Part 52 (1/2)
”Don't you understand?” she continued breathlessly. ”Don't you see how horrible it is? They mean to arrest you for the murder of Hamilton Fynes and d.i.c.ky Vanderpole!”
”If this must be so,” the Prince answered, ”why do they not come? I am here.”
”But you must not stay here!” she exclaimed. ”You must escape! It is too terrible to think that you should--oh, I can't say it!--that you should have to face these charges. If you are guilty, well, Heaven help you!--If you are guilty, I want you to escape all the same!”
He looked at her with the puzzled air of one who tries to reason with a child.
”Dear Miss Penelope,” he said, ”this is kind of you, but, after all, remember that I am a man, and I must not run away.”
”But you cannot meet these charges!” she interrupted. ”You cannot meet them! You know it! Oh, don't think I can't appreciate your point of view! If you killed those men, you killed them to obtain papers which you believed were necessary for the welfare of your country. Oh, it is not I who judge you! You did not do it, I know, for your own gain. You did it because you are, heart and soul, a patriot. But here, alas! they do not understand. Their whole standpoint is different. They will judge you as they would a common criminal. You must fly,--you must, indeed!”
”Dear Miss Penelope,” he said, ”I cannot do that! I cannot run away like a thief in the dark. If this thing is to come, it must come.”
”But you don't understand!” she continued, wringing her hands. ”You think because you are a great prince and a prince of a friendly nation that the law will treat you differently. It will not! They have talked of it downstairs. You are not formally attached to any one in this country. You are not even upon the staff of the Emba.s.sy. You are here on a private mission as a private person, and there is no way in which the Government can intervene, even if it would. You are subject to its laws and you have broken them. For Heaven's sake, fly! You have your motor car here. Let your man drive you to Southampton and get on board the j.a.panese cruiser. You mustn't wait a single moment. I believe that tomorrow morning will be too late!”
He took her hands in his very tenderly and yet with something of reverence in his gesture. He looked into her eyes and he spoke very earnestly. Every word seemed to come from his heart.
”Dear Miss Penelope,” he said, ”it is very, very kind of you to have come here and warned me. Only you cannot quite understand what this thing means to me. Remember what I told you once. Life and death to your people in this country seem to be the greatest things which the mind of man can hold. It is not so with us. We are brought up differently. In a worthy cause a true j.a.panese is ready to take death by the hand at any moment. So it is with me now. I have no regret. Even if I had, even if life were a garden of roses for me, what is ordained must come. A little sooner or a little later, it makes no matter.”
She sank on her knees before him.
”Can't you understand why I am here?” she cried pa.s.sionately. ”It was I who told of the silken cord and knife!”
He was wholly unmoved. He even smiled, as though the thing were of no moment.
”It was right that you should do so,” he declared. ”You must not reproach yourself with that.”
”But I do! I do!” she cried again. ”I always shall! Don't you understand that if you stay here they will treat you--”
He interrupted, laying his hand gently upon her shoulder.
”Dear young lady,” he said, ”you need never fear that I shall wait for the touch of your men of law. Death is too easily won for that. If the end which you have spoken of comes, there is another way--another house of rest which I can reach.”
She rose slowly to her feet. The absolute serenity of his manner bespoke an impregnability of purpose before which the words died away on her lips. She realized that she might as well plead with the dead!
”You do not mind,” he whispered, ”if I tell you that you must not stay here any longer?”
He led her toward the door. Upon the threshold he took her cold fingers into his hand and kissed them reverently.
”Do not be too despondent,” he said. ”I have a star somewhere which burns for me. Tonight I have been looking for it. It is there still,” he added, pointing to the wide open window. ”It is there, undimmed, clearer and brighter than ever. I have no fear.”
She pa.s.sed away without looking up again. The Prince listened to her footsteps dying away in the corridor. Then he closed the door, and, entering his bedroom, undressed himself and slept...
When Prince Maiyo awoke on the following morning, the suns.h.i.+ne was streaming into the room, and his grave-faced valet was standing over his bed.
”His Highness' bath is ready,” he announced.
The Prince dressed quickly and was first in the pleasant morning room, with its open windows leading on to the terrace. He strolled outside and wandered amongst the flower beds. Here he was found, soon afterwards, by the Duke's valet.
”Your Highness,” the latter said, ”His Grace has sent me to look for you. He would be glad if you could spare him a moment or two in the library.”
The Prince followed the man to the room where his host was waiting for him. The Duke, with his hands behind his back, was pacing restlessly up and down the apartment.
”Good morning, Duke,” the Prince said cheerfully. ”Another of your wonderful spring mornings. Upon the terrace the sun is almost hot. Soon I shall begin to fancy that the perfume of your spring flowers is the perfume of almond and cherry blossom.”