The victory was gained, and for the next half-hour his Eminence’s sprightly conversation helped her to forget the agitations of the evening. He finally took his leave, leaving the bibelots that had caused him so much annoyance safely in her charge; and it was agreed that Madame Demidoff would take care of them until his Eminence’s return from Carlsbad, when he would hand them over himself to the Princess Marïonoff.
Thus it was that her diplomatic gifts had once more stood her in good stead; and, what she considered the safest possible hiding-place for her reports, was now in her possession to make use of as she wished.
It was getting late, and she was more resolved than ever to leave Vienna this very night, lest his Eminence might change his mind on the morrow and rob her once more of her precious charge. She collected the notes she had recently made, together with a few other papers, containing her various reports to the Third Section; and, unconsciously imitating Volenski’s actions, she touched the secret spring and slipped the documents into the velvet-lined receptacle within the shaft of the candlestick. Safe they were, of that there was no doubt. She carefully packed up the precious bibelots in their numerous wrappings, wrote on the outside covering in bold letters: “The property of his Eminence Cardinal d’Orsay—China—Very fragile,” then took the parcel up with her, and put it away in her valise.
An hour later, accompanied by her maid who carried the fateful burden, she drove away to the Nordbahn, en route for St. Petersburg.
At about the same time Iván Volenski, hearing the Cardinal’s footsteps in the rooms below, knocked at his Eminence’s door to inquire if he would require his services again that night.
“Come in, Iván,” said the Cardinal in highly elated tones; “this time it is good news I have to impart to you. We shall both have our holiday, my son; and I start for Carlsbad to-morrow.”
Iván stared at his Eminence in complete astonishment.
“But… what about the candlesticks?” he asked breathlessly.
“Ah! that is the delightful piece of luck that has happened,” explained his Eminence. “Madame Demidoff, who is herself going to Petersburg to-morrow, has consented to take the tiresome things over for me, and to keep them in her charge until my return from Carlsbad. I fetched them away myself this evening, and I am thankful to say the responsibility of travelling with those brittle things is safely off my shoulders.”
Volenski had become deathly pale.