Part 45 (1/2)
”Yes--yes,” answered the prince, shortly. And the two old friends glared at each other gleams of the fires that had burned fiercely enough in other days. ”Yes--yes! but why are you here this morning?”
”Why am I here this morning? I will tell you. I ask you no questions, I want to know nothing of your schemes and plans. You can run your neck into a noose if you like. You have been doing it all your life. And--who knows?--you may win at last. As for Martin, you have brought him up in the same school. And, bon Dieu! I suppose you are Bukatys, and you cannot help it. It is your affair, after all. But you shall not push Wanda into a Russian prison! You shall not get her to Siberia, if I can help it!”
”Wanda!” said the prince, in some surprise--”Wanda!”
”Yes. You forget--you Bukatys always have forgotten--the women. Warsaw is no place for Wanda to-day. And to-day's work--to-night's work--is no work for Wanda!”
”To-night's work! What do you mean?”
The prince sat forward and looked hard at his friend.
”Oh, you need not be alarmed. I know nothing,” was the answer. ”But I am not a complete fool. I put two and two together at random. I only guess, as you know. I have guessed all my life. And as often as not I have guessed right, as you know. Ah! you think I am interfering in that which is not my business, and I do not care a snap of the finger what you think!”
And he ill.u.s.trated this indifference with a gesture of his finger and thumb.
The prince laughed suddenly and boisterously.
”If I did not know that you had broken your heart--more than once--long ago,” he began. But Deulin interrupted him.
”Only once,” he put in, with a short, hard laugh.
”Well, only once, then. I should say that you had fallen in love with Wanda.”
”Ah!” said Deulin, lightly, ”that is an old affair. That happened when she used to ride upon my shoulder. And one keeps a tenderness for one's old loves, you know.”
”Well, and what do you propose to do? I tell you honestly I have had no time to think of my own affairs. I have had no courage to think of them, perhaps. I have been at work all night. Yes, yes! I know! Thin ice! You ought to know it when you see it. You have been on it all your life, and through it--”
”Only once,” repeated Deulin. ”I propose what any other young lover would propose to do--to run away with her from Warsaw.”
”When?”
Deulin looked at his watch.
”In half an hour. Think of the risks, Bukaty--a young girl.”
And he saw a sudden fierceness in the old man's eyes. The point was gained.
”I could take her to Cracow this evening. Your sister there will take her in.”
”Yes, yes! But will Wanda go?”
”If you tell her to go she will. I think that is the only power on earth that can make her do it.”
The prince smiled.
”You seem to know her failings. You are no lover, my friend.”
”That is a question in which we are both beyond our depth. You will do this thing for me. I come back in half an hour.”
”What about the pa.s.sport, and the difficulties of getting away from Warsaw to-day?” asked the prince. ”What we know others must know now.”
”Leave those matters to me. You can safely do so. Please do not move. I will find my way to the door, thank you.”