“No more than you probably do.”
“Perhaps, then, not so much. We have—well—been friends, and have had many talks. And at last, after working her way toward it, she has confided to me that she is secretly a revolutionist.”
“Indeed! But I really cannot say that I am surprised. She is just another example of how the revolt against the Government is penetrating even the nobility. But why did she tell you?”
“To try to enlist my aid in some such plan as we now have in hand. She thought because of my peculiar situation I could be of exceptional assistance.” He did not want the countess as a third partner in the scheme—he wanted to carry this thing through alone with Sonya; so he quickly added: “But I suppose there is no reason for our taking her in.”
She shook her head. “It is always unwise to take in a single unnecessary person—and especially a person who has not been tested.”
“When shall we make the trial?”
“To-day. We must watch till the prince and all the others are occupied in some distant part of the house. Perhaps there will be an opportunity before the rest come down—that might be our best chance.”
But this last was not to be. After breakfast the prince excused himself, saying that he had some papers to which he was forced to give immediate consideration, and withdraw to his study, the very room Drexel and Sonya were to search. Moreover, Alice wanted her father to see something of the estate which was to be her main country seat, and since she had a headache and her mother felt disinclined to brave the cold, it fell upon Drexel to accompany Mr. Howard. Until two o’clock the pair of them, barricaded against the cold with layers of furs, and drawn by three swift blacks, flew across broad fields, through long, huddling villages, past forests of snow-shrouded pine and spruce and hemlock.
Half an hour before the afternoon dinner Drexel and Sonya had another moment together in the embrasure of the window. After this interview Drexel went out to make a solitary inspection of the prince’s famous stable, asking them to excuse him, as he had nibbled rather generously after his drive and so was not hungry. Just before dinner was announced Sonya, pleading a slight indisposition, retired to her room. Minus these two, the company filed into the dining-room.
They were midway in the first course when Drexel returned to the house, slipped quietly through the corridor that led to the library, and taking a book at hazard from the French section, settled himself in one of the leather chairs. A few minutes later Sonya entered.