“Three months’ toil!” she said, her eyes round with wonder. “Did you do all this without hope of reward? from a mere abstract love of justice?”
“No—o! not exactly. I am to receive a sort of—of douceur,” said Wilfrid. “Very much douce,” he added, with a smile. “It’s nature? Your pardon, Baroness. You shall know, but not yet. After it has been received.”
Pauline thought Wilfrid was becoming very mysterious all at once. It was hard for her to put a curb upon her curiosity. After a short pause she murmured with a glad light in her eyes:—
“Well, thanks to you, Benningsen and Pahlen have had to go.”
“True,” grumbled Wilfrid, “but it’s rather mortifying to find that one result of my work is to confirm in office the very man whose confusion both you and I desire to see. Count Baranoff, having had no part in Paul’s murder, is not included in the list of disgraced ministers, and still retains his post.”
“But not for long,” replied Pauline. “His power is on the wane. His counsels are already being ignored by the Czar.”
“In what way?”
“As regards the war with England. What! you do not know? Ah! I am forgetting. The story is not in the newspapers, since our editors must publish only what is pleasing. Of course, living at an Embassy, I often learn matters unknown to the outside public. Well, here’s a secret for you. Our Russian admiral, knowing himself to be no match for the hero of the Nile, has declined an engagement, and is coming fast to Cronstadt. ’Tis the old story; leaky ships, cracked cannon, and an unpaid crew, sullen to the verge of mutiny. The result of this flight is to place all the towns on the Finland Gulf at the mercy of the English guns. Nay, the very gate of the city, Cronstadt itself, is liable to bombardment. Hence, let Baranoff protest as he may, the Czar is bent on making peace. So magnificently sure were your Government that victory would crown their arms, that along with their fleet they sent an envoy with plenipotentiary power to arrange the terms of a treaty. That envoy will arrive at St. Petersburg in the course of a few days. Should peace be established, and there is little doubt that it will be, the envoy remains here in the character of British Ambassador.”
“Who is this envoy?”