Part 6 (1/2)
She nodded and made her adieux to the Prince. The two men stood together and watched her depart with her companion.
”Really, one gains much through being an onlooker,” the Prince reflected. ”There go the spirit of Russia and the spirit of Germany. You dabble in these things, my friend Dorminster. Can you guess what they are met for--for whom they wait?”
”I might guess,” Nigel replied, ”but I would rather be told.”
”They wait for the master spirit,” Karschoff declared, taking his arm.
”They wait for the great Prince Shan.”
CHAPTER V
Nigel and Maggie had tea together in the little room which the latter had used as a boudoir. They were discussing the question of her future residence there.
”I am afraid,” he declared, ”that you will have to marry me.”
”It would have its advantages,” she admitted thoughtfully. ”I am really so fond of you, Nigel. I should be married at St. Mary Abbot's, Kensington, and have the Annersley children for bridesmaids. Don't you think I should look sweet in old gold and orange blossoms?”
”Don't tantalise me,” he begged.
”We really must decide upon something,” she insisted. ”I hate giving up my rooms here, I should hate having my worthy aunt as resident duenna, and I suppose it would be gloriously improper for us two to go on living here if I didn't. Are you quite sure that you love me, Nigel?”
”I am not quite so sure as I was this morning,” he confessed, holding out his cup for some more tea. ”I met a perfectly adorable girl to-day at luncheon at the Ritz. Such eyes, Maggie, and the slimmest, most wonderful figure you ever saw!”
”Who was the cat?” Maggie enquired with asperity.
”She is Russian. Her name is Naida Karetsky. Karschoff introduced me.”
Maggie was suddenly serious. There was just a trace of the one expression he had never before seen in her face--fear--lurking in her eyes, even a.s.serting itself in her tone.
”Naida Karetsky?” she repeated. ”Tell me exactly how you met her?”
”She was lunching with her father and Oscar Immelan. She stopped to speak to Karschoff and asked him to present me. Afterwards, she invited us to take coffee in the lounge.”
”She went out of her way to make your acquaintance, then?”
”Yes, I suppose she did.”
”You know who she is?”
”The daughter of one of the Russian Consuls over here, I understood.”
”She is more than that,” Maggie declared nervously. ”She is the inspiration of the President himself. She is the most vital force in Russian politics. She is the woman whom I wanted you to know, to whom I told you that I wished you to pay attentions. And now that you know her, I am afraid.”
”Where did you meet her?” he asked curiously.
”We were at school together in Paris. She was two years older than I, but she stayed there until she was twenty. Afterwards we met in Florence.”
Nigel was greatly interested.
”Somehow or other, nothing that you can tell me about her surprises me,”