Pierre's visible return was preceded by a great chatter of his voice,
now in English, again in French. Evidently he had more than one
companion. Hagané and Yuki drew apart. Pierre stood at the door which,
with a wide French gesture, he had flung open. The tall figure of
Minister Todd entered, followed closely by Count Ronsard. It was the
latter who saw to the careful closing of the door.
"Mr. Todd!" Yuki faltered, under her breath. Here was a new and terrible
trial. Hagané gave her a glance. He saw her slight figure stiffen, and
her face grow still again. The light upon his stern countenance was
almost as beautiful as her own.
Pierre began a hurried and vaporous explanation. "Mr. Todd was here,
your Highness, as you were already aware. He desired greatly to come,
and his Excellency, the count, wished it!"
"Entirely unofficial," Ronsard hastened to add. "It is a personal
misunderstanding, nothing more. I have been assuring Mr. Todd that it is
utterly unofficial!"
Todd raised his thin hand. Reassurance had already come to him. Yuki was
safe, and Hagané had the look of an altarpiece. No personal harm, at
least, was to be done. "Before this goes one step further I want to say
for myself, that unless Prince Hagané is quite willing to have me, I
leave at once. I don't pretend to understand what has happened, but I
have full faith in Yuki and her husband. There, your Highness! I am
through with my little stunt. Shall I strike roots, or reverse the
throttle?"
"Unless against the wishes of Madame la Princesse, I desire you to
remain."
"Madame la Princesse!" mocked Pierre, angrily, under his breath.
Yuki's dignity equalled that of her husband. "Kindly remain, Mr. Todd,"
she murmured, with a slight bow.
"Your Highness," said Todd, still addressing Hagané, "now tell us how
many grains of wheat are in this chaff of foolishness Pierre is giving
us! Something about your going to send my little Yuki off like a piece
of broken china, for him, Le Beau, to patch together at his leisure.
Pshaw! Of course the boy is out of his head!"
Hagané thought deeply before he made reply. His sobriety and
deliberation gave unusual weight to speech always impressive. Each word
was a nail driven straight into the lid of an abandoned hope.
"Madame la Princesse has offended in a way peculiarly
Japanese,--difficult, I think,--too difficult even for your sympathy and
kindness to comprehend. There is no need to dwell upon it. She leaves me
of her own free will. She and I understand each other perfectly. That is
all! We shall detain you two gentlemen but a moment."
"Entirely unofficial, your Excellency will observe," whispered Ronsard,
nervously, to the American.
"Yes, yes, I made that much out for myself," said Todd to Hagané. "If
you intend to separate, it is deplorable, but clearly none of my
business. It's the other heinous suggestion, that of handing her over to
another man, that makes me hot in the collar. Don't tell me I must
believe this of your Highness!"
Neither Hagané's eyes nor voice faltered. "The man, Monsieur Le Beau,
has a service to perform for Japan. He asks a certain price. Yuki alone
can pay that price."
"It is simple enough, Mr. Todd," Pierre burst in. The discussion went in
a direction distasteful to him. He did not wish the matter of the paper,
and its means of acquirement, laid bare. "I can do the prince a service.
For it, Yuki becomes my own, as from the beginning she should have been.
This little talisman merely rights the mistakes of Fortune." He held out
the document, shaking it to attract attention.
"The very paper I helped to sign, this day!" said Todd, wondering.
"What, in the name of Beelzebub, are you doing with it? Hagané was to
guard it with his life! There's something queer in this. I smell foul
play! Did Yuki,--could Yuki have--?" He checked himself, reddening at
the baseness of his quick suspicion. Yuki, facing him, gave no answering
flush. She was white,--white beyond belief in a thing that lived at all.
Her low voice gave each syllable full measure. "I was partly--to
blame--that Monsieur Le Beau secured that paper. I shall pay his price."
Todd's eyes still hung on her, fascinated, incredulous. He could not
believe her capable of vileness. He knew that no depth of personal
degradation could begin to compare, in the Japanese mind, with an
offence against loyalty. It was to them, truly, the sin against the Holy
Ghost. Yet, by her own words, Yuki was condemned. His stung thought
flashed to Pierre, and fastened on him. "Then, man, it is a double
wrong! I do not know yet how you got the thing; but if she is
implicated, you owe it to her, far more than yourself, to be decent! In
the name of morality,--of honor,--do not sell the thing; give it back
without condition! Your proposition is damnable!"
"His Excellency Mr. Todd was one who signed the paper; he pleads for its
return," murmured Ronsard to the air.
"Never mind that!" flashed Todd. "The paper doesn't trouble me a little
bit! I am thinking of Yuki!"
"But--Mr. Todd--Yuki, she wish to pay that price. She wish to be
given--so--to Monsieur!" said the Princess Hagané.
Pierre flashed a look of triumph into Todd's dazed eyes. Defiantly he
went to Yuki, caught her hand, and kissed it. "You see and hear her for
yourself!" vaunted Pierre. Todd appealed dumbly to Hagané for
extrication from this amazing skein of tangled interests. Hagané brooded
on his wife with tenderness,--with the ache of love,--as over a dying
child. Yuki drew her hand from Pierre and went to the minister. "Don't
try to understand," she urged him, piteously, "don't defend me! You
cannot understand,--not even Gwendolen could understand!" She caught her
breath sharply, with a new and untried pang, "Oh, Gwendolen, my dear
one!" she moaned, "I had forgotten you. Gwendolen--Gwendolen!"
"If I might be allowed to say a word in behalf of France," ventured
Ronsard, hesitatingly.
"Your Excellency," interrupted Pierre, "let us have no further
discussion. I cannot be interfered with, even by you. The thing is done!
I have agreed! Prince Hagané protects us all! All are satisfied. Cela!"
"Yes, yes," echoed Yuki. "Everything is settled!"
"Here's one thing that isn't!" flared out Todd. "I say to you men,
French and Japanese alike, damn you for a set of cold-blooded,
fanatical politicians! Out of the bunch I respect--no, I despise a
little less, Le Beau, for though an egoist and a fool, he is at least
on fire with love. As for you two statesmen, there's something rotten
in your refrigerators! I know what Le Beau has to sell, of course; and
it is not worth the sacrifice of this poor shivering child! Ronsard,
speak up for France, without permission or apology. Where is your honor,
where that little cross with the red ribbon, that you stand by and see
this wedge of opportunity driven by a boy's lust into sand!"
"Your Excellency!" thundered Hagané. "Though you signed the paper, it is
not yours. I claim it--for Nippon! I alone am responsible!"
Yuki cowered an instant, pressing both hands against her ears, then she
rallied, and crying, "Do not interfere,--it is Hagané's concern and
mine," went up to Todd, and seized his arm for emphasis. He pushed her
off. "It may be Hagané's business, but I make it mine! God! These are
not the Dark Ages. I'm not the man to stand aside and have a woman
burned at the stake of political exigency. I'll turn traitor myself!
I'll tell the purport of the paper! I'll wire my resignation to
Washington next day! But I won't keep still!" His lean figure flashed
with indignation like a gleam that plays along an unsheathed sword.
Yuki, wheeling back to him with incredible swiftness, caught down the
upraised hand, and strained it to her breast. She threw herself against
him, praying, it would seem, for eternal life. "Oh, my friend, you are
noble, but you make the terrible mistake! You will kill my soul, which
has but just come alive. Let me go to Pierre, as is now planned. You
think, maybe, that I do some great sacrifice for my country, like that
good girl, Jeanne d'Arc. But you think too high. I am bad! I am the cat!
I have no love for Nippon or for Hagané! No, I have the one wish
now,--to go to Pierre--to Pierre! I was close to him a moment, and now
you come to drag me away. Keep me not from Pierre!"
Todd scrutinized her from between stiffening, half-closed eyelids. The
gathering corner-wrinkles had the effect of sparks. "It's no good,
Yuki!" he said quietly. "It don't work a little bit! I've known you too
long!"
"Oh, but I _is_ bad, very bad! You didn't know, of course not! I was
sly to hide everythings. Pierre and I have arrange so that, in spite
of cruel father, and Prince Hagané and all, we comes together at
last! Ah, push me off again!" she cried convulsively. "That is right!
I care not if I lose you, and Mrs. Todd, and Gwendolen, and my good
name,--everything! if only I can go to Pierre this night! Just let me do
what I wish, as all have agree but you. Try not to prevent!"
At the wild light in her eyes, the impassioned ring of her voice, Todd,
his faith for the moment quailing, had pushed her off a few shuddering
inches. She clung still to his hand. By this he drew her near again, and
probed. Before his first word, she must have surmised the change, for
she swayed in his hold, shuddered violently, closed her lids, and let
her lips form a few dumb words of prayer.
"Yuki!" Todd began, in a voice so low that the others scarcely heard.
"Yuki, this is a part you are playing. Eternity is your stage, and
tragedy your curtain. The room smells of it. You are not bad. You harbor
now a heroic design. I cannot understand, but I believe it to be
supreme! Before God, look into my eyes, and tell me the truth. I will
not betray you!"
She lifted calmly, now, the great, dark orbs. He gazed down into them,
to the thought that lay, like a white rock, in the clear depths. In
absolute moments the human soul has a speech of its own and an ear to
listen. Her lips moved no more. She was not conscious of further effort
to make him see. Without grosser statement, knowledge came to him. This
life of earth already had lost its hold on her,--Pierre was less than a
shadow on a stream. Todd knew that she was to die,--that the discarded
shell of the thing he loved would be Pierre's prize. By the same ghostly
prescience Hagané knew that certainty had laid her cold touch upon the
American. He averted quickly his dark face from the sight. Ronsard, who
was nearest, saw a mighty shudder blow upon him; then the face, now
twitching, lifted toward the light. His lips moved. Ronsard could not
surmise the trend of the broken, muttered words; but Yuki, who had
neither heard nor seen, knew that he was praying.
Todd loosed the girl's hand now, not in rebuke, but as one incapable of
sustaining longer the fragile burden. The alertness, the eagerness went
from him. All at once he was a middle-aged man. "And I must stand by and
do--nothing!" he whispered, half to himself, half to her.
"Oh, you can still do much. You can believe in me,--and Gwendolen will
not need to scorn me. I will thank you always, if only for what you have
just understood."
"Come!" said Hagané, sharply. "A woman's endurance has a limit. The
paper, please, Monsieur Le Beau."