Then he came back. “Will you not be seated, Princess?” he inquired courteously, pointing toward a bench that stood against the wall. “I regret that I have no better accommodation to offer you, but——”
Florence took the seat. “Cut it out,” she advised. “Get on with the fairy tale.”
The priest removed his cap and threw back his vestments, revealing himself as a well-preserved, courtly gentleman of perhaps fifty years of age. Beautiful white hair curled about his brow, while his beard and mustaches were the pink of military perfection. Florence, studying him furtively, found him very good to look upon. To her he represented romance, aristocracy, refinement—all that she had never had in her sordid life. He was too old to play Prince Charming, she concluded, but he was of the type to which she believed Prince Charming belonged.
Meanwhile the priest was seating himself. “No fairy tale. Princess,” he contradicted deferentially—“unless we liken it to Cinderella and transform the beautiful, wronged young lady into the princess. Rather let us call it a masquerade. I am not what I seem. You are not what you seem. Your whole expedition is not what it seems. We are all masked. But the time for unmasking is at hand.”
Florence stared at him languidly. “I suppose you know what you mean,” she remarked insolently. “But I don’t.”
“How should you until I explain? First, Princess, I am not a priest.”
“I knew it. What are you? A wizard?”
“I am Baron Ivan Demidroff, chief of the third section of the Russian police. Perhaps you know what that means. Your yacht has been watched ever since it entered the Baltic, and I am here for the express purpose of meeting you. If I may advise, Princess, it is not well to scoff always. This affair is not one for laughter.”
“Oh, splash! Excuse these tears of regret!” mocked the girl. “Go ahead! I’ll be good.”
For a moment the Baron studied the girl’s face. Then he shrugged his shoulders. Privately he was revising his former opinions about American training and manners. He had not met Florence’s type before.