Part 20 (1/2)
”Will there be trouble for you,” Norgate asked at last, ”because of this?”
”There is more trouble in my own heart,” she told him quietly. ”I feel strangely disturbed, uncertain which way to move. Let me take your arm--so. I like to walk like that. Somehow I think, Mr. Francis Norgate, that that little fracas in the Cafe de Berlin is going to make a great difference in both our lives. I know now what I had begun to believe.
Like all the trusted agents of sovereigns, I have become an object of suspicion. Well, we shall see. At least I am glad to know that there is some one whom I can trust. Perhaps to-morrow I will tell you all that is in my heart. We might even, if you wished it, if you were willing to face a few risks, we might even work together to hold back the thunder. So!
Good night, my friend,” she added, turning suddenly around.
He held her hand for a moment as they stood together on the pavement outside her hotel. For a single moment he fancied that there was a change in that curious personal aloofness which seemed so distinctive of her. It pa.s.sed, however, as she turned from him with her usual half-insolent, half gracious little nod.
”To-morrow,” she directed, ”you must ring me up. Let it be at eleven o'clock.”
CHAPTER XVII
The Amba.s.sador glanced at the clock as he entered his library to greet his early morning visitor. It was barely nine o'clock.
”Dear friend,” he exclaimed, as he held out his hands, ”I am distressed to keep you waiting! Such zeal in our affairs must, however, not remain unnoticed. I will remember it in my reports.”
Anna smiled as he stooped to kiss her fingers.
”I had special reasons,” she explained, ”for my haste. I was disappointed, indeed, that I could not see you last night.”
”I was at Windsor,” her host remarked. ”Now come, sit there in the easy-chair by the side of my table. My secretaries have not yet arrived.
We shall be entirely undisturbed. I have ordered coffee here, of which we will partake together. A compromising meal to share, dear Baroness, but in the library of my own house it may be excused. The Princess sends her love. She will be glad if you will go to her apartments after we have finished our talk.”
A servant entered with a tray, spread a cloth on a small round table, upon which he set out coffee, with rolls and b.u.t.ter and preserves. For a few moments they talked lightly of the weather, of her crossing, of mutual friends in Berlin and Vienna. Then Anna, as soon as they were alone, leaned a little forward in her chair.
”You know that I have a sort of mission to you,” she said. ”I should not call it that, perhaps, but it comes to very nearly the same thing. The Emperor has charged me to express to you and to Count Lanyoki his most earnest desire that if the things should come which we know of, you both maintain your position here at any cost. The Emperor's last words to me were: 'If war is to come, it may be the will of G.o.d. We are ready, but there is one country which must be kept from the ranks of our enemies.
That country is England. England must be dealt with diplomatically.' He looks across the continent to you, Prince. This is the friendly message which I have brought from his own lips.”
The Prince stirred his coffee thoughtfully. He was a man just pa.s.sing middle-age, with grey hair, thin in places but carefully trimmed, brushed sedulously back from his high forehead. His moustache, too, was grey, and his face was heavily lined, but his eyes, clear and bright, were almost the eyes of a young man.
”You can rea.s.sure the Emperor,” he declared. ”As you may imagine, my supply of information here is plentiful. If those things should come that we know of, it is my firm belief that with some reasonable yet nominal considerations, this Government will never lend itself to war.”
”You really believe that?” she asked earnestly.
”I do,” her companion a.s.sured her. ”I try to be fair in my judgments.
London is a pleasant city to live in, and English people are agreeable and well-bred, but they are a people absolutely without vital impulses.
Patriotism belongs to their poetry books. Indolence has stagnated their blood. They are like a nation under a spell, with their faces turned towards the pleasant and desirable things. Only a few months ago, they even further reduced the size of their ridiculous army and threw cold water upon a scheme for raising untrained help in case of emergency. Even their navy estimates are pa.s.sed with difficulty. The Government which is conducting the destinies of a people like this, which believes that war belongs to a past age, is never likely to become a menace to us.”
Anna drew a little sigh and lit the cigarette which the Prince pa.s.sed her. She threw herself back in her chair with an air of contentment.
”It is so pleasant once more to be among the big things,” she declared.
”In Berlin I think they are not fond of me, and they are so pompous and secretive. Tell me, dear Prince, will you not be kinder to me? Tell me what is really going to happen?”
He moved his chair a little closer to hers.
”I see no reason,” he said cautiously, ”why you should not be told.