Part 6 (2/2)
he admitted. ”She has the air of counting for great things in the world.
She is very beautiful, too.”
”She is beautiful enough,” Maggie replied, ”to have turned the head of the great Paul Matinsky himself. They say that he would give his soul to be free to marry her. As it is, she is the uncrowned Tsarina of Russia.”
Nigel frowned slightly.
”Isn't that going rather a long way?” he objected.
”Not when one remembers what manner of a man Matinsky is,” Maggie replied. ”He may have his faults, but he is an absolute idealist so far as regards his private life. There has never been a word of scandal concerning him and Naida, nor will there ever be. But in his eyes, Naida has that most wonderful gift of all,--she has vision. He once told a man with whom I spoke in Berlin that Naida was the one person in the world to whom a mistake was impossible. Nigel, did she give you any idea at all what she was over here for?”
”Not as yet,” he replied, ”but she has asked me to go and see her.”
”Did she seem interested in you personally, or was it because your name is Dorminster?”
Nigel sighed.
”I hoped it was a personal interest, but I cannot tell. She asked me whether I had inherited my uncle's hobby.”
”What did you tell her?” she asked eagerly.
”Very little. She seemed sympathetic, but after all she is in the enemy camp. She and Immelan seemed on particularly good terms.”
”Yet I don't believe that she is committed as yet,” Maggie declared.
”She always used to speak so affectionately of England. Nigel, do you think that I have vision?”
”I am sure that you have,” he answered.
”Very well, then, I will tell you what I see,” she continued. ”I see Naida Karetsky for Russia, Oscar Immelan for Germany, Austria and Sweden, and Prince Shan for Asia--here--meeting in London--within the next week or ten days, to take counsel together to decide whether the things which are being plotted against us to-day shall be or shall not be. Of Immelan we have no hope. He conceals it cleverly enough, but he hates England with all the fervour of a zealot. Naida is unconvinced.
She is to be won. And Prince Shan--”
”Well, what about him?” Nigel demanded, a little carried away by Maggie's earnestness.
She shook her head.
”I don't know,” she confessed. ”If the stories one hears about him are true, no man nor any woman could ever influence him. At least, though, one could watch and hope.”
”Prince Shan is supposed to be coming to Paris, not to London,” Nigel remarked.
”If he goes to Paris,” Maggie said, ”Naida and Immelan will go. So shall we. If he comes here, it will be easier. Tell me, Nigel, did you see the Prime Minister?”
”I saw him,” Nigel replied, ”but without the slightest result. He is clearly of the opinion that the open verdict was a merciful one. In other words, he believes that it was a case of suicide.”
”How wicked!” Maggie exclaimed.
”I suppose it is trying the ordinary Britisher a little high,” Nigel remarked, ”to ask him to believe that he was murdered in cold blood, here in the heart of London, by the secret service agent of a foreign Power. The strangest part of it all is that it is true. To think that those few pages of ma.n.u.script would have told us exactly what we have to fear! Why, I actually had them in my hand.”
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