The Price of Power Part 23

"Yes, m'sieur, I have. But I can learn very little. He seems to be a complete mystery--an adventurer, perhaps," declared the suspicious police-agent in a low, hard voice; adding: "The fact is, that man who calls himself Richard Drury is, I feel sure, no fit companion for Her Imperial Highness."

"Why not?" I demanded in eager surprise.

"Because he is not," was the man's enigmatical reply. "I do hope m'sieur will warn Her Imperial Highness of the danger," he said reflectively, looking in the direction of the retreating figures.

"Danger!" I echoed. "What danger?"

"There is a grave danger," he a.s.serted firmly. "I have watched, as is my duty, and I know. Her Highness endeavours all she can to evade my vigilance, for naturally it is not pleasant to be watched while carrying on a flirtation. But she does not know what I have discovered concerning this stranger with whom she appears to have fallen so deeply in love. They must be parted, m'sieur--parted at once, before it is too late."

"But what have you discovered?" I asked.

"One astounding and most startling fact," was his slow, deliberate reply; "a fact which demands their immediate separation."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

HER HIGHNESS IS OUTSPOKEN.

"Now, Uncle Colin! It's really too horrid of you to spy upon me like that! I had no idea you were behind us! I knew old Dmitri was there-- he watches me just as a cat watches a mouse. But I never thought you would be so nasty and mean!" And the girl in her fresh white gown stood at the window of the drawing-room drumming impatiently upon the pane with the tips of her long, white fingers, for it was raining outside.

"My dear Natalia," I said paternally, standing upon the white goat-skin hearthrug, and looking across at her; "I did not watch you intentionally. I travelled by the same train as your friend, and I saw you meet him. Really," I laughed, "you looked a most interesting pair as you walked together down Queen's Road. I left you at the corner of Western Road and went on to the `Metropole.'"

"Oh! you actually did have the decency to do that!" she exclaimed, turning to me her pretty face clouded by displeasure. "Well, I say quite frankly that I think it was absolutely horrid of you. Surely I may meet a friend without being spied upon at every turn!" she added resentfully.

"Dmitri only does his duty, remember," I ventured to remark.

"Oh, Dmitri's a perfect plague. He shadows me everywhere. His crafty face irritates me whenever I see it."

"This constant surveillance is only for your own protection," I said.

"Recollect that you are a member of the Imperial family, and that already six of your uncles and cousins, as well as your poor father, have met with violent deaths at the hands of the revolutionists."

"I know. But it is perfectly absurd ever to dream that they want to kill me--a girl whose only object is to live quietly and enjoy her life."

"And her flirtations," I added, striving to make her laugh.

I was successful, for a smile came to her pretty, pouting lips, and she said:

"Well, Uncle Colin, other girls may flirt and have men friends.

Therefore I can't see why it is so actually sinful for me to do the same."

"But think for a moment of your position!"

"Position!" she echoed. "I'm only plain Miss Natalia Gottorp here. Why should I study my family?"

"Ah!" I sighed. "I know how wayward you are. No amount of argument will, I fear, ever convince you of your error."

"Oh, yes," she sighed, in imitation of the sadness of my tone, saying: "I know what a source of trouble and deep anxiety the wicked, wayward child is to you." Then, next moment, she burst out into a merry, mischievous laugh, adding:

"It's really too bad of me to tease you, poor old Uncle Colin, isn't it?

But there, you're not really old. I looked you up in `Who's Who' only yesterday. You're only thirty-two next Thursday week. And if you are a very good boy I'll give you a nice little present. Shall I work you a pair of slippers--eh?" she asked, with sarcasm, "or a winter waistcoat?"

"Thanks. I hate girls' needlework," I replied frankly, amused at her sudden change of demeanour.

"Very well. You shall have a new cigarette-case, a solid gold one, with our grand Imperial arms engraved on it and underneath the words `From Tattie.' How will that do--eh?" she laughed.

"Ah! now you're only trying to tease me," I said. "I wonder if you tease Mr Drury like that?"

"Oh! d.i.c.k knows me. He doesn't mind it in the least," she declared, looking at me with those wonderful eyes that were so much admired everywhere. "Have a cigarette," and she handed me a box of Petroffs, and taking one herself, lit it, and then threw herself negligently into an armchair, lazily displaying a pair of neat silk stockinged ankles and patent-leather shoes.

"I certainly think that Mr d.i.c.k is a very lucky young fellow," I said, "though I tell you openly that I entirely disapprove of these constant meetings. Remember your promise to me before we left Petersburg."

"Well, I've been a very wayward child--even an incorrigible child, I suppose--and I've broken my promise. That's all," she said, blowing a cloud of smoke from her red lips. Like all Russian ladies, she enjoyed a cigarette.

"I certainly think you ought to have kept your word," I said.

"But d.i.c.k, I tell you, is an old friend. I couldn't cut him, could I?"

"You need not have cut him," I said. "But I consider it unnecessary to steal out of the house after Miss West has gone to bed, and meet him at the station at one o'clock in the morning."

"Then upon that point we'll agree to differ. I'm old enough to be my own mistress, and if you continue to lecture me, I shall be very annoyed with you."

"My dear Natalia, I do not blame you in the least for falling in love.

How can I?" I said in a changed tone, for I knew that the young lady so petted and spoiled by her earlier training must be treated with greatest caution and tact. "Why, shall I confess a truth?" I asked, looking her straight in the face.

"Yes, do," she said.

"Well, if I were ten years younger I should most certainly fall in love with you myself," I laughed.

"Don't be so silly, Uncle Colin!" she exclaimed. "But would that be so very terrible? Why, you're not an old man yet," she added, her cheeks having flushed slightly at my words.

"Now you're blus.h.i.+ng," I said.

"I'm not!" she cried stoutly. "You're simply horrid this morning," she declared vehemently, turning away from me.

"Is it horrid of me to pay you a compliment?" I asked. "I merely expressed a devout wish that I were standing in Drury's shoes. Every man likes to be kissed by a pretty girl, whether she be a shopgirl or a Grand d.u.c.h.ess."

"Oh, yes. You are quite right there. Most men make fools of themselves over women."

"Especially when their beauty is so world-famed as that of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Natalia!"

"Now, there you are again!" she cried. "I do wish you'd change the topic of conversation. You're horrid, I say."

And she gave a quick gesture of impatience, blew a great cloud of smoke from her lips and put down her half-consumed cigarette upon the little silver ashtray.

"Oh, my!" she exclaimed at last. "What a funny lover you would make, Uncle Colin! You fancy yourself as old as Methuselah, and your hide-bound ideas of etiquette, your straitlaced morality, and your respect of _les convenances_ are those in vogue when your revered Queen Victoria ascended the throne of Great Britain. You're not living with the times, my dear uncle. You're an old-fas.h.i.+oned diplomat. To-day the world is very different to that in which your father was born."

"I quite agree. And I regret that it is so," I replied. "These are surely very lax and degenerating days, when girls may go out unchaperoned, and the meeting of a man in the early hours of the morning pa.s.ses unremarked."

"It unfortunately hasn't pa.s.sed unremarked," she said, with a pretty pout. "You take jolly good care to rub it in every moment! It really isn't fair," she declared. "I'm very fond of you, Uncle Colin, but you are really a little too old-fas.h.i.+oned."