ALLEGIANCE
"Check. You are losing your game, my John."
Allard laughed in frank admission,--a tanned, bright-eyed Allard after
the long voyage.
"I am stupid to-night, monseigneur. It is difficult to sit here and play
chess when we are anchored at last before our goal, the city of
excitements. One has the feeling that one should go ashore at once."
"When one arrives in a port near midnight, one does not arrive
officially until next morning. Since my first act must be to go direct
to the palace, you will comprehend that the hour is unfortunate."
"Yes. Although every one must know."
"Certainly. The approach of the _Nadeja_ was undoubtedly signified to
the Emperor hours ago. Play, play; to-morrow will come without our
aid."
Allard moved a piece at random.
"I am not the only one impatient," he defended. "Count Rosal and Vasili
spent the evening hanging over the rail toward the lights of the city,
and telling me all we would do, from seeing Mademoiselle Liline dance to
trying that new automobile. They went to bed at last from sheer
exasperation."
"They do not have to stay awake to amuse his Royal Highness."
"Oh, I could not sleep, monseigneur. But I play bad chess."
Stanief shot a glance at him; perhaps he himself could have confessed a
similar inability, if he had chosen, in spite of his indolent
impassivity.
"You assuredly do," he agreed. "Checkmate. Set up the board again and
avenge yourself."
The lap of the calm water against the ship's side marked the rising of
the tide; the roar and hum of the huge city came strangely after ocean
silences. On the river's bank a girl was singing a minor, half-Gipsy air
which penetrated at intervals, almost as if with timidity, into the
rose-and-gold salon. Allard gathered his straying thoughts together and
compelled his attention to the game. They are changing the watch on
deck, he reflected absently; he heard the movement and agitation.
For any one to disturb Stanief unsummoned was rare; for the door to be
opened like this, without permission, was unprecedented. But Marzio
offered no excuse as he held aside the heavy portiere. Stanief lifted
his eyes languidly, then sprang to his feet with an abruptness that sent
the chessmen rattling over the floor. Allard, startled, rose also and
turned, to draw back mechanically into the shadow and leave host and
guest face to face. Marzio dropped the curtain, closing the door softly
as he went out.
The slight, rather frail boy clad in deep mourning was not unlike
Stanief himself in fine, dark beauty of feature, and there was a
composed stateliness worthy of both in the gesture with which he
extended his small hand in greeting. Stanief moved forward without a
word, and, kneeling, bent his head to the slim fingers for which the one
great jewel seemed too heavy. Still on his knee, in constraint of their
difference in height, he received the young Emperor's formal embrace.
"I am glad you have returned, cousin," the boy said, with a grave
dignity of speech corresponding to his bearing. "To-morrow--I wished to
see you before then."
Stanief looked into the eyes on a level with his own, before rising.
"I shall hold this visit always in my heart, sire," he answered, his
tone infinitely gentle. "I have not been given many such pleasant
memories."
"It is a long time since we saw each other; you did not come to me--"
"That was never my fault, sire."
"No," he conceded calmly. "I knew it was not, although they told me so."
"I am grateful for so much justice. Permit me--"
Adrian took the arm-chair which the other advanced, and himself
indicated a seat very near for his cousin. He had, of course, seen
Allard on entering, but, accustomed to the constant presence of others,
lent no further attention to the gentleman who remained standing at the
shadowed end of the salon. On Stanief his large, intent eyes were fixed
with an imperiously eager scrutiny.
"You are the same as always, as you were last winter," he declared
slowly. "Dalmorov has insisted that I would find you very different,
now."
"The Baron Dalmorov is more than kind," Stanief replied, betrayed into
his unusual frown. "May I ask why I should have changed?"
"Because you are Regent, and you govern all."
"I beg pardon, sire; if I am Regent, you are none the less Emperor."
Over the young face swept an expression that so altered, so hardened it,
that it was as if another and dual self came into view.
"Then I rule _you_, as my father did," he flashed.
Allard gasped in his corner; was this the child of fourteen whom he had
expected to amuse? And not as to a child was given the difficult answer
by the one who knew him.
"Yes, sire," Stanief returned steadily. "But--"
"But! You say but?"
"May I speak frankly? You will find many people to flatter you, to tell
you facile, surface truths; let me for once tell exactly my meaning.
Assuredly you do rule me and your country, so far as the possibilities
permit. Yet you are surrounded by those who hate me, and even you, sire,
who would joyfully see us both fall if they might mount upon the ruins.
Many times I may see what is hidden from you, and I must act
accordingly. Sire, it is my intention to hold this seething Empire of
yours in my grasp, to force it to bend or break in its stubborn
wilfulness, until three years from now I give it back to you a tranquil
government. But--and for this I said 'but'--if necessary, I shall act
against your will, as against all other forces, until I carry my purpose
to its end and have you crowned on your seventeenth birthday."
He drew a swift breath, caught by his own vehemence, his eyes never
leaving the unchildish ones opposite.
"And on the day of your coronation, sire," he concluded, with a touch of
sadness, "you will rule without the _but_. Call me to account then; I
assure you I shall have no friends to protest."
Allard's own heart quickened at the fire of determination in the other's
low voice. If only it had been a man who met that splendid frankness, he
mourned furiously, not a child, a sullen child. For Adrian did not move
at all, or answer the daring declaration. His head averted, he looked
down at the floor.
Stanief waited a little, and the light died out of his face.
"You do not understand me, sire," he said, very quietly. "Or,
understanding, you do not pardon one who serves you even against your
will. I am thirty-two years old; it is my comfort to believe that when
you reach my age, when jealousy and anger have passed away and perhaps
taken me with them, that you will think differently of Feodor Stanief.
Will you allow me to order some refreshment brought?" he added.
Adrian moved then, and the color rushed over his cheeks as he struck one
small open palm on the arm of his chair.
"I understand you," he cried passionately. "Oh, I understand! Can I
trust you? It is that, Feodor. No one speaks his thoughts to me; every
one _lies_. The Emperor told me that many times before he died. 'Do not
trust your cousin,' he whispered to me on the last day. 'Then I must
trust Dalmorov?' I asked. 'No,' he said, 'no; better Feodor than him.
Trust no one.' And now you ask it of me."
"Yet you came here to-night, sire," Stanief reminded him.
"Because I must trust some one. Because I know Dalmorov and his
falseness, while I do not know you, cousin."
"Then I ask you only to suspend judgment until you do, sire. A regent
there must be, I, or another if I die--"
"I would rather have you than any one else in the world."
"There is no one--I speak knowing our court--no one else whose pride and
honor so compel him to loyalty. And I stand in grievous need of your
protection, my imperial cousin."
Adrian's head lifted haughtily.
"Of my protection! You, now?"
"I, now. Through you, if you lend your name to their use, my enemies can
make the task I have set myself difficult beyond description."
The kindling fire had caught, at last; with the first boyish
impulsiveness of the interview Adrian's response flashed to meet the
appeal.
"You need not fear that! You need not fear me."
"Thank you, sire," Stanief answered, simply and gravely.
There was a pause. Allard wondered, as he discreetly observed the two,
just what would have been the result if Stanief had brought less
convincing seriousness to answer his cousin's sensitive pride and
incredulity.
"I have come alone," Adrian mused, with a half-sigh, "with Gregor. He
does what I wish because he knows Dalmorov hates him and he is afraid to
stand alone. So when I bade him bring me here secretly to-night, after I
had presumably retired, he obeyed. I like to be obeyed." The expression
of several moments before returned transiently.
A playfully earnest warning of the other cousin's recurred to the
listener; it appeared that both had "the habit of domination."
"And so I must return at once, or they may discover I have gone. But I
am glad I came, cousin; it seems easier now."
"Sire," Stanief said, and somehow his tone made Allard feel suddenly
abashed, as one who stands before a thing not for his eyes, "there will
come a day when you will stand in the great cathedral to receive the
oaths of allegiance of your nobles. There will be all ceremony, all
solemnity, but--take mine now. The one I shall give you then can mean no
more. You have been taught to have no faith in such promises; when you
receive mine for the second time, I hope it will have gained some value
in your sight."
"I wish it had now; I almost think it has," he answered, with a
bitterness and energy singularly strange from his boyish lips. "I want
to have faith in you, cousin."
He rose, and Stanief with him.
"I care for nothing," he added, reverting to the previous invitation. "I
have already stayed too long. Monsieur," his eyes went to Allard for
the first time, "monsieur is the American gentleman who sailed with you
from New York?"
Allard came forward in response to a glance from Stanief.
"Sire, I have the honor to present Monsieur John Allard, whom I have
persuaded to come with me because I also have need of one friend whom I
can trust."
He was after all so pathetic in his lonely and sophisticated youth, this
child. Saluting him, Allard's clear gray eyes involuntarily expressed
all their sympathy and warm kindliness. And, meeting the regard, Adrian
gave him his only smile of the evening.
"It is easy to trust you others, Monsieur Allard," he said wistfully. "I
wish you were my friend instead of Feodor's."
"Is it not the same thing, sire?" Allard questioned.
"Is it?"
"I sincerely believe so, sire."
"Bring Monsieur Allard with you to-morrow, cousin," Adrian directed,
lifting his gaze to Stanief. "And good night."
"You will allow me to accompany your return, sire?"
"Certainly not,--to attract all the capital!"
"Pardon, I meant as secretly as Gregor attends you; who--again pardon
me--is scarcely attendance enough."
Adrian shook his head decisively.
"Your people on the yacht--"
"They are not already aware that your Imperial Majesty is here?"
"You can order them to be silent," he retorted, with angry irritation.
"Exactly, sire," said Stanief, and waited.
Adrian was nothing if not swift of thought; he drew the inference
intended and conceded the point.
"Very well," he yielded. "As you will, cousin. Good night, Monsieur
Allard."
He held out his hand, and quite unconsciously Allard took the little
fingers in his warm clasp. Stanief, holding aside the curtain, smiled to
himself; but Adrian accepted the Americanism equably and his last glance
was all friendly.
It was three o'clock in the morning when Stanief reentered the
_Nadeja's_ salon. Allard was still there, and rose expectantly to
receive him.
"I waited," he explained.
"You need not have," Stanief replied, with all his usual cool serenity.
"Go and rest; to-morrow the battle opens. Only--"
"Only, monseigneur?"
He came over to the table to find the tiny gold-tipped cigarettes.
"Only it was not with you I played chess to-night, John, but with
Dalmorov and the late Emperor, my uncle. And I claim check."