of the
+distinguished visitor himself.
+
+"I am going into the town," their chief announced, pausing before them,
+"with Dancla. You may return to the yacht. Vasili, send the launch for
+me in an hour. Ah, and leave on that bench by the door my rain coat; I
+fancy it will be storming before we return. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, your Royal Highness," responded Vasili, a trim, blond young
+aide-de-camp with a most ingenuous smile. He spoke in French, as did all
+the party.
+
+"I alone have the honor of accompanying your Royal Highness?" Dancla
+asked, not without a shade of uneasiness.
+
+The velvet black eyes of his chief passed over him deliberately.
+
+"You alone; come."
+
+They went out, attended by the prison officials, past the prisoner still
+at work. Laughing and chatting, the rest of the party walked down the
+room to the door nearest the river. The place left seemed darker for
+their going, the silence more profound after their gay voices.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We knew each other very well five years ago--"
+
+When the patient has apparently reached the climax of suffering, when
+the very excess of pain brings a relief of numbness, Fate the Inquisitor
+occasionally finds amusement in devising a fresh form of putting the
+question. Upon Allard was forced the San Benito of renewed recollection.
+
+Nearly five years before, John Allard, in all his gay insouciance of
+twenty-one years, had spent an hour on the quay at Palermo to enjoy the
+limpid Sicilian night. Alone at first, he was presently joined by a
+young officer with whom he had crossed from Italy a few days before and
+formed a slight shipboard acquaintance. Knowing nothing of each other,
+there had nevertheless sprung into life between them that curious
+sympathy and friendliness which can be born of exchanged glances,
+meeting smiles; that sudden inexplicable liking which can make two
+passing strangers turn to gaze wistfully after each other and vaguely
+resent the trick of chance that has set their feet in opposite paths. It
+is one of the common phenomena of existence, but it was new to Allard,
+and perhaps new to his companion as well.
+
+They sat side by side while evening melted into night, starlight into
+late moonrise; and they chatted of everything tangible and intangible
+suggested by the place and the time. But they did not touch the personal
+note until the cathedral chimes were pealing midnight.
+
+"I must go back," commented the European wearily. "I have had my last
+day."
+
+"Your last day!" Allard echoed, startled.
+
+"Of freedom, yes. I was promised a month's vacation; a month to spend as
+I chose, but I have good reason to know the promise has been revoked.
+Oh, not for any cause,--just my uncle's whim. He is fond of playing with
+me so."
+
+"Do you always do what he says?" queried the young America
+incredulously.
+
+"I have that habit; it is safer, and more virtuous. Still, virtue palls
+when its reward is invisible. When I go back to the hotel, Petro will
+hand me a telegram demanding my return to the Empire."
+
+"Then I would not go back to the hotel," was the blithe suggestion. "Run
+before you are told to stay. Come share my bachelor hut and let Rome
+vociferate for a while."
+
+"You are not in earnest," said the other, turning to look at him with an
+odd, eager surprise.
+
+Allard had not been, but he adopted his own idea with the light-hearted
+impulsiveness of his _bel age_.
+
+"Why not? My people--my brother and aunt and cousin--have gone for a
+glimpse of Germany; and I have stayed here to cram for my last year of
+college. I have a delicious miniature villa five miles out of town,
+which I have taken until their return, and which is a thousand times too
+big for me alone. Come stay out your vacation with me. If your uncle
+promised you a month, he can not complain if you take it. It is not your
+fault if you do not receive his old telegram."
+
+"No. I am not supposed to know it is coming."
+
+"Well, then, why not come? Send a note to your servant at the hotel, and
+tell him you are visiting a friend. He will have to telegraph your uncle
+that you are not to be found."
+
+The European stood up and looked out across the shining water.
+
+"I am nearly twenty-seven years old," he stated, "and I have never in
+my life had one week of my own. If you are serious, I will do this."
+
+"Of course I am serious. We will have the time of both our lives. Come,"
+the spirit of adventure in his veins, "you can write your note in that
+trattoria over there, and pay a boy to take it. We shall then make a
+straight dash for Villa Giocosa."
+
+"You do not know me, and I can not tell you my name without spoiling
+all. If I tell you, we can not ignore it, try as we may."
+
+Allard paused, then laughed out in sheer delight at the situation.
+
+"I forgot all about names; I believe you do not know mine, for that
+matter. But come incognito, if you choose. I will even play host
+incognito, if that will arrange matters. Monsieur, my Christian name is
+John."
+
+Youth, and the South, and the romance-freighted Sicilian night!
+
+"You are very good," said the other simply. "I am called Feodor."
+
+They went home to Villa Giocosa.
+
+The three weeks which followed were a charming and graceful incident to
+Allard, an interlude in his happy, pleasantly-filled life. What they
+were to his companion, the American did not realize until long
+afterward. The two young men read or lounged together in the mossy
+garden, boated on the placid sea, talked and smoked through the tranquil
+evenings in the perfection of comradeship. But they kept the playful
+incognito, calling each other Don John and Don Feodor in the pretty
+Italian custom of the island where they met. Yet there was a difference,
+for the frank and communicative Allard soon laid all his past and
+present open to view, while the other never spoke of himself.
+
+"How much you know!" exclaimed Allard, one day when Don Feodor came to
+the aid of the college man and passed from complicated subject to
+subject with the light surety of a master of each.
+
+"I ought to know something; I have been trained in a school that
+concedes no rest," was the composed reply.
+
+The idyl ended abruptly. One sun-gilded, flower-scented noon, a
+messenger was ushered into the villa garden. In silence Don Feodor
+accepted and read the letter brought, in silence wrote and gave to the
+bearer his answer. And then he turned to his dismayed host.
+
+"They have found me," he said quietly. "Of course you can not realize
+how I shall remember this time; you are too happy."
+
+That was all. But Allard had remembered also; remembered the breathless,
+hot hush of noon, the heavy perfume of orange- and lemon-blossoms, as
+they shook hands in the old garden, and the sense of boyish desolation
+with which the farewell had left him.
+
+"We knew each other very well, five years ago--"
+
+The prisoner bent his head over his work, setting his white teeth in his
+lip until his mouth was bitter with the taste of his own blood.
+
+The short spring day drew toward its close. The threatened storm
+marshaled its gray columns down the river, a sighing rain whispered
+around the building of sorrows. Very early, shore and water alike
+blended into vague, indeterminate dusk.
+
+Rather less than the hour fixed had elapsed when the distinguished
+visitor, who had once worn the name of Don Feodor instead of that
+journalistic title, reentered the upper end of the hall. He came
+accompanied only by the same stolid official as before; Dancla had
+disappeared.
+
+Opposite the prisoner he paused to light a cigarette, then hesitated,
+looking from him to the little gold case in his own hand.
+
+"I am going out again with this officer," he said in French, his casual
+tone excellently feigned. "Go to that river door, put on the coat lying
+upon the bench and the cap you will find in a pocket, then walk slowly
+to the barred gate and wait for me. When I come, salute me and follow."
+
+Allard stiffened to rigidity, his eyes seeking the other's.
+
+"I am guilty of what they accuse; do you still wish this?" he demanded.
+
+There was something more than admiration in the visitor's smile.
+
+"Did you question me in Palermo, or did you accept caste as enough? Yes,
+I wish it." He turned to the official and offered him the gold case. "I
+wanted to give the poor devil a cigarette," he explained. "But he says
+it is not allowed. Ah, I have forgotten to sign your register; will you
+come back?"
+
+"Yes, sir," readily consented the man, curiously inspecting the
+diminutive, gold-tipped, perfumed cigarette lying in his ample palm. The
+nicotine bon-bon touched his massive sense of the ludicrous; he was
+still contemplating it as he led the way back.
+
+When the two vanished, Allard went swiftly down the long room, casting
+around him a glance of feverish scrutiny. He reached the door as a
+great gong announced the time when he should have returned from his
+work. Snatching up the coat, he slipped into it, pulled out the yachting
+cap with its gilt insignia, and finding a pair of gloves, drew them over
+his stained hands. So far well!
+
+The most dangerous part, the journey across the broad, open wharf under
+the gaze of the armed guards in the towers, at least gave him the tonic
+of the sweet, wet air.
+
+"I need John Allard's unshaken nerves," he told himself grimly. "If I
+reach there, perhaps I can believe he still exists."
+
+The cloudy twilight, just light enough to show his conventional outline,
+just dark enough to veil discrepancies, aided him. He walked quite
+slowly and naturally, carefully avoiding puddles, stopping once to turn
+up his collar against the drizzling rain. Several times he looked back
+for his companion, and strolled on again.
+
+A dozen eyes watched the self-possessed figure as he leaned nonchalantly
+upon the barred gate, and passed from him to the more interesting
+spectacle of the small white launch and immaculate crew waiting outside.
+
+There was little time, and the visitor, now with three attendant
+officials, moved slowly across the space.
+
+"God," prayed Allard dumbly, leaning against the gate in anguished
+waiting. "I think I have paid; but if not, let them shoot--to kill."
+
+The group came nearer, halted. Allard drew himself stiffly erect and
+raised his hand in salute as the tallest man came opposite, then obeyed
+a slight movement of direction and stepped behind him. A grating of
+locks, a brief exchange of compliments, and for the first time in two
+years the prisoner stood without the barriers. Free, if only for that
+instant, free, and in reach of the lapping river.
+
+The sailors waited at rigid salute, the visitor stepped into the swaying
+launch, and as Allard followed the gate closed--behind him. The tiny
+engine puffed, caught its beat, and the boat darted toward the dim
+white shape out in the stream.
+
+Lights were flashing up here and there in the buildings, shining through
+the barred windows. To see the uncheckered sky again!
+
+At the throb of their motor the yacht gleamed unexpectedly into an
+outline of myriad-pointed fire. Men ran across the decks, a miniature
+staircase fell in readiness.
+
+"Follow me closely," directed the cool voice, when the launch stopped.
+
+The wet, shining deck, the mutely respectful figures waiting to receive
+them, all blurred into insignificance for Allard. As his foot touched
+the yacht, pandemonium broke loose in the prison. Out over shouts and
+gong crashed the deafening roar of the huge whistle, rousing the
+country-side for miles around.
+
+"It means?" questioned the master of the situation.
+
+"They know I am missing--and they will think to search the yacht
+first."
+
+"They will not search it without my consent, but I shall grant it.
+Come."
+
+A hand closed on Allard's arm; he was guided swiftly down a tinted and
+gilded companionway, across several rooms no less brilliant, and finally
+halted in a jewel box state-room.
+
+"The clothes lie ready; get into them as soon as possible and come back
+to me. Lose no time, and toss the things you wear into that chest," came
+the directions. "I dare send no one to aid you."
+
+"I understand," Allard answered, equally collected. In those Palermo
+days, it had been Don John who had lent Don Feodor a dinner dress; there
+would be little difficulty in the substitution now.
+
+The other man went out to the salon. Touching a bell on the table, he
+gave his outer garments to the attendant who appeared.
+
+"I shall not dress for dinner," he stated. "Let it be served here, now."
+
+"Your Royal Highness is obeyed."
+
+"And my companion is a gentleman who takes Dancla's place; let the suite
+be arranged for him."
+
+"Yes, your Royal Highness."
+
+His Royal Highness sat down in an arm-chair, his dark eyes more drowsily
+lustrous than usual as he listened to the din on shore. His old-world
+beauty of feature was characterized very strongly by the locked
+tranquillity of expression seen in those who live constantly under the
+observation of others; he wore a mask of repose not readily lifted.
+
+It was not long before Allard came out, and closing the door behind him,
+stood for a moment regarding his host with an expression that blended
+all thoughts in its passionate intensity. And prepared as he was for the
+change, remembering as he did the Don John of Palermo, the other yet
+returned the gaze with startled admiration and wonder. This gentleman,
+who proclaimed his class in bearing, glance, in the very poise of his
+head with its short, waving chestnut hair of patrician fineness,--how
+had he been confounded for one hour with the underworld? Who had found
+the stamp of criminality in the strong, fine, sorrowful face?
+
+"Monsieur," said Allard, taking a step forward.
+
+Recalled, the host rose at once.
+
+"Pardon a thousand times; I must remember you are the guest now and that
+this is not Villa Giocosa. But I can not play incognito any more. I have
+told my people that you come to take the place of my late secretary,
+Dancla--the man of whom you warned me--so you comprehend that it would
+never do for us not to know each other. I am Feodor Stanief."
+
+Too aloof from recent European news, too long separated in thought from
+his former careless knowledge of such things, the name awoke in Allard
+only a vague sense of familiarity.
+
+"If you have so much patience, or care for the old days, I will tell you
+my story whenever you choose, monsieur," he answered frankly and with
+dignity. "Until then, may I still give you the half-truth of Villa
+Giocosa and bear the name of John?"
+
+The soft tinkle of china interrupted them. Stanief had only time to
+reply with his unexpectedly brilliant smile, before the servant entered
+the salon.
+
+"I shall have pleasure in claiming the confidence, Monsieur John," he
+returned, "and may have one to give, if you concede what I hope. Marzio,
+what is that uproar outside?" turning to the servant.
+
+"Your Royal Highness, it is not known. The people on shore are much
+disturbed."
+
+"Apparently. If we were home, Monsieur John, I should call it a riot;
+but here--" he shrugged his shoulders and moved toward the table.
+
+Allard followed, noting for the first time the title given the other.
+Interpreting his glance, Stanief nodded intelligence as the servant
+withdrew for an instant.
+
+"Yes; a mere formality, but one it is not safe to ignore in our delicate
+position. To speak otherwise might draw attention."
+
+Allard looked across the miniature dining table, of which the shaded
+candles and slim vase of flowers, the translucent crystal and frosty
+silver, all seemed to typify and insist upon the life which so strangely
+claimed him; and gazing at the author of this, the gray eyes grew
+splendidly luminous with something for which gratitude was too pale and
+colorless a term. All the hoarded emotion of the last two years, all the
+despair and desolation, added their strength to his eloquent regard.
+Receiving it, Stanief's own eyes grew warm and almost femininely sweet.
+No speech could have told so much. When the servant reentered and the
+lashes of both men fell, a chain unbreakable had been forged, the
+clearness of wordless understanding was between them.
+
+Neither spoke during the first course. The rapid beat of a small engine
+finally disturbed the silence, telling of a launch approaching from
+shore.
+
+"Try your Sauterne," advised Stanief quietly.
+
+Allard obeyed. The food nauseated him, the heavy pulse of his own heart
+seemed tangled with the nearing throb of the boat; the suspense was
+physical pain. The wine helped, sending its vivifying warmth along his
+numbed nerves.
+
+"You know," the tranquil voice added, "this ship is foreign ground.
+There are a few formalities attached. We should have a little time,
+even--"
+
+Allard lifted his head with a quick breath.
+
+"Once, in such an hour, I asked one whom I believed a friend to leave me
+a revolver," he said. "Not being of the class, he refused. If there
+should be--a little time, I will make that request of you, your Royal
+Highness."
+
+"And I am of the class. But there are many things before that."
+
+Voices on deck, hurrying feet, stilled the sentence.
+
+"Thank you," Allard answered, and waited.
+
+Marzio again, deftly removing plates, changing glasses. Then another
+entrance,--the blond Vasili who had accompanied Stanief that day.
+
+"Well?" queried his chief.
+
+"Your Royal Highness, Captain Delsar respectfully begs an interview."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Your Royal Highness, a boat from shore has arrived and the officers
+request permission to search the yacht for an escaped prisoner."
+
+"Is that the reason for the din they are creating?"
+
+"Yes, your Royal Highness."
+
+Stanief selected a cigarette and pushed the tray toward Allard.
+
+"Of course they have no right to do so," he replied indifferently, "but
+I have no objection. Let them search, by all means. Tell Captain Delsar
+to aid them all he can, although, unless he swam, there was no way for a
+man to reach the yacht except on the launch which brought Monsieur John
+and me. Monsieur John, let me introduce Lieutenant Paul Vasili."
+
+Allard turned to acknowledge the other's friendly salute. Stanief faced
+the door, which consequently was behind his companion.
+
+"Give the message, Vasili, and say the yacht is open to them; even these
+rooms, if they wish. And tell the captain that we sail in an hour. That
+is all."
+
+Silence again. Allard mechanically maintained the pretense of eating
+with each course while in reality he knew nothing but the faint sounds
+of the search and the intermittent roar of the whistle.
+
+With the coffee came Vasili once more. Stanief nodded permission for the
+message.
+
+"Your Royal Highness, the officers from the prison have finished. As a
+matter of form, they would accept your Royal Highness' offered consent
+and glance in here, in order to report every part of the yacht
+examined."
+
+"Very good; admit them. Marzio, why have you this electric light over
+the table? Turn it out; the candelabra and the side lights are ample."
+
+Both orders were promptly obeyed. Vasili disappeared and the flaring
+light went out, leaving the room softly glowing with rosy color. Stanief
+looked into the set face opposite with the first trace of annoyance on
+his own.
+
+"I forgot the coat, left on the bench all the afternoon. If any one saw
+it--"
+
+Allard made a movement, then the door behind him opened.
+
+"Come in, officer," Stanief invited pleasantly. "You are satisfied with
+a mere survey, or do you wish to carry it farther? I think either Mr.
+John or I have been in this room, however, since we came aboard at
+half-past five."
+
+[Illustration: "Come in, Officer," Stanief invited pleasantly.]
+
+"Yes, sir," answered an embarrassed voice, a voice which for months had
+represented autocracy for Allard. "We just want to report a complete
+search, sir. I'm sorry to trouble."
+
+Stanief lighted a cigar, letting the man slowly take in the scene. The
+gorgeous, velvet-draped salon, the last course of the dinner, the serene
+"distinguished visitor,"--there was no clue here. And certainly there
+was nothing to suggest a desperate convict in the gentleman in evening
+dress whose back was to the door, and who stirred his cafe noir so
+indifferently.
+
+"Why did you fancy he came to the yacht?" Stanief inquired.
+
+"Oh, excuse me, sir; it was only one chance. We thought he might have
+got to the river and swam for here. You see, it would be pretty hard to
+get out the other way in his clothes."
+
+Allard raised his head impulsively.
+
+"Why," he began, then remembered the punctilious Vasili and checked
+himself. "I beg pardon, your Royal Highness."
+
+A gleam of amusement flickered across Stanief's black eyes at the
+quickly-learned etiquette.
+
+"_Faites_, my dear John," he granted, waiving the point.
+
+"It occurred to me that your Royal Highness had ordered a rain coat to
+be left on the bench by the rear door, and when we returned it was not
+there. Could it be possible--"
+
+"That it was stolen?" caught up Stanief, grasping the audacity of the
+idea. "Undoubtedly so. I fancied my order neglected and intended
+rebuking the one responsible. Officer, behold your clue: a hatless man
+in an English rain coat."
+
+The phrase captivated the man's dull imagination.
+
+"A hatless man in an English rain coat," he echoed, fascinated. "Yes,
+sir, thank you, sir. We will telegraph all around. If I may go, sir--"
+
+"You are quite certain he is not aboard? I do not wish to carry any
+dangerous stowaways, and we sail at once."
+
+"Quite sure, sir. I must waste no more time."
+
+"Good night, then. I imagine you will have no more trouble with that
+prisoner."
+
+"Oh, no, sir," not understanding the double meaning. "Not after this. A
+hatless man in an English rain coat! Good night, sir."
+
+"Marzio," said Stanief, when the door closed, "you may bring some
+cognac, and leave us. No one enters."
+
+Voices on deck, hurrying feet, and presently the retreating throb of a
+little engine.
+
+"Drink your cognac, Monsieur John."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Bah, your nerves are superb, but they pay beneath your stillness.
+Drink; I warn you that I have the habit of domination."
+
+Allard drank.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BOND
+
+
+The habit of domination Stanief assuredly had, however gracefully it
+were disguised. Nor was Allard, bruised with conflict, exhausted, dazed,
+in the mood to resist. He desired feverishly to speak; to tell his story
+and let Stanief, fully informed, decide whether the aid already given
+was to be continued further. The idea of a deception, a false belief in
+an injustice suffered by him, was intolerable. But Stanief smilingly
+imposed silence, and he yielded passively.
+
+The cigars burned out slowly, the tumult on shore died away. A quivering
+vibration awoke to delicate life the yacht. Stanief smoked or played
+with his coffee-cup, his heavy double fringe of lashes brushing his
+cheek; Allard leaned back in his chair, less in reverie than in utter
+exhaustion.
+
+Exactly as the bells rang the hour came the metallic clank of anchor
+chains. The yacht shuddered under the screw, the glass and china tinkled
+faintly, then all settled into regularity as the engines fell into their
+gait and the beautiful boat moved down the river.
+
+"And Vasili is out there in poignant distress because he can not come in
+'to have the honor to report that we sail,'" remarked Stanief, breaking
+the long pause. "It was daringly conceived, Monsieur John, but were you
+not a trifle imprudent in speaking before that brilliant visitor of
+ours? Your voice?"
+
+Allard aroused himself abruptly.
+
+"Our speech back there was confined to monosyllables," he answered. "No,
+your Royal Highness, I think there was no risk."
+
+Stanief did not deprecate the title, perhaps unnoting, perhaps willing
+to let the other learn.
+
+"We are on the high seas, and quite free from listeners," he said
+composedly. "I ask no questions, demand nothing of you, but if you
+indeed wish to speak of the closed episode, Monsieur John, I am ready.
+After to-night we shall have other things to occupy us."
+
+Allard leaned forward eagerly, his clear gray eyes baring to the other
+man all their tragedy and compelling truth.
+
+"I want you to know, it is your right to know," he answered, with a very
+fierceness of pride and sorrow. "I am going to place in your power more
+than you have given me to-day. Hand me to those who hunt me, give me the
+pistol promised and the word to use it, but keep my confidence. Forgive
+me, I am not distrustful, only trying to show what I mean."
+
+"I understand."
+
+Allard looked down at the polished surface of the table, his pallor
+deepening if possible, then suddenly brought his eyes back to Stanief's
+and began to speak.
+
+It was a very quiet story, very quietly told. It had never occurred to
+the Anglo-Saxon Allard to idealize his course into heroism; even
+mistaken heroism. Rather, he had learned to see more clearly, to condemn
+himself, during those long, bitter months. He bore no resentment for the
+punishment inflicted; simply it seemed to him that he had paid enough.
+Over the weeks of suffering in the hospital, the bitterness of the
+public trial with its torturing dread of recognition, he passed in a few
+brief words. Of Theodora he spoke only as his cousin and as Robert's
+betrothed; yet dimly he felt that the mute Stanief was reading all he
+left untold.
+
+"There was no other way," he concluded, and the phrase was the key-note
+to all. "Undoubtedly it was the wrong way, but there was no other I
+could find, and I had to take care of them."
+
+So far he had spoken of those he loved merely by their relationship. It
+was the final trust that Stanief asked by his next question:
+
+"Will you tell me your name?"
+
+And Allard laid his heart in the other's hand.
+
+"John Leslie Allard," he answered.
+
+There was an instant's pause. Stanief folded his arms on the table and
+spoke in his turn with no less quiet sincerity.
+
+"Of the ethics of what you have told me, Monsieur Allard, I am perhaps
+not a good judge. I come from one of the world's greatest countries,
+where from sovereign to peasant necessity is an excuse for all things. I
+have seen the highest officials of the state stoop to accept systematic
+bribery; I have seen nobles whose blood was filtered unmixed through
+centuries, tricking one another and the Emperor who trusted them; I have
+seen the commanders of the army selling for private gain the supplies
+which stood between their soldiers and starvation. In what you have done
+I confess to realizing nothing but incredible courage and
+self-sacrifice, possibly misdirected. But the result has been to leave
+you alone, as I stand alone in a different sense, so placing a bond
+between us. There is no one in my world to whom I could give the trust I
+offer you. Offer merely: I have done for you no more than you did in
+warning me against Dancla to-day, and you owe me nothing. You are
+absolutely free; will you cast your fortune with me, or shall I set you
+down in some one of the European ports at which we shall touch?"
+
+Allard bent forward to lay his hand in the one so frankly extended. He
+remembered Stanief's name now, and remembering, comprehended many
+things.
+
+"I have no one, nothing," he answered earnestly. "The purpose for which
+I gave all is accomplished and laid aside. Your Royal Highness, if you
+will let me serve you, take your purpose for my goal, your life for my
+empty existence, I will give you all I can."
+
+Stanief's firm clasp closed.
+
+"Agreed. _Soit que soit._"
+
+And Allard repeated the promise as seriously:
+
+"Be what may."
+
+The whistle of a passing tug, laboring through the mists toward
+Haverstraw with its train of scows, drew the corresponding blare of the
+yacht's siren. Involuntarily Allard started, his over-strained nerves
+shrinking. Stanief smiled.
+
+"Let Rome howl, John, I may call you John, since we commenced so? Indeed
+I must, after giving you that name in public. You are mine now, and all
+America can not take you. Rest so far; it is one of our old sayings at
+home: 'A Stanief guards his own!'"
+
+His own! The long loneliness snatched the phrase greedily; worn out,
+Allard submitted to protection without resentment. A student of men,
+Stanief's eyes smiled behind their lashes as he continued more lightly:
+
+"But now for details. You take the place of my secretary, whom I
+dismissed this afternoon and saw on board a train for Albany, very much
+against his will and very badly frightened. I have ordered his rooms
+prepared for you. His things are there, and I imagine you will probably
+find some of them you can use until your own arrive in the morning. I
+will send Petro to you; his ideas are confined to doing as he is told,
+and I shall tell him that my invitation left you no time for packing. Of
+course you will resume your own name."
+
+Allard drew back aghast at such a proposition.
+
+"My own name--"
+
+"Why not?" Stanief demanded. "Could anything be more safe? Masquerades
+are always dangerous and to be avoided. John Allard's unquestioned
+history, his journey abroad from which he reappears as my secretary,
+defy all investigation, where an assumed name and past could only arouse
+doubt. If you were challenged now as the escaped prisoner, your safest
+course would be to give indignantly your own name, proving it by your
+Californian connections and by me. John Allard has stepped back upon his
+stage. Write to your brother, if you choose; pick up your old
+friendships. The last three years simply do not exist for you; knot the
+past and the future together and let the marred strand go."
+
+The logic was unanswerable; with a quivering breath Allard took back all
+he had resigned for ever.
+
+"You are right," he yielded, and bent his head to hide what flashed on
+his lashes.
+
+Stanief touched the bell and rose.
+
+"You are tired, and I have much to arrange. No doubt," the dark eyes
+were amusedly expressive, "Monsieur Allard is familiar enough with
+yachting not to be bored to-morrow. You will find Vasili a cheerful
+companion, Rosal also. Marzio, show monsieur his rooms and send me
+Petro. And tell Captain Delsar that I shall have pleasure in receiving
+him. Good night, John."
+
+"Good night, your Royal Highness," was Allard's reply, but his straight
+eloquent glance carried its message to the other's heart.
+
+Alone at last in the coquettish suite set apart for him--the jewel-box
+luxury of the yacht here manifested in azure and silver daintiness--the
+great reaction seized Allard. So few hours since, he was Leroy; it was
+hard to grasp this reality. He was weary to exhaustion, but something
+very near fever drove him to the round window which swung back at his
+touch and let the wet sweet air rush in. Leaning there, the very chaos
+of his thoughts left physical torpor.
+
+Petro aroused him an hour later--and still with that curious passivity
+Allard allowed himself to be cared for, measured, respectfully
+consulted. He even found himself ordering the old dishes for breakfast,
+specifying the old hour of service. And with the once familiar comfort
+came more restfulness.
+
+Much later he came a second time to the round window and opened it to
+the rain and darkness. The April wind passed chill fingers among the
+boyish curls still warm from the bath, the tiny cold drops sprinkled the
+throat from which the departed Dancla's silken dressing-gown fell back,
+but Allard felt nothing. And suddenly his head sank on his arm.
+
+"Desmond," he breathed, "I can forgive you, now. Can you hear out there,
+Desmond?"
+
+The yacht slipped on through the mist, monotonously, steadily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE NEW DAY
+
+
+The morning sunlight penetrated the room riotously, merrily defying the
+azure silk and lace muffling the windows, glinting in every polished
+surface and running golden-footed from point to point. Lying tranquilly
+among his pillows, Allard watched the man busied in folding and laying
+away a multitudinous array of garments, placing gloves and handkerchiefs
+in drawers and arranging toilet articles.
+
+"You are not Petro," Allard remarked finally.
+
+The man started and turned.
+
+"No, monsieur. With monsieur's permission, I am Vladimir. His Royal
+Highness said that as monsieur had not yet engaged a valet for the
+voyage, perhaps I might be accepted. I would be very glad to serve
+monsieur."
+
+"Very well," Allard assented. Stanief was not to be contradicted, but
+certainly embarrassment seemed unavoidable in view of an absent
+wardrobe. Dancla had been of a decidedly different figure from his
+successor. "What time is it?"
+
+"Nearly ten o'clock, monsieur," and he approached and kissed the hand
+outside the coverlet before the surprised American could object. "Every
+thanks, monsieur; I am monsieur's devoted servant. It pleases monsieur
+to rise?"
+
+"I--suppose so. The yacht has stopped."
+
+"Yes, monsieur. We are anchored before the great city, New York, since
+many hours."
+
+Allard had yet to learn his Stanief; the time was to come, when to know
+an affair in his charge was to abandon anxiety concerning it. The
+question of the wardrobe was embarrassing only from its overwhelming
+answer. Never even in the other days had Allard, naturally simple in
+tastes, provided himself with the lavish and sybaritic completeness he
+found awaiting him now. No detail was forgotten; the very toilet-table
+bore its shining array, each dainty article carrying the correct
+monogram, J. L. A. Marveling, Allard pictured what it meant to have
+produced this in one night; and vaguely realized that there must be a
+deeper object than mere consideration for his comfort, behind all this
+unnecessary elaboration.
+
+Breakfast was served in his own miniature salon.
+
+"His Royal Highness is awake?" he inquired.
+
+"Monsieur, his Royal Highness went ashore an hour ago, to pay farewell
+visits of ceremony."
+
+They were to sail soon, then. Allard's pulses quickened with relief at
+the prospect. Remembering Stanief's expressive injunction to show
+himself at ease and make friends with his new companions, he resolved to
+go on deck. But before the white and silver writing-desk he lingered
+wistfully.
+
+"You can mail a letter for me, Vladimir?"
+
+"Certainly, monsieur."
+
+The letter must be convincing, and not dangerous in the wrong hands.
+With a tenderness that was almost pain he recalled the last signed
+letter to his brother, written on that final night at home, while
+Robert sat by with hidden eyes. A letter he had headed South America,
+the date blank, to be used as explanation to Theodora and her mother if
+the crash came and he disappeared for years.
+
+The thick cream-tinted paper was convincing in itself, bearing in gilt
+letters the name of the yacht, _Nadeja_.
+
+     MY DEAR OLD ROBERT:
+
+     I have just returned from the South, and of course intended to
+     come straight home. But I met H. R. H. the Grand Duke Feodor
+     Stanief, who has been visiting the United States, and he is
+     taking me with him as his secretary. I owe him more than I can
+     tell, or you guess, Bertie; and this service is a service of
+     love. I will write again; you know there was no opportunity
+     where I have been.
+
+     Give my love to Aunt Rose and Theo--is she quite my sister by
+     this time?
+
+     Very happily and lovingly, my brother,
+
+     Your brother,
+
+     JOHN ALLARD.
+
+Like a girl he touched the letter to his lips before putting it in the
+envelop. Robert would watch the eastern newspapers, he knew, and couple
+the two stories together.
+
+The lower Hudson was swept by a strong salt wind when Allard reached the
+deck, green and white waves running under the bright sunshine and lashed
+to swirling froth by the innumerable boats plowing back and forth. On
+the yacht everything was activity and preparation, all sound overborne
+by the crash of loading coal. The busy Captain Delsar left his affairs
+and came to greet the guest punctiliously, if hurriedly.
+
+"We sail this morning," he explained, "and you will understand all that
+involves for me, monsieur."
+
+Allard responded cordially; it was so wonderful, so beautiful, just to
+meet other men again and be himself. And presently Lieutenant Vasili
+came to add his cheerful greeting and lead the way to the forward deck,
+where wicker chairs and small tables stood under a gay scarlet awning.
+
+"His Royal Highness told me this morning to amuse you, if I could," he
+declared. "Indeed, I think he left me behind for that purpose, Monsieur
+John."
+
+"Allard," the other corrected pleasantly. "I am infinitely obliged to
+his Royal Highness, then, I am sure."
+
+"A thousand pardons; I misunderstood your name last night."
+
+"Not exactly, his Royal Highness calls me John, my Christian name."
+
+Vasili's eyes opened and he regarded his companion with marked respect.
+
+"He told me he had known you a long time," he assented, "and that you
+had been ill. The voyage across will tone you up--if you are a good
+sailor--before we reach home."
+
+"I am a good sailor," Allard affirmed, rather astonished at Stanief's
+account of his health. He had no idea of the extreme delicacy of his
+own appearance, of how those years of torture had left him worn and
+colorless.
+
+Vasili tilted his chair against the rail and smiled engagingly.
+
+"For my part I am always happiest at sea," he confided. "Not that I am
+concerned with political affairs--_pas si bete_; I leave that for wiser
+heads. But still one is never secure in a country like ours. I walk
+straight ahead without asking questions, and hope the Grand Duke sees I
+am doing no more; nevertheless, one is more comfortable at sea. Ah, this
+America is a restful place! No intrigues, no rivals, no salt-mines in
+the background."
+
+"A delightful picture you are painting for me," suggested Allard
+laughingly.
+
+"Oh, you are the friend of his Royal Highness, monsieur. Moreover, every
+one believes an American or an Englishman when he declares himself with
+one party; it is only each other whom we always suspect. _Tiens_, the
+little white boat!"
+
+The little white boat in question was one of the city police launches,
+and Allard's hand closed sharply on the arm of his chair as the officer
+in charge hailed the yacht, signifying his intention of coming on board.
+Captain Delsar went down to receive the visitors, not without visible
+impatience at the interruption.
+
+"Come," exclaimed the diverted Vasili, after watching the colloquy for a
+few moments, during which several of the yacht's officers joined their
+chief. "If it is droll!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Why, of course we all speak French--as does every one at home except
+peasants--but since Dancla went only the Grand Duke is left who speaks
+English. And evidently our guests have no French."
+
+Allard surveyed the group, and glanced up at the gorgeous flag
+fluttering in the breeze and casting its shadow over him. Foreign
+ground, Stanief had called this.
+
+"I might play interpreter," he offered slowly.
+
+"Surely! Am I dull not to think of that? Shall we go?"
+
+The mutually exasperated group paused to look at the pair coming down
+the deck toward them, Vasili in his gold-laced uniform and the gentleman
+in yachting flannels.
+
+"Monsieur Allard, if you will indeed assist us!" welcomed the captain
+gratefully. "Consider that we sail in an hour, and the moments are
+going. His Royal Highness does not accept an excuse instead of a
+result."
+
+"Delighted," Allard responded, nodding an acknowledgment of the
+sergeant's equally relieved salute. "Officer, can I translate for you?
+His Royal Highness is not on board, but I am his secretary--"
+
+Oh, Stanief was very thorough! The cards Vladimir had presented were
+waiting for their owner to use on the occasion.
+
+"You are very kind, Mr. Allard," said the deferential officer, reading
+the square of pasteboard. "You see, we received a telephone call from
+up the river at Peekskill, asking us to get a better description of the
+clothes that were stolen by an escaping convict. They've picked up a
+coat, but it looks rather different from what would be expected. In
+fact, there was a man inside of it; but he says he lost his hat in the
+wind, and they haven't yet got the prison people to identify him."
+
+It was so long since Allard had really laughed that he startled himself,
+but the humor of the situation was too much.
+
+"I think you want to see the Grand Duke's valet," he explained, and
+translated for the others.
+
+Petro was hurriedly sent for, and the fuming captain left the affair in
+charge of the two young men.
+
+"Poor wretch; hope he gives them a run," commented Vasili. "Last year,
+at home, I had to ride second-class on a crowded train. In the
+compartment was just such a case as this man's,--convict being taken
+back to a fortress. We rode ten miles, twenty; suddenly he spoke to me
+as naturally as possible. 'You know what I'm going to; give me a cigar,'
+he said, just like that. I gave his guards a ruble, gave him a cigar,
+and went on reading my _Figaro_. Before we reached the next station,
+just over a deep ravine, he flung himself right through the door and
+down. Always felt glad I gave him the cigar."
+
+There was a curious unreality in the scene for one of the actors, as he
+leaned listening against the rail in the warm April sunshine, Vasili
+chatting gaily by his side and the imperturbable policeman opposite. But
+he answered the little lieutenant's last sentence with a very
+sympathetic glance of comprehension.
+
+Petro appeared presently, and Allard gravely repeated a description of
+the famous rain coat, giving the name of the English firm that had made
+it.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said the satisfied officer, snapping shut his
+note-book. "Much obliged. You've no objection if your name gets to the
+papers, sir?"
+
+Allard thought of Robert.
+
+"Why, no, none at all. But I have done nothing."
+
+"Yes, sir. Thank you."
+
+"And now?" queried Vasili. "Shall we go back and chat, or first go over
+the yacht? Unless you know it already, of course; I forget you are an
+old friend of his Royal Highness."
+
+"Let us go over the yacht, if you will," Allard evaded, not at all
+certain of what Stanief might please to assert. He sighed relievedly,
+hearing the puff of the launch below. "We can rest afterward."
+
+Vasili contemplated him reflectively, inwardly deciding that Stanief's
+American must have been very ill indeed to be so easily tired. But he
+led the way below, charmed with the new companionship, and they wandered
+together over the costly floating toy.
+
+They ended in the general salon, and Allard's long-starved eyes went
+eagerly to the magazines and newspapers littering the table.
+
+"Pleasant place," assented Vasili to the expression, dropping into an
+easy-chair. "And you will usually find some of us here. Of course, Count
+Rosal is ashore now with the Grand Duke, but he will be enchanted to
+learn that you are going with us. These voyages nearly kill him with
+ennui. He likes fast horses and fast motorcars, and the Theatre
+Francais."
+
+"Then why does he come?" Allard inquired interestedly.
+
+"Why? There is a question! Because he is the Grand Duke's aide, because
+he wants to win favor with the man who will rule the country by the time
+we reach it."
+
+"Why, the Emperor--"
+
+Vasili raised one eyebrow significantly.
+
+"Of course, if you do not want to talk," in slightly injured tones. "But
+every one knows that the Emperor is dying."
+
+Allard summoned his recollections of affairs European, doubtfully
+allowing for the gap of more than two years.
+
+"The Grand Duke Feodor is the Emperor's nephew, not his son," he
+objected.
+
+"Oh, he will only be regent, certainly," was the dry reply. "Never mind;
+I told you I understood nothing of politics."
+
+Allard opened his lips to avow equal ignorance, then closed them. He had
+no idea of the role Stanief designed for him, or of what he was supposed
+to know. He moved to the table, instead of answering, and let his gaze
+devour the topmost paper of the pile. Vasili watched him, deeply
+impressed by the reticence and a little anxious as to his own frankness.
+When Allard again turned to him, the lieutenant welcomed the amity with
+relief and joyously accepted the suggestion of return to the deck.
+
+The morning wore on quietly. The preparations for sailing were
+completed; the yacht poised restlessly like a snowy bird on the point of
+flight. Allard no less quivered with the restless desire for departure,
+the thirst for the peace which would come with absolute security. Lying
+in his chair, regarding the teeming river shut in on either side by the
+two great cities and feeling all alike hostile toward him, he clung
+almost superstitiously to the phrase of the night before:
+
+"A Stanief guards his own."
+
+And not all content with bare liberty, he treasured the being no longer
+an outlaw; he had learned the old primitive ache of the "masterless
+man."
+
+Near noon a tiny boat darted from shore. The captain hurried to the head
+of the miniature stairway; Vasili uttered a hasty excuse and also went
+in that direction. Allard hesitated, in some doubt before this new
+etiquette, then judged by the others' attitude and remained where he
+was.
+
+As Stanief stepped on the deck, another gorgeous flag rose majestically
+into place and unfolded its emblazoned notice of his presence. His
+drowsy black eyes swept over the scene comprehensively, then he gave a
+brief order to the captain and crossed directly to Allard. And Allard,
+rising to receive him, suddenly felt his heart quicken with a strange,
+familiar violence. "We Allards love more than other people," Robert had
+said. This was what he was giving Stanief, he realized with something
+like dismay,--that passion of fierce un-English intensity which
+considered nothing and made him its plaything. He had not meant to care
+like that again--
+
+"Good morning, John," said the cool, faintly imperious voice; the warmly
+dark eyes met his.
+
+Sighing, Allard yielded up the last resistance and gave his all.
+
+"Your Royal Highness--" he murmured, and hated himself for the
+unsteadiness of his tone.
+
+Stanief sank into a chair and waved him to the one opposite.
+
+"We are going to sail at once," he announced. "We will watch our
+progress out of the harbor and then have lunch. You have passed an
+agreeable morning?"
+
+"Yes--no," answered Allard incoherently, taken by surprise. "That is,
+everything is right now."
+
+Interpreting for himself, Stanief smiled.
+
+"Tell me about it," he suggested.
+
+The ringing of anchor chains ceased, the little launch again swung in
+its davits. The yacht shuddered, moved. Vasili came up and saluted
+rigidly.
+
+"I have the honor to report that we sail."
+
+Stanief rested his dark head against the chair-back and met the
+brilliant gray eyes with the sweet serenity of his own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"THE KING IS DEAD--LONG LIVE THE KING"
+
+
+The ennuied Count Rosal lunched with them,--a sallow, fatigued young
+patrician who wore a pince-nez. He obviously was much pleased by the
+American, and inquired anxiously whether he ever motored. Receiving an
+affirmative reply, he invited him, with an actual approach to
+enthusiasm, to try a new French car as soon as they landed.
+
+Allard accepted willingly, even gaily; a little of his color had revived
+with the ocean wind, some fine elixir had mounted through his veins as
+the yacht drew from the arms of the harbor and danced out over the long
+Atlantic swell.
+
+After luncheon Stanief dismissed the third member of their party with
+that nonchalant grace of his.
+
+"Did you write any letters this morning?" he asked, when the salon had
+settled into its usual repose.
+
+"One; to my brother."
+
+"Good; every one writes letters--an excellent thing to do. I gave your
+name to an avid-eyed band of reporters, as one of those sailing with me.
+You will be a person of some importance in the tangled affairs to which
+I am taking you; it is just as well to prepare."
+
+"I have no desire to be curious," Allard began tentatively.
+
+"But you naturally would like to know what is happening. Indeed, it is
+necessary that you know." He paused an instant. "Do you recall what I
+said to you last night of my country, of its intrigue and wrong and lack
+of faith?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The shadows deepened across the fine dark face. Watching Stanief, it
+seemed to Allard as if the rose-hued salon lost a little of its
+brightness also, as if both man and room remembered hours not happy.
+
+"All my life I have walked in the shadow of one man's hate," Stanief
+said quietly. "I have known it watching greedily for my least
+indiscretion, heard its wild-beast breathing as it crouched beside me in
+the dark, stepped cautiously to avoid the snares it spread for me.
+Unable to touch me openly unless I myself stooped from inherited safety,
+my enemy has employed every secret artifice to lure me into reach, every
+petty goad to sting me to a moment's forgetfulness. I never have taken a
+friend, conscious that one would be forced to betrayal if not already
+planning it. I learned long ago that the bright-eyed, fragile ladies of
+the court were not for me to trust. Living in the center of a dazzling
+pageant, the focus of a dazzling hate, I have had just one hope to carry
+with me. Not a pleasant hope, but it is about to be fulfilled. My enemy
+is dying."
+
+"The Emperor--"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+Allard remained silent, understanding Vasili better now. Stanief rose
+and walked to the window, gazing out over the tumbling field of water.
+When he returned it was with a touch of scarlet burning in his clear
+cheek.
+
+"Before I started on this voyage, taken at his command," he said, "I
+bade farewell to my imperial uncle. Ill, grimly and helplessly conscious
+of the ultimate end, he looked up from his pillows at me. 'Your day is
+coming,' he declared. 'I know how long your regency will last, how
+completely my son will be left your toy and victim. But I shall wait on
+the threshold of the next world, Feodor Stanief, until you come and I
+see your punishment. Now go.' It was the confession of failure, the
+laying down of the cards, the first frankness between us."
+
+The two men looked at each other.
+
+"I am probably Regent now," Stanief added.
+
+Allard's eyes did not leave the other's; no doubt clouded the unwavering
+confidence of his regard.
+
+"'A Stanief guards his own'," he quoted. "If I were the little prince,
+I should have no fear, monseigneur."
+
+Stanief lifted his head, the sunlight flashed back to the room before
+his expression.
+
+"Thank you," he answered proudly. "And from emperor to peasant I could
+find no one else to grant me so much."
+
+"But--I do not understand."
+
+"Then you have not read our history."
+
+Allard turned to the gates of memory, and gazing down dim vistas at many
+a vague crime and ambitious treachery, remained silent.
+
+"My cousin Adrian," Stanief resumed, after a moment in which he also
+looked across the past, "by this time perhaps my Emperor Adrian is
+fourteen years old. Not until he is seventeen can he be crowned and take
+the government in his own grasp; that is, the country is absolutely
+ruled by me for the next three years. By me; but those years will be a
+splendid warfare, a struggle muffled in cloth-of-gold, a ceaseless vigil
+beside which my old life was peace. The country is divided into two
+great parties: those who wish me to take the crown, and from whom I must
+protect Adrian; those who wish to rid themselves of me and govern as
+they choose through the child-emperor. Remember that neither faction
+believes I shall ever permit my cousin to take the Empire from me.
+Loyalty, honor, justice,--those are pretty, extinct phrases of chivalry
+to their minds."
+
+Allard made a movement of protest.
+
+"Surely not so bad, surely not nowadays," he objected incredulously.
+
+"Our country is still medieval," Stanief retorted. "I tell you not
+one-half the fact. But, I make no pose of virtue and perhaps I am merely
+obstinately resolved not to do what is expected of me, but I _will_
+carry this through and crown my cousin on his seventeenth birthday, if I
+live."
+
+His voice hardened into steel, his velvet eyes flashed through their
+curtaining lashes. Allard rose impulsively and held out his hand.
+
+"'_Soit que soit_,' we said last night," he cried. "Let me aid; stand or
+fall."
+
+"A desperate cause," warned Stanief, keeping the hand in his firm clasp.
+"For day and night my enemies will pour their poison into Adrian's ears;
+Adrian, whose father must already have taught him distrust and dread of
+me. It may very well be that when I resign the absolute power to the
+young Emperor, he himself will first use it to crush me."
+
+"Impossible! And if it be so, at least we shall have fought the good
+fight."
+
+"Then open the lists to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. We will live our
+own way for these three years, and abide the decision."
+
+There was no question of etiquette between the two who stood together,
+with laughter glancing across the surface of an earnestness too deep for
+speech. Allard had no way of divining that the Stanief he knew did not
+exist for any one else; that the reserve of a lifetime was broken in
+their friendship.
+
+They sat down again, presently.
+
+"Long ago, when Adrian was very much younger, I used to see him more
+intimately," Stanief mused rather sadly. "Then I never considered a
+regency, believing the Emperor would live until his son could take his
+place. I was weary even then of the constant strife and suspicion; I
+longed to make a friend of my small cousin and some day find calm under
+his rule. But the Emperor interfered, and we have seen each other only
+formally since. Now comes your part, John. I shall place you in Adrian's
+suite as his personal attendant. I want you to do what I can not; to
+guard him from hour to hour, as far as possible, from my self-styled
+friends and his enemies. He will like you,--you have that gift."
+
+"Gift?" Allard puzzled.
+
+"The gift of being liked. And being an American, you will escape much of
+the jealousy which would attach to one who could demand more. It is
+absolutely necessary for me to have some one near my cousin whom I can
+trust implicitly."
+
+"I will do anything you wish," he answered simply. "Your purpose--let me
+serve it also. Only I will have to ask you to teach me a bit; I am
+afraid my ideas of the most formal court in Europe--"
+
+"I shall teach you nothing whatever," Stanief declared, with his sudden
+smile. "Let the imperial Adrian have that amusement. Do not forget what
+I have implied to those you meet here: that you are merely my secretary
+as a whim, and are in reality my friend. You understand?"
+
+Allard did understand,--the elaborate luxury with which he had been
+surrounded, the deference of even Count Rosal, the caution of Vasili.
+
+"I would rather stay with you than be a child's plaything," he said
+wistfully. "But it is all right."
+
+Stanief regarded him for an instant, then reached for a cigarette.
+
+"You will be with me. But if you have any idea that Adrian is like a
+child, wait," he observed dryly. "And now let us enjoy the voyage, since
+it is our last quiet period for several years."
+
+Before Allard could reply, an agitated knock fell on the door and Marzio
+admitted the pale and breathless Rosal.
+
+"Well?" Stanief questioned, instinctively rising.
+
+Allard rose with him, and standing they received the message.
+
+"I regret to report, by wireless from New York, the death of his
+Imperial Majesty the Emperor, at noon to-day."
+
+A brief hush, then Rosal again in nervous conclusion:
+
+"His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Adrian requests the return of your
+Royal Highness to the capital."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ALLEGIANCE
+
+
+"Check. You are losing your game, my John."
+
+Allard laughed in frank admission,--a tanned, bright-eyed Allard after
+the long voyage.
+
+"I am stupid to-night, monseigneur. It is difficult to sit here and play
+chess when we are anchored at last before our goal, the city of
+excitements. One has the feeling that one should go ashore at once."
+
+"When one arrives in a port near midnight, one does not arrive
+officially until next morning. Since my first act must be to go direct
+to the palace, you will comprehend that the hour is unfortunate."
+
+"Yes. Although every one must know."
+
+"Certainly. The approach of the _Nadeja_ was undoubtedly signified to
+the Emperor hours ago. Play, play; to-morrow will come without our
+aid."
+
+Allard moved a piece at random.
+
+"I am not the only one impatient," he defended. "Count Rosal and Vasili
+spent the evening hanging over the rail toward the lights of the city,
+and telling me all we would do, from seeing Mademoiselle Liline dance to
+trying that new automobile. They went to bed at last from sheer
+exasperation."
+
+"They do not have to stay awake to amuse his Royal Highness."
+
+"Oh, I could not sleep, monseigneur. But I play bad chess."
+
+Stanief shot a glance at him; perhaps he himself could have confessed a
+similar inability, if he had chosen, in spite of his indolent
+impassivity.
+
+"You assuredly do," he agreed. "Checkmate. Set up the board again and
+avenge yourself."
+
+The lap of the calm water against the ship's side marked the rising of
+the tide; the roar and hum of the huge city came strangely after ocean
+silences. On the river's bank a girl was singing a minor, half-Gipsy air
+which penetrated at intervals, almost as if with timidity, into the
+rose-and-gold salon. Allard gathered his straying thoughts together and
+compelled his attention to the game. They are changing the watch on
+deck, he reflected absently; he heard the movement and agitation.
+
+For any one to disturb Stanief unsummoned was rare; for the door to be
+opened like this, without permission, was unprecedented. But Marzio
+offered no excuse as he held aside the heavy portiere. Stanief lifted
+his eyes languidly, then sprang to his feet with an abruptness that sent
+the chessmen rattling over the floor. Allard, startled, rose also and
+turned, to draw back mechanically into the shadow and leave host and
+guest face to face. Marzio dropped the curtain, closing the door softly
+as he went out.
+
+The slight, rather frail boy clad in deep mourning was not unlike
+Stanief himself in fine, dark beauty of feature, and there was a
+composed stateliness worthy of both in the gesture with which he
+extended his small hand in greeting. Stanief moved forward without a
+word, and, kneeling, bent his head to the slim fingers for which the one
+great jewel seemed too heavy. Still on his knee, in constraint of their
+difference in height, he received the young Emperor's formal embrace.
+
+"I am glad you have returned, cousin," the boy said, with a grave
+dignity of speech corresponding to his bearing. "To-morrow--I wished to
+see you before then."
+
+Stanief looked into the eyes on a level with his own, before rising.
+
+"I shall hold this visit always in my heart, sire," he answered, his
+tone infinitely gentle. "I have not been given many such pleasant
+memories."
+
+"It is a long time since we saw each other; you did not come to me--"
+
+"That was never my fault, sire."
+
+"No," he conceded calmly. "I knew it was not, although they told me so."
+
+"I am grateful for so much justice. Permit me--"
+
+Adrian took the arm-chair which the other advanced, and himself
+indicated a seat very near for his cousin. He had, of course, seen
+Allard on entering, but, accustomed to the constant presence of others,
+lent no further attention to the gentleman who remained standing at the
+shadowed end of the salon. On Stanief his large, intent eyes were fixed
+with an imperiously eager scrutiny.
+
+"You are the same as always, as you were last winter," he declared
+slowly. "Dalmorov has insisted that I would find you very different,
+now."
+
+"The Baron Dalmorov is more than kind," Stanief replied, betrayed into
+his unusual frown. "May I ask why I should have changed?"
+
+"Because you are Regent, and you govern all."
+
+"I beg pardon, sire; if I am Regent, you are none the less Emperor."
+
+Over the young face swept an expression that so altered, so hardened it,
+that it was as if another and dual self came into view.
+
+"Then I rule _you_, as my father did," he flashed.
+
+Allard gasped in his corner; was this the child of fourteen whom he had
+expected to amuse? And not as to a child was given the difficult answer
+by the one who knew him.
+
+"Yes, sire," Stanief returned steadily. "But--"
+
+"But! You say but?"
+
+"May I speak frankly? You will find many people to flatter you, to tell
+you facile, surface truths; let me for once tell exactly my meaning.
+Assuredly you do rule me and your country, so far as the possibilities
+permit. Yet you are surrounded by those who hate me, and even you, sire,
+who would joyfully see us both fall if they might mount upon the ruins.
+Many times I may see what is hidden from you, and I must act
+accordingly. Sire, it is my intention to hold this seething Empire of
+yours in my grasp, to force it to bend or break in its stubborn
+wilfulness, until three years from now I give it back to you a tranquil
+government. But--and for this I said 'but'--if necessary, I shall act
+against your will, as against all other forces, until I carry my purpose
+to its end and have you crowned on your seventeenth birthday."
+
+He drew a swift breath, caught by his own vehemence, his eyes never
+leaving the unchildish ones opposite.
+
+"And on the day of your coronation, sire," he concluded, with a touch of
+sadness, "you will rule without the _but_. Call me to account then; I
+assure you I shall have no friends to protest."
+
+Allard's own heart quickened at the fire of determination in the other's
+low voice. If only it had been a man who met that splendid frankness, he
+mourned furiously, not a child, a sullen child. For Adrian did not move
+at all, or answer the daring declaration. His head averted, he looked
+down at the floor.
+
+Stanief waited a little, and the light died out of his face.
+
+"You do not understand me, sire," he said, very quietly. "Or,
+understanding, you do not pardon one who serves you even against your
+will. I am thirty-two years old; it is my comfort to believe that when
+you reach my age, when jealousy and anger have passed away and perhaps
+taken me with them, that you will think differently of Feodor Stanief.
+Will you allow me to order some refreshment brought?" he added.
+
+Adrian moved then, and the color rushed over his cheeks as he struck one
+small open palm on the arm of his chair.
+
+"I understand you," he cried passionately. "Oh, I understand! Can I
+trust you? It is that, Feodor. No one speaks his thoughts to me; every
+one _lies_. The Emperor told me that many times before he died. 'Do not
+trust your cousin,' he whispered to me on the last day. 'Then I must
+trust Dalmorov?' I asked. 'No,' he said, 'no; better Feodor than him.
+Trust no one.' And now you ask it of me."
+
+"Yet you came here to-night, sire," Stanief reminded him.
+
+"Because I must trust some one. Because I know Dalmorov and his
+falseness, while I do not know you, cousin."
+
+"Then I ask you only to suspend judgment until you do, sire. A regent
+there must be, I, or another if I die--"
+
+"I would rather have you than any one else in the world."
+
+"There is no one--I speak knowing our court--no one else whose pride and
+honor so compel him to loyalty. And I stand in grievous need of your
+protection, my imperial cousin."
+
+Adrian's head lifted haughtily.
+
+"Of my protection! You, now?"
+
+"I, now. Through you, if you lend your name to their use, my enemies can
+make the task I have set myself difficult beyond description."
+
+The kindling fire had caught, at last; with the first boyish
+impulsiveness of the interview Adrian's response flashed to meet the
+appeal.
+
+"You need not fear that! You need not fear me."
+
+"Thank you, sire," Stanief answered, simply and gravely.
+
+There was a pause. Allard wondered, as he discreetly observed the two,
+just what would have been the result if Stanief had brought less
+convincing seriousness to answer his cousin's sensitive pride and
+incredulity.
+
+"I have come alone," Adrian mused, with a half-sigh, "with Gregor. He
+does what I wish because he knows Dalmorov hates him and he is afraid to
+stand alone. So when I bade him bring me here secretly to-night, after I
+had presumably retired, he obeyed. I like to be obeyed." The expression
+of several moments before returned transiently.
+
+A playfully earnest warning of the other cousin's recurred to the
+listener; it appeared that both had "the habit of domination."
+
+"And so I must return at once, or they may discover I have gone. But I
+am glad I came, cousin; it seems easier now."
+
+"Sire," Stanief said, and somehow his tone made Allard feel suddenly
+abashed, as one who stands before a thing not for his eyes, "there will
+come a day when you will stand in the great cathedral to receive the
+oaths of allegiance of your nobles. There will be all ceremony, all
+solemnity, but--take mine now. The one I shall give you then can mean no
+more. You have been taught to have no faith in such promises; when you
+receive mine for the second time, I hope it will have gained some value
+in your sight."
+
+"I wish it had now; I almost think it has," he answered, with a
+bitterness and energy singularly strange from his boyish lips. "I want
+to have faith in you, cousin."
+
+He rose, and Stanief with him.
+
+"I care for nothing," he added, reverting to the previous invitation. "I
+have already stayed too long. Monsieur," his eyes went to Allard for
+the first time, "monsieur is the American gentleman who sailed with you
+from New York?"
+
+Allard came forward in response to a glance from Stanief.
+
+"Sire, I have the honor to present Monsieur John Allard, whom I have
+persuaded to come with me because I also have need of one friend whom I
+can trust."
+
+He was after all so pathetic in his lonely and sophisticated youth, this
+child. Saluting him, Allard's clear gray eyes involuntarily expressed
+all their sympathy and warm kindliness. And, meeting the regard, Adrian
+gave him his only smile of the evening.
+
+"It is easy to trust you others, Monsieur Allard," he said wistfully. "I
+wish you were my friend instead of Feodor's."
+
+"Is it not the same thing, sire?" Allard questioned.
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"I sincerely believe so, sire."
+
+"Bring Monsieur Allard with you to-morrow, cousin," Adrian directed,
+lifting his gaze to Stanief. "And good night."
+
+"You will allow me to accompany your return, sire?"
+
+"Certainly not,--to attract all the capital!"
+
+"Pardon, I meant as secretly as Gregor attends you; who--again pardon
+me--is scarcely attendance enough."
+
+Adrian shook his head decisively.
+
+"Your people on the yacht--"
+
+"They are not already aware that your Imperial Majesty is here?"
+
+"You can order them to be silent," he retorted, with angry irritation.
+
+"Exactly, sire," said Stanief, and waited.
+
+Adrian was nothing if not swift of thought; he drew the inference
+intended and conceded the point.
+
+"Very well," he yielded. "As you will, cousin. Good night, Monsieur
+Allard."
+
+He held out his hand, and quite unconsciously Allard took the little
+fingers in his warm clasp. Stanief, holding aside the curtain, smiled to
+himself; but Adrian accepted the Americanism equably and his last glance
+was all friendly.
+
+It was three o'clock in the morning when Stanief reentered the
+_Nadeja's_ salon. Allard was still there, and rose expectantly to
+receive him.
+
+"I waited," he explained.
+
+"You need not have," Stanief replied, with all his usual cool serenity.
+"Go and rest; to-morrow the battle opens. Only--"
+
+"Only, monseigneur?"
+
+He came over to the table to find the tiny gold-tipped cigarettes.
+
+"Only it was not with you I played chess to-night, John, but with
+Dalmorov and the late Emperor, my uncle. And I claim check."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TO MEET THE EMPEROR
+
+
+There are some periods which offer to the backward glance of memory
+rather a blur of blended color than a distinct picture, a rich and
+shining tapestry in which no one thread can be distinguished. So always
+to Allard seemed that first week in the country he learned to call home.
+The stately ceremonies of Stanief's reception and assumption of the
+regency; the dazzle and pageantry of the court even when thus subdued by
+mourning; his own sudden importance as the favorite of the actual
+sovereign, all merged into a glittering confusion through which he moved
+automatically.
+
+But there were two incidents which detached themselves from the bright
+background and always remained with him. The first was the first morning
+when Stanief formally met the Emperor at the palace; and, as he had
+stooped to the salute, Adrian had deliberately given him an embrace so
+markedly affectionate that even Allard felt the significant thrill that
+ran through the room. And then, even while the unusual color still
+flushed Stanief's dark cheek, Adrian shot a glance at a sharp-faced man
+opposite, a glance so sneering, so bitterly triumphant, that the
+straightforward American actually shrank from the revelation of dual
+thought. Evidently the embrace was given less to please Stanief than to
+annoy this other. Seeing the man's rigidly held face beneath the ordeal,
+he knew without question that this was the Baron Dalmorov whose desire
+in life was to prevent this very friendship between the cousins.
+
+Never again did Allard make the mistake of measuring Adrian by his few
+years.
+
+The second event was near the end of the week,--one noon when Stanief
+came home from a visit to the palace and found Allard alone.
+
+"Do you remember the trust you offered to take for me?" he asked
+abruptly. And, without waiting an assent, "You are summoned to it
+already."
+
+"Monseigneur?"
+
+"The Emperor this morning asked me to add you to his household. It is
+more than I hoped to gain, that he should himself make the request;
+yet--"
+
+They looked at each other, Allard startled and half dismayed, Stanief's
+velvet eyes less tranquil than usual.
+
+"Yet I shall miss you, John," he concluded, his voice a caress.
+
+The regret and the tone lay unforgotten in the closed room of Allard's
+heart. Years after, he could turn and find them there.
+
+So from the gorgeous household of the Regent one man passed to the still
+more gorgeous palace. Vasili and Count Rosal regarded him with
+respectful envy; he was elected to membership of the two clubs of the
+capital's _jeunesse doree_, and overwhelmed with friends and
+invitations.
+
+But the Emperor was not at all inclined to let his new companion remain
+away from him very much, and Allard was quite as willing to stay at what
+he privately considered the post of duty. So it happened that he went
+riding with Adrian more frequently than he went motoring with Rosal, and
+accepted readily a routine which left him few hours unoccupied.
+
+It was not possible to live at the palace without learning many things.
+But it required just one day for Allard to learn enough of Adrian to
+make him smile at ever having thought Stanief imperious. The desire for
+absolute dominion and power over those near him was the most obvious
+characteristic of this descendant of a hundred autocrats. Moreover, he
+tolerated no contradiction, no evasion of a resolve.
+
+"You are not rich in your own right, Monsieur Allard?" he said one day,
+with his mature directness and self-possession.
+
+They were strolling up and down a terrace overlooking the river, and
+Allard involuntarily paused in surprise and with no slight
+embarrassment.
+
+"No longer, sire," he admitted, truth coming as the one course.
+
+"My cousin,--you served him as his secretary?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+Adrian sat down on a broad marble seat under the trees, lifting his head
+with the movement usually to be translated as a signal of danger.
+
+"You serve me at present, not the Regent. As one of my household, you
+will accept from me in future."
+
+"Pardon me, sire--"
+
+"I will have it so, monsieur. You must be all mine, all. I shall speak
+to Feodor. Why do you object? You do, then, consider yourself his, not
+mine?"
+
+"Sire, you misinterpret; I am assuredly of your service."
+
+"Then you accept?"
+
+Allard met the flashing gaze helplessly; it was the other Adrian,
+distrustful, jealous, haughty, whom he faced and to whom he yielded.
+
+"It is as you wish, sire, of course. I thank you."
+
+"You do not," he retorted shrewdly, although his brow relaxed. "Why did
+you resist?"
+
+Again Allard took refuge in the simple truth, a little sadly.
+
+"We Americans, sire, are not accustomed to serve, I am afraid. We would
+stand alone. If I could accept the Grand Duke Feodor's protection
+without such reluctance, it was because of old reasons and old love."
+
+"For him?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"Do you know Dalmorov secretly urges to me your love for Feodor as a
+cause for dismissing you?"
+
+"I had not known it, although I might have guessed. But you could not
+believe me, sire, if I told you I did not love him."
+
+"No; you are very easy to read. And I know more: I know that Feodor is
+glad to have you near me, although he is fond of keeping you with
+himself. Why?"
+
+Allard regarded his keen young inquisitor candidly.
+
+"Because--I use his own phrase, sire--because I am the only one that he
+feels he can wholly trust."
+
+Adrian's eyes opened, then he laughed outright and the sinister
+personality faded altogether from his expression.
+
+"You tell me that yourself, Monsieur Allard? Oh, if Dalmorov could hear
+you! Never mind; perhaps Feodor is deceiving you, perhaps you are both
+sincere, but certainly you yourself are all truthful. His turn also
+comes to-day, my cousin's."
+
+"I do not understand--"
+
+"It is not necessary. I am going to receive him here, this morning.
+After he arrives, pray stay at the other end of the terrace and let no
+one pass to disturb us."
+
+This daily visit of the Regent had become a matter of course. Sometimes
+it found Adrian surrounded by many people, sometimes alone, more often
+with Allard, as now. And never was he so sweetly gracious to Stanief as
+in Dalmorov's presence; although, as Stanief knew perfectly well, at
+other times he listened without rebuke to the baron's constant
+insinuations and warnings. If the young Emperor had confidence in no
+one, most assuredly no one could risk a judgment of his real thoughts.
+Only one sentiment he took no care to conceal: for whatever reason, he
+liked the regular visit and would suffer nothing to prevent it.
+
+However puzzled by the last suggestion, Allard could only comply with
+the request and retire as Stanief came down the steps a moment later.
+And Stanief, seeing Adrian waiting alone, left his aide at the head of
+the terrace and alone came to him. So, Vasili at one end of the grassy
+ledge, Allard at the other, the cousins were for once unobserved.
+
+Adrian's expression was unusually animated as Stanief bent over his
+hand.
+
+"Do you know why I wished to see you out here in quietness, cousin?" he
+demanded.
+
+"I am afraid not, sire," Stanief confessed, smiling.
+
+"Then sit down here," he touched the bench on which he himself was
+seated, "and I will tell you."
+
+Stanief obeyed, and Adrian surveyed his stately kinsman with earnest,
+though doubting intentness.
+
+"That night on the _Nadeja_," he at last said, "when you told me that I
+governed, 'but'--were you in earnest? It amused me to tell Dalmorov--not
+all you said or when you said it, of course--yet some of that. I told
+him you had promised to do as I wished, and he insisted that you played
+with me. Were you in earnest, I wonder?"
+
+"Absolutely in earnest," Stanief answered, too well trained in
+self-mastery to betray his irritation at being discussed with his rival
+in the game of the future.
+
+"'But'--" Adrian repeated, and sat silent for an instant. "Were you ever
+in love with a woman, cousin?"
+
+The question was so unexpected that Stanief started and replied almost
+at random:
+
+"No, sire."
+
+"Dalmorov says that you were, long ago."
+
+"Dalmorov," the other began, then checked himself, his tone chilling.
+"The incident to which Baron Dalmorov doubtless refers, sire, hardly
+answers your question. Ten years ago, when I was less than twenty-two, I
+was briefly attracted toward a lady of the court. The affair died in its
+birth, on my discovering that mademoiselle was acting as the paid spy of
+the Emperor, your father. Since then I have thought of more important
+matters."
+
+Adrian leaned back, his slim fingers twisted together.
+
+"That was the Countess Sophia Mirkoff," he supplemented calmly, "whose
+husband you pardoned from the Two Saints last month; Dalmorov informed
+me. Was that because you still care?"
+
+"No; because I would not have her imagine I remember enough for
+prejudice," Stanief answered, with glacial indifference.
+
+The approving fire shot across the boy's lowered eyes, his pride sprang
+to comprehension of the other's.
+
+"I am glad it is so," he said sedately. "I have been arranging your
+marriage, cousin."
+
+If the terrace had crumbled beneath them, Stanief could have been no
+more astounded than at this.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" he gasped.
+
+"Why not? It is my privilege," Adrian returned, not moving.
+
+Stanief opened his lips, and closed them again. The green and gold
+garden, the blue river and white city spread below, swam in a dazzle of
+color. He had never been more deeply annoyed, or more furiously angry
+with Dalmorov. But habitual self-control again aided him.
+
+"I have no desire to marry, or time to give to such a distraction at
+present, sire," he answered.
+
+"You would have to marry sooner or later, cousin."
+
+"Then permit it to be later. After your coronation, if you still
+insist."
+
+Adrian's small mouth set in a firm line rivaling the Regent's own.
+
+"I wish it now. I have arranged that you shall marry the Princess Iria
+of Spain."
+
+"Sire, forgive me if I presume to remind your Imperial Majesty that I
+have the right of questioning an order so personal."
+
+The steel-hard anger of Stanief's voice struck fire from the flint of
+Adrian's determination.
+
+"So I rule you!" he flashed tempestuously. "So you meant your pretty
+phrases! Dalmorov was right, right. You played with me, and I will never
+pardon you, Feodor Stanief."
+
+Stanief drew back, realizing all the trap prepared for him.
+
+"You are severe, sire," he retorted with dignity. "Perhaps reflection
+upon how unexpected this is, upon how serious to me is the amusement
+which to you signifies nothing, may win your indulgence. My life is full
+to overflowing; there is no place in it for a wife."
+
+"You refuse?"
+
+Stanief bit his lip.
+
+"No, sire; I protest."
+
+Adrian stood up, and the other perforce rose with him.
+
+"You yourself said it," the boy stated, his chest heaving with passion.
+"Now, the test. I have the right; you know it. Do you govern me, or I
+you?"
+
+"Sire--"
+
+"You or I?"
+
+Stanief looked very steadily into the blazing young eyes, himself
+colorless with the restraint forced upon his own emotions.
+
+"I believed there were two promises given on the _Nadeja_, sire," he
+answered, never so quietly. "It seems that only one is to be remembered
+and that Baron Dalmorov wins. But I make no complaint; I suppose your
+last question was hardly serious."
+
+"You consent?"
+
+"I obey," he corrected pointedly.
+
+At once victorious, and dominated by his kinsman's bearing, Adrian flung
+himself on the seat and motioned the other to the place beside him. But
+Stanief remained standing, choosing not to see the invitation, and there
+was a pause.
+
+"I do remember my promise," Adrian declared, proudly reverting to the
+reproach of a few moments before. "If I have made you do this, cousin,
+it was not to please Dalmorov."
+
+Stanief bowed, answering nothing.
+
+"The lady--you will have heard of her. I met her last year on the
+Riviera. In her country they call her the Gentle Princess, because--she
+is. And she is very lovely."
+
+Still the dark face was unstirred. His object gained, Adrian fretted and
+chafed before the change he himself had wrought.
+
+"You are like Monsieur Allard; you do not want to yield your will," he
+said, half petulantly, half haughtily. "He is mine, you gave him to me;
+yet he did not like it because I said that no longer shall his fortune
+come from any one but me. Why?"
+
+"He is an American, sire."
+
+"Why does that make a difference between you and me?"
+
+"I love him, sire."
+
+The cold explanation coincided perfectly with Allard's; illogically
+Adrian felt a pang of isolation before this friendship, although he
+would not have believed either if they had professed the same affection
+for him.
+
+"The churches are ringing the hour," he remarked, the sullen child
+struggling with the Emperor. "If you wish to go, as usual, you have my
+leave."
+
+"Thank you, sire; my hours are indeed crowded."
+
+"You are willing to ask the Princess Iria in marriage?"
+
+"As you dispose, sire."
+
+Satisfied and dissatisfied, Adrian held out his hand.
+
+"You are not content, cousin," he accused. "You think me unkind."
+
+Stanief paused to meet the wilful gaze.
+
+"Perhaps I think of a day the years are bringing, sire," he replied
+gravely, and bent his head still lower to the jeweled fingers which
+grasped so much.
+
+Adrian flushed scarlet.
+
+"No," he denied fiercely. "Feodor, you can not believe I will fail you
+if you do not me? You can not think that then, after that--"
+
+Stanief did not help him at all. Taking refuge in wordlessness, Adrian
+left the sentence unfinished and let his cousin go, with an assumption
+of dignity that hardly concealed the sting of the rebuke he had
+received. But he did not offer to relinquish the purpose so distasteful
+to Stanief.
+
+For half an hour the terrace remained hushed and silent under the noon
+sunshine, the tree-shadows wavering back and forth across the small,
+motionless figure.
+
+"Monsieur Allard!" at last the summons rang.
+
+Allard returned serenely, of course ignorant of the recent stormy
+discussion.
+
+"In a few months," Adrian stated, without looking at him, "the Princess
+Iria de Bourbon will come here to be married to the Regent. I wish you
+to be one of the escort that will meet her and bring her to the
+capital."
+
+"But, sire--"
+
+"You are surprised?"
+
+"I did not know the Grand Duke contemplated marriage, sire," Allard
+explained, stunned.
+
+"He did not; it is I who contemplated it. You will go?"
+
+"Surely there will be many more fitted for such an honor. Of course it
+will be as you arrange, sire; but I would rather stay here."
+
+Adrian moved, sighing; his lip took a softer curve and for the first
+time he almost looked his few years. "If you like her, monsieur, Feodor
+will like her. I want you to see her, to tell him good of her. She is
+different from any one else--when we were both in Italy we saw each
+other every day, and I know. She is so gentle; I want her here."
+
+Allard gazed at him in utter wonder.
+
+"Feodor believes I force the marriage to annoy him and please Dalmorov.
+It is not so; it is because I want Iria here. You understand that?"
+
+"I am trying, sire."
+
+Adrian stood up decisively.
+
+"Let us go in. When the time comes, you shall go with her escort."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+GUINEVERE OF THE SOUTH
+
+
+It was quite a month after that sunny noon on the Emperor's terrace,
+that Maria Luisa Iria de Bourbon was informed of her betrothal to the
+Grand Duke Feodor Stanief. She also received the announcement on a
+garden terrace, by a caprice of chance; but it was a terrace of the
+South, starred and flowered all over with violets, heavily-sweet
+tuberoses and blue Florentine irises. Moreover, it was sunset, and she
+stood a slender white figure against the rosy sky.
+
+"It is all decided?" she asked in a hushed, pathetic little voice, a
+voice shattered into crystalline fragments, like the dash of a clear
+brook against a rock. "It is sure to happen, senora?"
+
+"Quite sure," answered her mother, with a firmness not unsuggestive of
+Adrian.
+
+The princess made a move forward, then swayed like one of her wind-blown
+irises and slipped down to the old moss-green steps. When in her own
+room they revived her, she turned to hide her face among the pillows.
+
+"I am afraid," she whispered under her breath. "I am afraid."
+
+That was all. She had been taught obedience in a convent, and the
+Duquesa her mother was not to be resisted. One does not stop the mills
+of the gods by laying a flower across their wheels.
+
+But if Stanief seized every delay of diplomacy and ceremony in his
+Northern court, he was unconsciously aided by every feminine subterfuge
+from the Gentle Princess in her sun-kissed home. The elaborate trousseau
+required weeks to prepare, the autumn storms made the voyage by sea
+unpleasant, and the journey by land was too fatiguing and informal.
+Between one and another, it was six months after the announcement before
+the escort ship anchored in the cobalt-blue bay which makes a dimple in
+the curving cheek of southern Spain. And then Iria met some of her new
+countrymen.
+
+Not easy were their names and titles to her lisping Latin tongue, as she
+greeted the guests graciously and gracefully, her mother by her side.
+But as one gentleman was presented, she leaned forward with delicate
+surprise.
+
+"Monsieur John Allard," she echoed, her large golden-brown eyes on his
+face. "Monsieur is not then of my future country?"
+
+"Madame, I am an American," he explained, almost with the tenderness one
+involuntarily shows a child. It seemed to him that he had never seen
+anything more appealing than her young dignity and pathetic beauty of
+expression.
+
+Iria regarded him earnestly. His right arm hung in a scarf, but he bore
+the injury with a bright unconcern that suggested it rather a badge of
+honor than an embarrassment. Although so simply announced, his
+companions waited for him to pass on with deferential patience and lack
+of surprise at her interest. Very suddenly the young girl flushed, her
+golden-brown head drooping on its white stem.
+
+"I am most glad to have met monsieur," she murmured confusedly.
+
+After that the preparations for the departure went on more rapidly.
+Contrary to all expectations, the princess was not too weary to sail
+next day and embarked with her mother and their ladies without too
+obvious regret.
+
+The chief of the escort, the venerable Admiral Count Donoseff, was
+charmed and flattered by the interest shown in his staff by their future
+mistress. The first lady of the Empire Iria would be, until Adrian's
+distant marriage; her friendship might be valuable.
+
+"Monsieur Allard has then injured his arm?" she remarked, on the third
+day of the voyage.
+
+"Madame, in an act of devotion most remarkable," the admiral replied.
+"Imagine that a week before we sailed, an insane student made an attack
+upon the Emperor. His Imperial Majesty was driving, with Monsieur Allard
+seated opposite, when the criminal leaped on the step of the carriage
+and attempted to plunge a knife into the Emperor's heart. Monsieur
+Allard flung himself forward and caught the blow on his own arm,
+undoubtedly saving the Emperor's life at the expense of a dangerous
+wound to himself. Drenched with blood, he held the assassin's wrist
+until aid arrived."
+
+Iria shuddered, yet listened thirstily.
+
+"I heard--a little of this," she said breathlessly. "But I thought it
+was his Royal Highness the Regent who was hurt."
+
+The Admiral blushed at his own forgetfulness; a courtier should never
+forget.
+
+"Certainly; he also, madame," he hastened to assure. "He was beside the
+Emperor and so at a disadvantage, but he sprang to aid Monsieur Allard
+in holding the man and received a slight wound in disarming him. All
+Europe rang with the story, and Monsieur Allard was decorated with the
+Grand Star of the Order of St. Rurik. The justice of the Regent is
+swift; the criminal was tried and executed the next day."
+
+Iria glanced down the deck to where Allard chatted with two young
+nobles of the court, the sun striking across his bright hair and
+laughing face.
+
+"The Regent," she began shyly, then relapsed into silence with her ready
+change of color.
+
+But a little later she caught Allard's eye and summoned him by a
+scarcely perceptible movement of her hand. He came with pleasure and
+saluted her with that direct friendliness of regard which had carried
+him safely past many a shoal and undercurrent during his continental
+life.
+
+"The Count Donoseff has been telling me the history of your wounded arm,
+monsieur," she said. "Let me add my poor admiration to all you receive,
+realizing that you saved the Emperor, soon to be my sovereign also."
+
+"You are too gracious, madame," Allard protested lightly. Gaiety came
+very easily to him since that day when he had saved Adrian's life and
+Stanief's honor. It seemed to him that John Allard had not only paid; he
+had re-earned the right to existence, justified his liberty.
+
+"If all the world knows of it--"
+
+"Oh, pardon; I only meant to say that the Grand Duke was present and did
+as much as I."
+
+Something in the words brought her soft smile.
+
+"Is not the Grand Duke usually where you are, monsieur?" she queried.
+
+"I am with him whenever he and my service of the Emperor permit,
+madame."
+
+"Only then?" she doubted.
+
+Surprised, he shrugged his shoulders laughingly.
+
+"Some one has been telling tales of me, Princess. I confess I am with
+him more than is strictly warranted."
+
+"I have heard so much of his coldness, his severity," she ventured, her
+lashes sweeping her round young cheeks. "He, he cares for nothing, no
+one, they say."
+
+"Oh, no, madame," Allard denied, warmly enlisted in the defense. "That
+is most unjust. Consider only those from whom such reports come; there
+is no one living who has more undeserved enemies. I know him capable of
+love; I have seen it, felt it, lived it. And he works, madame; how he
+works! The country under his rule gains new life, new hope. Madame, if I
+might presume, I would implore you to believe nothing of him except what
+he himself will show you."
+
+She crimsoned before his fervor, but her delicate face expressed no
+anger at the daring.
+
+"I will not," she assented, still with that strange timidity. "I was
+frightened at first, but not now, not any more. The Regent is fair, with
+gray eyes, is he not, monsieur?"
+
+"No, madame; he is very dark," he assured her hastily, his thoughts on
+Stanief's much-loved face.
+
+Iria smiled, bending her head still lower.
+
+"He is perhaps--fanciful, monsieur? He might do something quite useless
+and romantic, just for a caprice?"
+
+"Hardly, madame. I think he does nothing without a purpose. He--I
+believe he has not been very happy, Princess."
+
+"And, is he now?" she asked faintly.
+
+Allard recalled himself to gallantry with charming grace.
+
+"Madame, he should be happier than any one living."
+
+"Thank you, monsieur," she breathed, and let him retire presently, her
+bosom heaving under its white linen and lace.
+
+It was a very pale and listless girl who had first met Stanief's envoys,
+but as the voyage proceeded she grew each day more rose-tinted, more
+daintily radiant and content. One would have said the salt winds blew
+across some Elysian garden, some fountain of Ponce de Leon, and brought
+health with their touch. She had a little way of suddenly blushing and
+smiling, as if at some delightful secret of her own not to be carelessly
+spoken.
+
+On the last day at sea she chose Allard's arm for her daily promenade up
+and down the deck. This honor was eagerly desired by the gentlemen, old
+and young alike, but she had hitherto shown a decided preference for the
+veteran admiral; or one of her ladies, if the sea were sufficiently
+calm. Allard no longer wore the scarf, but she had paused before him
+demurely.
+
+"Your arm is better, monsieur?"
+
+"Madame, it is quite well."
+
+"Then, if you do not fear to injure it--"
+
+And with that they were pacing dignifiedly down the shining deck, under
+a score of envious eyes.
+
+"To-morrow we arrive, monsieur."
+
+"In a happy hour for our country and the Grand Duke Feodor, madame."
+
+"He thinks so?"
+
+"Princess, can you doubt it?" evaded Allard, who himself had many
+doubts, remembering Stanief's grim sarcasms on the subject of being
+given the care of a twenty-year-old girl when his life was already one
+of crowded tasks and serious peril.
+
+Some trouble in his manner communicated itself to the small hand
+fluttering on his sleeve.
+
+"I do not want to doubt," she said. "I do not. Monsieur, in that old
+English legend--have you ever thought how wise King Arthur would have
+been, if instead of sending Lancelot to Lady Guinevere in his place, he
+had himself gone to meet her in Lancelot's guise?"
+
+"Why, I never did think," Allard acknowledged merrily. "But certainly he
+would have been much wiser, madame."
+
+He regarded her in bright question which drew the answer of her flush.
+
+"Do not modern King Arthurs ever choose the wiser course?" she faltered.
+
+"Perhaps they are too busy and hampered, madame, as the ancient king may
+have been also. Since I have lived at a court I have altered my ideas on
+such subjects. I never saw any one who worked so hard as the Regent. He
+has set himself a splendid task, and splendidly he carries it on."
+
+Iria's expression clouded slightly; the glance she stole at her
+companion was puzzled and full of dawning terror.
+
+"Yet he might leave it a little while, monsieur."
+
+"Madame, to leave it for one day might topple down the careful building
+of months. Moreover, he holds the city always under his grasp, fearing
+danger to the Emperor."
+
+Her left hand went to her heart.
+
+"Monsieur, we arrive to-morrow; it would not be kind to play with me."
+
+Allard met her pleading eyes with candid amazement.
+
+"Princess, what have I said? _I_ venture to play with your Royal
+Highness!"
+
+"Then the Grand Duke is waiting over there?" she flung out her hand
+toward the north, lifting her small white face to him, the golden-brown
+curls tossing in the breeze.
+
+Even then he had no conception of her mistake.
+
+"Surely, madame; where else?" he wondered.
+
+The Gentle Princess made no exclamation, no reproach. Only her head
+drooped again, and shivering she drew the veil about her face.
+
+"I am tired, monsieur," she gasped. "Will you take me back?"
+
+"Madame, most unintentionally I have offended you. Let me beg
+forgiveness and ask how."
+
+"No, no; no one has done wrong. I myself was--absurd. I am not angry,
+monsieur; only tired."
+
+They walked back, Allard completely bewildered and uncomprehending. By
+her chair Iria paused and gave him her hand with a smile whose sweetness
+was beyond tears.
+
+"Thank you, Monsieur Allard," she said. "Perhaps we shall still be
+friends over there. You are going home, but I go a stranger to a strange
+place; I meant no more than that."
+
+She was like Theodora, Allard thought, deeply moved. Surely Stanief
+would be gentle with her gentleness.
+
+The next morning they landed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A STANIEF'S OWN
+
+
+It was a pity that, amidst all the gorgeous ceremony and confusion of
+welcome, Iria did not see the warm affection of Stanief's greeting to
+Allard. Perhaps she would have been less hopelessly afraid when the
+little Emperor took her hand and presented to her the tall, superb noble
+whose dark face, finely emotionless, resembled a cameo. Whose velvet
+eyes she dared not seek behind their curtaining lashes.
+
+Yet Stanief was faultlessly courteous, even kind in his grave manner. It
+might have been merely that he was so different from her fancies of the
+last weeks.
+
+The wedding was to take place in two days; two days of festivities, of
+marvelously decorated streets, of wonderful balls by night. Iria did
+exactly as she was told; yielded dazedly to Adrian's caresses and
+accepted the Regent's lavish gifts. Like a beautiful toy she allowed her
+ladies to dress her half a dozen times a day, and listened submissively
+to her mother's advice. But the afternoon before her wedding-day, she
+saw Stanief alone for the first time.
+
+After all, it was not really alone. The Emperor had been chatting with
+her on the great glass-enclosed balcony, and as Stanief came toward
+them, he rose with a significant smile and went back to the
+reception-hall. Still, from that crowded reception-hall they were only
+separated by arching, open arcades; only slightly screened by towering
+palms and flowers in huge vases.
+
+Stanief took the chair beside his fiancee and looked at her; this was
+the first moment when he could do so without feeling himself watched by
+all curious eyes. He had read perfectly the terror under her mute
+passivity, the shrinking of her tiny frost-cold hand from his touch, and
+he pitied her with all his heart. Now, in the lustrous rose-pink gown
+against which her transparent skin showed without a tinge of color, her
+bronze-bright head averted, her mouth curved in childish pathos, she
+inspired him with an anger against Adrian which he had never felt for
+himself.
+
+"Princess," he said gently, "we have seen so little of each other until
+now, nor shall we again until after to-morrow. May I say something which
+has been in my thoughts since we met yesterday?"
+
+"As you will, monseigneur," she murmured.
+
+"I think it is as you will," Stanief corrected, smiling in spite of
+himself. "But I accept the permission. Will you forgive me if I have
+imagined that you feared me, Princess?"
+
+Iria raised her topaz eyes to his in complete dismay.
+
+"Monseigneur, you are angry--"
+
+The sentence broke; those firm, steadily tranquil eyes of his caught and
+held hers.
+
+"Angry? Why? But I am sorry, deeply sorry, for the net of policy which
+has enmeshed us both and left me no power of freeing you. And I would
+do all possible, Princess, to make this less hard for you. There is no
+need to be afraid of me in any way. I do not know what they have told
+you of me; if I govern the Empire severely, it is that order may come
+from chaos, no more. Of what else I may be accused--"
+
+"Monseigneur!"
+
+He smiled again at her tone, rather sadly.
+
+"Oh, I know my enemies. But such things have no place between you and
+me. John Allard was of your suite; perhaps he could have told you that I
+am not all harshness."
+
+She snatched her gaze from his and blushed as he had never seen a woman
+blush before, the heavy crimson staining her very forehead.
+
+"He did tell me--that, monseigneur."
+
+"Then I would ask you to trust me, Princess. To-morrow you will come to
+my house; there will be no other change in your life which you do not
+wish. I am not a reigning sovereign, there is no reason why you should
+not keep with you the ladies of your own country whom you prefer. If
+you desire, I will have the Emperor ask your mother to remain with you
+for a few months."
+
+Iria shook her head. Her mother's constant surveillance threatened even
+the peace Stanief offered, and prohibited rest.
+
+"You are good to me, monseigneur," she faltered. "I will stay with you,
+please."
+
+He understood, knowing the lady in question.
+
+"Thank you," he answered, and after a moment, "A Stanief guards his own;
+so much, at least, our race has of loyalty. And to guard you all I can,
+that is all I claim. There are enough more serious troubles, Princess,
+without adding the artificial one of fear. If there is sorrow to you in
+this marriage, it is beyond my cure; but rest quietly in my
+guardianship."
+
+The shadow of a sob crossed Iria's sensitive face; she looked up at him
+bravely and gratefully.
+
+"You are good," she said hurriedly. "I never hoped you would be like
+this to me, monseigneur. No one ever thought of me so carefully before,
+never. But it is right to tell you, _because_ you are so good. I know
+that you did not wish this marriage, either, we are alike so. Baron
+Dalmorov informed me this morning."
+
+"I am infinitely indebted to Baron Dalmorov," observed Stanief, his dark
+brows contracting in an expression that might have terrified into flight
+Iria's new-found confidence, if she had not been absorbed in her
+confession.
+
+"I was not hurt, monseigneur; it made it easier to know. And now I can
+tell you; I, I hate secrets. There was some one--oh, some one quite
+impossible and who does not care for me at all. He does not dream I ever
+thought, like that. But I fancied he was some one else--I misunderstood.
+It was not his fault in any way. I had to tell you, monseigneur; it
+seemed to me right to do so."
+
+Stanief leaned forward and laid his hand over the cold hands folded in
+her lap. He had never before believed that a woman could be frank,
+never imaged one who "hated secrets." It was as if he stood on the
+threshold of a room all perfume and whiteness; and not the most
+accomplished coquette could have devised a means of moving him so
+profoundly.
+
+"All my life I shall remember that you gave me your confidence, Iria,"
+he answered, with exquisite delicacy and respect. "So far I am happier
+than you; I love no one. Have no doubt, no dread of anything I can save
+you. Some good may come of all this, how can we tell? And at least there
+is no need of making it worse by not understanding. You will not shrink
+so much from to-morrow, now?"
+
+She met his eyes, helpless as a child in the great reaction; his warm
+clasp seemed to melt the chill despair of the last days, a little color
+came back to her cheek and something flashed rainbow-like upon her
+lashes.
+
+"Not now," she sighed quiveringly. "Thank you, monseigneur."
+
+Stanief raised her hand to his lips, and presently they went back to the
+Duquesa. After which he went in search of Adrian.
+
+The Emperor was talking to Allard when his cousin came up to the alcove
+where they were ensconced, and he sat motionless with astonishment at
+sight of Stanief's steel-hard glance and compressed lips.
+
+"Cousin?" he exclaimed, daunted in spite of himself.
+
+Allard had risen at the approach, but Stanief did not regard him and
+Adrian gave no permission to retire.
+
+"Sire," Stanief said, in the markedly quiet tone that came with his rare
+anger, "it is frequently your Imperial Majesty's pleasure to submit me
+and my affairs to the discussion or criticism of Baron Dalmorov. I have
+made no complaint, I make none now, but there is a limit to such
+endurance. The lady who is to be my wife--"
+
+Allard moved involuntarily; Adrian raised his hand in swift protest.
+
+"Cousin, I assure you--"
+
+Stanief saluted him formally.
+
+"Sire, I have just learned that Baron Dalmorov has had the tact to
+inform the Princess Iria that I was marrying her under compulsion and
+against my will. This insult to madame, this falsehood--"
+
+"Cousin!"
+
+"This falsehood, sire--since, having met the Princess, it is my earnest
+desire to have the honor of her hand--this is too much. Baron Dalmorov
+is your attendant; I request your justice. If it is refused--"
+
+"Well, cousin?" Adrian asked mechanically, rather in stupor than
+challenge at Stanief's words.
+
+Stanief's usually veiled glance glinted clear and ice-cold.
+
+"Sire, Dalmorov shall account to me now; and I to you later."
+
+Allard, familiar with both, bit his lip in an agony of anxiety. For an
+instant Adrian wavered, then his eyes fell, beaten down by those of his
+kinsman.
+
+"Whatever you wish," he conceded, docilely as Iria could have spoken.
+"He had no right, no excuse from me. Go bid Dalmorov come here, Allard."
+
+The surrender was complete. Relieved and surprised, Allard obeyed,
+hazarding a guess that the Emperor's own fondness for Iria had
+influenced the answer.
+
+But Adrian had not lived ten months with his Regent without learning
+more than a childish love of command. He looked up again at the stately
+figure that towered over him, glittering in the semibarbaric
+magnificence of dress demanded by etiquette.
+
+"Come by me, Feodor," he urged, with a gesture of invitation to the
+chair at his side.
+
+"Thank you, sire," without moving.
+
+Adrian surveyed him, then stooped to the first apology of his life,
+however imperiously spoken.
+
+"I never told any one at all of your unwillingness to marry Iria,
+Feodor. If it is known, it is because you yourself seized every possible
+delay. Come here; I do not wish Dalmorov to find you standing there."
+
+Stanief complied, and Adrian laid a hand on his sleeve.
+
+"Then you love Iria, after all?" he asked, with hesitating curiosity.
+
+"Love? In twenty-four hours? Hardly, sire; but I guard my own."
+
+The young Emperor lifted his head no less proudly.
+
+"And so do I, cousin. Dalmorov shall satisfy you."
+
+Half an hour after Iria had returned to the suite appointed to her and
+her mother, she received a visit from Baron Dalmorov--a very different
+Dalmorov from the malicious, self-confident gentleman of the morning,
+and who offered her so abject an apology for his mistaken and untrue
+statement regarding the Grand Duke's attitude, that the Gentle Princess
+was quite distressed. She sent him away reassured and apparently
+grateful, then fell to connecting events. Recollecting Stanief's
+expression during her naive account and the carriage of his head as he
+had crossed the reception-hall to Adrian, she had no difficulty in
+divining the reason for Dalmorov's sudden contrition. But Stanief's
+strength no longer chilled her with terror; instead she stood with
+relief behind its shelter.
+
+There was a ball at the palace that night. Stanief never danced, but
+every one else did, and the Emperor opened the evening with the
+Princess. It was obvious to all why Stanief had been forced to this
+marriage, whenever Adrian was seen with Iria; the boy so evidently
+liked, indeed, loved her. And the fifteen-year-old autocrat was always
+popularly supposed to be without affection.
+
+Near the end of the evening Stanief came across Allard, who was leaning
+against a flower-wreathed pillar and watching the dancers with grave,
+unseeing eyes. The other man studied him for a minute, then laid a hand
+on his shoulder.
+
+"John, I have scarcely seen you to-night. You look troubled."
+
+Allard started and turned, his face brightening warmly.
+
+"I am not dancing to-night, monseigneur," he explained. "That is all."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+The gray eyes fell.
+
+"I was--a bit out of sorts, perhaps."
+
+Stanief stood silent, his own expression becoming very somber. Allard
+waited quietly; he indeed bore the stamp of fatigue in his pallor and
+the dark circles beneath his eyes.
+
+"It is a tangled skein, this life of ours," Stanief said at last, "and
+not wholly of our spinning. You are with the Emperor to-night?"
+
+"Every night now, monseigneur."
+
+"Then I may not see you until morning. Good night, John."
+
+Allard smiled with the cordial brilliancy that always sprang in
+response to his name on Stanief's lips.
+
+"Good night, monseigneur," he answered lovingly.
+
+The next morning, with all elaborate ceremony, the marriage took place.
+It was remarked that when the Princess stood up, in as much snowy satin,
+old lace and pearl as could be crowded upon one small feminine figure,
+opposite Stanief in the vast cathedral, her wide eyes never left his
+face, and she seemed to find support in his composure. And when they
+came down the aisle together, her little white-gloved fingers clung to
+the white sleeve of his uniform as if there alone she touched some
+reality in the bewildering panorama.
+
+"Did you ever see the frail edelweiss growing on a ledge of some
+ice-fringed granite cliff?" whispered the volatile Vasili in Allard's
+ear. "Look, pray, at our Grand Duchess."
+
+"The edelweiss is safe, at least," Allard replied soberly. "Perhaps
+safer than the cliff."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN THE REGENT'S STUDY
+
+
+Stanief was writing, writing steadily, placidly, his pen rustling
+faintly as it slipped across the paper. The ruddy glow of the open fire
+was tangled and reflected among the many-faceted knickknacks that
+littered the desk, caught and tossed back from a dozen shining surfaces,
+and mockingly echoed by deep-tinted walls and draperies. Most ruddily,
+most vividly, the light seemed to gather around the writer, as if its
+quivering pink radiance were a warning or a shield.
+
+It was like another presence in the room, that fire, to the man behind
+the curtain. He watched it also as he crept stealthily forward,
+clutching more tightly the object in his hand. A man of the people,
+shabby, gaunt, unkempt, he stole out into the Regent's study, stepping
+cautiously on the gleaming floor or on the treacherously soft rugs
+which slipped beneath his unaccustomed feet. From the velvet hangings he
+gained the shelter of a tall Vernis-Martin cabinet and crouched in the
+shadow, shaking from head to foot with nervous tremors.
+
+Stanief worked on undisturbed; once he paused to choose another pen, and
+the intruder cowered to the floor in abject fear. But the writing was
+resumed without alarm. After a few moments the man again moved forward,
+this time on his hands and knees, until he reached the end of a
+high-sided leather couch. There he halted again. Coming here with a
+purpose so bold, the habit of a lifetime yet prompted him to hold his
+soiled garments away from the gilded and perfumed upholstery with a
+vague sense of apology.
+
+There never was a clock that ticked so loudly, so insistently as the
+timepiece above the hearth, a clock that set its beats so exactly to the
+beat of a man's hurrying pulse. Once the man on the floor touched his
+chest curiously, as if to be quite certain whether it was his heart, or
+indeed the swaying pendulum which sounded through the quiet place.
+Reassured, he moved on.
+
+The glowing firelight wavered giddily across Stanief's bent head,
+seeking in vain for a hint of brown in the fine black hair, which had a
+slight ripple and a tendency to lie in tiny curls where it touched the
+neck. The man noted this dully. If one struck there? Or lower, between
+the broad shoulders--
+
+Stanief leaned back and selected a cigarette from the tray on the
+writing-table. His drowsy lashes fell meditatively as he reached for a
+match, a half-smile curved his lips. The man by the chair darted forward
+and struck once, from behind.
+
+The knife crashed ringing to the floor as Stanief's quicker movement met
+his assailant's. The man cried out sharply as the strong white hands
+closed on his wrists and the superior strength forced him to his knees
+beside the desk.
+
+"Clumsily attempted," commented the level voice. "Have you any more
+weapons, _mon ami_?"
+
+"Excellency, Royal Highness, pardon--I have no French."
+
+Stanief shrugged his shoulders and lapsed into the language of the
+country.
+
+"I asked you if you had other weapons, but it does not matter."
+
+He deliberately transferred both captive wrists to the grasp of his
+right hand and with his left opened a drawer of the desk. The man made
+no effort to free himself. Generations of serfdom had reasserted
+themselves; he might have killed from behind, but before the patrician's
+glance and voice resistance did not even occur to him. He submitted
+passively when Stanief produced a pair of handcuffs and snapped them in
+place.
+
+"Stand up, and farther off," came the contemptuous command. "I am not
+accustomed to doing my own police work. You need not try to escape; the
+guard is within call. I might have had you arrested half an hour ago
+when I first saw you."
+
+"Royal Highness, how--why--"
+
+Stanief answered the stupefied gaze, coldly amused.
+
+"Because it interested me to watch your attempt. I keep a mirror on my
+desk, not being without experience. Who sent you to kill me?"
+
+"Royal Highness, my brother was hung last week."
+
+"As you this week. Well?"
+
+The man winced.
+
+"Royal Highness, we wanted freedom. They tell us that while your Royal
+Highness lives it can not be; the country is too firmly held and too
+content. So we strive to act in time."
+
+He spoke as one reciting a lesson, monotonously, with effort. His type
+was familiar, lacking even the poor excuse of originality.
+
+"Your brother was executed for an attempt to kill me?"
+
+"Serenity, he worked in the palace kitchen and put poison in a cup of
+chocolate."
+
+"I remember. He was tried; I had nothing to do with his case." He
+paused, considering; and the other stared at him in mute fascination.
+"Before I ring to have you removed, have you anything to say?"
+
+"Gracious Highness, pardon!"
+
+Stanief regarded him with scornful amazement.
+
+"Pardon? You are mad, _mon ami_. Do you fancy me a child or a woman to
+set you free after this performance? Why should I pardon you? You do not
+interest me in the least. Go face your trial; my share in the incident
+is ended," and Stanief turned away.
+
+"Royal Highness, mercy--I am afraid! Not that--I will--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Buy," he offered desperately. "Royalty, not to sell my comrades--who
+are we in your sight--there is some one else, some one of the court who
+wishes your death."
+
+Stanief stopped with his finger on the bell and bent his keen eyes on
+the livid face. It was not a pleasant spectacle, this sordid, trembling
+figure in the firelight, but an uglier specter loomed behind it.
+
+"Go on, if you choose," he conceded. "You have my permission."
+
+"Royal Highness, not my comrades. But he is not of us; he urges us here
+to fail and die. You are the master; Royal Highness, his name for
+grace."
+
+"I promise you nothing. Certainly not your liberty."
+
+"No, no, but life!" he made a movement to throw himself at the Regent's
+feet, but drew back before the decided negative. "Royal Highness, to
+live, only to live. He is a great lord, he goes to court; he hates and
+fears you. Royal Highness, he is the Baron Sergius Dalmorov."
+
+"Ah," observed Stanief, and said nothing more for several minutes. His
+all given, the man waited feverishly, not daring to speak except by his
+imploring gaze. But Stanief finally pushed the button without vouching a
+reply.
+
+"Dimitri," he said curtly to the officer who appeared in answer to the
+summons, "take this man and have him imprisoned until I send for him
+again. Understand me; there is no charge against him at present; simply
+he is a prisoner at my pleasure."
+
+The officer saluted in silence, however amazed at the presence in
+Stanief's study of one who certainly had not passed the door, and in
+silence marshaled his dazed captive backward to the threshold. There he
+halted and again saluted.
+
+"Monsieur Allard awaits the honor of being received by your Royal
+Highness."
+
+"Very well; admit Monsieur Allard."
+
+"Highness," faltered the prisoner once more.
+
+Dimitri favored him with a scandalized stare, jerked him unceremoniously
+out the door, and administered a shake that almost sent him into
+Allard's arms.
+
+"More respect, animal," he ordered explosively. "Pig of a peasant! Oh, a
+thousand pardons, Monsieur Allard; pray enter."
+
+Allard laughed and passed on, giving the prisoner a compassionate glance
+that altered to one of surprise and distrust at sight of his face. But
+he asked no questions, having learned many things in the course of his
+life in the Empire. Adrian himself had first given his favorite the dry
+advice to see nothing that did not concern him.
+
+Stanief had resumed his writing; at Allard's entrance he looked up to
+nod pleasantly toward a chair, and continued his work without speaking.
+The two were accustomed to each other; smiling, Allard sat down and let
+his head sink against the high back of the cushioned seat.
+
+The fire glowed and danced, rose and fell, making an artificial
+brightness that mocked the clouded sky without. Gradually, from waiting
+Allard drifted into reverie, in whose closing mists his surroundings
+were lost from sight.
+
+After a while Stanief laid down the pen, pushed aside the completed
+task, and surveyed his companion unobserved. Twice the Regent moved as
+if to speak, then changed his intention and remained mute. The
+expression that forced its way through his locked composure was not
+gentle; it was as if he struggled fiercely with some emotion and felt it
+wrench and writhe beneath the surface of self-control. But in spite of
+his will, his dark brows tangled, the black eyes glinted hard behind
+their deceptive lashes. And when he finally spoke, his voice carried a
+tone never before used to Allard.
+
+"John, what is wrong?" he demanded.
+
+The other looked up in surprise.
+
+"Nothing, monseigneur," he answered, rather wearily.
+
+Stanief's fingers closed sharply on one of the ivory toys which strewed
+the desk.
+
+"That is not true," he contradicted. "Kindly say so if you do not wish
+to explain; I am not a child to be put off with a light word. Something
+has been wrong with you ever since your return from Spain."
+
+Too assured of their friendship for resentment or to attribute the
+speech to anything except interest in his affairs, Allard smiled even
+while changing color with pain.
+
+"I have you always, monseigneur," he said. "If I have lost other loves,
+at least I can rest content with you."
+
+The paper-knife snapped in Stanief's grasp.
+
+"Thank you," he responded, with an accent worthy of his cousin. "I
+believe I asked you to explain."
+
+The unconscious Allard pushed the bright hair from his forehead, his
+eyes on the ruddy unrest of the flames.
+
+"Of course I meant to tell you some time, monseigneur," he mused aloud.
+"But it seemed a bit cowardly to burden you with my troubles; you could
+not help them, and you have so many of your own. It was no time to speak
+of such a thing during your wedding, and as the weeks went by it grew
+harder and harder to speak of it at all. I tried not to betray myself,
+but I am rather a bad actor. If it were only I who suffered. The journey
+to Spain, for madame--"
+
+He paused. Stanief gazed at him with an expression as somberly dangerous
+as ever one of his dangerous house wore.
+
+"The journey to Spain, monsieur?" he repeated.
+
+Aroused at last to a strangeness in his manner, Allard turned to him in
+wonder.
+
+"During the journey to Spain, monseigneur, this came for me," he replied
+simply, and drew forth a letter which he laid before the other.
+
+Stanief picked it up, himself confronted by the unexpected. Allard
+resumed his seat and averted his head as the rustling paper unfolded.
+
+It was a sweetly calm letter, a letter written by one in the evening of
+life and itself breathing an evening repose and gray twilight hush.
+Across the fevered passion of the man who read, the first words drifted
+like the cool, scented air of the Californian garden from which they
+came. A letter that neither reproached nor questioned, its message was
+given with all tenderness of phrase and household name.
+
+Robert had not been well for a long time, Aunt Rose wrote most
+delicately. After John had left for South America so suddenly, his
+younger brother had fretted and chafed against his own quiet life. Even
+his engagement to Theodora had failed to cheer him, or cure his strange
+restlessness and abstraction. About six months after John's departure,
+he had been found unconscious on the veranda, lying among the crumpled
+newspapers. An illness followed, and after recovering from that he never
+seemed to grow quite strong. In the third year of John's absence, when
+preparations were being made for the long-delayed wedding, he again fell
+ill. The morning they received John's letter from the _Nadeja_, he
+rallied wonderfully. Asking to have the letter himself, he read it again
+and again, then sent them all away while he rested. An hour later they
+had found him, resting indeed, his cheek upon the letter and the old
+bright content on his boyish face. Theodora had borne it very well. They
+were tranquilly calm in their life together, now, and sent their
+earnest love to John in the distant life he had chosen.
+
+Stanief laid down the letter very gently. He never forgot how the light
+from this purer and simpler world fell across the labyrinth of dark
+thoughts at which he scarcely dared look back.
+
+"Nearly two years," Allard said, his head still turned away. "So long
+since Robert died. I did not write at once from here; I thought they
+knew of me, and I wanted a little real life to tell. I was sick of
+pretense. I suppose the women did not know how to reach me here; Bertie
+would have had no difficulty. But it was a grief past remedying, and
+there seemed no use troubling you."
+
+Stanief rose and came around the writing-table to lay both hands on the
+other's shoulders.
+
+"I beg your pardon, John," he said earnestly and gravely. "I spoke to
+you just now as I never will again, come what may. I have my own griefs,
+less patiently endured than yours; and I misunderstood."
+
+"I did not notice," Allard answered, with perfect truth. "You are always
+like no one else, monseigneur. I am glad that you know, very glad. You
+see, it is not only that I myself have lost Robert, but that I have
+taken him from Theodora. I wanted so much happiness for her, and now--it
+was all wrong. Let us talk of something else, please."
+
+Stanief turned away to the table.
+
+"My last cigarette was never lighted," he remarked, the change of tone
+complete. "Did you not see that particularly disagreeable
+fellow-countryman of mine who went out in Dimitri's charge? He tried to
+kill me just before you arrived."
+
+Effectively distracted, Allard sat up.
+
+"He--"
+
+"Oh, that is nothing novel. In fact, it becomes monotonous. Only this
+fellow varied the routine by declaring Dalmorov the instigator of all
+this."
+
+"Dalmorov!" Allard echoed incredulously. "To stoop so far! Yet I
+remember; I saw him talking with your prisoner the other night. I was
+coming from the club with Rosal and Linovitch, when the acetylene
+search-lights of the car fell across the two, as they stood in an angle
+of the cathedral wall."
+
+"So? He is imprudent. Also he should recollect that while such people
+will keep faith with one another, they will cheerfully betray one of the
+class they hate."
+
+"You will accuse him, arrest him?"
+
+"My dear John, on the word of a wretched peasant? I shall do nothing so
+impulsive. But, I will perfect the chain, and then--" He offered a match
+serenely. "Why should he not pay? Moreover, he is dangerous to the
+Emperor. When I resign this remodeled empire to my cousin, he shall rule
+it, not Dalmorov. Have patience yet a while. Before my power passes from
+me, I will remove this gentleman, whether Adrian approves of it or not;
+and then contentedly lay down my borrowed scepter."
+
+"The Emperor--"
+
+"The Emperor may do as he will, afterward. He is fond of his Dalmorov."
+
+"I am not so sure of that, monseigneur; he plays with him."
+
+Stanief smiled.
+
+"My young cousin is a kitten for whom we are all toy mice, John. Which
+reminds me that the hour for my visit to him approaches."
+
+"And recalls me to my errand. The Emperor requests that her Royal
+Highness the Grand Duchess will come to him this morning, if it will not
+derange her plans."
+
+"You have told madame?"
+
+"No, monseigneur. I thought perhaps you--" he looked at Stanief
+interrogatively.
+
+"Would accompany her?" Stanief completed the question. "Perhaps."
+
+He touched the bell, and the long regard in which he enveloped Allard
+held many blended emotions besides its affection.
+
+"Has madame gone to drive, Dimitri?" he inquired of that attendant.
+
+"Her Royal Highness at this moment descends the stairs, Royal Highness."
+
+"Say to her that I would be glad to see her here, now, if she is at
+leisure."
+
+Dimitri vanished hastily. An instant later he opened the door, and Iria
+came noiselessly across the threshold with the exotic, Andalusian grace
+that made her least movement a delight.
+
+Both gentlemen rose at her entrance. Coloring faintly, she inclined her
+head to Allard, and crossed to Stanief, lifting her eyes to his with a
+certain delicate confidence and trust.
+
+"You sent for me, monsiegneur?" she questioned, in her rippling southern
+voice.
+
+"I asked you to come," he corrected. "Monsieur Allard has a message for
+you."
+
+She turned docilely to Allard, without leaving Stanief's side.
+
+"For me, monsieur?"
+
+Stanief looked from one to the other. Very lovely was the young girl in
+her trailing blue velvets and furs; her golden-brown hair clustering in
+full, soft waves under the large hat, her golden-brown eyes warm with
+expectation. Iria had acquired a dainty poise, not less gentle but more
+assured, during these months of emancipation and freedom under the
+Regent's protection. Allard gazed at her with frank admiration and
+friendliness as he explained:
+
+"Madame, the Emperor requests the happiness of your presence this
+morning, if the visit will cause no disturbance of your plans."
+
+Her dimpling smile responded to a demand sufficiently familiar. Adrian's
+love for her had long ago outlived surprise and become an accepted fact.
+
+"Thank you, monsieur," she answered, and again looked up at Stanief.
+"You are going, monseigneur? We may go together?"
+
+"I intended to ask it of you, if you will wait an instant for me to
+arrange these papers."
+
+Allard saluted them quietly, and withdrew. Like all the rest of the
+city, he fancied them most happy in each other. The Regent's aversion
+to the marriage had been forgotten in his bearing since the first day
+of his fiancee's arrival.
+
+Iria sank down in an arm-chair and loosened the furs under her round
+white chin, laying the huge muff in her lap. Quite innocently and
+without shyness she followed Stanief's movements as he tossed into a
+drawer the writing upon which he had been engaged and dropped on top the
+thin, keen knife left from the recent conflict.
+
+"Monseigneur," she said at last.
+
+Stanief winced ever so slightly; there were times when the formal title
+fell like a drop of acid on his nerves.
+
+"Madame la Duchesse?" he retorted.
+
+Iria laughed out in her surprise, all unconscious of his meaning.
+
+"Monseigneur, are you going to send Marya away from me?"
+
+"I! What have I to do with your ladies? Keep or dismiss them as you
+choose, Iria."
+
+"Marya cried this morning, telling me that last night the Baron Dalmorov
+warned her of your intention. He said that the Emperor would object to
+the sister of Count Ormanof remaining at court, so you would dismiss
+her. But I told Marya that you knew how much I cared for her, and would
+explain that to the Emperor."
+
+"Some day Dalmorov will learn discretion," Stanief commented, almost too
+indolently. "It is nearly time. The Emperor did speak to me of the
+Countess Marya, and I pointed out to him that her brother's misconduct
+did not affect the matter in the least; since we are not living in China
+and visiting faults upon entire families. Also I explained that you rule
+your own household."
+
+"But you govern us all, monseigneur," said the Gentle Princess, most
+naturally. "I was sure it would be right somehow; I told Marya that no
+one who belonged to you need be afraid."
+
+He paused abruptly in front of her.
+
+"Then you are not sorry that you trusted me with yourself, Iria? You are
+not sorry any longer that chance placed you in my keeping?"
+
+She leaned forward across the muff, her eyes suddenly wet in their
+sincerity.
+
+"Oh, no," she denied with energy. "No, monseigneur. Ah, we do not call
+such things chance, we women of the South, but a higher name! I have
+never been sorry since that first day on the winter balcony when you
+spoke to me so wonderfully. You--you are so good, so kind, monseigneur."
+
+Stanief looked into those clear eyes for a long moment, his own glance
+veiled. Then he gently took one of the little gloved hands and lifted it
+to his lips.
+
+"I seem to have been born just for that," he said, the sadness of his
+voice masked by its even control, "to guard what is mine. I am glad if I
+do it passably well, Iria. I wish I could hope that my other ward would
+tell me as much, some day. Come, let us go to the Emperor."
+
+She rose, softly flushed and smiling, yet vaguely troubled by his
+manner.
+
+"The Emperor?" she ventured. "He is a shadow, monseigneur! You are not
+satisfied with him?"
+
+"What do you know of shadows, who are all sunshine? If I imagine a cloud
+on the imperial horizon, it is still no larger than that bit of lace in
+your hand. Also, the question is rather if he is satisfied with me, than
+if I am satisfied with him. Adrian is--Adrian."
+
+Together they moved to the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE TURN IN THE ROAD
+
+
+It was a few weeks later, when the tardy spring was awaking reluctantly
+from its long sleep, that Stanief's cloud drew nearer and gained darker
+substance. Adrian's increasing restiveness took the form of active
+interference with the government, and not wisely. All that was possible
+Stanief was willing to yield, if he might keep peace, but finally the
+impossible was asked.
+
+It was a question of taxes which made the first rift between the
+cousins, a question with which the young Emperor had nothing to do. The
+tax had been imposed during the period of readjustment; now, owing to
+the Regent's skilled government, it was no longer necessary and he
+proposed to remove it. To the amazement of all concerned, Adrian chose
+to object.
+
+Plainly enough Stanief saw Dalmorov's influence behind the opposition,
+and saw himself bound to persistence both by policy and an implied
+promise to the people. Not as yet had the tax been removed, but he most
+courteously had reminded Adrian that no one possessed the power of
+interference with the measure. The result had been inevitable; Adrian
+sulked and the Regent's enemies furtively rejoiced.
+
+So opened the last year of the regency. If on the first night of the
+first year Stanief had claimed check of his opponent, now, gazing across
+the half-cleared board, Dalmorov could return the cry.
+
+Meanwhile the suite of the sullen young sovereign suffered much from his
+caprices; until finally Iria and Allard were the only two his caustic
+tongue spared and his ill humor passed by. They alone did not dread the
+honor of attending him. And at last he even contrived to give Allard the
+sting of many rewakened memories.
+
+"Allard," he remarked one morning, "you never told me more than just
+that you were an American. From what state are you?"
+
+They were alone together, two learned and exhausted professors having
+just taken leave of as trying a listener as could well be conceived.
+Across the book-strewn table Adrian contemplated the other, meditatively
+at ease.
+
+"I am a Californian, sire," was the reply.
+
+"Come show me where in this atlas, _pour s'amuser_. Your California is
+not small, if I recollect."
+
+Allard came over obediently and found the map, pointing out the city
+remembered so well and so sadly.
+
+"There, sire, near that little bay. Our place lay beyond the town; we
+called the house Sun-Kist."
+
+"The house was near the bay?"
+
+"Very near. We used to sail and fish there. Just here lay the yacht
+club, where Robert kept his motor-boat--" He broke off and turned away
+more abruptly than strict etiquette allowed.
+
+Adrian deliberately drew his pencil through the name on the map.
+
+"Robert?" he queried.
+
+"Robert Allard, sire, my younger brother. He died two years ago."
+
+"Soon after you came here, then?"
+
+"While I was on the _Nadeja_, sire, making the voyage."
+
+"Have you no other relatives there?"
+
+"Yes; my aunt, Mrs. Leslie, and my cousin, her daughter."
+
+Adrian studied his companion's pallor with a certain scientific
+interest, idly scribbling on the margin of the atlas without regarding
+what he wrote.
+
+"You regret your home?" he inquired.
+
+Allard bit his lip to steady its quiver, fiercely unwilling to bare his
+old pain for the diversion of this coldly ennuied inquisitor.
+
+"There is nothing to call me home, sire," he replied. "My brother is
+not living, and my cousin, who was betrothed to him, has no wish or need
+of me. I think I never want to see the place as it is now. My life is
+here."
+
+"You loved her," Adrian said calmly. "How much you give one another, you
+quiet, gray-eyed people! Do not look like that, Allard;" he actually
+smiled. "I am too used to my intricate and intriguing subjects to fail
+in reading your truthfulness. And I have not watched you with the ladies
+of the court without learning that some woman, one that you loved, sat
+at the door of your heart."
+
+Allard wavered between exasperation and helpless dismay at the other's
+acuteness; there were occasions when his Imperial Majesty was almost
+uncanny. But he ended by remaining silent, as usual. Adrian at fourteen
+had been anything but a child; now, at sixteen, he was fairly matched
+with Stanief himself, and the lesser players stood back at a distance
+from the contest of wills. From those players Allard had learned the
+wise habit of drawing aside to let the Emperor's moods sweep past.
+
+"You and Iria," Adrian added, after a moment during which his thin,
+high-bred face hardened strangely and not happily, "you two at least are
+transparent, and free from under-thoughts. What time is it?"
+
+Allard glanced at his watch.
+
+"Eleven o'clock, sire."
+
+"You need not go when the Grand Duke arrives; I may want you afterward.
+Allard--"
+
+"Sire?"
+
+"I have been kind to you, if to no one else, I think. Kind, and
+constant. Perhaps I have guarded you from more pitfalls set by envy than
+you can conceive, or would credit. And you have served me, not Feodor or
+another. If you were forced to the choice now, would you follow the
+Regent or me?"
+
+The question could not have been more unexpected or more difficult.
+Allard caught his breath, utterly at a loss. Deceive Adrian he would
+not. To forsake Stanief even in appearance was not to be considered, and
+yet to exasperate the jealous and exacting Emperor still further against
+his cousin was bitterly unnecessary.
+
+"Sire--"
+
+"Go on."
+
+But he could not go on, his ideas in hopeless confusion.
+
+"I am waiting."
+
+"Sire, the Regent," he admitted with desperate candor.
+
+Adrian laid his pencil carefully on the map and closed the atlas, saying
+nothing at all. Allard flushed to the roots of his fair hair.
+
+"Not that I am ungrateful," he protested in hot distress. "Not that I do
+not remember, do not understand all that you have done for me, sire. And
+against you I would serve no one, not even him. I would hold my life a
+slight thing to give either of you. Sire," he took a step forward, his
+ardent gaze seeking the other's comprehension, "before the brother I
+loved, the woman I love, before any call, I would follow the Regent.
+He--I have no words for it. It is not that my loyalty to your Majesty is
+less, but that he claims me against the world."
+
+"Happy Feodor," said Adrian coolly. "Do not distress yourself, Allard;
+if you had told me anything else I should not have believed you. Why,"
+he suddenly lifted to the amazed American a glance all cordial, "it is
+pleasant to find that loyalty to any one still exists, to find one rock
+in this shaking quagmire. Here is the Regent; go down the room and find
+a book to read until we finish."
+
+Dazed, Allard mechanically obeyed so far as to move down the apartment
+and pick up a book. But keen anxiety for the friend he could not aid
+kept his attention on the interview that followed, although it was
+beyond his hearing.
+
+Stanief crossed to his ward with the dignified formality never relaxed
+between them, and bent over the offered hand. No shade of expression
+foretold the announcement both knew he was come to make, nor was Adrian
+on his part less impassive. The petulant boy of two years before had
+become a slim, self-contained youth, whose bearing, no less than his
+elaborate uniform, added much to his apparent age and height. If his
+dark young face did not resemble his cousin's except in feature, the
+difference was not in lack of equal firmness.
+
+"Iria did not come to-day?" was the nonchalant greeting.
+
+"No, sire. She was fatigued after last night's reception, and we did not
+understand your desire."
+
+"Oh, I expressed none, except as it is always pleasant to see her.
+Madame was adorable last night, a very flower of her delicious South. It
+occurred to me that you yourself, cousin, did not appear to feel so well
+as usual."
+
+"I was tired, sire," he replied simply.
+
+Adrian frowned with some other emotion than anger, darting a swift
+regard at Stanief, who leaned back in his chair with a listlessness
+rare indeed in him. The Regent also had changed in the last two years;
+one does not mold a chaotic, struggling mass of conflicting elements
+into a ball to match the scepter without paying a price. Yet if the
+habit of command had curved a little more firmly the firm lips, if deep
+thoughts and watchful diplomacy had darkened calmness to gravity, some
+other and subtler influences had brought a singular underlying
+gentleness to his expression and kept hardness at bay. Adrian turned
+away his head half-impatiently, and did not speak at once.
+
+"You devote too close an attention to state affairs, cousin," he
+rejoined. "Next year we will relieve you of them."
+
+The accent was more than the words; together they brought Stanief's
+color.
+
+"I shall resign my charge most willingly, sire," he answered, with
+dignity.
+
+"I am glad to hear it; I fancied you might miss the regal game and find
+life monotonous. You have taken the task so completely from my hands
+that it causes no surprise to find you are wearied. I admit that you
+have spared me even the fatigue of consulting my wishes or opinions in
+regard to the government."
+
+"The accusation is hardly just, sire. A suggestion of yours has never
+been disregarded nor has it failed of its serious effect."
+
+"Ah?" drawled Adrian, with his most aggravating incredulity in the
+inflection.
+
+Stanief raised his lashes and met the other's eyes steadfastly. Both
+comprehended the situation perfectly, comprehended the imminent break
+Adrian was forcing. And the Emperor did not soon forget the direct
+sorrow and reproach of that glance. But Stanief attempted no defense.
+
+"Because," Adrian resumed, fixing his eyes on the table before him, "I
+have been told otherwise. I am rejoiced to learn the truth from you,
+cousin; especially as a rumor reached me this morning that a certain tax
+had been removed, against my wish. You doubtless know the measure of
+which I speak. I am glad to find it is not so."
+
+"Pardon, sire; it is so," was the calm reply.
+
+"The tax is removed?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+The Adrian of two years before would have burst into furious passion;
+the one of to-day simply rose and walked to the nearest window. Stanief
+necessarily rose also, and stood by his chair, waiting. At the opposite
+end of the room Allard clenched his hands in helpless nervousness,
+forgetting to keep his pretense of reading. The low voices, the
+leisurely movements of the two, had not masked from him the crisis for
+the hopes and plans of years.
+
+But Adrian made no scene. Probably no one realized less than the Regent
+himself how much the example of his own self-control had taught the same
+quality to his ward. When the young Emperor came back, only his extreme
+pallor betrayed the tempest within.
+
+"Very well," he said resolutely. "Amuse yourself, my cousin; I can
+wait. Eleven months, is it not?"
+
+The break, and the menace. Stanief saluted him quietly.
+
+"A trifle less than eleven months, sire. May I assume your Imperial
+Majesty's permission to retire? I suppose it is scarcely worth while to
+reiterate the arguments as to the necessity of my action."
+
+"Scarcely. Do not let me detain you from your many affairs, cousin. Ah,
+I believe Dalmorov is waiting out there; let me tax your courtesy so far
+as to ask you to send him to me."
+
+He extended his hand carelessly; no longer as a sign of friendliness,
+but as a compulsion of homage.
+
+"It is for you to command, sire," was Stanief's proudly unmoved
+response.
+
+Adrian looked down at the bent head and put out his left hand in rapid,
+curious gesture, almost as if to touch caressingly the heavy ripples of
+dark hair,--the merest abortive movement, for the hand fell again at his
+side before even Allard saw.
+
+"Thank you," he acknowledged composedly, and watched the other go.
+
+Dalmorov entered presently, radiant with satisfaction, but Allard could
+have borne witness that the baron passed no pleasant hour with his
+irritable and irritating master. Like the fleck of a lash Adrian's
+tongue touched each weakness and stung each exposed hope of the courtier
+three times his age, until even the distrait American found himself
+compelled to amusement.
+
+Stanief did not ride home that morning with the cheerful Vasili and
+bored Rosal, who awaited him. As he came down the wide steps between the
+usual parting, obsequious crowds, a girl leaned from a victoria that
+stood in the place of his own carriage,--Iria, opposite her the pale
+young Countess Marya.
+
+"Will you ride with me, monseigneur?" invited the Gentle Princess, with
+her deliciously confiding glance and smile. "We were on the promenade,
+and I thought perhaps you would have finished--"
+
+[Illustration: "Will you ride with me, Monseigneur?"]
+
+A knot of early daffodils was tucked in her girdle, the spring breeze
+fluttered a bright strand of crinkled bronze against her brighter cheek;
+all the youth of the year was in the happy face she lifted to him.
+Stanief paused with his foot on the step to look at her, many thoughts
+meeting in his drowsily-brilliant eyes.
+
+"Thank you," he answered. "I wonder if you will ever come for me again,
+Iria, after I have finished here indeed."
+
+An innocent surprise and pleasure dawned in her expression.
+
+"I will come every day, if you like, monseigneur," she offered. "I did
+not know you cared."
+
+He took the seat beside her, with a courteous salute to Marya.
+
+"You are gracious, as always. I did not mean exactly that, although you
+can not guess how pleasant it was to find you here to-day. Live your
+pretty routine and fancies, Duchess of Dreams, and give me the alms of
+time you can not use."
+
+They spoke in Iria's soft native tongue, which the Countess Marya did
+not understand and which Stanief had learned long before in some of the
+_Nadeja's_ nomadic voyages. Always gentle to the gentle Iria, to-day his
+voice carried an added tenderness which stirred her to vague unrest and
+wistfulness.
+
+"You do not mean that," she said, troubled. "How should I have any time
+that is not yours, monseigneur? And my fancies--you can not know how
+many of them are wishes that I might prove a little, only a little, of
+all your kindness makes me feel. I wish, how much I wish, that I could
+do something for you!"
+
+The victoria was rolling through the busy, cheerful streets; vehicles
+making way for it in respectful haste, people saluting with more than
+mere formality and following the Regent with grateful eyes. Stanief's
+city, Stanief's country this, drawn by him out of anarchy into order,
+out of suffering into peace. The people knew, and he knew. He looked
+across it all now before answering, battling with fierce loneliness and
+rebellion.
+
+"Iria, what I have done for you is nothing. You are my wife," there was
+no mockery in the quietly spoken word, "and claim all I can give. But,
+since we are alone except for each other and have been placed together,
+would you care to save my pride some day by stepping at my side out of
+this court? By giving me the dignity of holding my household above the
+wreck?"
+
+Startled and dismayed, she turned to him.
+
+"Monseigneur, I do not understand! You, you to speak of wreck! Oh, and
+you ask me that, you doubt?"
+
+He laid his hand warningly on hers.
+
+"We are under a hundred eyes, Iria. You live aloof from politics and
+intrigues, but yet you know my regency ends in a few months."
+
+"You mean--the Emperor?"
+
+"The Emperor has never trusted me, never forgiven me for the chance
+which set me as ruler of his country. There is no danger of the old
+kind; the days of state executions are past, or I would never have
+survived the last reign. But when Adrian assumes command it will
+undoubtedly mean that I lay aside all you have seen of me, and retire a
+simple gentleman of leisure to my estates. No more will I play 'the
+regal game,' as Adrian expressed it to-day. Could you brave that, Iria,
+to be no longer the center of a brilliant court? To live the stately
+monotony of my life in the old castle among the mountains, or perhaps
+travel to other countries as just the wife of the Grand Duke Feodor
+Stanief, who is of no more importance than any noble? For Adrian will
+want to keep you, if you will stay."
+
+The little hand under his turned to clasp his fingers; star-eyed, richly
+tinted with excitement, Iria leaned to him.
+
+"With you, let me be with you. I am afraid of nothing with you, without
+you of everything. Oh, monseigneur, do you not see that what you lose
+are a man's desires, not a woman's? Power, political influence, to guide
+and rule--what do such names mean to me? I shall miss nothing; it is
+only you who will grieve and regret."
+
+"My dear, my dear," said Stanief unsteadily, and turned away his face
+before a new hope which out-dazzled all the morning's pictured loss.
+
+"It is so, only do not speak again of leaving me here. I love the
+Emperor, but I am afraid of him. And if he can treat you in this way--"
+
+"Hush; never blame him, however alone you fancy us. If you can help it,
+do not let him guess that I have told you of this. And for the rest, the
+fault is more Dalmorov's than his."
+
+"I will not," she promised. And after a moment, "Some one else will
+follow you always, monseigneur."
+
+He knew the answer before he asked the question, and the light went
+suddenly from his face, leaving it to all the old grave endurance.
+
+"Who, Iria?"
+
+"Monsieur Allard," she replied.
+
+Stanief again looked across the teeming streets; it was as if a chill,
+intangible mist stole up from the near-by river and drew its cold
+grayness between the two who sat side by side.
+
+"John is a loyal gentleman," he said, without anger; "I value you both
+above all else. For two years I have walked without seeing beyond a
+certain point, to-day I have come to a turn in the road and on ahead I
+see my destination. Not the end I hoped, perhaps, but at least I know.
+And I thank you for the household security which you have given to me,
+my poor child."
+
+The carriage stopped in front of the quaintly splendid Palace Stanief.
+Iria lingered before accepting the Regent's aid to descend, her delicate
+lip curving distressedly.
+
+"Do not call me that, please," she begged. "Because you have made me
+very happy, monseigneur."
+
+The perfume of her daffodils was about him, faint, virginal,
+bitter-sweet as her presence in his house. Stanief deliberately painted
+to himself the fierce delight of catching her in his arms, of pressing
+the little sunny head to him and crushing her sweet ignorance out of
+existence with one kiss she could never forget. But his hand did not
+even close upon the small one resting in it.
+
+"Then I have lived to some purpose," he responded serenely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE INTERVENTION OF ADRIAN
+
+
+For Iria to attempt to hide a change of thought from the keen-eyed and
+sophisticated Adrian with his clairvoyant faculty of penetration was as
+futile as for a flower to resolve to shut from the sun the drop of dew
+in its golden heart. A week after her morning drive with Stanief, when
+Iria was passing one of her usual hours with the Emperor, he coolly put
+his finger on her secret.
+
+"You are not yourself, _cousine_," he observed. "What has Feodor been
+telling you of me?"
+
+"Oh!" Iria exclaimed in distress, regarding her youthful sovereign with
+wide, astonished eyes.
+
+Adrian smiled with his fine malice.
+
+"Come, confess. Or shall I guess? I am ungrateful, unappreciative, and
+swayed by Dalmorov; not so? Moreover I am dangerous, and making my
+Regent extremely uncomfortable."
+
+"Oh, no, sire. He bade me never blame you, indeed. He said nothing like
+that," denied madame impetuously, then stopped short.
+
+"Then what did he tell you?"
+
+"But I was not to repeat," she pleaded.
+
+This time Adrian laughed outright and leaned forward to capture one of
+the lily-leaf hands and lift it to his lips. They were seated in the
+great octagonal library, which of all the palace was the Emperor's
+favorite room, Iria employed with a bit of the intricate embroidery
+always brought at his especial request. He was fond of watching her
+while her attention was fixed on the pretty task; and until a few months
+before Stanief had not infrequently made a third at the gracious
+pretense of domesticity. To-day, at the opposite side of the apartment
+and out of hearing, Allard chatted with two of Iria's ladies.
+
+"You have not repeated, _cousine_," the inquisitor assured her. "I
+myself guessed. And since I appear to have guessed worse than the truth,
+you had better correct me. I will not tell Feodor."
+
+She looked up at him then, flushing all over.
+
+"If I tell you, sire," she retorted with pride, "I shall say so to
+monseigneur as soon as I see him. Must I speak?"
+
+"I think you had better, _chere cousine_."
+
+She laid the glowing tissue in her lap and met the raillery of his
+glance quite seriously.
+
+"Then I will try to remember, sire, because the truth is always much the
+best to know. And I am certain you would not ask me to hurt him. He
+asked me if I would be ready to go with him when the regency ended and
+you sent him from court. He said that you had never trusted him, and
+could not forgive him for the government forced upon him. That was all,
+indeed. Except that he did say you thought highly of Baron Dalmorov;
+and, and, a few words just for me."
+
+Adrian passed his hand across his eyes as if to push back the hair from
+his forehead, and remained silent for a few seconds.
+
+"If Feodor is not happy, he pays the penalty of having ruled," he
+returned, his strange unyouthful bitterness most repellant. "I am not
+happy, nor was my father, nor his father before him. And you would leave
+me to go with him, _cousine_? Think of it again. I offer you your
+household in the capital; until some day I marry, you will be still the
+first lady of my court. I loved you the first time I met you in Italy;
+you were so gentle, so different from all I knew. I was only a boy,
+Iria, but I resolved to bring you to my country some way; and I
+succeeded. What has Feodor to give compared with all I hold for you?
+Will you stay?"
+
+"But I am his wife," she answered simply. "How could I stay, sire?"
+
+"You love him so?"
+
+Iria grew pale, then raised her hands to her cheeks to cover the
+returning color that dyed even her temples.
+
+"I--I do not know," she faltered, aghast at a question never asked even
+of herself. "I--no--he does not me--"
+
+He stared at her, for once thoroughly amazed.
+
+"He does not love you?" he echoed. "You do not know? Why, Iria--"
+
+She flashed into the first and last anger he ever saw in her.
+
+"You forced us to marry each other, sire. We did not want it, no!" she
+cried, and raised the little, useless handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+There was a pause, then Adrian dismissed the subject with a sentence
+that gave his companion food for thought during many a day to come.
+
+"Poor Feodor," he said very compassionately. "Twice."
+
+At the other end of the library Allard hesitated, broke the thread of
+his gay speech, and caught it up again incoherently.
+
+"What is it?" queried the Countess Marya playfully.
+
+"Monsieur Allard looks at the agitation of madame," murmured the petite
+Baroness Alexia.
+
+All three regarded the pair opposite, and exchanged significant glances.
+
+"Lieutenant Vasili told me that Baron Dalmorov spent two hours with the
+Emperor last night. Is it so, monsieur?" added Alexia.
+
+"Yes, Baroness," admitted Allard soberly.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I am to be married in September, myself. But I do care for the Grand
+Duchess; I am sorry for--this."
+
+"I love the Grand Duchess," said Marya quickly. "And the Regent has been
+most good to me. Where they go, there go I."
+
+Allard winced even in the approving smile he sent the pale young maid of
+honor, so hard it was to hear Stanief's fall predicted and discussed.
+
+Iria recovered herself almost immediately and brought her gold-and-topaz
+eyes back to those of the Emperor.
+
+"I would like to go, if I may, sire," she said.
+
+"Are you offended with me, _cousine_?"
+
+"Certainly not, sire."
+
+He watched her fold the gleaming embroidery, tapping his fingers
+restlessly on the arm of his chair.
+
+"You would go, and Allard," he mused aloud, "each after a duty, a love,
+an aim. I wonder if there was ever but one who centered all such
+thoughts in me, who made me the axis of his world?"
+
+"You think of Baron Dalmorov, sire?" she ventured.
+
+He gave her the desired permission by rising.
+
+"You are anxious to go, _cousine_; pardon. Why, yes, Dalmorov; who else?
+Allard," he turned to summon the others, "Allard will have the honor of
+accompanying you to the carriage."
+
+"No," protested Iria, but too late.
+
+"No? You do not wish Allard's escort?" he demanded.
+
+"Oh, yes, I--of course." She turned hurriedly from him, then looked back
+with a gesture of helpless bewilderment and distress. "I wish you had
+not spoken, sire; I wish you had not spoken."
+
+And as the others came up, she passed her hand through Marya's arm and
+left Allard and Alexia to follow.
+
+All that day Stanief was immersed in councils and affairs. Not until
+evening did he and Iria meet, when she stopped in his study on her way
+to the opera, where no less a cavalier than the Emperor was to take her
+husband's place with her.
+
+Standing straight and slim before him, her head drooping under its
+weight of silken floss and spanning jewels, her soft throat and dimpled
+shoulders crossed and recrossed by the manifold strands of the wonderful
+Stanief pink pearls, she repeated the conversation of the morning.
+Repeated it, all except the last part. Her eyes downcast, her gloved
+fingers twisted nervously together, the rosy gems gleaming uneasily with
+her rapid breathing, it was the Iria of long ago he saw the timid,
+shrinking girl whom Allard had brought from Spain.
+
+Sensitive as a woman to the change, Stanief gazed and listened, finding
+no explanation in the story she related.
+
+"That is all?" he asked gently, when she ended.
+
+"Yes," she said faintly. "All that matters, monseigneur."
+
+"You," he hesitated a moment for the right words. "You are not troubled,
+or displeased, Iria?"
+
+She retreated a step, bending to gather round her the trailing satin and
+lace folds.
+
+"No," she answered. "No, monseigneur. Good night."
+
+Without his will, without his act, the delicate confidence between them
+was shattered. The frail, exquisite understanding that was too slight
+for friendship, too pale for love, had been destroyed. Afterward, in the
+days which followed, Stanief came to look back on that month as the
+time when two existences crumbled under his touch.
+
+When she had gone, he sat still for many moments.
+
+"Adrian or Dalmorov," he decided. "I wonder--"
+
+He touched the bell, the old dangerous drowsiness settling over his
+expression.
+
+"Dimitri, you remember that I once placed in your charge a man found in
+this room?"
+
+"Certainly, your Royal Highness."
+
+"Have him brought to me; I am ready to see him."
+
+Dimitri saluted and vanished. All unconsciously, Iria's taper, snowy
+fingers had touched the pieces on the grim chess-board, and moved them
+ever so slightly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE ORDEAL
+
+
+For Allard that last summer of the regency brought the hardest of all
+things for a loving heart to bear: to stand in the shelter and watch a
+friend in the storm, to be forced to witness where unable to aid. No
+personal humiliation could have affected him so painfully as to see
+Stanief under the Emperor's stinging sarcasms and cold, young insolence,
+to note the furtive words and glances of the men who still courted
+present power while predicting its future fall.
+
+Never after that morning of the contest of wills between the cousins,
+did Adrian's unforgiving sullenness lessen or relent. Day after day the
+Regent paid his formal visit and endured the ordeal with chill dignity.
+Day after day Adrian received him in the presence of Dalmorov or half a
+dozen young nobles of the capital; usually on the point of going out,
+and so making the brief interview a mere farce. Only one courtesy the
+Emperor conceded to the self-respect of both; never did he make the
+least hint of menace or future reckoning except when the cousins were
+alone or with Allard. By inference alone could the rest of the court
+foretell the coming end.
+
+And Dalmorov was radiant. His spare figure actually dilated and gained
+weight in these days of victory, his eye-glasses poised a trifle more
+superciliously before his pale eyes. Stanief looked above and past him
+with a certain lofty indifference, but between Dalmorov and the chafing,
+aching Allard a clash was inevitable. As they seldom met except when
+Adrian's desire for both compelled, it was not surprising that in his
+presence that clash occurred.
+
+It was after Stanief had passed an especially difficult and trying hour
+with the Emperor, an hour which left Allard's nerves in quivering
+exasperation. When at last the Regent took leave, Adrian rose at the
+same time and crossed to a window with his nonchalant languor of
+movement.
+
+"Bring me those glasses we were trying this morning, Allard," he
+directed. "I want to see that ship entering the river."
+
+But Allard did nothing of the kind. The fourth one present, Dalmorov,
+had just moved aside from the door with an indescribable smile and bow
+to the Regent.
+
+"I have the honor to wish your Royal Highness good morning," he said
+sweetly.
+
+Stanief glanced down at him, outwardly unmoved by the neglect of a
+courtesy compelled by every rule of custom and etiquette; but before
+embarrassment was possible Allard sprang forward and himself held back
+the door.
+
+"Thank you," Stanief said only, but his eyes met the gray ones in
+passing.
+
+"Really, Baron, for a diplomat you grow too absent-minded," commiserated
+Allard softly to his vis-a-vis. "One might have imagined you intended
+that his Royal Highness should open the door himself."
+
+"Since Monsieur Allard has become so learned in etiquette, he might
+observe that the Emperor is waiting," Dalmorov retorted viciously.
+
+Allard shot a glance at Adrian, who had turned round just in time to
+witness the whole scene.
+
+"At least, if I offend, I am careful to offend one who can retaliate,
+Baron," he flung back in an undertone, as he moved in quest of the
+article demanded.
+
+"Who can, and whom you are in no position to provoke," Dalmorov sent
+after him, incautiously raising his tone with a bitter significance
+which the other failed to comprehend.
+
+"When you are at leisure, gentlemen," Adrian's voice interposed coolly.
+"Dalmorov, I would suggest that you follow my cousin and explain your
+unfortunate lapse of memory. Allard, I believe I made a request."
+
+There was little Allard could not have forgiven to Adrian for sending
+Dalmorov to make that apology.
+
+"I beg a thousand pardons, sire," he answered contentedly as he crossed
+the room.
+
+After all Adrian did not look at his ship, but remained leaning against
+the window with his reflective gaze fixed on the other's face.
+
+"I wonder," he remarked, when the door had closed behind Dalmorov, "if
+you do things like that because you are an American."
+
+Surprised, Allard smiled involuntarily.
+
+"Perhaps, sire, we are rather _sans gene_."
+
+"You misunderstand me," he corrected. "I mean, do you act as the others
+would not, because you are not my subject as they are?"
+
+Allard understood then, and the implied accusation stung him to hot
+anger.
+
+"No, sire," he flashed. "I have not lived under your shelter and eaten
+your bread to hide beneath another flag when the scale turns. I am an
+American, yes, but I do not use my nationality as a cloak for cowardice.
+So far, I have become your subject by entering your service."
+
+Not until long afterward did Allard read the slow, half-amused smile
+that rose to the surface of the Emperor's dark eyes.
+
+"Very good, we shall remember, Monsieur _l'Americain_," he returned,
+quite untroubled by the other's indignation. "Do not complain if some
+day I interfere with your affairs."
+
+His affairs? Allard puzzled mentally. But he received no further
+explanation, and neither to him nor Dalmorov did Adrian again mention
+the incident.
+
+Stanief looked very grave when Allard repeated the scene to him.
+
+"You have made an active enemy of Dalmorov instead of a passive," was
+his comment.
+
+"Why should I care, monseigneur? Where you go, I follow, when the end
+comes."
+
+"The end," Stanief echoed dreamily. "Everything does not end for us at
+once, John; we leave our treasures all along the path as we journey."
+
+Down his self-appointed path Stanief was moving steadfastly in those
+months. And the first treasure left behind, the hardest to resign, had
+been Iria's confidence. Locked within the old timidity, she avoided her
+husband whenever it was possible to do so, hiding her eyes from him when
+necessity brought them together, coming no more to his study.
+
+But there was one exception: every morning, after Stanief's visit to the
+palace, she waited for him in her carriage. Silent, her hands clasped in
+her lap, replying with hesitating monosyllables, she sat by his side
+during the drive home, one of her ladies opposite them.
+
+Before Adrian, Stanief lifted his head a little more proudly, let his
+lashes fall a little lower, and went on his way without protest. He had
+enough to do, as he toiled to place the country in a position to
+continue without him. Wisely, tactfully, striving not to antagonize the
+Emperor to the right policy by claiming it as his own, he prepared the
+guiding lines to lie peacefully in the inexperienced grasp soon to take
+them.
+
+It was not a happy task, or a light one, and he worked at it absolutely
+alone except for Allard's passionate and powerless sympathy. But still
+he worked. And because there was so much to be done, it seemed to him
+that the days slipped through his fingers like beads of a broken chain.
+
+So winter set its seal of silence on river and snow-muffled street
+before he realized the fading summer. With spring would end the regency.
+
+"How many months now, cousin?" drawled the Emperor, returning from the
+races held upon the glittering ice of the river, and pausing on the
+steps of the palace to unclasp his too oppressive furs.
+
+"Five, sire," answered the tranquil Regent. "I believe I have to
+congratulate your Imperial Majesty upon the victories in to-day's
+sport."
+
+"My horses? Ah, yes; this is my fortunate year. Thank you, cousin."
+
+And Allard, in attendance, bit his lip until a tiny thread of crimson
+sprang beneath the pressure.
+
+Faster and faster the beads were slipping from the chain; the path was
+straight to the end and very short.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AT THE GATES OF CHANGE
+
+
+Once more Stanief was alone in his study, on the morning when Allard
+made his first rebellion. The windows were open and a warm, sweet breeze
+drifted the curtains into the room like snowy mists from the past
+winter, rustling on among the papers upon the writing-table, as Stanief
+laid down his work to listen to the visitor. It was so rare to see
+Allard excited and he was so vibrant with indignation as he stood before
+the other.
+
+"Like that," he was declaring hotly, speaking English in his
+preoccupation, "and Dalmorov sneered, listening. 'My cousin is having
+his fine old country-place in the mountains renovated, Allard, so I am
+informed.' 'I know nothing, sire,' I said. 'He is very far-sighted,' he
+answered coolly. Monseigneur, I will not go back; I came here to tell
+you that. I am weary of watching it; I will stay with you. I can come
+here as I always hoped to do, giving to you, not asking. Let me finish,
+please. The Emperor has been generous to me, however little so to you,
+and I am modestly rich in my own right. Why, the pension accompanying
+the star and order he gave me after that attempt to kill him, that alone
+is more than my solitary life requires. My tastes are simple--that
+automobile about which you laugh at me is not as you think. It is my
+pride to have regained my independence, monseigneur; to be able to come
+to you, free, and offer to do your secretary's work, Vasili's, what you
+choose, but to do it as a service of love. Long ago, on the _Nadeja_, I
+lent myself to aid your purpose, to make it mine. And now you have
+carried it through; next week the Emperor will be crowned. Now I claim
+the right to return to you; the work is done."
+
+"John--"
+
+"You can not refuse me that," he cried. "You have taken my life and
+made it center around you, now you can not bid me tear that core out and
+go on."
+
+As on their first night together, Stanief stretched his hand across the
+table for his companion's clasp.
+
+"No," he answered lovingly, "we can not go on without each other. If you
+will stay with a sinking ship, come; I am selfish enough to let you. But
+the charge I gave you is not finished, nor my purpose yet fulfilled. You
+must go back until next week is over."
+
+"The Emperor--" Allard began incredulously.
+
+"The Emperor needs you more than ever before. There are too many people
+who cling to the peace of the last years, who dread change and would
+force me upon the throne at any cost. The Empire--not Adrian's
+court--the vast middle class, the merchants, the quiet, staid
+aristocracy, the very peasants, want all to continue as it is. If I were
+still to govern with the Emperor they would rest content, but they see
+it will not be so. They fear Adrian, they know and detest Dalmorov and
+the party he represents. And they are not careful in their methods of
+obtaining what they want. John, if you knew the veiled insinuations, the
+bold offers, the tempters who pursue me night and day; if you knew how
+they watch for the hours when Adrian has been most hard, how they
+skilfully touch my pride, my patriotism, my resentment and knowledge of
+injustice, if you lived my life for twenty-four hours, then you might
+speak of weariness. But the worst--"
+
+Aghast, Allard stared at him, deep after deep of the inner court opening
+before his dizzy gaze.
+
+"The worst?" he repeated mechanically.
+
+The hand on the table clenched; all the inherited lawlessness and
+ambition of a royal line blazed up in Stanief's darkly brilliant eyes.
+
+"I want it," he said deliberately. "I want to rule this country, to toss
+Dalmorov from my path, to stamp out the satisfied triumph from these
+time-serving faces about me. I want to play this splendid game and
+remain chief in the battles of diplomacy and statecraft. I want my wife
+to continue in the life to which she was born. And I know the power to
+accomplish all this lies ready at my hand; I have only to take. Oh, I am
+no Galahad or Cincinnatus, no patient despiser of earthly good; no
+longer even the idealist who spun his dreams on the _Nadeja_. I have
+tasted of a dangerous fountain, and I shall thirst for its purple-tinted
+water all the rest of my time. I have no bent, no inclination, for
+obscure inactivity."
+
+"Yet?" Allard wondered.
+
+Stanief leaned back and idly picked up the pen on his desk.
+
+"Yet Adrian's coronation takes place next week, exactly. Are we
+sufficiently inconsistent, we others? And I will pass my life in a
+castle of the north, or wandering over Europe. I only spoke to show you
+that my days are not serene either, and why you must go back to keep
+your guard of honor with Adrian. I believe he is safe; the secret
+police watch him ceaselessly and report to me. But I want you near him."
+
+"I will go back now," assented Allard, utterly subdued. "You are right,
+I knew nothing of this. I owe so much to him, as well as to you. I wish
+I were a wiser guardian; I--that automobile--"
+
+"Your automobile! My dear John, what has it to do with the matter? Or do
+you mean that Adrian gave it to you? I never knew that."
+
+"Yes, he gave it to me," Allard smiled and frowned together. "It is
+nothing, of course. But I will not leave him again unless you wish or he
+compels."
+
+"Thank you. You are going direct to the palace?"
+
+"Yes; he sent me with a letter to madame."
+
+Stanief winced, sighing. One trial he had not told Allard, yet exile
+would have been a light thing to bear if the fearless child Iria had
+still walked with him.
+
+"Wait and I will go with you," he offered. "I must have the Emperor's
+approval of these plans for next week. Have you delivered madame's
+letter?"
+
+"Not yet, monseigneur. I am afraid I forgot it."
+
+"Give it to me and I will leave it with her in passing. I have not seen
+her to-day."
+
+It had come to that point; the cold and self-contained Stanief sought a
+pretext in these days to see the delicate face he loved. The Gentle
+Princess was hurting him as no one else could.
+
+Up in her cream-and-azure boudoir, Iria was alone when Stanief entered.
+She was bending over a table heaped with water-lilies and purple
+Florentine irises from the conservatory, herself quite radiant with
+their reflected brightness as she lifted the heavy petals and breathed
+their fragrance. Her back to the door, she did not turn at once to see
+who came unannounced.
+
+"Look, Marya," she called gladly and sweetly. "Come here; were ever
+things so lovely? So the irises grew at home, knee-deep in the clear
+pools, like enchanted princes. And the lilies,--over them the
+dragon-flies hovered all day and between their stems the goldfish slept
+and played."
+
+She moved with the last word and saw Stanief; a tall, soldierly presence
+in the filagree room.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed faintly, "pardon, monseigneur!"
+
+"For what?" he demanded. "It is I who should apologize for disturbing
+you here. I have a letter from the Emperor for you."
+
+"Thank you, monseigneur," she murmured, and accepted the massive envelop
+to lay it listlessly on the table.
+
+Stanief looked at her. Like one of her own slim flowers she stood, her
+shimmering white morning dress leaving her round throat and arms bare.
+The full soft hair was caught in a great coil low on her neck, she wore
+no jewel except the slender gold chain and cross gleaming through the
+lace at her bosom.
+
+"Why are you afraid of me?" he asked abruptly. "Why do you shrink from
+me as if my touch were pain? What has come between us, Iria?"
+
+"Nothing, monseigneur," her fingers inter-laced in feverish nervousness.
+
+"Nothing? Iria, Iria, will you tell me now to take you with me into my
+exile?"
+
+"Yes, monseigneur," came the low reply, but her head drooped.
+
+"And you think I would accept the sacrifice? You think--" He checked
+himself with a violent effort.
+
+"I am sorry," she responded confusedly. "I--I have not changed."
+
+"Then it is I?"
+
+"No, no; please let me go, monseigneur."
+
+"It is I who will go," he answered, shaken out of self-mastery for once.
+"Iria, I do not know who awakened you, who showed you the truth, perhaps
+it was my kindly cousin. But it is clear that you have seen. Iria, was
+your trust also so weak that it went down before a breath? Because I
+loved you, must you shrink from me? Child, I loved you the first day
+that you gave me your shy friendship, I loved you all the months
+afterward, and was my care of you less careful for that? If you could
+have continued in your ignorance, would I have failed you?"
+
+Before his passion and grief she retreated, mute, colorless, her dazed
+eyes upon him.
+
+"You!" she gasped, "You--" then suddenly turned and hid her face among
+the heaped flowers.
+
+"I did not hope that you could love me; I knew better than that," he
+said. "But I did hope that you would trust me. I thought I had earned
+that much, Iria. Let my fancies go; I will undo this as far as I may.
+You shall stay in the capital or go to your own home, whatever you
+choose. Only this week remains, and I lay down both my charges. Hush,
+and do not grieve; this is no fault of yours."
+
+She was sobbing helplessly, her golden head among the white and purple
+blossoms. He drew a quick breath and stood for a moment, struggling to
+regather around him the poor tattered cloak of reserve. But it was a
+relief to him that she could not see his expression when he crossed to
+her side.
+
+"Forgive me," he said sadly. "I am not very wise to-day, or very kind, I
+am afraid. I have loved you; yes, and I loved Adrian during our quiet
+years. Some flaw in me there must be, that neither of you could give me
+the simple gift of trust. We will speak of this no more; somehow I will
+find a way for you. 'A Stanief guards his own.'"
+
+His voice shook on the sentiment he would have spoken lightly; stooping
+with the fierceness of pain suppressed, he touched his lips to her
+bright hair.
+
+"You," panted Iria, as the door closed. "You, monseigneur!"
+
+He had gone; only the silver-fringed curtain still swayed to tell of his
+passage, the frail, feminine atmosphere of the place still quivered from
+the presence of a dominant energy.
+
+Down in the open carriage--a massively luxurious vehicle with the
+imperial arms enameled upon the door--Allard waited for Stanief a long
+time. The Emperor, just returning from a drive and apparently in haste
+to have his note reach Iria, had sent the nearest messenger in his own
+carriage.
+
+"Do you know what one might imagine, seeing this carriage here and you
+waiting in it?" playfully demanded Vasili, as he lounged against the
+wheel.
+
+"What?"
+
+"That the Emperor was paying a visit to his cousin."
+
+"I wish he were," Allard sighed unguardedly.
+
+"I never meddle with politics; _pas si bete_. But I wish I were the
+Emperor's favorite just now, as you are. There will be changes soon,
+_hein_?"
+
+"I suppose so. No one can tell."
+
+"No, of course not. Do you know, I would like to be off in the _Nadeja_
+next week."
+
+"The Regent is coming," Allard warned, gladly seizing an escape from the
+conversation.
+
+Vasili swung around and clicked his heels together, saluting stiffly.
+Allard stepped down from the carriage.
+
+"You need not come, Vasili," Stanief remarked, as he took his seat.
+"Monsieur Allard will accompany me. Come, John; we are late."
+
+The horses sprang forward.
+
+The drive through the streets, gay with preparations for the coronation
+and crowded with busy people, was attended by the manifestations grown
+familiar. More eager way was made for Stanief than for the Emperor
+himself; the glances which followed him were grateful and keenly
+anxious. Once a girl in a passing farmer's cart rose to toss into the
+carriage a sheaf of wildflowers.
+
+"Little Father of the People!" she called in the soft, guttural
+vernacular.
+
+It was a title given only to sovereigns; Stanief flushed and frowned
+together.
+
+"That will not do," he commented drily, leaning back in the shadow of
+the victoria top.
+
+"You have permitted them to think, and they give you their verdict,"
+Allard answered.
+
+The carriage turned from the great square to an avenue leading toward
+the palace. Densely packed with people, there was a brief pause before
+the way could be cleared. Noting a change in the atmosphere, a chill and
+more nervous haste, Allard lifted his eyes to his companion.
+
+"This carriage, and with you in the shadow, monseigneur," he
+observed,--"they think it is the Emperor who passes."
+
+The reply was not made by Stanief. Straight and surely aimed, a missile
+hurtled from an upper window in one of the buildings and fell on the
+cushions beside him.
+
+"For peace and freedom!" shrieked a man, leaning from the window in
+half-insane excitement and waving his arms above his head. "No
+Adrian--for the Emperor Feodor!"
+
+The crowd grew white with upturned faces; then, comprehending, broke
+into tumult and panic. Screaming, frantic, one and all turned to fly
+from the vicinity of the carriage. Allard snatched the bomb from the
+seat and rose to fling it from him, but even as he checked himself,
+Stanief seized his arm.
+
+"Not into the people, John," he ordered sharply. "Better keep it here
+than that."
+
+"Go, you!" Allard implored, turning the smoking object in his hands for
+examination. "Go, monseigneur!"
+
+Above the uproar of the fighting, shrieking mob rose the agonized cry of
+the man at the window as he saw the Regent's face:
+
+"You! You! The fuse, pull the fuse!"
+
+"Fuse?" echoed Allard, catching at a small hanging thread of cotton.
+"Monseigneur, go, go! I can handle this--"
+
+The cotton broke off short; a steady hissing warned them that it still
+burned inside.
+
+"Give it here," Stanief commanded collectedly. "Get your penknife."
+
+The two men bent above the oval, gray messenger of hate and death.
+Around them raged indescribable disorder; the very coachman and footmen
+had fled from the carriage.
+
+"If you would go!" Allard panted, his voice tense.
+
+"Bah," said Stanief, and forced the bomb from him.
+
+An ominous snapping came from within. Stanief's strong white fingers
+fitted themselves to the crack and with a superb effort he twisted the
+thing in half.
+
+"Ah!" gasped Allard, blinded, as a great cloud of smoke rushed forth.
+
+Stanief drew out the fuse as it reached the end, and flung it into the
+street.
+
+"Lighted too late," he explained. "Our terrorists are clumsy."
+
+"They meant it for Adrian," he answered. "You were right."
+
+They found each other's hands through the choking fumes; Allard's
+fingers scorched by the guncotton, Stanief's bruised and bleeding from
+the force used to open the machine.
+
+As the smoke cleared they looked around, then back at each other. They
+were alone in a deserted street. Distant cries, increasing tumult,
+announced the spreading panic. Three blocks away flashed the
+green-and-gold of the palace guards as they charged to the scene, over
+pavements littered with fallen garments, the contents of overturned
+vehicles, and the vehicles themselves. The well-trained horses of the
+royal carriage had stood still, accustomed to public demonstrations of a
+different nature but similar violence.
+
+"Really," Allard exclaimed, on the verge of laughter. "Really,
+monseigneur--"
+
+"There has been some excitement," Stanief assented. "Will you go on to
+the palace and explain to the Emperor? I am going back to reassure
+madame."
+
+Their attendants were creeping shamefacedly back to their posts, seeing
+all was over. The line of soldiers swept down upon the carriage, a very
+pale officer in command.
+
+"I will do," said Allard, "anything you want."
+
+If the uproar had been great at the attack, it trebled as the furious
+crowd surged back in search of the assailant. The guards were obliged to
+close around the Regent to shield him from the frenzied and hysterical
+joy of the people at his safety. The slow return to his home was one
+continuous ovation, almost the cheering masses prevented advance.
+
+Long before Stanief reached his goal, Allard had arrived at the palace.
+No less excitement reigned there. Without need of explanation, Allard
+was hurried to the Emperor, questioned and congratulated on every side.
+
+He met Adrian in the hall, and at sight of his messenger, blackened with
+smoke, hatless, still pale with the strain of those perilous moments,
+the Emperor sprang forward and caught his arm.
+
+"Feodor?" he cried fiercely, his voice ringing through the lofty
+corridors. "Speak, speak; where is Feodor?"
+
+"Sire, he has returned to madame the Grand Duchess."
+
+"Safe? You are not deceiving me, he is safe?"
+
+"He is unhurt; he destroyed the bomb before it exploded," Allard
+explained incoherently. "His hands are cut, no more."
+
+Adrian dropped the other's arm and drew back; for hours Allard felt the
+bruise of that feverish grasp.
+
+"To madame," he repeated.
+
+"Sire, he ordered me to bring an account of the affair to your Imperial
+Majesty. He can be sent for," Allard suggested eagerly, catching a
+daring hope from the apparent emotion.
+
+Adrian favored him with a saber-keen glance.
+
+"Why should I wish to see him?" he demanded harshly. "If he is
+uninjured, very good; we will send our congratulations. You are
+exhausted, Monsieur Allard; go to your apartments and recover yourself.
+Alisof," he turned upon the group of listeners, "you will inform the
+chief of police that I shall replace him next week if he completes this
+exhibition of inefficiency by letting the assassin escape. And when he
+captures the man, he will report to me, not to the Regent."
+
+Scarlet enough now under the streaks of grime, Allard moved aside to let
+him pass. All his self-control could not smother the blazing indignation
+in his gray eyes. But Adrian brushed past without regarding him, and
+went alone into the room beyond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+FIRE LILIES
+
+
+Through the uproar, between the crowding people, Stanief at last gained
+his own hall and partly quelled the confusion by his mere presence.
+
+"Tell madame that I have returned and will visit her as soon as this
+smoke is removed," was his first direction on setting foot upon the
+steps.
+
+But when he reached the head of the great staircase a white figure
+flashed down the hall to meet him.
+
+"Monseigneur, monseigneur," moaned the silver voice. Before all the
+household, and Adrian's guards, Iria clutched Stanief's stained and
+blackened coat with small, eager hands and fainted on his breast.
+
+"Stand back!" the master commanded as a score of dismayed attendants
+rushed forward and the Countess Marya sprang toward her mistress. And
+lifting her easily in his arms, he carried her back to the cream-tinted
+boudoir left so shortly before and so nearly left for ever.
+
+On the way the gold-and-topaz eyes opened, but she did not protest or
+move until Stanief set her down.
+
+"John is safe," he said, with a tenderness that had long passed beyond
+jealousy. "Did they not tell you, dear?"
+
+Iria caught the chair beside her.
+
+"You," she panted. "They said you were hurt. Oh, your hands--"
+
+"It is nothing."
+
+"It is, to me. I thought you would die and never know that I loved you
+so, monseigneur."
+
+"Iria!" he cried.
+
+She held out her hands to him with passionate innocence and grief, the
+loose sleeves falling back to her shoulders with the gesture.
+
+"I do, I do. Never say those things to me again, never leave me like
+that."
+
+Dazzled, incredulous, he swept her to him, almost rough in his
+unbearable doubt and joy.
+
+"And John? What of John?"
+
+"You knew--"
+
+"Knew? Child, you betrayed yourself the first time you spoke of him, the
+first time I saw you together. Why should I blame you for no fault of
+yours? How could I blame him, who never even guessed your thought? I
+never wondered at your choice; only, give me the truth now."
+
+"But I love you," she said. "Monsieur Allard; I never thought of him
+like that after our wedding-day. You were so calm, so strong, I just
+rested with you and found no room for any other. On the voyage from
+Spain, I imagined somehow that Monsieur Allard was you, that you had
+come secretly to meet me, and so I almost taught myself to care for him.
+No more than that it was."
+
+Closer he held her, searching the face of rose-and-pearl with his
+splendid, lonely eyes.
+
+"Love of mine, make no mistake. I want you; my dear, I have wanted you
+so bitterly long, and you have shrunk from me. You care now, Iria?"
+
+"I have always cared, only I never knew until last year. Since then I
+have hidden from you because I feared you would see; because I never
+dreamed _you_ cared."
+
+With a tinkling crash the silver pin slipped from her hair, like a
+golden serpent the heavy coil unwound and fell over his arm, draping
+them both with rippling silk as he stooped to kiss her quivering lips.
+
+After a moment she stirred slightly, her head still on his arm as she
+looked up.
+
+"Now you will take me with you?" she breathed, in delicious content.
+"Now you will not leave me with the Emperor, Feodor?"
+
+For the first time in many weeks Stanief laughed, reveling in their knit
+gaze.
+
+"Poor Adrian! How can he punish his rebellious Regent, since he must
+leave me you? In a garden of fire my lily has opened. Where shall we
+go, Iria, on our golden journey? To your perfumed South?"
+
+"May I choose?"
+
+"You may command."
+
+"Then take me to your own old castle in the hills. Shall it not be our
+home?"
+
+"Hush, you have spoken a word I never knew; let me listen to it for a
+moment."
+
+Outside the city roared unheeded, unheard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AN ARABIAN NIGHT
+
+
+The Emperor's congratulations and formal inquiries duly arrived, borne
+by a glittering officer who was so impressed by the coldness of the
+message intrusted to him that he scarcely raised his eyes during its
+delivery. He had the misfortune to be attached to the Regent.
+
+But Stanief received all unmoved. A clear scarlet burned in his dark
+cheek, his drowsy eyes glowed with some inward fire. He had just left
+the Grand Duchess and still carried traces of the recent accident, but
+he smiled in utter tranquillity as he listened, and gave his reply. It
+was too unaccountable; actually dismayed by the indifferent composure,
+the officer retired, and found himself stammering again when he repeated
+the answering message to the Emperor.
+
+Adrian was at dinner, or rather had just concluded, when he found time
+to receive the envoy; and he set down his glass to study this
+embarrassment in a courtier of twenty years' standing. He was always
+cynically interested in such situations.
+
+"What else did the Grand Duke say?" he demanded.
+
+"Sire, nothing was said except that which I have had the honor to report
+to your Imperial Majesty."
+
+"Nothing to you?"
+
+"Nothing, sire."
+
+Adrian made no sign, yet the unfortunate equery was conscious that he
+was not believed.
+
+"My cousin appeared well?" came the inquiry.
+
+"Perfectly well, sire. Remarkably so."
+
+"I am enchanted to hear it; he has need of steady nerves. That will do."
+
+He pushed away the glass and rose, his glance encountering that of
+Allard near him.
+
+"You almost hate me to-night, Allard?" he questioned softly.
+
+Allard, in evening dress, the tiny jeweled star of honor flashing on his
+coat, was very different in appearance from the smoke-grimed gentleman
+of noon, but his gray eyes met Adrian's in the same indignation with
+which they had shone from beneath the stains of the explosion.
+
+"Almost, sire," he acknowledged.
+
+Staggered by the unexpected frankness, Adrian nearly lost his
+self-possession for the first time in his seventeen years. But he
+recovered immediately.
+
+"Thanks for the 'almost'," he said with nonchalance. "Just bring my
+cloak; I want you to go with me."
+
+Amazed at himself, Allard obeyed, humiliatingly aware that he had been
+scarcely decorous and certainly unwise.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sire," he said seriously, as he offered the cloak.
+
+Adrian surveyed him calmly.
+
+"Was it true?" he queried.
+
+In spite of himself Allard smiled.
+
+"Almost, sire," he confessed.
+
+"Truth is a virtue, at least theoretically, and needs no apology.
+Moreover, I challenged you. Come."
+
+And Allard followed.
+
+It was, of course, impossible to question the Emperor, but Allard's
+anxiety nearly betrayed him into the indiscretion as Adrian slipped on
+the cloak and led the way to a small private salon from which a
+staircase permitted reaching the street unobserved. For, in common with
+Peter the Great and Harun-al-Rashid, Adrian occasionally indulged in
+rambles about his capital, incognito, and with Allard for sole
+companion. It was a habit only a year old, of which even the omniscient
+Stanief was ignorant. The Emperor had made it a point of honor with his
+confidant to guard the secret absolutely; and many a bad hour had Allard
+passed in consequence. No one suspected the true reason why the American
+had bought a compact, exquisite Italian automobile during the summer
+before; or guessed the identity of the slim young chauffeur, masked and
+wearing the usual shapeless coat, who drove the machine through the
+streets at dusk or later. But it was a current tale for laughter in the
+clubs that Monsieur Allard had been arrested four times for
+over-speeding his car and each time had paid his fine without a murmur,
+himself assuming the blame and exonerating his chauffeur.
+
+Perhaps, being young himself, Allard also had enjoyed the variety and
+slight peril of these excursions. But then the city had lain quiet under
+the Regent's strong hand, while now--
+
+For once he was pleased to see Dalmorov, who rose at their entrance into
+the salon. At least his presence proved that nothing wholly secret was
+intended.
+
+"The carriage is ready, Baron?" Adrian asked, drawing on his gloves with
+his leisurely decision of movement.
+
+"It waits at the lower door, sire."
+
+"Very good. Are you ready, Allard?"
+
+"Sire, I did not understand--"
+
+"Well, you have always a coat here, I think."
+
+That was true, and taking a key from his waistcoat pocket Allard
+silently opened the wardrobe that held their apparel for the motor
+trips. It was Adrian's affair, not his, if the proceeding awakened
+Dalmorov's ever-active curiosity.
+
+However, the baron's attention was fixed on the master, not the man; he
+was watching Adrian with intent and crafty eagerness. He barely glanced
+at Allard when he came back ready to go out.
+
+"I also may have the honor of accompanying your Imperial Majesty?" he
+urged.
+
+"No," Adrian returned.
+
+"Sire--"
+
+"No, Dalmorov. Come, Allard."
+
+But Allard stood still.
+
+"Sire, dare I ask where?" he said, with firm respect.
+
+"To drive to the cathedral and observe the preparations for next week,"
+was the dry explanation.
+
+"Pardon me yet again; without escort?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps Monsieur Allard disapproves," suggested Dalmorov sarcastically.
+
+"I do," Allard declared, taking a step toward Adrian and throwing back
+his head obstinately. "It is not fit for the Emperor to go on the
+streets to-night. Sire, I have talked with Captain Alisov of the guards
+and with Zaliski of the secret police, and it is a seething frenzy of
+excitement out there. This morning's attack has brought to the surface
+the most dangerous elements in the capital. To-morrow all may be under
+control, but to-night it is not fit."
+
+"Your affectionate solicitude overwhelms me, Allard," Adrian retorted.
+
+The irony and the allusion brought Allard's color, but he maintained his
+position.
+
+"Sire, I state a fact. There is real and serious danger in such a drive
+this evening. I beg you to consider seriously the event occurring at
+noon."
+
+"I am not Feodor; the attack was on him. Let him keep his house if the
+people make it necessary."
+
+This of the adored Regent, for whom the whole Empire mourned in bitter
+regret! It was too much.
+
+"Sire, the attack this morning was intended for you," Allard flung with
+exasperated bluntness. "When the assailant saw the Grand Duke, he
+shouted directions how to prevent the explosion. It was meant for you;
+all the court and city know it."
+
+Adrian stood quite still, looking from one to the other. Aghast at the
+introduction of rude truth, not venturing to deny what could be
+verified, Dalmorov found no words.
+
+"For me?" the Emperor repeated.
+
+"Yes, sire. And for that I am amazed at Baron Dalmorov's willingness
+that you should go out."
+
+"It is safe," cried Dalmorov furiously. "If you are afraid, Monsieur
+Allard, of your own tales, ask to be left here and let me attend his
+Imperial Majesty."
+
+If the statement regarding the morning had made any impression on
+Adrian, he shook it off as soon as received.
+
+"So; suppose I adopt that suggestion, Allard?" he remarked.
+
+"Sire, if you go out I shall have the honor of going also."
+
+"If I choose that you shall," the Emperor replied.
+
+His eyes afire, Allard touched the star upon his coat.
+
+"If this gives me any claim to your consideration, sire, you will not
+refuse me the privilege of accompanying you. I did not speak for myself,
+indeed I think you scarcely believe so; I spoke because the imperial
+carriage will attract every eye and recognition will be certain. There
+is no one in the Empire for whom the worst districts would be so
+dangerous as the brightest avenues will be for you, sire."
+
+"You invited me out into that, Baron?" was the incredulous question.
+
+"Because it is safe, sire. Because the Regent keeps the secret police on
+guard and I informed--" he checked himself abruptly.
+
+The comprehension that rushed to Adrian's expression was far from
+pleased.
+
+"Oh; I was to go out for a private tour of observation, surrounded by
+the secret police. All my compliments, Dalmorov. It would doubtless have
+been safe, if somewhat misleading."
+
+"No, sire--"
+
+"Let me explain, Allard," he went on, mercilessly ignoring the baron's
+dismay at the exposure of his designs before Stanief's friend. "Dalmorov
+has long been interested in showing me the spirit of the capital and the
+necessity for various changes in the government. And regarding to-day as
+the climax of dissatisfaction with the Regent's methods, he proposed a
+quiet drive through the principal streets as a means of gaging the
+public feeling. He suggested that I would find such a trip an amusing
+novelty."
+
+Remembering their many expeditions Allard's lips twitched, in spite of
+his indignant disgust at the intrigues which were dragging Stanief down
+with myriad nets of cobweb spinning.
+
+"So I consented. The baron felt very strongly the conviction that the
+people themselves would prove to me the necessity of a different mode of
+rule at once. Now it appears that his zeal deceived him, and we can very
+well wait to conclude affairs with dignity next week. That will do,
+Dalmorov; the loving care that made you surround me with secret guards
+might also have impelled you to arrange the crowds from which I was to
+gather my opinion. I shall remain at home to-night. Pray say so to the
+police with whom you and the Regent annoy me, and send the carriage back
+to the stables."
+
+Dalmorov waited an instant for the storm to settle. It was not the
+first stinging rebuke he had endured from the young autocrat, but he had
+the consolation of knowing that few or none of the court escaped the
+same infliction.
+
+"I acted from the purest motives," he began, with profound humility. "If
+my too-great anxiety has displeased your Imperial Majesty, I am grieved
+to the heart."
+
+Adrian turned to him again, his brow quite clear.
+
+"Nothing can alter my regard for you, my dear baron," he interrupted
+kindly. "Only, do not interfere another time. Go, do my errand; I shall
+spend this evening looking over some plans with Allard. Good night."
+
+There was a pause after the door closed. Adrian stood slowly removing
+his gloves, which he abstractedly tossed with his cloak upon the nearest
+chair, and Allard remained waiting patiently. With the latter's relief
+at the decision was mingled a vague wonder at the parting glance he had
+received from Dalmorov. Certainly worsted in the late passage of arms,
+the baron nevertheless had looked at his antagonist with malevolent and
+sinister triumph, a distinctly gratified hate. Was it because he divined
+that the American suffered with Stanief's hurt, and would go with him
+into voluntary exile? There seemed no other solution, yet--
+
+"Open the wardrobe and take out our wraps," Adrian's matter-of-fact
+tones broke in upon the reverie. "I will walk to the garage with you,
+since the palace is watched, instead of letting you bring the car here."
+
+"Sire!" gasped Allard.
+
+"I told you after dinner that I was going out; I never change my mind.
+Simply, Dalmorov is eliminated. Make haste, please."
+
+In despair of gaining more, Allard obeyed, his brief satisfaction ended.
+Resignedly he assisted Adrian into his long coat and put on his own,
+finding what comfort he could in the fact that they had taken many such
+journeys undetected.
+
+In spite of his injunction to make haste, the Emperor did not take at
+once his cap and gauntlets but remained dangling his mask by its ribbons
+and watching his companion's preparations.
+
+"Allard," he said, "you have the faculty of finding yourself in posts of
+danger and making yourself famous. It is an art, or a destiny, that of
+being apropos. Three years ago you acquired a scar and a star in
+protecting me; now you have repeated the exploit for Feodor. Come here."
+
+Wondering, Allard turned.
+
+"Pardon, sire," he objected, "I did nothing at all for the Grand Duke.
+He himself destroyed the bomb; I merely looked on and tried to help."
+
+"Ah? Well, the Grand Duke and the rest of the capital do not agree with
+you. In the newspapers of several continents you are figuring as an
+example of self-possessed bravery and devotion to our house; probably
+you do not care, but the world must have its sensations. And since
+Feodor can not give the tinsel toys that accompany such events, affairs
+are left in my hands. Bend your head--so."
+
+He had lifted a slender, glittering cordon he himself wore, and deftly
+threw it around the other's neck with the last word. Completely taken by
+surprise, Allard had no time for retreat.
+
+"Sire, I should prefer not!" he exclaimed decidedly, almost angrily.
+"I--the Grand Duke is my friend; such things have no place between us.
+Forgive me, and allow me to decline."
+
+"I do not care in the least whether you prefer or not," Adrian replied,
+with the most perfect indifference. "Or whether you earned it or not. It
+is simply a question of dignity. This is expected of me, and I refuse to
+have it said that I place a higher valuation on my own life than on that
+of any one else. You will accept, and wear the order. Of course you do
+not prize the plaything; neither do I. Shall we go?"
+
+The presentation was sufficiently incongruous, indeed the whole scene
+was typical of Adrian himself in its mingling of medieval and
+ultra-modern: the two men in their half-opened motoring coats, and
+beneath, the gleam of the quaint, ancient, gemmed symbols. And the
+Emperor added the final touch by picking up the hideous goggled mask and
+putting it on.
+
+"Let us go," he repeated.
+
+Allard looked down at the pendant Maltese cross of rubies as he buttoned
+his coat, then caught up gauntlets and cap, and went to open the door.
+
+"Dare I offer my thanks after being so ungracious, sire?" he asked
+contritely.
+
+"If you choose. But I would rather have you remember in the future that
+I gave you the decoration before we took this drive, not after."
+
+It was useless to endeavor to understand Adrian's enigmatical moods, but
+that sentence puzzled Allard for many hours, whenever it recurred to
+him.
+
+The walk to the garage was accomplished as often before. Several times
+they passed men whom Allard recognized as belonging to the secret
+service, and doubtless passed many more whom he did not know, all
+letting the Emperor's favorite go by, unquestioned, with his companion.
+But he sighed with relief when they finally reached the garage and he
+stepped into the low, silver-gray machine beside his pretended
+chauffeur. A man flung open the wide doors, Adrian bent forward with
+truly professional ease and nonchalance, and they were out in the damp
+night air.
+
+Through the humming, fevered city they slipped, merely one of many
+vehicles. The streets were filled with walking people, without
+destination or object, walking only from consuming restlessness or
+excitement. The murmur of countless voices rose above the throbbing
+voice of the automobile as it wound in and out among the crowds. On
+every corner men were collected in groups, noisy or quiet according to
+their class, but alike in grim earnestness. Policemen and soldiers were
+everywhere; spurred by the Emperor's threat, the chief of police was
+sifting the city grain by grain for the criminal of the morning.
+
+Not to the cathedral did the gray car take its flight, and Allard's
+amazement reached its culmination when they halted before one of the
+capital's main hotels, under the glaring electric lights. For the first
+time it dawned upon him that there was an object behind the apparent
+capriciousness of the trip.
+
+"I am to descend?" he hazarded, as his companion did not speak.
+
+"No; you are to wait for me."
+
+"I--you--"
+
+Adrian deliberately stepped down and crossed the bright, crowded
+sidewalk into the lobby, deigning no explanation whatever. Utterly
+stupefied, powerless to interfere, Allard watched him; saw him hand a
+card to the attendant who advanced, then follow on into an elevator and
+disappear. The huge hall was filled with chatting men and women, many of
+them moving in the court or diplomatic circles; to the watcher's
+excited fancy it seemed impossible that they should not recognize the
+slight, erect figure; it seemed that Adrian's identity cried out from
+every leisurely movement, every turn of the small imperious head. But
+presently the attendant returned alone, tranquil and smiling.
+
+It was fully an hour that Allard waited, each of the sixty minutes an
+hour in itself. Many of those passing knew and bowed to him; some came
+over to congratulate him on the day's escape or to ask questions
+concerning it. One or two ladies paused with their escorts to shower him
+with effusive compliments. Knowing nothing of Adrian's intentions, he
+dared not even assume the partial protection of his mask. The climax
+arrived with the vibrating roar of another automobile, which fell into
+silence behind him as Count Rosal came placidly around to greet his
+friend.
+
+"You, Allard," he welcomed languidly. "I thought you were on duty every
+night."
+
+"Not this evening; the Emperor," he recollected the fiction told
+Dalmorov, "the Emperor is busy with some plans."
+
+"I have been with the Regent. Do you believe it, the accident has made
+him look years younger. There must be some tonic in gunpowder and
+sulphur fumes. But you, you appear rather upset and pale; or is it these
+abominable lights?"
+
+"It has been a hard day. I am too tired to be amusing, Rosal."
+
+Rosal put his foot on the running-board without the least sign of going
+away.
+
+"Then why are you not at home?" he very naturally inquired.
+
+"Because I had an errand; I was too nervous to rest."
+
+"Waiting for some one?"
+
+"My chauffeur."
+
+Rosal settled his eye-glass, extracted a case of cigarettes which he
+proceeded to offer to Allard, and himself selected one of the contents.
+
+"Tell me," he said confidentially, "is it true that the Emperor took
+scarcely any interest in the Regent's escape?"
+
+"No." Allard watched a descending elevator with keen anxiety; the fear
+that Adrian had been decoyed into some trap was becoming unbearable, yet
+it was impossible to go in search of him.
+
+"They say so at the palace, and all over the city. They say he did not
+even give a word of praise to you."
+
+Aroused to justice as well as a desire to shield Stanief, Allard
+withdrew his eyes from the hotel entrance to regard his visitant.
+
+"Does this seem so?" he demanded irritably, and pushed aside his coat to
+permit a glimpse of the fiery gem he wore.
+
+Rosal's cigarette fell to the pavement; the idle patrician was well
+skilled in matters heraldic.
+
+"That!" he cried, dazzled and envious.
+
+Allard shrugged his shoulders and leaned back.
+
+"Were you going somewhere?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no; just trying to avoid being bored. Every felicitation, my dear
+Allard; that is superb. You have nothing to fear from next week,
+evidently. Vasili told me yesterday that Dalmorov was speaking so kindly
+of you that it positively alarmed him. The baron praised everything you
+had ever done, from the time you came aboard the _Nadeja_ at New York.
+And he asked all manner of questions about the trip over and the Grand
+Duke's fondness for you."
+
+"Yes?" Allard responded absently. He could see an illuminated clock down
+the street, and he resolved that when the hand reached the hour he would
+defy Adrian's order and go in quest of him.
+
+"Yes. A jealous animal, Dalmorov. New family; the title is only three
+generations old. I shall go to Paris next week; he never liked me very
+much, and there is a new singer at the Theatre Francais. _Tiens_, here
+is your man!"
+
+Allard turned sharply, catching his breath. Rosal, who knew the Emperor
+so well,--could he be deceived? Certainly he could not keep the secret
+if it were learned, not if the mines, exile and sudden death itself
+awaited his disclosure; every club in the capital could have afforded
+tales of "_ce bon bavard Rosal_."
+
+Adrian came through the vestibule and across the sidewalk with absolute
+composure. At Rosal he barely glanced while raising his gloved hand in
+conventional salute to the owner of the car.
+
+"Good night, Rosal," Allard said pointedly.
+
+Rosal did not move from his position, blocking entrance to the machine
+and surveying the arrival with mild interest.
+
+"This is the chauffeur who drives over the limit about once a month?" he
+asked, with genuine continental and aristocratic insolence to a supposed
+inferior. "My man, do not apply to me for a position when your master
+tires of you; you are too expensive a luxury."
+
+Adrian saluted imperturbably.
+
+"He is English, he understands no French," Allard interposed. "Really,
+Rosal, I am in haste."
+
+"The Emperor will want you? Alisov told me his Imperial Majesty was
+particularly difficult to-day, so I do not envy you. He is never facile,
+eh? Once more, congratulations."
+
+Adrian's white teeth flashed in the electric light as he averted his
+face from the unconscious Rosal and entered the automobile. He was still
+smiling under his mask when he sent the machine leaping forward.
+
+"I would have given a good deal to have heard your unbiased reply to
+that, Allard," he remarked.
+
+"I fear you would not have been flattered, sire," was the grim answer.
+"I have spent an unendurable evening. Let me implore you to return to
+the palace."
+
+"Eventually. Put on your mask; we are going driving."
+
+Allard obeyed in dumb protest, his powers of remonstrance exhausted,
+and resigned himself to as disagreeable an hour's sport as he could
+imagine. But it was almost enough for the time being to feel his charge
+beside him in comparative security.
+
+As if impelled by perversity, Adrian drove through one swarming avenue
+after another, across the square and down the street where the morning's
+attack had taken place, swinging finally into the dark, deserted park.
+Too early in the season, too late at night, for promenaders, the
+quietness here was in vivid contrast to the scenes just left.
+
+Tired out by excitement and strain, bearing the constant aching regret
+for Stanief's setting star, Allard had been gradually lulled into
+mesmeric quiescence by the shifting lights and shadows. And by a freak
+of exhausted nerves, it was old things thrust out of sight for years
+which took shape out of the dark and dragged their ugliness before him
+in a strange waking nightmare. He forgot the risk of accident, the
+danger of the return through the city, but he saw Desmond's rugged face
+framed in the doorway of the cottage above the Hudson and felt the
+anguish of the abandonment to worse than death. Pictures of his trial
+rose persistently, details of the intolerably bitter months of prison
+lashed his pride.
+
+"You spoke?" Adrian's cool voice broke in.
+
+"Pardon, sire; an old pain caught my breath."
+
+Unnoticed by one of its passengers, the automobile increased its speed,
+rocking softly from side to side, leaping with cat-like lightness the
+inequalities of the road. One might have imagined that the driver also
+fled from his own thoughts through the empty parkways. Allard saw
+nothing; here in the heart of Europe, by the Emperor's side, the hateful
+gray walls had closed around him and he relived the unlivable. He was
+stifling, suffocating, with the sweet spring air singing past like a
+strong wind.
+
+A sharp whistle pierced above the whining purr of the motor, a shouted
+command. Allard started up, bewildered, and the black mood fell from him
+as a muffling garment cast aside. They had emerged again into the city,
+at the same gait.
+
+"The police, sire," he warned reproachfully. "We must stop."
+
+"I will not. Let them try to catch us."
+
+"They will know the car."
+
+"Then we will pay the fine, to-morrow. If they threaten worse I will
+pardon you."
+
+The irony of that might have brought Allard's laugh if he had not been
+distracted by the view ahead.
+
+"Not possible, sire; there is a regiment crossing at the head of the
+square. If we are examined--"
+
+Adrian sullenly shut off the power and came to a standstill. He had no
+desire to have his amusement ended and made an anecdote all over the
+Empire.
+
+"Tell them you are on my affairs," he directed, as the two pursuing
+officers galloped toward them. "Or anything you choose. I will not go
+through a police station farce to-night, do you understand?"
+
+Allard did laugh that time, the relief of waking to reality still
+tingling in his veins.
+
+"Then I must go alone, if they insist. May I ask to take the driver's
+seat and claim his responsibility?"
+
+"For what? They would take the machine. Do you expect me to walk alone
+to the palace?"
+
+"Good heavens, no!" Allard exclaimed vehemently.
+
+The two riders came panting up as Adrian replied with an expressive
+shrug.
+
+"You are under arrest, messieurs," was the crisp announcement.
+
+Allard leaned out into the light of the street lamp, taking off his mask
+and shaking his coat unbuttoned from top to bottom. Perhaps a memory of
+Rosal's admiration prompted the last move.
+
+"For over-speeding?" he inquired sweetly.
+
+"Certainly; monsieur was going at least forty miles an hour."
+
+"Ah, but my errand was important. I am Monsieur Allard, of the household
+of his Imperial Majesty."
+
+John Allard's name was linked with Stanief's on every tongue in the
+capital that night. Moreover, he stood up as he spoke and his coat fell
+apart, revealing the confirming luster of jewels and his elaborately
+careful dress.
+
+"We are desolated, Excellency," the man stammered.
+
+"Oh, you were quite right, but I assure you that it would be a mistake
+to carry this further. I am on an errand for--some one not to be
+questioned. Just fail to remember that you saw me, and there will be no
+trouble."
+
+He held out a hand in which a yellow coin gleamed alluringly. The
+officer coughed, and stooped.
+
+"Yes, Excellency. Graciously excuse our stupidity; it is true that the
+light misled us as to the speed of your Excellency's car."
+
+"Exactly. Good night."
+
+"Good night, Excellency."
+
+"Allard, Allard," drawled Adrian, throwing his levers, "bribery and
+deception! And under my eyes."
+
+"I obeyed orders, sire," he retorted demurely. "May I drive?"
+
+"_La belle excuse!_ However, I admit the coercion. No, you may not
+drive; I will consider your reputation the rest of the way."
+
+This time they turned home, at a more modest pace. Again they ran the
+gauntlet of the brilliant, sullen streets, and Allard's heart lost a
+beat with each halt made necessary by the crowd or each glance from the
+knots of men gathered on the corners. At the sleepy garage they at last
+arrived, and left the automobile.
+
+It was but a short distance to the palace, and they walked in silence
+until almost before the door, when Adrian paused for an instant.
+
+"You guard me so carefully, with so much energy, my inconsistent
+Allard," he observed, the lighter manner of the last hours hardened into
+his usual coldness. "Have you then not thought what it would mean to
+your beloved Regent if I were removed?"
+
+"Sire, if I thought of that it would be to guard you with double care,"
+Allard flashed, shocked and deeply wounded. "Surely I owe so much." And
+after a moment, recovering a little, "For that matter, even the Baron
+Dalmorov admits the protection that the Regent draws around your
+Imperial Majesty. Sire, if the Grand Duke planned treason, has he not
+had ample opportunities before now?"
+
+"Are you trying to convince me that some one still exists who possesses
+a sense of duty?"
+
+"Perhaps you will more readily credit a sense of honor, sire."
+
+"Perhaps. So it is a point of honor to take care of me?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+Adrian turned and went on without comment. The guard at the door saluted
+Allard without regarding the uninteresting figure of the chauffeur, and
+they passed into the safety of the palace.
+
+When they were once more in the little salon and had slipped off their
+wraps, the impression seized Allard that his companion was rather pale
+and fatigued. Either from the pallor or from recent excitement Adrian
+looked younger than usual as he stood pushing back the dark hair
+disordered by his mask, and the watcher was pierced by remorse and
+something of Stanief's wide pity for the one so warped by circumstance
+and environment. Very kind to him the Emperor had been, the Emperor who
+next week would send away the only two men who cared for him and stand
+splendidly desolate in his treacherous court. The pathos of it beat down
+resentment. And being transparent, Allard's gray eyes betrayed the
+softened thoughts as they encountered the other's.
+
+"Well?" Adrian questioned, as if to a spoken phrase.
+
+"You will not believe me, sire, but--I would guard you if nothing
+compelled."
+
+Adrian made a movement of surprise, then smiled at Allard with almost
+his cousin's charming grace.
+
+"Why should I not believe you, who are truth itself? Thank you, Allard.
+Pray come with me; it is time to rest, I fancy."
+
+Allard hurriedly put away their motoring garments, and presently they
+went from the room.
+
+But the Emperor was not one around whom gentle illusions long could
+cling; sword-like he slipped through such gauzy fabrics. As they parted
+for the night he regarded Allard keenly, with even a suggestion of
+amused cruelty.
+
+"If you have found me indecorously frivolous to-night," he said,
+"remember how near we are to next week. It will be a robust sense of
+honor that survives next week, Allard. You can not conceive how
+earnestly I desire my day for which I have waited so long."
+
+Allard stiffened to the rigidity of self-control; comprehending all the
+allusion to Stanief, he found no reply he dared give.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE LAST WEEK
+
+
+As the first week of the regency had been, so the last week was a
+dazzling confusion, a series of gorgeous pageants, a riot of
+semi-Eastern splendor.
+
+But if this last held all the rejoicing and glory of the commencement of
+a new reign, it held also the deep regret and dread of the passing of a
+tested security. The Empire loved Stanief with grateful fervor, it
+feared Adrian. Even in the court were those who foresaw a return to old
+disaster in the rule of the unguided and wilful young sovereign.
+
+Yet before Stanief's own will all these elements were helpless. The
+court party proper triumphed, because the others lacked a leader.
+Dalmorov and his followers, the officials held to strict account under
+Stanief's stern government, the officers and ministers deprived of
+bribes and pillage, the jealous and chafing nobles, all these turned in
+snarling glee to watch the fall.
+
+Through all the chaos Stanief moved with a dignity never so great,
+carrying his head proudly above the conflict. Still the power lay in his
+grasp, and firmly he held the seething country to a semblance of calm.
+Many a shaft he received, many a veiled insolence and obvious taunt,
+growing bolder as the last beads slipped from his chain and the
+ungenerous enemies feared him less; but since the day of the attack he
+had borne himself like one who possesses a secret world of his own.
+
+By his side Iria played her part, no less dreamily radiant. She at least
+met no bitterness except her own knowledge of the coming change; she had
+offended no one, and no one ventured to annoy the Gentle Princess whom
+Adrian's love might yet hold above the wreck. But it was noted as
+significant that the Emperor avoided seeing either her or her husband,
+so far as possible.
+
+The night before the coronation, Allard escaped from the palace and went
+to Stanief. Adrian had released him earlier than usual, and he was
+furious before some new arrogance of the victorious party.
+
+"It is Dalmorov again, and always," he declared savagely. "Monseigneur,
+I never thought myself vindictive, but surely it is time for his
+reckoning. You once said you would crush him while you could;
+to-morrow--"
+
+"To-morrow I can not," Stanief completed. "That is very true, John;
+to-morrow I can do nothing, nothing at all. _Sic transit_--you know the
+rest."
+
+For the first time he had received Allard in the apartments of the Grand
+Duchess, and Iria was seated by her husband in rapt and silent content.
+They also had returned recently from the palace; the shining folds of
+Iria's court dress lay over the floor in billows of rose-and-silver;
+again she wore the pearls whose tinted beauty echoed the soft luster of
+her face.
+
+"To-morrow!" Allard exclaimed impetuously. "Monseigneur, monseigneur, it
+is a quarter to twelve!"
+
+"So late? Well, so I would have the day find us: together. My Empire has
+shrunk to this room, yet left me a universe. For Dalmorov, be satisfied.
+Down in my desk are papers that can send him to a prison or a scaffold,
+as I choose. I have not been idle or forgetful; I thought of you."
+
+"And we waste time! We who count minutes," he sprang to his feet, afire.
+
+Stanief rested his head against the back of the chair, quieting the
+other's energy with a curious smile.
+
+"My dear John, I have had those papers for two months; two months ago I
+sent to England the poor wretch who earned his pardon by aiding me to
+get them."
+
+Stunned, Allard gazed at him.
+
+"Two months?" he repeated. "Two months?"
+
+All the long catalogue of insults, annoyances and petty wrongs rose
+before him, the open warfare and secret insinuations; slowly he gathered
+comprehension of the singular expression with which Stanief frequently
+had regarded his rival on such occasions.
+
+"Perhaps I liked to play with him," the level voice resumed. "Perhaps I
+did not care to deprive the Emperor of his companion while I had still
+so much work to be done. But I think I waited because of a quixotic
+dislike to using my superior strength of position against an antagonist;
+to being both accuser and judge. I am not a child, I have no intention
+of letting him escape and work mischief undisturbed; simply I leave him
+to Adrian's justice."
+
+"Then you--"
+
+"I shall give the evidence to the Emperor after the coronation and
+before I leave the city. If he chooses to pardon Dalmorov, very good; my
+part is done. However, I would not value the baron's chances much. My
+cousin is--my cousin."
+
+"Yes," Allard admitted reluctantly, he too knew the steel-hard Adrian.
+"Only, it seems a pity to give him to-morrow."
+
+Stanief laughed.
+
+"And I fancied you Americans good-natured! Let Dalmorov go with all the
+glittering wreckage of my regency. I have found the better part."
+
+Iria's little hand nestled into the one held out for it, and there fell
+a silence. Allard looked at them, then sighing turned his head. The
+memory of Theodora caught at his heart, Theodora, who had loved Robert
+and now grieved out her marred life, alone amidst the unvalued wealth so
+hardly bought.
+
+From the great cathedral pealed the first rich bell of the chime. Iria
+lifted her finger in warning.
+
+"Midnight," she said softly.
+
+Stanief rose, and drawing her with him, crossed to push aside the
+curtains before the open window.
+
+"Come," he bade Allard. "The last night is gone. Look at the city, John;
+the board of our royal chess, at which I admit checkmate."
+
+Out over the velvet blackness studded with myriad points of light the
+three gazed quietly. Already faint rumors of carnival awoke here and
+there. The capital stirred in its sleep with dreams of the morning, the
+morning whose sunrise would be greeted from every fortress and ship of
+the empire by seventeen guns.
+
+"Never did the purple-and-gold sands slip less regretted from the
+hour-glass," said Stanief, no faltering in the low tones which an hour
+before had carried dominion over a nation. "Only one sorrow I have
+to-night, Iria, when with you and John I lay down the life we know."
+
+She leaned closer against his breast, as if to throw her frail body
+across the gates of destiny.
+
+"And that one, Feodor?"
+
+"Adrian," he answered. "So near to my heart lay pride in proving my
+loyalty, in convincing him of it and living down the lying distrust sown
+by his father and the court, so strong was my determination to lift my
+honor above disbelief and wear my ward's confidence as a decoration in
+all men's eyes. And I dreamed of helping him bear the heavy charge laid
+upon his slim shoulders. Fancies, boyish fancies wiser outgrown; I have
+learned better now."
+
+"The world knows," she whispered.
+
+"Yes; or will know. But I loved Adrian."
+
+The quiet words fell with the last distant chime of bells. Listening, it
+seemed to Allard that no reproach leveled at the young Emperor could be
+so utterly hard to meet in the day of account as that wistful phrase.
+
+Yet the spell of Stanief's tolerance lay on him also; the picture before
+him was not that of the familiar, ruthless autocrat under whom he lived,
+but of Adrian as he had stood in the little salon on the night of the
+drive, pushing back his tumbled dark hair with a gesture of infinite
+fatigue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ADRIAN'S DAY
+
+
+Brilliant in blue-and-gold the dawn opened over the capital. Scarcely a
+breath of wind rippled the warm clear air of the spring morning, a
+morning designed for a country bridal among the scented fields or the
+waking of wild furry creatures in the woods, and which man was seizing
+for such different use.
+
+From the first deafening salute of cannon that ushered in the Emperor's
+seventeenth birthday, the city was in a tumult indescribable. Cavalry
+officers galloped through the swarming, flag-draped streets, gorgeous
+carriages blocked the avenues, marching regiments filled the air with
+military music. Congratulatory messages, visits from foreign
+ambassadors, enforced audiences and preparations for the one great
+event, kept both palaces in kaleidoscopic movement and color.
+
+The old sense of unreality held Allard from the moment when Vladimir
+awakened him three hours earlier than usual to don a costume hitherto
+considered reserved for evening. His usual duties were temporarily
+missing, the Emperor being formally attended to-day by those who had the
+hereditary right to that honor. Not that he was forgotten, at which he
+was surprised and touched, but it was very strange to be summoned to
+Adrian's bedside through an assembly of grave nobles and to speak a few
+brief words of felicitation under a fire of observation none too
+friendly. So often he had leaned against the foot of that pillared,
+curtained bed and amused with light chat of court or club the serene
+occupant who took his chocolate while listening interestedly.
+
+"Thank you, Allard," the Emperor returned only in reply to his slightly
+confused speech, and the American was aware of the diverted, malicious
+comprehension of his embarrassment under the ordeal.
+
+But later he found his place carefully appointed in all the occurrences
+of the day, and realized the forethought with a gratitude and sense of
+obligation harder to bear than neglect. Very difficult Adrian was making
+his determination to follow Stanief; Allard knew now the pain of serving
+two masters.
+
+The morning proceeded, the events pacing on in dignified order. At noon
+fell a pause, city and court poised on tiptoe, and the magnificent
+procession moved from the palace toward the cathedral.
+
+It was all of mirage-like unsubstantiality to Allard: Adrian, strangely
+young and collected in his superb medieval robes, surrounded by his
+glittering nobles; Stanief, hardly less dazzling than the Emperor, with
+gemmed orders and cordons under which his white uniform almost
+disappeared; Iria in her fairy royalty, these were the central figures
+of the pageant. The cheering crowds, the excitement and clamor, were
+merely a background. But once he met Dalmorov's cruel, exultant eyes as
+the baron smiled across the unconscious Stanief, and there was no more
+beauty in the scene.
+
+At last the dim richness of the cathedral received them, the cool,
+incense-freighted twilight of the vast building, the wilderness of
+columns and lofty jeweled windows. Here the throng of witnesses was
+hushed, the organ tones fell soothingly after the noisy streets. The
+atmosphere of the place was infinite calm, and each ancient stone cried
+alike to victor and vanquished its garnered wisdom: "This, too, shall
+pass away."
+
+Sighing, Allard sank passively into contemplation of the spectacle,
+Vasili by his side. Many times he had visited the cathedral with the
+Emperor, never again would he see it like this.
+
+For all its pomp and solemnity, the ceremony was not long. When at last
+Adrian turned to face them, fully invested, when church and city rocked
+with acclamation, Allard felt the first thrill of realization of what
+this meant. And he knew there was nothing the new sovereign could not
+do.
+
+"What is the matter?" questioned Vasili. "Why are you so sober; why are
+you so still? Oh, you English, cold as a stone!"
+
+But Allard did not hear, he was watching the next act in the splendid
+drama, when, as former Regent and first kinsman of the Emperor, Stanief
+moved forward to offer his homage.
+
+"Not here," Allard implored mutely, his eyes on the golden central
+figure, his hands clenched with nervous dread for the one he loved.
+"Surely, surely not even Adrian will hurt him here, before these!"
+
+Perhaps the thought of just how humiliating this could be made was also
+present in Stanief's mind, perhaps some deeper emotion, for there was no
+trace of color in his firm dark face. Intent, breathless, the church
+looked on at the meeting, an audience of courtiers and diplomats whom no
+slightest detail escaped. In her place Iria laid one hand above her
+heart where, under velvet and satin, the tiny Spanish cross still
+rested.
+
+It was over very briefly. As Stanief would have sunk to his knee, Adrian
+made a quick step forward and prevented the movement.
+
+"Not to me, my cousin," he said quietly. "Not now, at least." And he
+embraced the other with a touch that lifted the formality to a caress.
+
+The great mass of people remained absolutely still. One would have said
+there was not a breath drawn or a garment rustled. Stanief himself
+faltered, shaken out of his stoicism and flushing heavily; it was a
+perceptible moment before he recovered and carried on his role.
+
+"_Nom de Dieu!_" gasped Vasili faintly, clutching his companion's
+sleeve. "You saw, Allard, you saw?"
+
+Allard saw. He saw Stanief's oath of allegiance given and received, he
+saw the second embrace which welcomed it; he heard the Emperor's
+graceful speech of thanks for the long service completed now. But no
+one except Stanief himself caught the murmured answer to the quaint,
+earnest phrases of feudal loyalty:
+
+"For the second time, Feodor."
+
+And to the listener the cathedral faded momentarily at the reminder; the
+rose-hued salon of the _Nadeja_ closed around.
+
+The rest of the affair passed more rapidly. Adrian took Iria's hands as
+she came to him and kissed her on both cheeks. After that the others
+came and went, the superb swirl and current rushed on. Once only the
+eyes of Allard and Stanief met across the broad space, and if they
+exchanged wordless relief, they held no other feeling in common, for
+Stanief had never trusted nor understood his cousin less, while Allard
+had refound the Adrian he knew--the Adrian of evening drives and
+bitter-sweet kindness.
+
+In the departure from the cathedral there came a brief confusion and
+rearrangement.
+
+"You will ride with me," Adrian said to his late Regent, on the steps.
+
+"Sire--"
+
+"Take care; I am too new an autocrat for contradiction."
+
+So Iria went surrounded by her butterfly ladies, and Stanief rode by the
+Emperor's side during that bewildering return.
+
+In the streets there was no high-bred reserve; seeing him there, the
+capital went into a madness of enthusiasm.
+
+The rest of the day, the state banquet, passed in no less dazzling
+excitement. But in the midst of all Adrian found an instant to toss a
+word to Allard.
+
+"Is it 'almost,' or quite, to-day?" he demanded.
+
+Happy, dazed, uncomprehending yet content, Allard met the challenging
+eyes in an expressive glance; then for the first time in their years
+together, he impulsively stooped and touched his lips to the slim young
+hand.
+
+"Not at all, sire," he answered most remorsefully.
+
+Adrian's long lustrous eyes opened; perhaps no conquest of the day
+pleased him more.
+
+"Come to me at five o'clock," he directed, and passed on.
+
+Five o'clock. That hour had been generally accepted through the palace
+as the time when the Emperor would withdraw to snatch a brief rest
+before the celebrations of the night. From long custom Allard knew where
+the "come to me" signified, and very pleasant he found his return to the
+familiar routine. Somewhat before the time appointed, he went to the
+octagonal library, the room now flooded with quivering pink light from
+the approaching sunset.
+
+A man turned from a window at his entrance.
+
+"Ah, Monsieur Allard?" said Dalmorov's thin, cutting voice, "Pardon that
+I disturb you, dear monsieur, but the Emperor requested me to meet him
+here, and so--"
+
+Allard surveyed the lean and suave diplomat with his usual antagonism,
+but moved toward a chair instead of adopting the hint to retire.
+
+"I am here for the same reason, Baron," he explained. "A wonderful day
+we have had, have we not?"
+
+"Wonderful, indeed," Dalmorov conceded viciously. "But the ides of March
+have not gone, monsieur."
+
+"What a suggestion for our young Caesar!" Allard deprecated. "Whom do you
+imagine as Brutus, Baron, in our peaceful Empire?"
+
+"You misunderstood; I only pointed out the uncertainty of building upon
+one day."
+
+Anxiety for Stanief stabbed Allard, always and only for Stanief. Yet his
+answer was light and sympathetic:
+
+"Has to-day disappointed you? So sorry, _cher_ Baron."
+
+"No, monsieur; for the event of the day I shall most enjoy is just about
+to take place."
+
+"And my presence threatens to postpone it? It is too bad I can not do as
+you suggested, and leave."
+
+"Not at all; it will increase my pleasure to have you here, Monsieur
+Allard. Meanwhile, the favor of princes is uncertain, and a frail
+shield."
+
+Again that coldly triumphant glance, the tightening of the lines about
+the thin lips. Wilfully Allard misapplied the last sentence.
+
+"Oh, if my poor influence with the Emperor can aid you, Baron! You know
+how I esteem you."
+
+The click of the lock prevented the exasperated Dalmorov's retort.
+Stanief held open the door, then followed Adrian into the room. There
+was no distinction of rank in the surprise with which the three men
+looked at one another, and from one another to the Emperor who had
+brought them together. A thrill of startled expectation ran from each to
+the other like a thread of flame.
+
+Adrian without his muffling draperies of cloth-of-gold was again the
+well-known figure of every-day. Yet there was some subtle difference in
+his bearing, in the carriage of his small head, which left no doubt
+that the ceremony of the morning had been very real. It was
+characteristic that he went to his object without preamble or delay.
+
+"Feodor," he said as he moved to the large central table, and the
+languid sweetness of his accent was a sufficient warning of danger to
+those who knew him, "it is unfortunate to be forced to mingle serious
+affairs with a day already so full, but Baron Dalmorov urges so
+vigorously the necessity for readjusting the government that I have
+consented. You will hardly believe that his anxiety leaves neither of us
+an hour's repose. Will you assist us in this task?"
+
+"If I can, sire," Stanief answered gravely. The kitten was playing with
+the mice; too well had the Regent learned his deceptive ward for him to
+draw confidence from the Emperor's courtesy during the day.
+
+"Who else, cousin?" returned Adrian, with exquisite grace. "Who can do
+so well? How should the country continue without the wise hand that has
+guided it through these three years? Pray reassure Baron Dalmorov by
+telling him that you will still hold in fact the power that nominally
+you resigned this morning, always aided by my loving support."
+
+Allard grasped the back of a chair; so much even he had never hoped.
+Stupefied, Dalmorov gazed paling at Adrian, who leaned tranquilly
+against the table, his lips curved in a very slight cold smile.
+
+"If you indeed speak seriously, sire, I can have but one reply," Stanief
+said. "Forgive me for the doubt."
+
+"Since I have taught you it, why not? But the farce is over, the game
+closed. Dalmorov, pray attend; possibly you also may be interested in
+the explanation that my cousin asks." For the first time his glance went
+that way. "At least you best can understand why this game has been
+played. For a game it has been, Feodor. If a cruel one, why, our race is
+not gentle nor reared in tenderness. Or to truth, remember that; your
+mother was an Englishwoman. I give what I have received; you alone ever
+gave or asked of me frankness. Take it now, if long delayed."
+
+He paused, his lashes fell as if his gaze went back and within. No one
+moved or spoke as the fire mounted visibly through his calm, shriveling
+his trained composure and beating against his self-control.
+
+"I love you, my cousin," he said, the quietness forced on his voice
+leaving it almost monotonous. "I loved you long ago in my lonely
+childhood, when your rare visits came like sunny flashes across my
+dreariness and I used to stand at my window to watch you ride by each
+day. I had no other affections to distract me; I loved you still,
+however unwillingly, when I went at night to the _Nadeja_ three years
+ago. But you asked me to trust you, and my training had left me no trust
+to give. Not that I did not want to trust you, for I did want to give
+that with a longing you scarcely can understand; but I could not, then.
+Look back to then, Feodor, for the commencement of the game ended now.
+Loving you, distrusting all alike, I listened to you when you were with
+me and listened to your enemies when you were not, striving to reach the
+fact beneath in the only method I have seen practised. There could not
+have been a more unequal battle, yet at the end of the first year you
+had won. You and Allard had convinced me that there did exist men
+different from my world. The vista widened for me; I caught a glimpse of
+a golden age within the one I so despised, the ancient breath of
+chivalry claimed life beside me. So the second year opened. The second
+year--" again the cold glance swept Dalmorov. "How did you employ the
+second year, Baron?"
+
+"Sire--"
+
+With a shrug Adrian turned from him; this time his eyes met his cousin's
+and held them.
+
+"I have not been happy, Feodor," he resumed, the control not quite so
+perfect. "For one clean word of yours, a thousand poisonous speeches
+were poured into my ears; never a simple action of yours escaped being
+shown to me as hiding some sinister motive. When you brought order out
+of the chaotic country, they explained that you prepared your own
+Empire; when you paid me your grave deference, they told me it was used
+to lull a fretful child until he could be removed. When you spoke of the
+day you would yield the sovereignty to me, they laughed. You guessed
+some of this? All of it you could not conceive, their incredible
+ingenuity of falsehood and false witness. And hate them as I would, a
+little of the venom clung. When the beginning of the third year arrived,
+I stood alone and surveyed it all; older at sixteen, cousin, than you
+will ever be. On one side lay the reeking swamp they made of life, on
+the other the firm white road and you. And I realized then that if you
+failed me, it would not be an Empire I would lose, but a universe and a
+belief in God. Ask Allard some day how I spent last New Year's Eve."
+
+Allard caught his breath; clearly it stood out in his memory,--that
+night when Adrian had sent for him near midnight. "Sleep, read, do what
+you like, but stay where I can see you," had been the curt command. And
+when dawn had opened grayly across the city, Adrian was still pacing
+restlessly up and down the fire-lit room, his sorely puzzled companion
+still watching by the hearth.
+
+"For many months I had held one hope of a definite answer, Feodor, a
+limit to uncertainty. 'After the coronation I will know,' I told myself.
+'If he lays down the scepter, they have lied.' And Dalmorov took from me
+even that.
+
+"'He will crown you,' he said, 'because so he can keep the faith of the
+people and yet rule the country through your weakness and love for
+him.'"
+
+Stanief would have spoken, deeply moved, but Adrian checked him while
+himself coloring with no less emotion.
+
+"Wait still a little. I ask you to remember that never have I taken one
+step at the suggestion of your enemies or at the wish of this Dalmorov
+whom you believed my friend. Whichever of us succeeded to Empire, I had
+the consolation of knowing he would fall. No one has stood between us;
+alone I decided upon my test and made it, because I had come to the
+point where I must choose between your world and theirs. I have called
+this a game--it was the trial of a faith. Need I say the rest? The tax
+dispute gave the excuse, I feigned a break with you. My cousin, now can
+you measure the cost to me of the last year?"
+
+He paused for the answer, and finding it written in the mute Stanief's
+eyes, went on more hurriedly.
+
+"No one knew the truth, although Iria and Allard nearly tempted me to
+confidence. I deprived you of the faintest hope of peace with me, I left
+you to the snarling hate and malice of the court; I even added to
+ingratitude the last insult of menace. Through it all you moved
+steadily toward your goal, holding your head above us all. I have
+learned, at last. If I avoided you, Feodor, it was because I felt my
+courage failing before yours. If I have spoken to you curtly, it was
+because I feared to say this too soon. If I refused to see you after the
+accident last week, it was because I was sick with horror at the
+nearness of losing you, because I was too near to ending the pretense of
+months just before its climax. And I had set my heart on standing with
+you, thus, and defying even this man to find an accusation that you have
+not answered. So," he took a step forward and passed his hand through
+Stanief's arm, the last reserve swept away by his own vivid energy. "So,
+together; now speak, Dalmorov, before you leave the capital. What
+selfish motive or hope led the Regent to-day when he came to me in the
+cathedral?"
+
+At the two Dalmorov looked, attempting no reply. Not pleasant to see was
+his face in that moment. Allard, quivering, radiant, found room to pity
+the outgeneraled and annihilated intriguer.
+
+"Nothing?" insisted Adrian, the voice so gentle to his cousin, merciless
+enough now. "Nothing? Feodor, you see my plaything; never again rate me
+so low as to credit me with such a favorite. The man who aspired to hold
+your place; who fancied us both victims of his clumsy intrigues; the man
+who never even perceived the contempt and dislike I scarcely troubled to
+conceal, look at him. Dragged from his shadows into the sun, facing you,
+he has no longer one falsehood to offer."
+
+"Sire," interposed Stanief for very compassion, himself unsteadied by
+the happiness that makes generosity easy.
+
+Adrian turned on him swiftly.
+
+"You? You, Feodor? Oh, it needed but that! Thank the Grand Duke for his
+intercession, Baron Dalmorov, and go."
+
+The last humiliation was too much. Sallow with defeat and bitter
+mortification, Dalmorov collected himself to strike the only one within
+reach, the one through whom alone he could wound the others.
+
+"If it has pleased your Imperial Majesty to misunderstand, I may not say
+misuse, my devotion, I must submit," he said tremulously. "I can do
+nothing else."
+
+"No, I think not."
+
+"Yet permit me to give a last service due to respect for my sovereign.
+My defense I leave to time. This nameless American whom it has pleased
+his Royal Highness to place near your person, sire, is not fit for such
+an honor. Rather he should be in the mines."
+
+Stanief started violently, his eyes flashing to Allard, who kept his
+pose with a serenity drawn from utter helplessness.
+
+"Take care, Dalmorov," Adrian cautioned sternly.
+
+The baron bowed.
+
+"Sire, some months ago chance called me to this investigation. There
+passed through the city a gentleman who had visited the California
+Allards a year before this man came here. The visitor declared that this
+was not the Allard he knew, and no other member of the family had
+alluded to another absent one. Naturally anxious and alarmed, I searched
+further. The officers of the _Nadeja_ admitted that no one had seen the
+new secretary until one night his Royal Highness brought him hurriedly
+aboard, while the yacht lay opposite an American prison. At the exact
+hour of his arrival, the alarm was raised on shore of the escape of a
+convict. It is a singular coincidence, sire."
+
+"It is very uninteresting, Baron. What of it?"
+
+"Sire, only loyalty could make me continue. I obtained some journals of
+that date and a little later. The prisoner who escaped was not
+recaptured; and out in California the gentleman died whose honorable
+name this man claims. Give me time, long enough to send to America, and
+I can find proof that your Imperial Majesty's favorite companion is the
+prisoner Leroy masquerading as one who is not living to contradict him.
+Why the Grand Duke placed him here, it is not for me to say."
+
+Twice Stanief had moved to speak, and each time the restraining hand on
+his arm had imposed silence.
+
+"Hush, Feodor; this is my affair," Adrian said, divining the rebellion
+at this last before it could take speech. "Baron Dalmorov, with time you
+could no doubt make any proofs you desire; I have seen it done. We close
+this subject to-day. Are you willing to relieve the baron's cares,
+Allard?"
+
+So near the truth, and yet so far from it, had the accusation gone. It
+was not of himself Allard thought at the moment, but of Stanief,
+Stanief, who had protected him and who must be shielded from the
+consequence.
+
+"Sire, I am John Allard," he replied, giving that fact with the appeal
+of sincerity. "The Allard to whom Baron Dalmorov refers was my brother
+Robert. For the rest, it is perfectly true that I was not in California
+the year before I came here. The American who did not recognize me was
+of course my brother's guest during my absence."
+
+"You do not comprehend," Adrian corrected sweetly. "I never intended to
+ask you to defend yourself against this chain of absurdities. I do not
+admire your assailant's methods, and I adopt my own. I would ask if both
+you and Dalmorov will be content with the evidence of a witness who knew
+the California Allards beyond dispute."
+
+"Certainly, sire," he answered, wondering, yet welcoming any course that
+led them from New York.
+
+"Sire, if any Californian identifies this man, of course my case fails,"
+conceded Dalmorov with his bitter smile. "But, it will not be so."
+
+"Pray ring the bell, Allard, twice," directed Adrian.
+
+They waited in silence. Adrian moved to a chair. Stanief sought
+Allard's eyes with the steadying message of his own, an intensity of
+reassurance and protection. In reserve he was holding his own power to
+ruin Dalmorov, and he fiercely reproached himself with not having
+foreseen and used it before this could have happened.
+
+But Allard showed no agitation to his keen watchers. It seemed to him
+that this had been closing around him for days, that he had felt the old
+things reclaiming him as the unseen net drew and tightened. Now there
+was nothing he could do; the moment balanced, ready to fall either way
+at the light touch of chance. Away from himself he laid the decision,
+before a higher tribunal than Adrian's, setting all his life against one
+error. The speech of his thought was the same as it once was on the
+wharf before the Hudson prison: "If I have paid--" Quietly, with a
+dignity all unconscious, he awaited the judgment.
+
+A rustle of silken garments, a silver echo of a southern voice as the
+door opened, and Iria was in the room, Iria, flushed, smiling, and by
+her side a girl in white whom two of those present had never seen. As
+the Duchess swept her graceful salute to the Emperor, Allard's cry rang
+through the place:
+
+"Theodora! Theodora!"
+
+His answer was given. The girl held out her hands as he sprang forward
+to clasp them; there existed no one else for either during the long
+moment when they remained gazing in each other's eyes with the hunger of
+years.
+
+[Illustration: There existed no one else for either.]
+
+Smiling, Adrian moved forward a chair for Iria, whispering a phrase in
+passing which sent the light blushes to her forehead as she glanced
+shyly at Stanief. Then, Theodora slipping her fingers from Allard's with
+confused recollection of their situation, the Emperor claimed her
+attention.
+
+"Mademoiselle Leslie, let me present to you the Baron Sergius Dalmorov,
+formerly of this court. And, since he appears suffering under a strange
+misconception, do me the favor of informing him who is the gentleman
+whom you have just greeted."
+
+Evidently Theodora knew Adrian, for she answered his smile with trustful
+friendliness while acknowledging the introduction.
+
+"Monsieur le Baron, I am charmed," she said in her pretty, hesitating
+French. "This is my cousin, John Leslie Allard, whom I have not seen for
+many years. We grew up together; and in the pleasure of meeting him
+again--"
+
+"Thank you, mademoiselle," interposed Adrian. "Let me complete the aid
+to your halting memory, Dalmorov, and recall in Monsieur Allard my loyal
+friend of three years' trial, the gentleman who bears the scar and the
+decorations gained in defense of my life and my cousin's. Several months
+ago you first hinted at this attack on him. Knowing you very well, I
+obtained the necessary details from him under a pretext, and myself
+wrote to Madame Leslie suggesting that she bring mademoiselle here for
+the coronation. A week ago they arrived at the Hotel Anglais, where I
+had the pleasure of visiting them one evening." He looked at Allard in
+cool amusement, but it was something very far from amusement that rose
+in the gray eyes in answer to the memories of that evening. "We
+explained a few details to one another; since then they have been the
+guests of the Grand Duchess, who promised me secrecy."
+
+"I did not even tell you, Feodor," murmured Iria plaintively.
+
+"Feodor will forgive you," assured Adrian. "Baron Dalmorov, you have our
+permission to retire from the capital at once; you are not suited for
+court life. Unfortunately you have broken no laws. I wish most sincerely
+that it were in my power to find some excuse for punishing you as I
+should enjoy; I have no doubt at least one exists. But you may go, and
+in future avoid the same city with me. That is all; I have waited a long
+while for to-day."
+
+Stanief turned to Allard, then expressively regarded the man who moved
+almost gropingly toward the door.
+
+"Shall I give the excuse?" the glance asked.
+
+And Allard's impulsive gesture answered.
+
+"Has he not enough?" flashed the mute return.
+
+The door closed gently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CLOSED
+
+
+Beyond, the marble arches, the brilliancy, the color and movement of the
+vast ball-room; here, the perfumed dusk of the conservatory's mimic
+garden, lighted by tiny jeweled lamps hung among the flowers. And over
+both atmospheres the dreamlike enchantment of the strange national music
+that Adrian loved. Sighing, Allard leaned forward, his eyes delighting
+in contemplation of the girl opposite.
+
+"To see you like this! Theodora, I have so sorrowfully pictured you as
+changed, as grieved and saddened out of the brightness I so longed to
+keep for you. And you are the same, always the same, dear."
+
+She smiled, half-tenderly, half in indulgent mockery.
+
+"But I am not the same, nor are you, John. I am twenty-five instead of
+nineteen, and much wiser than Theo Leslie used to be. While you--his
+excellency Monsieur Allard of the imperial household, is somewhat older
+and much more dignified, and a trifle more interesting. When I see you
+moving through this court with so much ease, in all your gorgeousness so
+naturally worn,"--she made a laughing gesture to the gemmed orders--"I
+think--I think perhaps it is well we have both grown."
+
+The truth of the judgment held him, and sent a startled hope.
+
+"If we have grown nearer, Theo?"
+
+"I have tried to say--that. Can you guess how mamma and I have followed
+you through scattered newspaper articles and items of European news? How
+we rejoiced and cried together when you saved the Emperor from death and
+were yourself wounded, when your name was everywhere? You wrote so
+seldom, and never to me."
+
+"I thought you must hate me for leaving Robert; I never forgot that."
+
+Her vivid face grew serious, her eyes fell to the fan in her lap.
+
+"I could never have felt so, whatever you had done. John, the last
+morning he spoke to us, Robert said that for us you had made a sacrifice
+we could not even conceive. He told us that we must never question you
+nor seek to know, but that you were above all blame. Perhaps I had
+already guessed you were not happy, remembering the night before you
+went away."
+
+"There was never one like Robert," he said, gratitude a pain. "Theodora,
+I never wondered that you loved him."
+
+She stirred, the faint, familiar sweetness of sandalwood and rose was
+shaken from her laces by the movement; wide and very soft were the eyes
+she lifted to his.
+
+"I did not love him, as you meant. John, John, you were wrong."
+
+The conservatory wavered before his gaze; he rose impetuously and she
+with him.
+
+"Wrong? Then--"
+
+"You, John. Oh, could you not tell a girl's playmate from her lover?
+Robert read the truth; and I believe he was glad. John--"
+
+Slowly, almost fearfully, he drew her to his arms.
+
+"Wrong! Oh, Theo, it has all been wrong, and the fault mine! That out of
+it all should come to-day, my dear, my dear."
+
+Presently she slipped from him, starrily radiant, leaving her hands in
+his as she looked up.
+
+"Do you know how I found courage to tell you this, John?"
+
+"You knew I loved you all my life."
+
+"But it was so very long, so very long; you might have forgotten or
+changed. No, it was because the night he came to our hotel, the Emperor
+told me that you cared for me still. 'That is why I brought you here,
+mademoiselle,' he said. 'What he gives once, he gives for ever, this
+Allard of ours.' And so I ventured."
+
+Allard looked out across the flower-draped arches to the ball-room
+beyond. Stately, self-contained, Stanief was moving down the floor
+between the parting throngs of guests, the gently glad Iria at his side.
+From his seat Adrian leaned forward to watch them, his keen, dark young
+face softened to a great content.
+
+"When we do wrong, sometimes we are allowed to make our payment, if we
+try," he said dreamily. "But how can we pay our debt of unearned
+happiness, Theodora?"
+
+Smiling, she drew nearer.
+
+"You have the man's justice, John; now learn the woman's art of
+graciousness. Unquestioningly let us accept our gifts."
+
+He turned to her, flushing, and took her hands.
+
+"It is that! Thank you, Theo. The account is closed; the
+rest--commences."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Game and the Candle, by Eleanor M. Ingram
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