Part 40 (1/2)

They gained the small door unseen, and, with a quiet word of warning, he knocked.

From within came an answering knock, to which he responded with two quick taps, twice repeated; the door opened a little way and Mrs. Spencer's maid peered out; then, a.s.sured, she swung it back and curtsied them inside.

”Suivez de pres, messieurs,” she whispered, finger on lips, and hurried down a narrow but rather brightly lighted pa.s.sage, and up a stairway, and into a room on the second floor, where she prayed that they wait until she could announce them to Madame.

”And say to your mistress,” the Archduke ordered, ”that it is our pleasure not to intrude upon her until everything is arranged as intended.”

”If Spencer will respect the request, it will be much easier for you, dear,” he said to Dehra; ”when we are watching Lotzen, the boudoir will have to be in darkness, and I'll take care that we leave the moment you have seen the Book.”

”Do you think she will recognize me?” the Princess asked.

”I don't know; it's hard even to think what she can do or will do.”

”At least, it has been easy thus far,” she laughed; ”almost so easy as to indicate a trap.”

The same thought had naturally been in his mind, and he had hoped it would not occur to her.

”Everything has worked so smoothly it rather suggests the reverse,” he said confidently; ”but whatever happen, you must keep with me or Moore.-Gentlemen, I neglected to say that you will retain your caps until I remove mine.-Lieutenant Marsov, will you oblige me by turning off all the side lights?”

Presently, from somewhere down the corridor, came the ripple of Madeline Spencer's laugh, and the ring of her clear voice.

”Good-night, Monsieur le Comte! I thank you for the dance, and all the rest;”-then in quieter tones: ”no, you may not come in; you have annoyed the Duke quite too much to-night, as it is-to-morrow? well, may be-tout a l'heure!” and the laugh again, and the closing of a door.

The Princess looked at Armand and gave a faint shudder, but made no comment.

In a moment the maid returned. ”It is as you wish, Monsieur le-Monsieur,”

as the Archduke's gesture stopped the t.i.tle. ”Madame awaits you at once.”

In the room adjoining the boudoir, the Archduke left the others and went in alone.

Mrs. Spencer curtsied.

”Your Highness honors me,” she said.

”Pray, madame,” said he, returning her greeting with the curtest of military salutes, ”let us eliminate unnecessary ceremony-this is an official visit, made at your particular request; if we are ready to begin, I will call my witnesses.”

She watched him smilingly, pressing down the roses that lay across her breast-red roses, on a black gown that ended far below the dead-white neck and shoulders.

”What a cold-blooded brute you are, Armand,” she mocked. ”Can it be, that the pretty, innocent, little doll, out yonder in the Palace, has found a drop that is warm even when fresh from the heart?”

He looked at her in steady threat.

”Madame, I have told you I am here for but one purpose; beyond that, even in conversation, I decline to go. I tried to make it clear to you at the Inn, how I would come, and why. I do not remember your record, nor even know your name; if I did, it would be my duty to send you immediately out of Valeria, and under escort. If, however, you presume to use this occasion to become offensive, I shall be obliged to remember, and to know.”

She laughed scoffingly, and taking a cigarette lighted it.

”As a token of peace,” she said softly, and proffered it to him....

”No?-I thought Ferdinand said he had learned it from you and-but, of course, it does make a difference whose are the lips that kissed it.”

The Archduke turned abruptly and went toward the door; another such word and he might forget she was a woman. She might be able to show him the Book, but, even could she give it to him, he would not have it, if its price were the Princess on her tongue.