The Great Prince Shan

at evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded

el asked, with

Your flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounce

ere true, I should simply be obeying orders. It

ry," Maggie sighed. "However, you needn't have taken me

ever, was not altogether f

apartment with its formal arrangement of furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. "We'll go into the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring u

ing up. "I'm not at all sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or anything. I must thi

ou an excellent husband," Nigel declared, as he rang the bell. "You need

n assure you that I am getting peevish. I hate all Russia

Nigel declared, after he

ked at him

reminded him. "You must not forget tha

rved, "Paul Matinsky has a pe

inva

always l

get divorces," Maggie insisted, "e

"Even an old gossip like Karschoff calls him a puri

ugged her

There is just one more point to be considered, though. I suppose you know that if you suc

u mean?" Ni

lied. "He's head over ears in love

ughed sc

Naida thinking seriously of a fellow like Immelan?-a scheming

softly for se

seen your eyes flash like that for ages. The cocktails, thank goodness! Shake one f

imself, and glanced at the cl

me half an hour early,

a littl

se, Nigel, that it is nearly a week since you proposed to me? Apart fro

showed a good deal of her white shoulders and neck. Her brown hair was simply but artistically arranged. She was piquante, alluring, with

an adorable wife

ome on

proposition,"

e-looking, Nigel

ibly attract

ed, "that we neither of us

n would really be of int

a littl

em coming," s

brushed straight back from her forehead but drooped a little over her ears. She seemed to bring with her a larger share of girlishness than any of them had previously observed in her, as though she had made up her mind for this one evening to cast herself adrift from the graver cares of life and to indulge in the frivolities which after all were the heritage of her youth. She sat at Nige

is forced to be. All our natural proclivities are towards gaiety. We are really butterflie

nscience ever induces me to pull a long face and turn my though

get a woman to talk politics or sociology with you, you are brushing a l

replied, "that my sex f

r brains. In Russia especially, when I meet a stranger, they don't even look at my frock or the way my hair is d

of international po

a theory about that. I think sometimes that the clearest judgments are formed by some one who comes a little fresh to a subject, some one who hasn't been dabbling

he replied, "I will provide strawberries if

d to me. The matter of strawberries has brought us together. I don't thi

ie declared. "If no one else wants me, I

hook he

lly wanted him. I have a great friend in Russia who prophesies that I shall never marry. That

el told her, "is

nd listening to the sallies of the others with a humorous gleam in his spectacle-shielded eyes. When at last th

he said, as the door closed behind Brookes and his satellite. "

merican replied. "Jesson was easily one of our best men in Europe. He r

e understand,

ts aren't worth much more than the paper they are written on, and while I'm drawing my money from Washington, it's not my business to collect information that af

o work for us?

till consider themselves half English. Next to the United States, Great Britain is the country for me. I know what I'm

rely anti-militarist. On paper, the governments of Russia, Germany, and most of the other countries of Europe, are of the same ilk. Some of us-my uncle was one-who have studied history and who know something of the scie

Karetsky," Chalmer

enemy?" Nigel asked, with a

s friend," Chalm

amed Atcheson," Je

l no

The first one was stabbed in Petrograd. Ji

Atcheson," Jesson observed. "He was supposed to hav

ed. "My uncle was busy decoding it, seated

very sudden," J

red," Nigel declared. "The document upon which he wa

ne sheet?" Jesso

pocketbook, smoothed it cut

town in Russia is given, and a telephone number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It

ow, is one of your enemies, one of those who are working in this country for purposes of his

wed them the paragraph. Jesson read

le out of date. I should like, if you have n

s! Why?" Nig

nnected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled. Kroten is the next, and of the third I have still to discover the whereabouts. Are you willing, Lord Dorminster, to let me act for you abroad? I req

ld out h

le's brief correspondence with Sidwell. You may be able to gather from it what he

son in his way, but he relied too much upon disguises. I fancy that I hear the voices

ouched with his forefinger the sheet

r off the mark. The man with whom he was spending t