“You don’t know um? Did he say anything?”
“He asked me to give it to you, and said that he was charged to deliver it only to you or me.”
“Poor Louie!” said the O’Malachy, with apparent irrelevance. “Boys will get into scrapes now and then, and if he tries to find some way of writing to his old father without his colonel’s finding ut out, why in the wide world wouldn’t he?”
Understanding that she was intended to accept this transparent fiction as an explanation of the way in which the letter had been delivered, Nadia was silent, and her father retired to read it. When he returned, his manner was hurried and eager.
“This letter brings me marching orders,” he said, and she noticed that he avoided meeting her eye. “Poor Louie’s greatly troubled. He has got umself into a very bad scrape, and to settle his businuss I must start for Tatarjé by the morning train to-morrow.”
“Oh, what has he been doing?” cried Nadia, in genuine terror. For the moment she really thought that, besides the expected intimation as to Caerleon’s movements, the letter must have contained bad news of the kind indicated by her father.
The O’Malachy frowned. “It’s not the kind of businuss we generally talk over with ladies,” he said severely; and if Nadia’s heart had not been so heavy, she could have laughed at the dignity of his manner as he administered this rebuke to her curiosity. All fear for Louis left her mind instantly, and she was ready to listen to her father when he resumed, after a moment’s interval to allow the reproof to take effect, “I’ll likely have to leave here by six in the morning to get to the station in time for me train. What to do about you I don’t know. You must telegraph to Princess Soudaroff at once, but your train will not start from Boloszjen until mid-day to-morrow, and ’t is not a right thing to leave you alone here.”
“Oh, please don’t trouble about me,” said Nadia. “Why, there is not even a connection between Boloszjen and the Thracian railway, is there? No, if you will settle the hotel bill, and arrange for a carriage to take me to Boloszjen, I can start by myself quite comfortably.” It would not have been human nature not to add, “You must think about Louis first, you know.”
The O’Malachy lent a ready ear to the suggestion, which fitted in with his own wishes. It was evident that his preparations at Tatarjé were by no means complete as yet, probably owing to the uncertainty which had prevailed hitherto as to the exact date of the inspection, and his anxiety to be gone was great. Nadia packed for him the portion of his possessions which he would allow her to touch, and in the morning watched him drive away from the inn, bound for the starting-point of the Thracian railway, which had at last been completed as far as the capital. Now that he could no longer interfere with her, she must mature and carry out her own plans. In accordance with her father’s injunction, she had telegraphed the evening before to Princess Soudaroff, asking whether she might come to her at Pavelsburg, but adding on her own account that she must pay a hurried visit to Bellaviste before starting for Scythia. Shortly after the O’Malachy’s departure the answer arrived, assuring her of a warm welcome, and promising that the Princess would send a lady belonging to her household to meet her on the Scythian frontier if she would let her know when she expected to reach it. Nadia had been watching anxiously for this telegram—not that she was doubtful as to the welcome she would receive from the Princess, but because she could not well start on her journey until the missive had arrived. As soon as she had read it she sought for the travelled waiter.
“I am obliged to change the Herr Oberst’s plans for me,” she said when she found him. “I shall not go to Boloszjen in the carriage, but I want you to have the luggage taken there and booked for Pavelsburg in my name. Then even if I am late for the train the boxes will not be lost. I am going to see little Ilona, the shepherd’s daughter, and to take her some clothes. I shall not come back to Witska, but I believe it is possible to cross the mountains from the shepherd’s hut and walk to the station beyond Boloszjen and catch the train there, is it not? Ilona’s father will show me the way, so you need not be alarmed if you do not see me at Boloszjen.”