A Prince to Order

er, his life put in jeopardy, and all without the slightest provocation, was an outrage so heinous that he considered no punishment too great for its perpetrators. The fact that the one who w

to visit personally upon the arch-offender his own retribution. But if Herr Schlippenbach had been snatched from his

the blue dawn, however, he became more composed. His meditations took on a more gentle guise; his brow, which had been wrinkled with frowns, smoothed; into

er, feel the warmth of her hand in his, experience the benignant sympathy of her eyes and the caressing graciousness of her voice. With the dawn had come confidence, and he smiled as he recalled his doubts of the previous afternoon. Her

He had just made a goal by dint of hard riding and unerring strokes, and a hurricane of applause had followed, led, it seemed to him, by a tall young woman in white, with great, shining brown eyes and flushed cheeks, who was

He crossed the Avenue de l'Opéra and, turning into the rue de la Paix, was presently passing the entrance of the hotel that sheltered her who filled his thoughts-her whom he had come out to meet. A fiacre was at the curb, and, fancying that it might be awaiting her, he hastened his steps so that he should not encounter her in so public a place. From the summit of the Vend?me Column the imperial-robed Napole

minute later reached the broad and imposing Place de la Concorde in all its bravery of bronze

ed; but he overtook it only to meet disappointment. He lighted a cigarette, sat down on a bench, and dug in the gravel with his walking-stick; his eyes, though, ever on the alert, looking now one way, now another. He took out his watch again. The minute hand was still a single space short of twelve. He got up and retraced his steps towards the entrance with the object of meeting her as she came in. Again he gazed across the wide, sun-washed

on. His imagination was now active. It was quite possible she had left Paris. His messeng

er to wait longer or to go on to the Ritz in search of her

en you after all. I was not sure. I looked an

accent Grey recognised her instantly. He realised, too, that it was she

Grey," she went on, handing him an en

had not left Paris, then, and

t ill, I hope?" he q

and raised her black eyebrows, "but-" and she hesitated just

her comment, though the words were as a sword-thr

, monsieur; bu

envelope and glance

d suddenly pale. "Give my compliments to

a few minutes before he had impatiently dug the gravel with his walking-stick. He sat now with his forearms resting

meet again. She could imagine nothing in the way of explanation that would form an adequate ex

ement in favour-aye, even attain the privilege of pleading his cause. He had been so sure of her; it had not seemed possible that she could ever be other than love and devotion and loyalty personified. Her smile was the one sun he thought wo

n that "probably." And further on, she had not said: "There is nothing in the way of explanation you can offer," but "I can imagine nothing." He thanked God for that "I can imagine." Oh, yes, indeed, there was a very large loophole there; and so he took heart of grace, and even smiled, and got up swinging his stick jauntily. All he wanted was a fighting chance. He had won her a year ago from a score of rivals, and he would win her now from herself. And not from herself,

rse, but he scribbled "Carey Grey" upon a slip of paper and asked that it be sent to Miss Van Tuyl at once. And then he waited, nervously, sm

l is not at h

y certain; but she would not see him. He might171 have foreseen that consistency demanded this attitude of her. To send him a note one moment refusing to permit him to explain and at the next to

There was so much to tell, so much to make clear, so much to plead that he was staggered by the contemplation. Again and again he began, and again and again he tore the sheet of paper into tiny

gard powers, he dove straight and determinedly into the midst of172 the subjec

to ruin every chance of accomplishing what I have set out to do. Imagine, my dear, the alternative from which I had to choose. Had it been simply a question of my personal liberty, you cannot doubt which course I should have taken. I was burning to speak to you-to look into the eyes I love, to hear the voice I adore-and yet for both our sakes I had to deny myself. The child who was with me is sweet and charming, and in no way implicated in the plot against me. When you know her, as I hope you wil

d up his trunks from the hotel storeroom and with Baptiste's assistance accomplished his packing. Already O'Hara had engaged places for three on the train, for Miss

making174 themselves ready for the journey. Just at this juncture there was a knock at the door, and in answer to Grey's command to e

oom stood astonished, thei

hey exclaim

lad, bowing again; "it is

here, Johann

the Herr Captain Lindenwald; bu

d the American, v

g with the Herr Captain. I was in your service, and perhaps if

y, frowning. "What is t

nfessed Johann,175 stolidly, wi

into a chair, "now we have it. You are mad, and

against the edge of the table,

ned. "What did they say of her? Wa

d arranged, Lutz told me, to have Herr Arndt taken to an asylum by

ed out of the window last night, Jack," he said. And then he

Herr

e quite

heard of his n

t off to telephone for another place on the Orient Expres

d of you, Johann

ciation, "I could not do less. Can I ever, do you

ter, however, just as they were about to start for the Gare de Strasbourg,

ut my having save

ed you, and looking back saw you through the smoke still standing at the top. 'For God's sake, make haste, man!' I called, 'the stairs may fall at any minute.' But you had seen a figure staggering down, half suffocated, from the floor above. Well, instead of saving yourself you went back to help that figure, which proved to be Johann. And even at that moment the staircase fell with a crash. But you caught the stumbling, dazed Budavian from out a hur

committed a great crime and he had performed a brave deed. They were the opposite poles of that world of sleep. But what other acts lay between? What other incidents of right and wrong filled the intermediate zones? He s