I was thinking this round when Nikolitch returned.
“Well?” I asked eagerly.
He shook his head. “I have done no good,” he said.
My heart fell at the words. The last chance had failed, and I knew by my pang of disappointment how much I had built upon my friend’s mission.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A PLAN OF DEFENCE.
It was some time before I could even bring myself to ask Nikolitch for details of his visit to Gatrina.
“You saw the Princess?” I asked at length.
“I would not come away without. She had been at the Palace, I think. She received me graciously at first—she does all things prettily—and listened while I warned her that grave troubles were coming. Then something I said suggested to her that I had come from you; and her manner changed suddenly.”
“It would, I suppose,” I interjected, bitterly.
“She put the question point blank, and I admitted it, of course. Then she refused to hear any more. I said that you were very anxious to see her; and she got up and was for dismissing me on the spot. But I hung on and managed to get out the contradiction of the engagement, as she was hurrying away. At the door she turned, her face very pale, her manner and tone cold as ice. ‘Under the circumstances, Captain Nikolitch, your presence is an insult,’ she said. And never in my life have I felt the lash of a woman’s tongue more keenly. I suppose she was mad you had told me anything of how matters stood with you. I felt like a whipped cur as I stumbled out of the room.”