CHAPTER XII
"After all," Lady Carey sighed, throwing down a racing calendarand lighting a cigarette, "London is the only thoroughly civilizedAnglo-Saxon capital in the world. Please don't look at me like that,Duchess. I know--this is your holy of holies, but the Duke smokeshere--I've seen him. My cigarettes are very tiny and very harmless."
The Duchess, who wore gold-rimmed spectacles, and was a person ofweight in the councils of the Primrose League, went calmly on with herknitting.
"My dear Muriel," she said, "if my approval or disapproval was of theslightest moment to you, it is not your smoking of which I should firstcomplain. I know, however, that you consider yourself a privilegedperson. Pray do exactly as you like, but don't drop the ashes upon thecarpet."
Lady Carey laughed softly.
"I suppose I am rather a thorn in your side as a relative," sheremarked. "You must put it down to the roving blood of my ancestors. Icould no more live the life of you other women than I could fly. I musthave excitement, movement, all the time."
A tall, heavily built man, who had been reading some letters at theother end of the room, came sauntering up to them.
"Well," he said, "you assuredly live up to your principles, for youtravel all over the world as though it were one vast playground."
"And sometimes," she remarked, "my journeys are not exactly successful.I know that that is what you are dying to say."
"On the contrary," he said, "I do not blame you at all for this lastaffair. You brought Lucille here, which was excellent. Your failure asregards Mr. Sabin is scarcely to be fastened upon you. It is Horser whomwe hold responsible for that."
She laughed.
"Poor Horser! It was rather rough to pit a creature like that againstSouspennier."
The man shrugged his shoulders.
"Horser," he said, "may not be brilliant, but he had a greatorganisation at his back. Souspennier was without friends or influence.The contest should scarcely have been so one-sided. To tell you thetruth, my dear Muriel, I am more surprised that you yourself should havefound the task beyond you."
Lady Carey's face darkened.
"It was too soon after the loss of Lucille," she said, "and besides,there was his vanity to be reckoned with. It was like a challenge tohim, and he had taken up the glove before I returned to New York."
The Duchess looked up from her work.
"Have you had any conversation with my husband, Prince?" she asked.
The Prince of Saxe Leinitzer twirled his heavy moustache and sank into achair between the two women.
"I have had a long talk with him," he announced. "And the result?" theDuchess asked.
"The result I fear you would scarcely consider satisfactory," the Princedeclared. "The moment that I hinted at the existence of--er--conditionsof which you, Duchess, are aware, he showed alarm, and I had all thatI could do to reassure him. I find it everywhere amongst youraristocracy--this stubborn confidence in the existence of the reigningorder of things, this absolute detestation of anything approachingintrigue."
"My dear man, I hope you don't include me," Lady Carey exclaimed.
"You, Lady Muriel," he answered, with a slow smile, "are an exception toall rules. No, you are a rule by yourself."
"To revert to the subject then for a moment," the Duchess said stiffly."You have made no progress with the Duke?"
"None whatever," Saxe Leinitzer admitted. "He was sufficiently emphaticto inspire me with every caution. Even now I have doubts as to whetherI have altogether reassured him. I really believe, dear Duchess, that weshould be better off if you could persuade him to go and live upon hisestates."
The Duchess smiled grimly.
"Whilst the House of Lords exists," she remarked, "you will neversucceed in keeping Algernon away from London. He is always on the pointof making a speech, although he never does it."
"I have heard of that speech," Lady Carey drawled, from her low seat."It is to be a thoroughly enlightening affair. All the great socialquestions are to be permanently disposed of. The Prime Minister willcome on his knees and beg Algernon to take his place."
The Duchess looked up over her knitting.
"Algernon is at least in earnest," she remarked drily. "And he has thegood conscience of a clean living and honest man."
"What an unpleasant possession it must be," Lady Carey remarked sweetly."I disposed of my conscience finally many years ago. I am not sure, butI believe that it was the Prince to whom I entrusted the burying of it.By the bye, Lucille will be here directly, I suppose. Is she to be toldof Souspennier's arrival in London?"
"I imagine," the Prince said, with knitted brows, "that it will not bewise to keep it from her. It is impossible to conceal her whereabouts,and the papers will very shortly acquaint her with his."
"And," Lady Carey asked, "how does the little affair progress?"
"Admirably," the Prince answered. "Already some of the Society papersare beginning to chatter about the friendship existing between a CabinetMinister and a beautiful Hungarian lady of title, etc., etc. The fact ofit is that Brott is in deadly earnest. He gives himself away every time.If Lucille has not lost old cleverness she will be able to twist himpresently around her little finger."
"If only some one would twist him on the rack," the Duchess murmuredvindictively. "I tried to read one of his speeches the other day. It wasnothing more nor less than blasphemy. I do not think that I am naturallya cruel woman, but I would hand such men over to the public executionerwith joy."
Lucille came in, as beautiful as ever, but with tired lines under herfull dark eyes. She sank into a low chair with listless grace.
"Reginald Brott again, I suppose," she remarked curtly. "I wish the manhad never existed."
"That is a very cruel speech, Lucille," the Prince said, with alanguishing glance towards her, "for if it had not been for Brott weshould never have dared to call you out from your seclusion."
"Then more heartily than ever," Lucille declared, "I wish the man hadnever been born. You cannot possibly flatter yourself, Prince, that yoursummons was a welcome one."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I shall never, be able to believe," he said, "that the CountessRadantz was able to do more than support existence in a small Americantown--without society, with no scope for her ambitions, detachedaltogether from the whole civilized world."
"Which only goes to prove, Prince," Lucille remarked contemptuously,"that you do not understand me in the least. As a place of residenceLenox would compare very favourably with--say Homburg, and forcompanionship you forget my husband. I never met the woman yet who didnot prefer the company of one man, if only it were the right one, to thecosmopolitan throng we call society."
"It sounds idyllic, but very gauche," Lady Carey remarked drily. "Ineffect it is rather a blow on the cheek for you, Prince. Of course youknow that the Prince is in love with you, Lucille?"
"I wish he were," she answered, looking lazily out of the window.
He bent over her.
"Why?"
"I would persuade him to send me home again," she answered coldly.
The Duchess looked up from her knitting. "Your husband has saved you thejourney," she remarked, "even if you were able to work upon the Prince'sgood nature to such an extent."
Lucille started round eagerly.
"What do you mean?" she cried.
"Your husband is in London," the Duchess answered.
Lucille laughed with the gaiety of a child. Like magic the lines frombeneath her eyes seemed to have vanished. Lady Carey watched her withpale cheeks and malevolent expression.
"Come, Prince," she cried mockingly, "it was only a week ago that youassured me that my husband could not leave America. Already he is inLondon. I must go to see him. Oh, I insist upon it."
Saxe Leinitzer glanced towards the Duchess. She laid down her knitting.
"My dear Countess," she said firmly, "I beg that you will listen to mecarefully. I speak to you for your own good, and I believe I ma
y add,Prince, that I speak with authority."
"With authority!" the Prince echoed.
"We all," the Duchess continued, "look upon your husband's arrival asinopportune and unfortunate. We are all agreed that you must be keptapart. Certain obligations have been laid upon you. You could notpossibly fulfil them with a husband at your elbow. The matter will beput plainly before your husband, as I am now putting it before you. Hewill be warned not to attempt to see or communicate with you as yourhusband. If he or you disobey the consequences will be serious."
Lucille shrugged her shoulders.
"It is easy to talk," she said, "but you will not find it easy to keepVictor away when he has found out where I am."
The Prince intervened.
"We have no objection to your meeting," he said, "but it must be asacquaintances. There must be no intermission or slackening in your task,and that can only be properly carried out by the Countess Radantz andfrom Dorset House."
Lucille smothered her disappointment.
"Dear me," she said. "You will find Victor a little hard to persuade."
There was a moment's silence. Then the Prince spoke slowly, and watchingcarefully the effect of his words upon Lucille.
"Countess," he said, "it has been our pleasure to make of your task sofar as possible a holiday. Yet perhaps it is wiser to remind you thatunderneath the glove is an iron hand. We do not often threaten, butwe brook no interference. We have the means to thwart it. I bear noill-will to your husband, but to you I say this. If he should be so madas to defy us, to incite you to disobedience, he must pay the penalty."
A servant entered.
"Mr. Reginald Brott is in the small drawing-room, your Grace," heannounced. "He enquired for the Countess Radantz."
Lucille rose. When the servant had disappeared she turned round for amoment, and faced the Prince. A spot of colour burned in her cheeks, hereyes were bright with anger.
"I shall remember your words, Prince," she said. "So far from minebeing, however, a holiday task, it is one of the most wearisome andunpleasant I ever undertook. And in return for your warnings let me tellyou this. If you should bring any harm upon my husband you shall answerfor it all your days to me. I will do my duty. Be careful that you donot exceed yours."
She swept out of the room. Lady Carey laughed mockingly at the Prince.
"Poor Ferdinand!" she exclaimed.