The Price of Power Part 16

Truth to tell, Tack, before his return to Petersburg, had run Danilovitch to earth in Lower Clapton, and two private detectives, engaged by me, were keeping the closest surveillance upon him.

Twice had we circled the theatre at the pierhead, and had twice strolled amid the seated audience around the bandstand where military music was being played in the moonlight, when we pa.s.sed two young men in Homburg hats, wearing overcoats over their evening clothes. One of them, a tall, slim, dark-haired, good-looking, athletic young fellow, of perhaps twenty-two, raised his hat and smiled at my companion.

She nodded him a merry acknowledgment. Then, as we pa.s.sed on, I exclaimed quickly:

"Hulloa! Is that some new friend--eh?"

"Oh, it's really all right, Uncle Colin," she a.s.sured me. "I've done nothing dreadful, now. You needn't start lecturing me, you know, or be horrified at all."

"I'm not lecturing," I laughed. "I'm only consumed by curiosity.

That's all."

"Ah! You're like all men," she declared. "And suppose I refuse to satisfy your curiosity--eh?"

"You won't do that, I think," was my reply, as we halted upon one of the long benches which ran on either side of the pier. "Remember, I am responsible to the Emperor for you, and I'm ent.i.tled to know who your friend is."

"He's an awfully nice boy," was all she replied.

"He looks so. But who is he?"

"Somebody--well, somebody I knew at Eastbourne."

"And you've met him here? How long ago?"

"Oh! nearly a month."

"And so it is he whom you've met several times of late--eh?" I said.

"Let's see--according to the report furnished to me, you were out for half an hour on the sea-front on Tuesday night; five minutes on Wednesday night; not at all on Thursday night, and one whole hour on Friday night--eh? And with a young man whose name is unknown."

"Oh, I'll tell you his name. He's d.i.c.k Drury."

"And who, pray, is this Mr Richard Drury?"

"A friend of mine, I tell you. The man with him is his friend--Lance Ingram, a doctor."

"And what is this Mr Drury's profession?"

"He does nothing, I suppose," she laughed. "I can't well imagine d.i.c.k doing much."

"Except flirting--eh?" I said with a smile.

"That's a matter of opinion," she replied, as we again rose and circled the bandstand, for I was anxious to get another look at the pair.

On the evenings I had referred to, it appeared that Her Highness, after dinner, had twisted a shawl over her head, and ran down to the sea-front--a distance of a hundred yards or so--to get a breath of air, as she had explained to Miss West. But on each occasion the watchful police-agent had seen her meet by appointment this same young man.

Therefore some flirtation was certainly in progress--and flirtation had been most distinctly forbidden.

My efforts were rewarded, for a few minutes later the two young men repa.s.sed us, and this time young Drury did not raise his hat. He only smiled at her in recognition.

"Where are they staying?" I asked.

"Oh you are so horribly inquisitive, Uncle Colin," she said. "Well, if you really must know, they're staying at the `Royal York.'"

"How came you to know this young fellow at Eastbourne?" I asked. "I thought you were kept in strictest seclusion from the outside world. At least, you've always led me to believe that," I said.

She laughed heartily.

"Well, dear old uncle, surely you don't think that any school could exactly keep a girl a prisoner. We used to get out sometimes alone for an hour of an evening--by judicious bribery. I've had many a pleasant hour's walk up the road towards Beachy Head. And, moreover, I wasn't alone, either. d.i.c.k was usually with me."

"Really, this is too dreadful!" I exclaimed in pious horror. "Suppose anyone had known who you really were!"

"Well, I suppose even if they had the heavens wouldn't have fallen," she laughed.

"Ah!" I said, "you are really incorrigible. Here you are flirting with an unsuspected lover."

"And why shouldn't I?" she asked in protest. "d.i.c.k is better than some chance acquaintance."

"If you are only amusing yourself," I said. "But if you love him, then it would be a serious matter."

"Oh, horribly serious, I know," she said impatiently. "If I were a typist, or a shopgirl, or a waitress, or any girl who worked for her living, I should be doing quite the correct thing; but for me--born of the great Imperial Family--to merely look at a boy is quite unpardonable."

I was silent for a few moments. The little madcap whom the Emperor had placed in my charge, because her presence at Court was a menace to the Imperial family, was surely unconventional and utterly incorrigible.

"I fear Your Highness does not fully appreciate the heavy responsibilities of Imperial birth," I said in a tone of dissatisfaction.

"Oh, bother! My birth be hanged!" she exclaimed, with more force than politeness. "In these days it really counts for nothing. I was reading it all in a German book last week. Every cla.s.s seems to have its own social laws, and what is forbidden to me is quite good form with my dressmaker. Isn't it absurdly funny?"

"You must study your position."

"Why should I, if I strictly preserve my _incognito_? That I do this, even you, Uncle Colin, will admit!"

"Are you quite certain that this Mr Drury is unaware who you really are?" I asked.

"Quite. He believes me to be Miss Natalia Gottorp, my father German, my mother English, and I was born in Germany. That is the story--does it suit?"

"I trust you will take great care not to reveal your true ident.i.ty," I said.

"I have promised you, haven't I?"

"You promised me that you would not flirt, and yet here you are, having clandestine meetings with this young man every evening!"

"Oh, that's very different. I can't help it if I meet an old friend accidentally, can I?" she protested with a pretty pout.

At that moment we were strolling along the western side of the pierhead, where it was comparatively ill-lit, on one side being the theatre, while on the other the sea. The photographer's and other shops were closed at that late hour, and the light being dim at that spot, several flirting couples were pa.s.sing up and down arm in arm.

Suddenly, as we turned the corner behind the theatre, we came face to face with a dark-featured, middle-aged man, with deeply-furrowed brow, narrowly set eyes and small black moustache. He wore a dark suit and a hard felt hat, and had something of the appearance of a middle-cla.s.s paterfamilias out for his annual vacation.

He glanced quickly in our direction, and, I thought, started, as though recognising one or other of us.