IVOR HEARS THE STORY
They were gone. They had closed the door behind them. I looked at
Maxine, but she did not speak. With her finger to her lips she got up,
trembling still; and walking to the door, she opened it suddenly to look
out. Nobody was there.
"They may have gone into your bedroom to listen at that door," she
whispered.
I took the hint, and going quickly into the room adjoining, turned on
the light. Emptiness there: but I left the door open, and the
electricity switched on. They might change their minds, or be more
subtle than they wished to seem.
Maxine threw herself on the sofa, gathering up the necklace from the
cushion where it had fallen, and lifting it in both hands pressed the
glittering mass against her lips and cheeks.
"Thank God, thank God--and thank you, Ivor, best of friends!" she said
brokenly, in so low a voice that no ear could have caught her words,
even if pressed against the keyhole. Then, letting the diamonds drop
into her lap, she flung back her head and laughed and cried together.
"Oh, Ivor, Ivor!" she panted, between her sobs and hysterical gusts of
laughter. "The agony of it--the agony--and the joy now! You're
wonderful. Good, precious Ivor--dear friend--saint."
At this I laughed too, partly to calm her, and patted gently the hands
with which she had nervously clutched my sleeve.
"Heaven knows I don't deserve one of those epithets," I said, "I'll just
stick to friend."
"Not deserve them?" she repeated. "Not deserve them, when you've saved
me--I don't yet understand how--from a horror worse than death--oh, but
a thousand times worse, for I wanted to die. I meant to die. If they had
found it, I shouldn't have lived to see to-morrow morning. Tell me--how
did you work such a miracle? How did you get this necklace, that meant
so much to me (and to one I love), and how did you hide the--other
thing?"
"I don't know anything about this necklace," I answered, stupidly, "I
didn't bring it."
"You--_didn't bring it_?"
"No. At least, that red leather thing isn't the case I carried. When the
fellow pulled it out from the sofa, I saw it wasn't what I'd had, so I
thanked our lucky stars, and would have tried to let you know that all
hope wasn't over, if I'd dared to catch your eye or make a signal."
Maxine was suddenly calm. The tears had dried on her cheeks, and her
eyes were fever-bright.
"Ivor, you can't know what you are talking about," she said, in a
changed voice. "That red leather case is what you took out of your
breast pocket and handed to me when I first came into the room. At the
sound of the knock, I pushed it down as far as I could between the seat
and back of the sofa, and then ran off to a distance before the door
opened. You _did_ bring the necklace, knowingly or not; and as it was
the cause of all my trouble in the beginning, I needn't tell you of the
joy I had in seeing it, apart from the heavenly relief of being spared
discovery of the thing I feared. Now, when you've given me the other
packet, which you hid so marvellously, I can go away happy."
I stared at her, feeling more than ever like one in a dream.
"I gave you the only thing I brought," I said. "It was in my breast
pocket, inside my coat. I took it out, and put it in your hands. There
was no other thing. Look again in the sofa. It must be there still. This
red case is something else--we can try to account for it later. It all
came through the lights not working. If it hadn't been dusk you would
have seen that I gave you a dark green leather letter-case--quite
different from this, though of about the same length--rather less thick,
and--"
Frantically she began ransacking the crevice between the seat and back
of the sofa, but nothing was there. We might have known there could be
nothing or the Commissary of Police would have been before us. With a
cry she cut me short at last throwing up her hands in despair. She was
deathly pale again, and all the light had gone out of her eyes leaving
them dull as if she had been sick with some long illness.
"What will become of me?" she stammered. "The treaty lost! My God--what
shall I do? Ivor, you are killing me. Do you know--you are killing me?"
The word "treaty" was new to me in this connection, for the Foreign
Secretary had not thought it necessary that his messenger should be
wholly in his secrets--and Maxine's. Yet hearing the word brought no
great surprise. I knew that I had been cat's-paw in some game of high
stakes. But it was of Maxine I thought now, and the importance of the
loss to her, not the national disaster which it might well be also.
"Wait," I said, "don't despair yet. There's some mistake. Perhaps we
shall be able to see light when we've thrashed this out and talked it
over. I know I had a green letter-case. It never left my pocket. I
thought of it and guarded it every moment. Could those diamonds have
been inside it? Could the Foreign Secretary had given me the necklace,
_instead_ of what you expected?"
"No, no," she answered with desperate impatience. "He knew that the only
thing which could save me was the document I'd sent him. I wired that I
must have it back again immediately, for my own sake--for his--for the
sake of England. Ivor! Think again. Do you want me to go mad?"
"I will think," I said, trying to speak reassuringly. "Give me a
moment--a quiet moment--"
"A quiet moment," she repeated, bitterly, "when for me each second is an
hour! It's late, and this is the night of my new play. Soon, I must be
at the theatre, for the make-up and dressing of this part for the first
act are a heavy business. I don't want all Paris to know that Maxine de
Renzie has been ruined by her enemies. Let us keep the secret while we
can, for others' sakes, and so gain time for our own, if all is not
lost--if you believe still that there's any hope. Oh, save me,
Ivor--somehow. My whole life is in this."
"Let your understudy take your part to-night, while we think, and work,"
I suggested. "You cannot go to the theatre in this state."
"For an actress there's no such word as 'cannot,'" she said bitterly. "I
could play a part to the finish, and crawl off the stage to die the next
instant; yet no one would have guessed that I was dying. I have no
understudy. What use to have one? What audience would stop in the
theatre after an announcement that their Maxine's understudy would take
her place? Every man and woman would walk out and get his money back.
No; for the sake of the man I love better than my life, or twenty
lives--the man I've either saved or ruined--I'll play tonight, if I go
mad or kill myself to-morrow. Don't 'think quietly,' Ivor. Think out
aloud, and let me follow the workings of your mind. We may help each
other, so. Let us go over together everything that happened to you from
the minute you took the letter-case from the Foreign Secretary up to the
minute I came into this room."
I obeyed, beginning at the very beginning and telling her all, except
the part that had to do with Diana Forrest. She had no concern in that.
I told her how I had slept with the green letter-case under my pillow,
and had waked to feel and look for it once or twice an hour. How when
morning came I had been late in getting to the train: how I had
struggled with the two men who tried to keep me out of the reserved
compartment into which they were intruding. How the man who had a right
to it, after wishing to prevent my entering, helped me in the end,
rather than be alone with the pair who had forced themselves upon him.
How he had stumbled almost into my arms in a panic, during the confusion
after the false alarm on the boat's gangway. How he had walked beside me
and seemed on the point of speaking, later, in the Gare du Nord. How I
had avoided and lost sight of him; but how I had many times covertly
touched my pocket to be sure that, through all, the letter-case was
still safe there.
Maxine grew calmer, though not, I think, more hopeful as I talked; and
at last she folded up the diamonds neatly in the red case, which she
gave to me. "Put that into the same pocket," she said, "and then pass
your hand over your coat, as you did often before. Now, does it feel
exactly as if it were the green letter-case with which you started out?"
"Yes, I think it does," I answered, doubtfully. "I'm afraid I shouldn't
know the difference. This _may_ be a little thicker than the other,
but--I can't be sure. And, you see, I never once had a chance to
unbutton my coat and look at the thing I had in this inner pocket. It
would have attracted too much attention to risk that; and as a matter of
fact, I was especially warned not to do it. I could trust only to the
touch. But even granting that, by a skill almost clever enough for
sleight of hand--a skill which only the smartest pickpocket in Europe
could possess--why should a thief who had stolen my letter-case give me
instead a string of diamonds worth many thousands of pounds? If he
wanted to put something into my pocket of much the same size and shape
as the thing he stole, so that I shouldn't suspect my loss, why didn't
he slip in the red case _empty_, instead of containing the necklace?"
"_This_ necklace, too, of all things in the world!" murmured Maxine,
lost in the mystery. "It's like a dream. Yet here--by some miracle--it
is, in our hands. And the treaty is gone."
"The treaty is gone," I repeated, miserably.
It was Maxine herself who had spoken the words which I merely echoed,
yet it almost killed her to hear them from me. No doubt it gave the
dreadful fact a kind of inevitability. She flung herself down on the
sofa with a groan, her face buried in her hands.
"My God, what a punishment!" she stammered. "I've ruined the man I
risked everything to save. I will go to the theatre, and I will act
to-night, my friend, but unless you can give me back what is lost, when
to-morrow morning comes, I shall be out of the world."
"Don't say that," I implored, sick with pity for her and shame at my
failure. "All hope isn't over yet; it can't be. I'll think this out.
There must be a solution. There must be a way of laying hold of what
_seems_ to be gone. If by giving my life I could get it, I assure you I
wouldn't hesitate for an instant, now: so you see, there's nothing I
won't do to help you. Only, I wish the path could be made a little
plainer for me--unless for some reason it's necessary for you to keep me
in the dark. The word 'treaty' I heard for the first time from you. I
didn't know what I was bringing you, except that it was a document of
international importance, and that you'd been helping the British
Foreign Secretary--perhaps Great Britain as a Power--in some ticklish
manoeuvre of high politics. He said that, so far as he was concerned,
you might tell me more if you liked. He left it to you. That was his
message."
"Then I will tell you more!" Maxine exclaimed. "It will be better to do
so. I know that it will make it easier for you to help me. The document
you were bringing me was a treaty--a quite new treaty between Japan,
Russia and France: not a copy, but the original. England had been warned
that there was a secret understanding between the three countries,
unknown to her. There was no time to make a copy. And I stole the real
treaty from Raoul du Laurier, to whom I am engaged--whom I adore, Ivor,
as I didn't know it was in me to adore any man. You know his name,
perhaps--that he's Under Secretary in the Foreign Office, here in Paris.
Oh, I can read in your eyes what you're thinking of me, now. You can't
think worse of me than I think of myself. Yet I did the thing for
Raoul's sake. There's that in my defence--only that."
"I don't understand," I said, trying not to show the horror of Maxine's
treachery to a man who loved and trusted her, which I could not help
feeling.
"How could you?--except that I've betrayed him! But I'll tell you
everything--I'll go back a long way. Then you'll pity me, even if you
scorn me, too. You'll work for me--to save me, and him. For years I've
helped the British Government. Oh, I won't spare myself. I've been a
spy, sometimes against one Power, sometimes against another. When there
was anything to do against Russia, I was always glad, because my dear
father was a Pole, and you know how Poles feel towards Russia. Russia
ruined his life, and stripped it of everything worth having, not only
money, but--oh, well, that's not in this story of mine! I won't trouble
you or waste time in the telling. Only, when I was a very young girl, I
was already the enemy of all that's Russian, with a big debt of revenge
to pay. And I've been paying it, slowly. Don't think that the money I've
had for my work--hateful work often--has been used for myself. It's been
for my father's country--poor, sad country--every shilling of English
coin. As an actress I've supported myself, and, as an actress, it has
been easier for me to do the other secret work than it would have been
for a woman leading a more sheltered life, mingling less with
distinguished persons of different countries, or unable to be eccentric
without causing scandal. As for France, she's the friend of Russia, and
I haven't a drop of French blood in my veins, so, at least, I've never
been treacherous to my own people. Oh, I have made some great _coups_ in
the last eight or nine years, Ivor!... for I began before I was sixteen,
and now I'm twenty-six. Once or twice England has had to thank me for
giving her news of the most vital importance. You're shocked to hear
what my inner life has been?"
"If I were shocked, no doubt the feeling would be more than half
conventional. One hardly knows how conventional one's opinions are until
one stops to think," said I.
"Once, I gloried in the work," Maxine went on. "But that was before I
fell in love. You and I have played a little at being in love, but that
was to pass the time. Both of us were flirting. I'd never met Raoul
then, and I've never really loved any man except him. It came at first
sight, for me: and when he told me that he cared, he said it had begun
when he first saw me on the stage; so you see it is as if we were meant
for each other. From the moment I gave him my promise, I promised myself
that the old work should be given up for ever: Raoul's _fiancée_,
Raoul's wife, should not be the tool of diplomatists. Besides, as he's a
Frenchman, his wife would owe loyalty to France, which Maxine de Renzie
never owed. I wanted--oh, how much I wanted--to be only what Raoul
believed me, just a simple, true-hearted woman, with nothing to hide. It
made me sick to think that there was one thing I must always conceal
from him, but I did the best I could. I vowed to myself that I'd break
with the past, and I wrote a letter to the British Foreign Secretary,
who has always been a good friend of mine. I said I was engaged, and
hoped to begin my life all over again in a different way, though he
might be sure that I'd know how to keep his secrets as well as my own.
Oh, Ivor, to think that was hardly more than a week ago! I was happy
then. I feel twenty years older now."
"A week ago. You've been engaged only a week?" I broke in.
"Not many days more. I guessed, I hoped, long ago that Raoul cared, but
he wouldn't have told me, even the day he did tell, if he hadn't lost
his head a little. He hadn't meant to speak, it seems, for he's poor,
and he thought he had no right. But what's a man worth who doesn't lose
his head when he loves a woman? I adored him for it. We decided not to
let anyone know until a few weeks before we could marry, as I didn't
care to have my engagement gossipped about, for months on end. There
were reasons why--more than one: but the man of all others whom I didn't
want to know the truth found out, or, rather, suspected what had
happened, the very day when Raoul and I came to an understanding--Count
Godensky of the Russian Embassy. He called, and was let in by mistake
while Raoul was with me, and, just as he must have seen by our faces
that there was something to suspect, so I saw by his that he did
suspect. Oh, a hateful person! I've refused him three times. There are
some men so vain that they can never believe a woman really means to say
'no' to them. Count Godensky is one of those, and he's dangerous, too.
I'm afraid of him, since I've cared for Raoul, though I used to be
afraid of no one, when I'd only myself to think of. Raoul was going away
that very night. He had an errand to do for a woman who was a dear and
intimate friend of his dead mother. You must know of the Duchesse de
Montpellier? Well, it was for her: and Raoul is like her son. She has no
children of her own."
"I don't know her," I said, "but I've seen her; a charming looking
woman, about forty-five, with a gloomy-faced husband--a fellow who might
be rather a Tartar to live with. They were pointed out to me at Monte
Carlo one year, in the Casino, where the Duchess seemed to be enjoying
herself hugely, though the Duke had the air of being dragged in against
his will."
"No doubt he had been--or else he was there to fetch her out. Poor dear,
she's a dreadful gambler. It's in her blood! I She lost, I don't know
how much, at Monte Carlo on an 'infallible system' she had. She's afraid
of her husband, though she loves him immensely; and lately a craze she's
had for Bridge has cost her so much that she daren't tell the Duke, who
hates her gambling. She confessed to Raoul, and begged him to help
her--not with money, for he has none, but by taking a famous and
wonderful diamond necklace of hers to Amsterdam, selling the stones for
her there, and having them replaced with paste. It was all to be done
very secretly, of course, so that the Duke shouldn't know, and Raoul
hated it, but he couldn't refuse. He had no idea of telling me this
story, that day when he 'lost his head,' while we were bidding each
other good-bye before his journey. He didn't mention the name of the
Duchess, but said only that he had leave, and was going to Holland on
business. But while he was away a _dreadful_ thing happened--the most
ghastly misfortune--and as we were engaged to be married, he felt
obliged when he came back to let me know the worst."
"What was the dreadful thing that happened?" I asked, as she paused,
pressing her hands against her temples.
"The necklace was stolen from Raoul by a thief, who must have been one
of the most expert in the world. Can you imagine Raoul's feelings? He
came to me in despair, asking my advice. What was he to do? He dared not
appeal to the police, or the Duchess's secret would come out. And he
couldn't bear to tell her of the loss, not only because it would be such
a blow to her, as she was depending on the money from the sale of the
jewels, but because she knew that he was in some difficulties, and
_might_ be tempted to believe that he'd only pretended the diamonds were
stolen--while really he'd sold them for his own use."
"As she's fond of him, and trusts him, probably she would have thought
no such thing," I tried to comfort Maxine. "But certainly, it was a
rather bad fix."
"Rather bad fix! Oh, you laconic creatures, Englishmen. All you think of
is to hide your feelings behind icy words. As for me--well, there was
nothing I wouldn't have done to help him--nothing. My life would have
been a small thing to give. I would have given my soul. And already a
thought came flashing into my mind. I begged Raoul to wait, and say
nothing to the Duchess, who didn't even know yet that he'd come back
from Amsterdam. The thought in my mind was about the commission from
your Secretary for Foreign Affairs. As I told you, I'd just sent him
word in the usual cypher and through the usual channels, that I couldn't
do what he wanted. He'd offered me eight thousand pounds to undertake
the service, and four more if I succeeded. I believed I could succeed if
I tried. And with the few thousands I'd saved up, and selling such
jewels as I had, I could make up the sum Raoul had been told to ask for
the necklace. Then he could give it to the Duchess, and she need never
know that the diamonds had been stolen. All that night I lay awake
thinking, thinking. Next day, at a time when I knew Raoul would be
working in his office, I went to see him there, and cheered him up as
well as I could. I told him that in a few days I hoped to have eighteen
or twenty thousand pounds in my hands--all for him. To let him have the
money would make me happier than I'd ever been. At first he said he
wouldn't take it from me--I knew he would say that! But, at last, after
I'd cried and begged, and persuaded, he consented; only it was to be a
loan, and some how, some time, he would pay me back. In that office
there are several great safes; and when we had grown quite happy and gay
together, I made Raoul tell me which was the most important of
all--where the really sacred and valuable things were kept. He laughed
and pointed out the most interesting one--the one, he said, which held
all the deepest secrets of French foreign diplomacy. I was sure then
that the thing I had to get for the British Foreign Secretary must be
there, though it was such a new thing that it couldn't have been
anywhere for long. 'There are three keys to that safe,' said Raoul. 'One
is kept by the President; one is always with the Foreign Secretary; this
is the third'; and he showed me a strange little key different to any I
had seen before. 'Oh, do let me have a peep at these wonderful papers,'
I pleaded with him. Before coming I had planned what to do. Round my
throat I wore a string of imitation pearls, which I'd put on for a
special purpose. But they were pretty, and so well made that only an
expert would know they weren't real. Raoul isn't an expert; so at the
moment he fitted the key into the lock of the safe to open the door, I
gave a sly little pull, and broke the thread, making the pearls roll
everywhere about the floor. He was quite distressed, forgot all about
the key in the lock, and flew to pick up the pearls as if each one were
worth at least a thousand francs.
"While he was busy finding the lost beads, I whipped out the key, took
an impression of it on a piece of wax I had ready, concealed in my
handkerchief, and slipped it back into the lock while he was still on
his hands and knees on the floor. Then he opened the safe-door for a
moment, just to give me the peep I had begged for, but not long enough
for me to touch anything even if I'd dared to try with him standing
there. Enough, though, to show me that the documents were neatly
arranged in labelled pigeon-holes, and to see their general character,
colour, and shape. That same day a key to fit the lock was being made;
and when it was ready, I made an excuse to call again on Raoul at the
office. Not that a very elaborate excuse was needed. The poor fellow,
trusting me as he trusts himself, or more, was only too glad to have me
come to him, even in that sacred place. Now, the thing was to get him
away. But I'd made up my mind what to do. In another office, upstairs,
was a friend of Raoul's--the one who introduced us to each other, and
I'd made up a message for him, which I begged Raoul to take, and bring
his friend to speak to me. He went, and I believed I might count on five
minutes to myself. No more--but those five minutes would have to be
enough for success or failure. The instant the door shut behind Raoul, I
was at the safe. The key fitted. I snatched out a folded document, and
opened it to make quite, quite certain it was the right one, for a
mistake would be inexcusable and spoil everything. It was what I
wanted--the treaty, newly made, between Japan, Russia and France--the
treaty which your Foreign Secretary thought he had reason to believe was
a secret one, arranged between the three countries without the knowledge
of England and to the prejudice of her interests. The one glance I had
gave me the impression that the document was nothing of the kind, but
quite innocent, affecting trade only; yet that wasn't my business. I had
to send it to the Foreign Secretary, who wanted to know its precise
nature, and whether England was being deceived. In place of the treaty I
slipped into its pigeon-hole a document I'd brought with me--just like
the real thing. No one opening the safe on other business would suspect
the change that had been made. My hope was to get the treaty back before
it should be missed. You see, I was betraying Raoul, to save him. Do you
understand?"
"I understand. You must have persuaded yourself that you were justified.
But, good Heavens, Maxine," I couldn't help breaking out, "it was an
awful thing to do."
"I know--I know. But I had to have the money--for Raoul. And there was
no other way to get it. You remember, I'd refused, till the diamonds
were lost, and would have refused even if Raoul had nothing to do with
the French Foreign Office. But let me go on telling you what happened. I
had time enough. I had even a minute or two to spare. And fortunately
for me, the man I'd sent Raoul to find was out. I looked at my watch,
pretended to be surprised, and said I must go at once. I couldn't bear
to waste a second in hurrying the treaty off, so that it might the more
quickly be on its way back. I hadn't come to visit Raoul in my own
carriage, but in a cab, which was waiting. As Raoul was taking me to it,
Count Godensky got out of a motor-brougham, and saw me. If only it had
been anywhere except in front of the Foreign Office! I told myself there
was no reason why he should guess that anything was wrong, but I was in
such a state of nerves that, as he raised his hat, and his eyebrows, I
fancied that he imagined all sorts of things, and I felt myself grow red
and pale. What a fool I was--and how weak! But I couldn't help it. I
didn't wait to go home. I wrote a few lines in the cab, and sent off the
packet, registered, in time I hoped, to catch the post--but after all,
it didn't. Coming out from the post office, there was Godensky again, in
his motor-brougham. _That_ could have been no coincidence. A horrid
certainty sprang to life in me that he'd followed my cab from the
Foreign Office, to see where I would go. Why couldn't I have thought of
that danger? I have always thought of things, and guarded against them;
yet this time, this time of all others, I seemed fated."
"But if Godensky had known what you were doing, the game would have been
up for you before this," I said.
"He didn't know, of course. Only--if he wants to be a woman's lover and
she won't have him, he's her enemy and he's the enemy of the man who
_is_ her lover. He's too clever and too careful of his own interests to
speak out prematurely anything he might vaguely suspect, for it would do
him harm if he proved mistaken. He wouldn't yet, I think, even warn
those whom it might concern, to search and see if anything in Raoul's
charge were out of order or missing. But what he would do, what I think
he has done, is this. Having some idea, as he may have, that my
relations with certain important persons in England are rather friendly,
and seeing me come from the Foreign Office to go almost straight to the
post, it might have occurred to him to try and learn the name of my
correspondent. He has influence--he could perhaps have found out: but if
he did, it wouldn't have helped him much, for naturally, my dealings
with the British Foreign Secretary are always well under cover--hence a
delay sometimes in his receiving word from me. What I send can never go
straight to him, as you may guess. Godensky would guess that, too: and
he would have perhaps informed the police, very cautiously, very
unofficially and confidentially, that he suspected Maxine de Renzie of
being a political spy in the pay of England. He would have advised that
my movements be watched for the next few days: that English agents of
the French police be warned to watch also, on their side of the Channel.
He would have argued to himself that if I'd sent any document away, with
Raoul's connivance or without, I would be wanting it back as soon as
possible; and he would have mentioned to the police that possibly a
messenger would bring me something--if my correspondence through the
post was found to contain nothing compromising. Oh, there have been eyes
on me, and on every movement of mine, I'm sure. See how efficient,
though quiet, the methods have been where you're concerned. They--the
police--knew the name of the man I was to meet here at this hotel; and
if, as Godensky must have hoped, any document belonging to the French
Government had been found on you or me, everything would have played
into his hands. Raoul would have been ruined, his heart broken, and
I--but there are no words to express what I would have suffered, what I
may yet have to suffer. Godensky would be praised for his cleverness, as
well as securing a satisfactory revenge on me for refusing him. The only
thing which rejoices me now is the thought of his blank disappointment
when he gets the news from the Commissary of Police."
"You don't believe then," I asked, "that Godensky has had any hand in
the disappearance of the treaty?"
"I would believe it, if it weren't for the necklace being put in its
place. Even if Count Godensky could have known of Raoul's mission with
the diamonds, and got them into his own hands, he wouldn't have let them
get out again with every chance of their going back to Raoul, and thus
saving him from his trouble. He'd do nothing to help, but everything to
hinder. There lies the mystery--in the return of the necklace instead of
the treaty. You have no knowledge of it, you tell me; yet you come to me
with it in your pocket--the necklace stolen from Raoul du Laurier, days
ago, in Amsterdam or on the way there."
"You're certain it's the same?"
"Certain as that you are you, and I am I. And I'm not out of my mind
yet--though I soon shall be, unless you somehow save me from this
horror."
"I'm going to try," I said. "Don't give up hope. I wish, though, that
you hadn't to act to-night."
"So do I. But there's no way out of it. And I must go now to the
theatre, or I shall be late: my make-up's a heavy one, and takes a long
time. I can't afford to have any talk about me and my affairs to-night,
whatever comes afterwards. Raoul will be in a box, and at the end of the
first act, he'll be at the door of my dressing-room. The agony of seeing
him, of hearing him praise my acting, and saying dear, trusting, loving
words that would make me almost too happy, if I hadn't betrayed him,
ruined his career for ever!"
"Maybe not," I said. "And anyhow, there's the necklace. That's
something."
"Yes, that's something."
"Will Godensky be in the audience, too?" I asked.
"I'm sure he will. He couldn't keep away. But he may be late. He won't
come until he's had a long talk with the Commissary of Police, and tried
to thrash matters out."
"If only your theory's right, then,--if he hasn't dared yet to throw
suspicion on du Laurier, and if the loss of that letter-case with its
contents is as much of a mystery to him as it is to us, we have a little
time before us still: we're comparatively safe for a few hours."
"We're as safe," answered Maxine, with a kind of desperate calmness, "as
if we were in a house with gunpowder stored underneath, and a train laid
to fire it. But"--she broke off bitterly, "why do I say '_we_'. To you
all this can be no more than a regret, a worry."
"You know that's not just!" I reproached her. "I'm in this with you now,
heart and soul. I spoke no more than the truth when I said I'd give my
life, if necessary, to redeem my failure. Already I've given something,
but--"
"What have you given?" she caught me up quickly.
"My hope of happiness with a girl I love as you love du Laurier," I
answered; then regretted my words and would have taken them back if I
could, for she had a heavy enough burden to bear already, without
helping me bear mine.
"I don't understand," she said.
"Don't think of it. You can do nothing; and I don't grudge the
sacrifice--or anything," I hurried on.
"Yet I will think of it, if I ever have time to think of anything beyond
this tangle. But now, it must be _au revoir_. Save me, save Raoul, if
you can, Ivor. What you can do, I don't know. I'm groping in darkness.
Yet you're my one hope. For pity's sake, come to my house when the
play's over, to tell me what you've done, if you've been able to do
anything. Be there at twelve."
"I promise."
"Thank you. I shall live for that moment. Now, give me the diamonds, and
I'll go. I don't want you to be seen with me outside this room."
I gave her the necklace, and she was at the door before I could open it.