Part 32 (1/2)

”It is useless to try to serve Monsieur; he does everything himself,”

murmured the poor girl, mortified.

”Nonsense, Fauchette, I have just praised you. It is always possible that I may overlook something.”

Fauchette shook her head with an incredulous air.

I have found it good policy to maintain this character for infallibility with my staff. It is true, perhaps, that I do not very often blunder.

”And now,” I went on, ”it is time for the poison to take effect! As soon as I am dead, you will awake Madame.”

I lay down on another couch, and composed myself in a rigid att.i.tude with my eyes closed. I did not believe, of course, that it would be possible to deceive a close observer, but I trusted to the wild emotions of the Princess to blind her to any signs of life.

I heard Fauchette dart on her mistress with a well-acted scream, and sprinkle her face and neck with cold water.

Sophia seemed to revive quickly.

”Andreas!” I heard her gasp. ”Where? What has become of him?”

”M. Sterling has also fainted,” the maid replied with a.s.sumed innocence.

”Ha!”

It was more like a shriek than a sob. I heard a hasty rustling of skirts, and then Sophia seemed to be kneeling beside me, and feeling for the beat of my heart.

”Go, Fauchette! Send Gregory instantly to M. Petrovitch to inform him that M. Sterling has been taken ill in my house, and that I fear he is dead.”

The Princess began loosening my necktie.

Had Fauchette been present I should have been able to point to this as a proof that I was not incapable of an occasional oversight.

As a matter of fact, I had not antic.i.p.ated this very natural action on Sophia's part. Yet it should have been evident that, were it only to keep up appearances before any one who might come to view my supposed corpse, she would be bound to free my neck.

And I was wearing the locket which contained the portrait of my promised bride!

I lay, really rigid with apprehension, while Sophia's caressing fingers tenderly removed the necktie, and began unfastening my collar and s.h.i.+rt.

Suddenly I heard an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n--at first striking the note of surprise and curiosity merely, but deepening to fear.

In a moment the locket was lifted from my chest, and forced open with a metallic click.

”Ah!--Ah!”

She let the open locket drop from her fingers on my bare throat.

Instantly it was clutched up again. I could picture the frenzied gaze of jealousy and hate in those burning eyes of deepest violet; I could actually feel the pa.s.sionate breathing from between the clenched teeth of whitest ivory.

”Miserable child!” she hissed, the hand that held the locket trembling so that I could feel it against my neck. ”So _you_ have robbed me of him!”