Part 51 (1/2)
”What news? What news?” she cried, springing up
”The worst, Countess”
”Dead?”
”No; the Princess lives”
”Yes, yes; and those who are with her?”
”Are on their way to the city,” Dumitru answered ”We could not enter openly; we had to delay, and exercise the greatest care Baron Petrescu will coht if possible, but extreme caution is needed I came on I am of no importance and pass unnoticed I have visited a score of places in the city already, and I have much more to do before sunset”
”Does Captain Ellerey return to Sturatzberg?” asked Frina thoughtfully
”Aye; and he is a ain He is fit to be a king”
”A king!”
”Yes, a king, and though he be a foreigner, I for one shout for hi, Dumitru; tell me, does he love the Princess?”
”Surely he reat affection
He will be here to strike oneher, may learn to love her cause too We may yet triumph, Countess But listen The Princess has been delivered by the brigands,” and Duht she will be brought back to Sturatzberg,” he went on, ”although it is given out that she will not coates will be shut, and when the streets are quiet they will be opened again Not ates will hold all danger cheap The city will be hushed and still, but there are nal will blaze forth in the darkness and a few may fall in the streets, but the Princess will be free You will be ready to receive her, Countess?”
”Here?”
”Is it not the safest refuge in Sturatzberg?” asked Du-places here, and you are not a suspect in the city”
”And afterward?” said the Countess
”I know not A small success in the city would perhaps raise the country; the afterward is for the Princess to decide She will have to consider the welfare of those who strike to-night You will be ready to receive her, Countess?”
”Yes,” Frina answered, and Du hts troubled the beautiful woman he had left
The frail little hopes she had found consolation in vanished at Dumitru's words Desmond Ellerey loved Maritza Dumitru had said it, and had he not had aitive to her house; her very life perhaps lay in her hands
How easy it would be to speak the feords which would tell her eneuess, that it was the Countess Mavrodin who had betrayed her? Such specious arguments did the evil that was in her whisper in her ear, and she could not shut the whisperings out All day long her restlessness increased Her solitude becaered to hear laughter and the sound of voices--anything to distract her fro she went to Court, beautiful, reckless, heartless to all seeerous mood for such a woman to be in
So, all unconsciously, she was driven forward by destiny She was in a reatest te in wait for her
She had shown such marked preference for Captain Ellerey when he came to Court that a host of her adathered round her, each one in his turn receiving some little favor which buried in oblivion all past disappointments; such virtue lies even in the least of a beautiful woman's favors Frina Mavrodin had always had the subtle power ofher companion of the moment believe that he was the one person in all the world she would wish to have beside her, and this power she exercised to the full to-night
Lord Cloverton, covertly watching her, was constrained to adled with a remembrance of youth as he did so But he did not approach her It was not his part to play the teed otherwise Presently he saw the King enter the room alone, and look round in search of some one His eye fell upon Frina Mavrodin, and he went toward her Perhaps, too, in his veins the blood tingled a little
”An hour of ease which so seldoht, Countess, and youth and beauty draw
”Your Majesty is pleased to flattercurtsey