CHAPTER XL
"For once," Lady Carey said, with a faint smile, "your 'admirableCrichton' has failed you."
Lucille opened her eyes. She had been leaning back amongst the railwaycushions.
"I think not," she said. "Only I blame myself that I ever trusted thePrince even so far as to give him that message. For I know very wellthat if Victor had received it he would have been here."
Lady Carey took up a great pile of papers and looked them carelesslythrough.
"I am afraid," she said, "that I do not agree with you. I do not thinkthat Saxe Leinitzer had any desire except to see you safely away. Ibelieve that he will be quite as disappointed as you are that yourhusband is not here to aid you. Some one must see you safely on thesteamer at Havre. Perhaps he will come himself."
"I shall wait in Paris," Lucille said quietly, "for my husband."
"You may wait," Lady Carey said, "for a very long time."
Lucille looked at her steadily. "What do you mean?"
"What a fool you are, Lucille. If to other people it seems almostcertain on the face of it that you were responsible for that drop ofpoison in your husband's liqueur glass, why should it not seem so tohimself?"
Lucille laughed, but there was a look of horror in her dark eyes.
"How absurd. I know Victor better than to believe him capable of such asuspicion. Just as he knows me better than to believe me capable of suchan act."
"Really. But you were in his rooms secretly just before."
"I went to leave some roses for him," Lucille answered. "And if youwould like to know it, I will tell you this. I left my card tied to themwith a message for him."
Lady Carey yawned.
"A remarkably foolish thing to do," she said. "That may cause youtrouble later on. Great heavens, what is this?"
She held the evening paper open in her hand. Lucille leaned over withblanched face.
"What has happened?" she cried. "Tell me, can't you!"
"Reginald Brott has been shot in Piccadilly," Lady Carey said.
"Is he hurt?" Lucille asked.
"He is dead!"
They read the brief announcement together. The deed had been committedby a man whose reputation for sanity had long been questioned, one ofBrott's own constituents. He was in custody, and freely admitted hisguilt. The two women looked at one another in horror. Even Lady Careywas affected.
"What a hateful thing," she said. "I am glad that we had no hand in it."
"Are you so sure that we hadn't?" Lucille asked bitterly. "You see whatit says. The man killed him because of his political apostasy. We hadsomething to do with that at least."
Lady Carey was recovering her sang froid.
"Oh, well," she said, "indirect influences scarcely count, or one mighttrace the causes of everything which happens back to an absurd extent.If this man was mad he might just as well have shot Brott for anything."
Lucille made no answer. She leaned back and closed her eyes. She did notspeak again till they reached Dover.
They embarked in the drizzling rain. Lady Carey drew a little breath ofrelief as they reached their cabin, and felt the boat move beneath them.
"Thank goodness that we are really off. I have been horribly nervous allthe time. If they let you leave England they can have no suspicion asyet."
Lucille was putting on an ulster and cap to go out on deck.
"I am not at all sure," she said, "that I shall not return to England.At any rate, if Victor does not come to me in Paris I shall go to him."
"What beautiful trust!" Lady Carey answered. "My dear Lucille, you aremore like a school-girl than a woman of the world."
A steward entered with a telegram for Lucille. It was banded in at theHaymarket, an hour before their departure. Lucille read it, and her faceblanched. "I thank you for your invitation, but I fear that it would notbe good for my health.--S."
Lady Carey looked over her shoulder. She laughed hardly.
"How brutal!" she murmured. "But, then, Victor can be brutal sometimes,can't he?"
Lucille tore it into small pieces without a word. Lady Carey waited fora remark from her in vain.
"I, too," she said at last, "have had some telegrams. I have beenhesitating whether to show them to you or not. Perhaps you had bettersee them."
She produced them and spread them out. The first was dated about thesame time as the one Lucille had received.
"Have seen S. with message from Lucille. Fear quite useless, as hebelieves worst."
The second was a little longer.
"Have just heard S. has left for Liverpool, and has engaged berth inCampania, sailing to-morrow. Break news to Lucille if you think well.Have wired him begging return, and promising full explanation."
"If these," Lucille said calmly, "belonged to me I should treat them asI have my own."
"What do you mean?"
"I should tear them up."
Lady Carey shrugged her shoulders with the air of one who finds furtherargument hopeless.
"I shall have no more to say to you, Lucille, on this subject," shesaid. "You are impossible. In a few days you will be forced to comeround to my point of view. I will wait till then. And in the meantime,if you think I am going to tramp up and down those sloppy decks and gazeat the sea you are very much mistaken. I am going to lie down like acivilized being, and try and get a nap. You had better do the same."
Lucille laughed.
"For my part," she said, "I find any part of the steamer except the deckintolerable. I am going now in search of some fresh air. Shall I sendyour woman along?"
Lady Carey nodded, for just then the steamer gave a violent lurch, andshe was not feeling talkative. Lucille went outside and walked up anddown until the lights of Calais were in sight. All the time she feltconscious of the observation of a small man clad in a huge mackintosh,whose peaked cap completely obscured his features. As they were enteringthe harbour she purposely stood by his side. He held on to the rail withone hand and turned towards her.
"It has been quite a rough passage, has it not?" he remarked.
She nodded.
"I have crossed," she said, "when it has been much worse. I do not mindso long as one may come on deck."
"Your friend," he remarked, "is perhaps not so good a sailor?"
"I believe," Lucille said, "that she suffers a great deal. I just lookedin at her, and she was certainly uncomfortable."
The little man gripped the rail and held on to his cap with the otherhand.
"You are going to Paris?" he asked.
Lucille nodded.
"Yes."
They were in smoother water now. He was able to relax his grip of therail. He turned towards Lucille, and she saw him for the first timedistinctly--a thin, wizened-up little man, with shrewd kindly eyes, anda long deeply cut mouth.
"I trust," he said, "that you will not think me impertinent, but itoccurred to me that you have noticed some apparent interest of mine inyour movements since you arrived on the boat."
Lucille nodded.
"It is true," she answered. "That is why I came and stood by your side.What do you want with me?"
"Nothing, madam," he answered. "I am here altogether in your interests.If you should want help I shall be somewhere near you for the next fewhours. Do not hesitate to appeal to me. My mission here is to be yourprotector should you need one."
Lucille's eyes grew bright, and her heart beat quickly.
"Tell me," she said, "who sent you?"
He smiled.
"I think that you know," he answered. "One who I can assure you willnever allow you to suffer any harm. I have exceeded my instructions inspeaking to you, but I fancied that you were looking worried. You neednot. I can assure you that you need have no cause."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I knew," she said, "that those telegrams were forgeries."
He looked carefully around.
"I know nothing about any telegrams," he said, "but I am here to seethat no harm comes to y
ou, and I promise you that it shall not. Yourfriend is looking out of the cabin door. I think we may congratulateourselves, madam, on an excellent passage."
Lady Carey disembarked, a complete wreck, leaning on the arm of hermaid, and with a bottle of smelling salts clutched in her hand. Sheslept all the way in the train, and only woke up when they were nearingParis. She looked at Lucille in astonishment.
"Why, what on earth have you been doing to yourself?" she exclaimed."You look disgustingly fit and well."
Lucille laughed softly.
"Why not? I have had a nap, and we are almost at Paris. I only want abath and a change of clothes to feel perfectly fresh."
But Lady Carey was suspicious.
"Have you seen any one you know upon the train?" she asked.
Lucille shook her head.
"Not a soul. A little man whom I spoke to on the steamer brought me somecoffee. That is all."
Lady Carey yawned and shook out her skirts. "I suppose I'm getting old,"she said. "I couldn't look as you do with as much on my mind as you musthave, and after traveling all night too."
Lucille laughed.
"After all," she said, "you know that I am a professional optimist, andI have faith in my luck. I have been thinking matters over calmly, and,to tell you the truth, I am not in the least alarmed."
Lady Carey looked at her curiously.
"Has the optimism been imbibed," she asked, "or is it spontaneous?"
Lucille smiled.
"Unless the little man in the plaid mackintosh poured it into the coffeewith the milk," she said, "I could not possibly have imbibed it, for Ihaven't spoken to another soul since we left."
"Paris! Here we are, thank goodness. Celeste can see the things throughthe customs. She is quite used to it. We are going to the Ritz, Isuppose!"
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