She dared not pursue the subject, and spoke no more until they reached the place known as the Hotel Moscow. And then, indeed, when she saw the edifice which called itself a hotel, marked the wild crowds surging about the doors, and heard their strange tongue, she felt so thankful for the presence of Felix that for a space she forgot all other discomforts.
CHAPTER XXV
THE CONVALESCENCE OF DENZIL
You saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself poised with herself, in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weighed
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well, that now shows best.
—SHAKESPEARE.
Vronsky had been wholly unprepared for the burst of indignation which descended upon his devoted head when Stepan Stepanovitch heard that he had telegraphed the disappearance of Felix to England.
The English relatives of young Vanston had not entered into the calculations either of the Governor or Felix, when they planned their little coup to bring Cravatz into the trap. Of all things which they did not desire, it was that publicity should be given to their movements.
Once the news of the disappearance of a young Englishman, with a suspicion of Nihilist terrorism, had flashed over English wires, there was the risk of some enterprising journalist taking up the matter—the risk that the lost man's brother should appeal to the Government of his country—the risk of questions in Parliament!——
The mind of Stepan Stepanovitch rapidly reviewed all the possibilities which this new complication suggested.
It was a pity that they had not taken Vronsky into confidence from the first. But it had seemed to them essential that he should be, at least for a time, in the dark. Any such desperate step as this had not occurred to them. He could, of course, be kept quiet by being given a hint; but what of the forces he had let loose?
They did what they could. They telegraphed to Denzil the need of secrecy, begging him to come first to Savlinsky, and hear all details, before putting the matter before the representatives of either the British or Russian Government.