CHAPTER IX
A SECRET INTERVIEW
I wondered if they would not detect the odor of my cigar, and thusdiscover that they were not alone in the garden, but the draft carriedthe smoke away from them; and then I became absorbed in what they weresaying.
"I can give you only a few moments, Ivan," murmured the princess. "Myguests will miss me. You should have come to me later."
"I know; but it was impossible. There is a meeting to-night, and ourgood friends are very anxious to hear something from you. When can yoube present to tell them in your own words what you accomplished duringyour journey?"
The tone of the question was masterful, and unconsciously I resentedit.
What right had any other man to address my princess in that manner? foralready I found myself regarding her as _my_ princess. I knew now thatI had wandered into the garden solely for the purpose of being alone tothink about her, and that in my short journeys up and down the paths,finally ending among the cushions of the Turkish bower, I had had herwith me for a companion. You will discover by this statement that I wasstill mindful of her presence near me, even though I had left her inthe drawing room while I went away alone; but it is always possible toconjure a personal presence if the mind is sufficiently intent upon it,and even though that presence be not physical, it is nevertheless real.
The tone of the man who was speaking with her in the adjoining bowerwas masterful, as I have said. More than that it was familiar. It waseven intimate, I thought, and I was conscious of a silent rage when Iheard it.
I sensed his words subconsciously, and yet I had thoroughlycomprehended them. He had spoken of a meeting of their "very goodfriends" and I had no doubt to whom he referred; neither had I anydoubt at the moment, that this man talking so confidentially with theprincess, was one of the "marked" members of that rapidly wideninggroup of persons whom my busily engaged employees were learning toknow.
It was with a distinct shock, however, that I realized by virtue of theintimate manner of the man, that Zara de Echeveria must also beimplicated with the nihilists, since he dared to speak to her soopenly, so masterfully, and with such confident reliance upon themanner in which his communication would be received. Her replyconvinced me sufficiently, had I required added conviction at thatmoment.
"I do not know," she said. "Say that I will send word to them in theusual way, and at the earliest opportunity. Say that I was entirelysuccessful; that everything in Paris and Berlin is in the mostexcellent condition, and that nothing--absolutely nothing, youunderstand--must be done without my knowledge and permission."
"Our friends are becoming very impatient, Zara."
"Zara!" I unconsciously repeated the name after him, but it was undermy breath, so that not a sound escaped me. Who could this man be whodared to address my princess by her given name, for in my secret soulshe was my princess still, even though she had already said enough toconvince me that she was an enemy to the czar whom I was serving.
"Let them. They must wait," she responded, with decision. "I will notbe hurried. They are sworn to obey me. Tell them to await my pleasure.It is enough."
"There are some among them--you know who they are--who chafe under thisrestraint, Zara. I am afraid that they will get beyond your controlunless something is done speedily."
"Let those who are loyal to me serve _them_ as _they_ would serveAlexander, if there is any sign of insubordination," was the haughtyrejoinder. "Such is my order; and now, Ivan, you must go. Stay though!What of Jean Moret?"
"He is dead."
"Dead? Do you know that to be true?"
"No. He has disappeared from the palace, nobody knows whither. He hasnot gone to Siberia and our agents cannot find him in the city prisons.We have made every effort. Doubtless he betrayed himself in some mannerand was quietly put out of the way."
"I will investigate the matter. He might have betrayed us, if caughtand put to the torture. I can make Prince Michael tell me. Moret wasmore fool than knave, and he might have been induced to talk."
"He might have betrayed _us_; he would never betray _you_, Zara."
"I do not think so; and yet, it may be that I have gone too far withhim. It is plain that I must make my prince talk."
Her prince! God! How the expression rankled! What revelations thisoverheard conversation was bringing to pass! From being in the seventhheaven of bliss, transported there by the few moments I had passed inthe society of Zara, I was now plunged into the hell of doubt,uncertainty, and disillusionment. She spoke of "her prince"--and therecould be no possible doubt that she referred to Prince Michael--as ifhe were already a mere puppet in her hands, to bow before her and fawnat her feet, as she willed it. And the prince, great and noble byinstinct and nature, who had with such dignity admitted to me his lovefor her, was having his feelings and his affections played upon as askilled performer touches the keys of a piano.
It was a new and unsuspected phase of Zara's character thus unfolded tome; and it was a most disquieting one. Standing with her as I had doneamong her guests, seated beside her as I had been for a few momentsbefore I left her to go into the garden, I had believed in her as adevout worshipper believes in his deity, thinking no evil, believingthat she could do no wrong, and placing her upon a pedestal that washigh above all of the petty considerations of ordinary humanity. Andthen, as if to add to the sudden pain that was in my heart, this manwho dared to address her by her given name, and whom she called Ivan,chuckled aloud as he remarked with unwonted intimacy:
"You have only to encourage him a little, Zara. The prince will talk.Never fear. Your power----"
"Encourage him!" It is impossible to describe the sense of outragewhich Zara de Echeveria managed to include in the enunciation ofthose two words. Listening from my place among the cushions in theTurkish bower, I was conscious of a feeling of gladness that it wasso; that she resented the tone of the man, as well as the words hehad uttered; that she repudiated utterly the insinuation he hadmade. "You use the term as if you thought it were a pleasure to meto lead men on, simply because God gave me the beauty and the power.I hate it; oh, how I hate it! Suppose that Jean Moret _is_ dead,who, then, in God's name is responsible for his death? I, I alone!Do you think that I am so heartless that I can look upon such thingswith no pang of self-reproach? I wish that I were old and ugly,fortuneless and an outcast--or dead. Then I would not be compelledto prostitute my beauty and my talents to conspire with a rabble ofscoundrels and convicts who discuss murder and assassination as ifthey were pastimes."
"Hush! You do not realize what you say, Zara. Your own life----"
She laughed outright, interrupting him.
"My own life! Do you think I care for that? I wish they would kill meand so end all this hateful, horrible scheming to murder and destroy."
"Hush, Zara! hush! You must not talk in that way."
"Not talk that way?" The princess laughed somewhat wildly, I thought,from my place of concealment, but still she made no sound that couldhave penetrated much farther than I was distant from their interview."Not talk that way?" she repeated, and this time was silent for aspell, as if she were herself considering the reasons why she shouldnot do so. There had been more of fright than menace, in the tone ofthe man called Ivan, when he cautioned her, and I could imagine howterrorized any member of the nihilistic fraternity must be if therewere the least danger that disloyal thoughts of theirs might findlodgment in unsuspected places. "I will talk that way; I will talk as Iplease; nor you, nor any one, shall stand between me and my liberty ofaction and speech. What care I for all the murderers and assassins whoform this terrible society of which we are members? Hear me? They couldonly swear my life away as they have done to others in many parallelcases. They could only destroy me; and Ivan, sometimes, upon my bendedknees I pray for death. What matter would it be to me how death mightcome, so long as I am prepared to welcome it? I hate and loathe myselfwhen I stop to consider all the contemptible acts I am compelled toperform, when I pause to realize the utter prostitution o
f self-respectI am forced to undergo, in order to carry on the plots of our 'goodfriends,' as you call them. Good friends, indeed! To whom, let me askyou, do they demonstrate the friendly spirit? Where can you point to afriendly act done by any one of them, unless it is to a prisoneralready condemned, or to an assassin who is in danger of arrest? My ownlife?" she laughed again. "Ivan, were it not that I honestly believethat I can, by myself accomplish some great good in this undertaking, Iwould destroy that life with my own hands; for I tell you that it wouldbe much easier to drive a poniard through my own heart, or to swallow acup of poison, than it is for me to make sport of the affections ofsuch men as the stately, generous Prince Michael, or that poorlove-sick fool, Moret. Hush! don't say another word to me on thesubject of warning, for it only angers me, and fills me with a contemptwhich I find it difficult to master."
"But, Zara, you must not talk so. I cannot listen."
"Then leave me. Go. I wish to be alone for a time before I return tothe salon. Deliver my message, and also the order I gave you."
I heard no more after that, but I knew that he had gone, although therewas no sound of his departure. Then I listened for the rustle of theprincess' dress when she should move away. Presently it came. Shesighed, then rose from the couch where she had been sitting, and I knewthat she had stepped out upon the path. I closed my eyes, the better tothink upon the remarkable revelations that had come to me as a resultof that conversation. One, two, five, perhaps ten minutes I remainedthus, turning the extraordinary incident over in my mind. But presentlyI opened them again, lazily and slowly at first, and then with a suddenstart, for they encountered the form of the princess where she stood asmotionless as a statue but with one arm extended holding back a palmleaf which half filled the entrance to my place of concealment.
God knows what impulse it was that had impelled her, in parting withher recent companion, to pause at the Turkish bower in which I wasconcealed, and so, to discover me. I had heard no sound whatever. I hadsupposed that both were gone. The shock induced by the revelations Ihad just overheard, the disillusionment I had experienced in regard toPrincess Zara, had affected me more than I realized, and the act ofclosing my eyes and thinking it over had been the result of the sameimpulse which sends a frightened woman to her own room, to close thedoor behind her in order that she may be alone. By the act of closingmy eyes, I shut out the world by which I was surrounded--that worldwhich had now become so hateful to me because of the work I had to do.But nevertheless I looked up steadily into the eyes of the princess,wondering at the calmness and grace of her attitude, and amazed thatshe should not show more consternation than she did, at the discoverythat there was a witness to her interview with the man Ivan. Save for asuggestion of pallor which had driven away the natural flushes from hercheeks, and perhaps for an added brightness, or rather a differentbrightness, to her eyes, she was the same as ever, although the smilewhich she now bestowed upon me seemed a bit constrained.
I LOOKED UP STEADILY INTO THE EYES OF THE PRINCESS,(Page 132)]
"You are not sleeping," she said, calmly, but with conviction. Theremark was not a question; it was a statement.
"No," I replied, as calmly.
"And have not been asleep?"
"No."
"You heard?"
"Yes, princess, I heard."
She was silent, and minutes passed before she spoke again, so that Ibegan to wonder if she had decided to say no more.
"Mr. Dubravnik," she said, and in English, "will you do me one favor inregard to this conversation you have overheard? Will you keep myconfidence till to-morrow?"
I wondered again at the princess' coolness. Realizing the peril she wasin, as she must unquestionably have done, it was strange that she couldcommand herself so well as to remain perfectly in possession of all herfaculties, in the face of such dire peril.
For a moment I hesitated. It was a very great favor that she asked ofme so calmly; just how great a favor it was, she could not know; andyet there was no reason why I should not grant her request, being whatI was and who I was. In that interval I wondered what this beautifulcreature before me would think, or say, if she could have guessed thatit was the chief of the most remarkable secret service bureau in theworld whom she was addressing; if she could have guessed that the veryman among all other men, whom she would least have thought of takinginto her confidence, was the one before her who had listened to theconversation.
"Yes. I will do that," I replied, as deliberately as she had asked thequestion; and I watched her closely as I did so, holding myself well inhand, the while, in order that I might not instantly fall again underthe spell of her fascinations.
"And come to me then? I will expect you at noon."
"Yes, princess."
"I thank you, sir. And now, if you will give me your arm, we willreturn to the drawing room."
I could not help marveling at the wonderful self possession of thewoman whose life, liberty, honor, happiness, and whose all, had been bymeans of the conversation I had overheard, placed utterly at my mercy.Even though I were really what she supposed me to be, an ordinarycitizen, the danger was no less, for I had but to repeat what I hadheard, to bring about an investigation which could result in only oneway. Her composure was absolute as we walked side by side towards thehouse, nor did she once refer to the subject upon which we were boththinking so deeply. She was a shade paler than usual, but beyond thatthere was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had occurred; nordid she manifest any evidence of the nervous fear which would haveprostrated most women in such a predicament.
Neither of us recurred to the subject that was uppermost in our minds.Indeed we were silent during the moment that was required to traversethe length of the garden, and to pass from it into the house where thecompany was assembled.
But I was conscious of a subtle change in the character of my feelingstowards Zara de Echeveria. The fascination that had enthralled me alittle while back, was tempered now by a wholesome dread of thisriotously beautiful creature who could use her God-given feminineattributes to attain such deplorable ends. What had seemed to me to bea creature of utter loveliness, had now degenerated to a thing that wasmomentarily horrible, because what I had believed to be all purity, andall perfection, had suddenly been revealed as something that was akinto unmoral.
We parted at the door, she to cross the room and join a group of herguests who were clamoring for her while I loitered, with no purposesave to avoid comment on the apparent fact that the princess and I hadbeen so long a time together in the garden. The prince joined me whileI stood there. He was accompanied by a man whom he wished to introduceto me.
"Ah, Dubravnik," he said. "I have been looking everywhere for you.Didn't know but you had gone. This is my friend Alexis Durnief. You'veeach heard me talk about the other, so you should be good friends."
"Captain Alexis Durnief?" I asked, shaking hands with him.
"The same," he replied. "Just returned from one of the far posts inSiberia, and I am very glad to be back here again. I haven't had anopportunity to greet the princess yet; you kept her in the garden solong."
I thought that he gave me a significant glance as he made the laughingremark, but as the princess herself joined us at that moment, I did notgive it a second thought. He gave her his arm, and they went awaytogether, leaving the prince and myself alone.
"I think, if you do not mind, I will go," I said. The house of PrincessZara had suddenly become hateful to me."
"What! At this hour? Why?" Prince Michael was amazed.
"Oh, there is no reason, other than that I feel like it," I told him,shrugging my shoulders and trying to look bored.
"Then stay. Some of the best people are not here, yet. Or did your halfhour in the garden upset you, Dubravnik?" He essayed a light laughteras he asked the question, but it had a hollow sound, nevertheless.
"Not at all," I assured him.
"I can assure you that it is an honor which the princess confers uponvery few of her friends, and nev
er on new acquaintances. You are theonly exception I have ever known," he added.
"Indeed? We met in the garden by accident, and in reality were togethernot more than two minutes--the time that it takes to walk the length ofit, so I do not feel as greatly honored as I might have done if she hadgone there with me and had given me all that time----"
"I did not have an opportunity, for you never asked me to do so," saidthe soft tones of the princess immediately behind me; and as I turnedshe added: "but these rooms are suffocating, so if you will give meyour arm now, Mr. Dubravnik, we will lead the way, and perhaps theothers will follow. I know that the gentlemen are longing for anopportunity to smoke."
"Dubravnik was on the point of leaving us," the prince called afterher. "You arrived just in time, princess. Perhaps you can persuade himto change his mind."
"Were you contemplating suicide, Mr. Dubravnik?" she asked laughing;but there was an undercurrent of gravity in her question which wasdeeply significant.
"Something very like it," I replied, as gravely, "since I was about toleave your presence."
"Supposing you to be serious"--and I felt that her hand unconsciouslytightened its clasp upon my arm as we moved away--"would it not bebetter for me to do the deed, than for you?"
"I am afraid that the supposition is altogether too foreign to mynature for me to entertain it, princess."
We had entered the garden, and a throng of guests were trooping afterus. I glanced down at my companion, and saw that she was regarding merather anxiously through her lashes.
"Suicide is the only solution for all problems at once," she said.
"Pardon me; it is the solution for only one."
"Only one? What is that?"
"Moral cowardice."
"But there may be circumstances where it offers the only means ofescape from an alternative that is infinitely worse, Mr. Dubravnik." Wewere in the act of passing one of the little side paths, and I drew herinto it, noticing that there was just a suggestion of resistance frommy companion when I did so; but it was only for an instant. Then, as Ipaused abruptly underneath one of the green shaded globes, she added,as though she knew that I perfectly understood her: "I have really beenconsidering the subject quite seriously."
I looked down at her. The green hue of the light above us seemed tohave transformed her into a spirit. It had changed the color of herdress, of her hair, and it had touched her cheeks as with a magic wandwhich softened and heightened every feature. Instead of transformingher into something that she was not, I was convinced that it broughther back from what she was not to what she really was. At all events, Irealized that she was in deadly earnest.
In that moment I felt again all the spell of this woman's charm as shestood before me, beneath the glow of that shaded light, looking up intomy face with her beautiful eyes now widened with serious concern, withher full, lithe, graceful body pulsing with life so close to mine,while she talked calmly, and seriously I knew, too, of destroying it byher own act.
What a place to talk of suicide, there, in the midst of that orientalgarden, voluptuous with a thousand unspoken suggestions, laden with theperfume of flowers, glowing with the many colored lights that illuminedit, rustling as with the sound of hidden insects as the gowns ofgorgeously bedecked women brushed against the growing things! Over ourheads, beyond the glass roof, the storm still howled, although withless violence, and the contrast seemed strangely in keeping with thecondition of my own mind, outwardly so calm and composed, yet torn bythe thousand conflicting emotions that were induced by the proximity ofthis entrancing creature, and the knowledge of what her fate, andtherefore mine, must inevitably be.