Part 37 (1/2)
”I think that you will come,” he whispered. ”I think that you will be very happy.”
CHAPTER XXIX
The great house in Curzon Street awoke, the following morning, to a state of intense activity. Taxi-cabs and motor-cars were lined along the street; a stream of callers came and went. That part of the establishment of which little was seen by the casual caller, the rooms where half a dozen secretaries conducted an immense correspondence, presided over by Li Wen, was working overtime at full pressure. In his reception room, Prince Shan saw a selected few of the callers, mostly journalists and politicians, to whom Li Wen gave the entree. One visitor even this most astute of secretaries found it hard to place. He took the card in to his master, who glanced at it thoughtfully.
”The Earl of Dorminster,” he repeated. ”I will see him.”
Nigel found himself received with courtesy, yet with a certain aloofness. Prince Shan rose from his favourite chair of plain black oak heaped with green silk cus.h.i.+ons and held out his hand a little tentatively.
”You are very kind to visit me, Lord Dorminster,” he said. ”I trust that you come to wish me fortune.”
”That,” Nigel replied, ”depends upon how you choose to seek it.”
”I am answered,” was the prompt acknowledgment. ”One thing in your country I have at least learnt to appreciate, and that is your love of candour. What is your errand with me to-day? Have you come to speak to me as an amba.s.sador from your cousin, or in any way on her behalf?”
”My business has nothing to do with Lady Maggie,” Nigel a.s.sured him gravely.
Prince Shan held out his hand.
”Stop,” he begged. ”Do not explain your business. If it is a personal request, it is granted. If, on the other hand, you seek my advice on matters of grave importance, it is yours. Before other words are spoken, however, I myself desire to address you on the subject of Lady Maggie Trent.”
”As you please,” Nigel answered.
”It is not the custom of my country, or of my life,” Prince Shan continued, ”to covet or steal the things which belong to another. If fate has made me a thief, I am very sorry. I have proposed to Lady Maggie that she accompany me back to China. It is my great desire that she should become my wife.”
Nigel felt himself curiously tongue-tied. There was something in the other's measured speech, so fateful, so a.s.sured, that it seemed almost as though he were speaking of pre-ordained things. Much that had seemed to him impossible and unnatural in such an idea disappeared from that moment.
”You tell me this,” Nigel began--
”I announce it to you as the head of the family,” Prince Shan interrupted.
”You tell it to me also,” Nigel persisted, ”because you have heard the rumours which were at one time very prevalent--that Lady Maggie and I were or were about to become engaged to be married.”
”I have heard such a rumour only very indirectly,” Prince Shan confessed, ”and I cannot admit that it has made any difference in my att.i.tude. I think, in my land and yours, we have at least one common convention. The woman who touches our heart is ours if we may win her.
Love is unalterably selfish. One must fight for one's own hand. And for those who may suffer by our victory, we may have pity but no consideration.”
”Am I to understand,” Nigel asked bluntly, ”that Lady Maggie has consented to be your wife?”
”Lady Maggie has given me no reply. I left her alone with her thoughts.
Every hour it is my hope to hear from her. She knows that I leave for China early to-morrow.”
”So at the present moment you are in suspense.”
”I am in suspense,” Prince Shan admitted, ”and perhaps,” he went on, with one of his rare smiles, ”it occurred to me that it would be in one sense a relief to speak to a fellow man of the hopes and fears that are in my heart. You are the one person to whom I could speak, Lord Dorminster. You have not wished my suit well, but at least you have been clear-sighted. I think it has never occurred to you that a prince of China might venture to compete with a peer of England.”
”On the contrary,” Nigel a.s.sented, ”I have the greatest admiration for the few living descendants of the world's oldest aristocracy. You have a right to enter the lists, a right to win if you can.”
”And what do you think of my prospects, if I may ask such a delicate question?” Prince Shan enquired.