Part 36 (1/2)
She looked at him with something like horror in her soft full eyes.
”What would you do?” she murmured.
The Prince shrugged his shoulders.
”Well,” he said, ”we are not quite medieval enough to adopt the only really sensible method and remove Mr. Brott permanently from the face of the earth. We should stop a little short of that, but I can a.s.sure you that Mr. Brott's health for the next few months is a matter for grave uncertainty. It is a pity for his sake that you failed.”
She bit her lip.
”Do you know if he is still in London?” she asked.
”He must be on the point of leaving for Scotland,” the Duke answered.
”If he once mounts the platform at Glasgow there will be no further chance of any compromise. He will be committed irretrievably to his campaign of anarchy.”
”And to his own disaster,” the Prince murmured.
Lucille remained for a moment deep in thought. Then she looked up.
”If I can find him before he starts,” she said hurriedly, ”I will make one last effort.”
CHAPTER XXV
He peered forward over his desk at the tall graceful figure whose entrance had been so noiseless, and whose footsteps had been so light that she stood almost within a few feet of him before he was even aware of her presence. Then his surprise was so great that he could only gasp out her name.
”You! Lucille!”
She smiled upon him delightfully.
”Me! Lucille! Don't blame your servant. I a.s.sured him that I was expected, so he allowed me to enter unannounced. His astonishment was a delightful testimony to your reputation, by the bye. He was evidently not used to these invasions.”
Brott had recovered himself by this time, and if any emotion still remained he was master of it.
”You must forgive my surprise!” he said. ”You have of course something important to say to me. Will you not loosen your cloak?”
She unfastened the clasp and seated herself in his most comfortable chair. The firelight flashed and glittered on the silver ornaments of her dress; her neck and arms, with their burden of jewels, gleamed like porcelain in the semi-darkness outside the halo of his student lamp. And he saw that her dark hair hung low behind in graceful folds as he had once admired it. He stood a little apart, and she noted his traveling clothes and the various signs of a journey about the room.
”You may be glad to see me,” she remarked, looking at him with a smile.
”You don't look it.”
”I am anxious to hear your news,” he answered. ”I am convinced that you have something important to say to me.”
”Supposing,” she answered, still looking at him steadily, ”supposing I were to say that I had no object in coming here at all--that it was merely a whim? What should you say then?”
”I should take the liberty,” he answered quietly, ”of doubting the evidence of my senses.”
There was a moment's silence. She felt his aloofness. It awoke in her some of the enthusiasm with which this mission itself had failed to inspire her. This man was measuring his strength against hers.
”It was not altogether a whim,” she said, her eyes falling from his, ”and yet--now I am here--it does not seem easy to say what was in my mind.”