CHAPTER XXXIV
The Prince presented himself with a low bow. Lucille had a copy of themorning paper in her hand.
"I congratulate you, Countess," he said. "You progress admirably. It isa great step gained."
Lucille, who was looking pale and nervous, regarded him with anxiety.
"A step! But it is everything. If these rumours are true, he refusesthe attempt to form a Cabinet. He takes a subordinate position underLetheringham. Every paper this morning says that if this is so hispolitical career is over. It is true, is it not?"
"It is a great gain," the Prince said slowly.
"But it is everything," Lucille declared, with a rising note of passionin her tone. "It was my task. It is accomplished. I demand my release."
The Prince was silent for a moment.
"You are in a great hurry, Lucille," he said.
"What if I am!" she replied fiercely. "Do you suppose that this life oflies and deceit is pleasant to me? Do you suppose that it is a pleasanttask to lure a brave man on to his ruin?"
The Prince raised his eyebrows.
"Come," he said, "you can have no sympathy with Reginald Brott, thesworn enemy of our class, a Socialist, a demagogue who would parcel outour lands in allotments, a man who has pledged himself to nothing morenor less than a revolution."
"The man's views are hateful enough," she answered, "but he is inearnest, and however misguided he may be there is something noble in hisunselfishness, in his, steady fixedness of purpose."
The Prince's face indicated his contempt.
"Such men," he declared, "are only fit to be crushed like vermin underfoot. In any other country save England we should have dealt with himdifferently."
"This is all beside the question," she declared. "My task was to preventhis becoming Prime Minister, and I have succeeded."
The Prince gave vent to a little gesture of dissent. "Your task," hesaid, "went a little farther than that. We require his political ruin."
She pointed to the pile of newspapers upon the table.
"Read what they say!" she exclaimed. "There is not one who does not usethat precise term. He has missed his opportunity. The people will nevertrust him again."
"That, at any rate, is not certain," the Prince said. "You must rememberthat before long he will realise that he has been your tool. Whatthen? He will become more rabid than ever, more also to be feared. No,Lucille, your task is not yet over. He must be involved in an open andpublic scandal, and with you."
She was white almost to the lips with passion.
"You expect a great deal!" she exclaimed. "You expect me to ruin mylife, then, to give my honour as well as these weary months, thisconstant humiliation."
"You are pleased to be melodramatic," he said coldly. "It is quitepossible to involve him without actually going to extremes."
"And what of my husband?" she asked.
The Prince laughed unpleasantly.
"If you have not taught him complaisance," he said, "it is possible, ofcourse, that Mr. Sabin might be unkind. But what of it? You are yourown mistress. You are a woman of the world. Without him there is aninfinitely greater future before you than as his wife you could everenjoy."
"You are pleased," she said, "to be enigmatic."
The Prince looked hard at her. Her face was white and set. He sighed.
"Lucille," he said, "I have been very patient for many years. Yet youknow very well my secret, and in your heart you know very well that I amone of those who generally win the thing upon which they have set theirhearts. I have always loved you, Lucille, but never more than now.Fidelity is admirable, but surely you have done your duty. He is an oldman, and a man who has failed in the great things of life. I, on theother hand, can offer you a great future. Saxe Leinitzer, as you know,is a kingdom of its own, and, Lucille, I stand well with the Emperor.The Socialist party in Berlin are strong and increasing. He needs us.Who can say what honours may not be in store for us? For I, too, am ofthe Royal House, Lucille. I am his kinsman. He never forgets that. Come,throw aside this restlessness. I will tell you how to deal with Brott,and the publicity, after all, will be nothing. We will go abroaddirectly afterwards."
"Have you finished?" she asked.
"You will be reasonable!" he begged.
"Reasonable!" She turned upon him with flashing eyes. "I wonder howyou ever dared to imagine that I could tolerate you for one moment as alover or a husband. Wipe it out of your mind once and for all. You arerepellent to me. Positively the only wish I have in connection withyou is never to see your face again. As for my duty, I have done it. Myconscience is clear. I shall leave this house to-day."
"I hope," the Prince said softly, "that you will do nothing rash!"
"In an hour," she said, "I shall be at the Carlton with my husband. Iwill trust to him to protect me from you."
The Prince shook his head.
"You talk rashly," he said. "You do not think. You are forbidden toleave this house. You are forbidden to join your husband."
She laughed scornfully, but underneath was a tremor of uneasiness.
"You summoned me from America," she said, "and I came... I was forced toleave my husband without even a word of farewell. I did it! You set mea task--I have accomplished it. I claim that I have kept my bond, thatI have worked out my own freedom. If you require more of me, I say thatyou are overstepping your authority, and I refuse. Set the black crossagainst my name if you will. I will take the risk."
The Prince came a little nearer to her. She held her own bravely enough,but there was a look in his face which terrified her.
"Lucille," he said, "you force me to disclose something which I havekept so far to myself. I wished to spare you anxiety, but you mustunderstand that your safety depends upon your remaining in this house,and in keeping apart from all association with--your husband."
"You will find it difficult," she said, "to convince me of that."
"On the contrary," he said, "I shall find it easy--too easy, believe me.You will remember my finding you at the wine-shop of Emil Sachs?"
"Yes!"
"You refused to tell me the object of your visit. It was foolish, forof course I was informed. You procured from Emil a small quantity of thepowder prepared according to the recipe of Herr Estentrauzen, and forwhich we paid him ten thousand marks. It is the most silent, the mostsecret, the most swift poison yet discovered."
"I got it for myself," she said coldly. "There have been times when Ihave felt that the possession of something of that sort was an absolutenecessity."
"I do not question you as to the reason for your getting it," heanswered. "Very shortly afterwards you left your carriage in Pall Mall,and without even asking for your husband you called at his hotel--youstole up into his room."
"I took some roses there and left them," she said "What of that?"
"Only that you were the last person seen to enter Mr. Sabin's roomsbefore Duson was found there dead. And Duson died from a dose of thatsame poison, a packet of which you procured secretly from Emil Sachs. Anempty wineglass was by his side--it was one generally used by Mr. Sabin.I know that the English police, who are not so foolish as people wouldhave one believe, are searching now for the woman who was seen to enterthe sitting-room shortly before Mr. Sabin returned and found Duson theredead."
She laughed scornfully.
"It is ingenious," she admitted, "and perhaps a little unfortunate forme. But the inference is ridiculous. What interest had I in the man'sdeath?"
"None, of course!" the Prince said. "But, Lucille, in all cases ofpoisoning it is the wife of whom one first thinks!"
"The wife? I did not even know that the creature had a wife."
"Of course not! But Duson drank from Mr. Sabin's glass, and you areMr. Sabin's wife. You are living apart from him. He is old and you areyoung. And for the other man--there is Reginald Brott. Your names havebeen coupled together, of course. See what an excellent case standsthere. You procure the poison--secretly. You make your way to yourhusband
's room--secretly. The fatal dose is taken from your husband'swineglass. You leave no note, no message. The poison of which the mandied is exactly the same as you procured from Sachs. Lucille, after all,do you wonder that the police are looking for a woman in black with anermine toque? What a mercy you wore a thick veil!"
She sat down suddenly.
"This is hideous," she said.
"Think it over," he said, "step by step. It is wonderful how all theincidents dovetail into one another."
"Too wonderful," she cried. "It sounds like some vile plot toincriminate me. How much had you to do with this, Prince?"
"Don't be a fool!" he answered roughly. "Can't you see for yourself thatyour arrest would be the most terrible thing that could happen for us?Even Sachs might break down in cross-examination, and you--well, youare a woman, and you want to live. We should all be in the most deadlyperil. Lucille, I would have spared you this anxiety if I could, butyour defiance made it necessary. There was no other way of getting youaway from England to-night except by telling you the truth."
"Away from England to-night," she repeated vaguely. "But I will not go.It is impossible."
"It is imperative," the Prince declared, with a sharp ring of authorityin his tone. "It is your own folly, for which you have to pay. You wentsecretly to Emil Sachs. You paid surreptitious visits to your husband,which were simply madness. You have involved us all in danger. For ourown sakes we must see that you are removed."
"It is the very thing to excite suspicion--flight abroad," she objected.
"Your flight," he said coolly, "will be looked upon from a differentpoint of view, for Reginald Brott must follow you. It will be anelopement, not a flight from justice."
"And in case I should decline?" Lucille asked quietly.
The Prince shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, we have done the best we can for ourselves," he said. "Come, Iwill be frank with you. There are great interests involved here, and,before all things, I have had to consider the welfare of our friends.That is my duty! Emil Sachs by this time is beyond risk of detection.He has left behind a letter, in which he confesses that he has forsome time supplemented the profits of his wine-shop by selling secretlycertain deadly poisons of his own concoctions. Alarmed at reading of thedeath of Duson immediately after he had sold a poison which the symptomsdenoted he had fled the country. That letter is in the hands of thewoman who remains in the wine-shop, and will only be used in case ofnecessity. By other means we have dissociated ourselves from Duson andall connection with him. I think I could go so far as to say that itwould be impossible to implicate us. Our sole anxiety now, therefore, isto save you."
Lucille rose to her feet.
"I shall go at once to my husband," she said. "I shall tell himeverything. I shall act on his advice."
The Prince stood over by the door, and she heard the key turn.
"You will do nothing of the sort," he said quietly. "You are in my powerat last, Lucille. You will do my bidding, or--"
"Or what?"
"I shall myself send for the police and give you into custody!"