“How awfully unfortunate!” said Usk quickly, as the landlord hastened back to his house. “It’s Prince Soudaroff, of all people! and there’s no hope that he hasn’t seen us. Well, we had better face it out, Nell, and just admire the view till he gets up here.”
The recognition seemed to be mutual, for the gentleman who was mounting the steep path stopped and hesitated perceptibly when he saw the two figures on the hill-top, but coming, apparently, to the same decision as Usk, he resumed his climb, and advanced towards them with beaming countenance and uplifted hat.
“I assist at an idyll!” he said in French as he met them. “Youth, beauty, and nature—I enjoy them all at one glance. Let me congratulate you, Lord Usk, on the spot you have chosen for your sojourn. It is evident that you are of the few who have discovered the charms of this corner of Europe, you and—may I say Madame la Vicomtesse?”
“Oh yes, please,” said Helene, flushing with pleasure. Here at last was some one who understood her wish without being told.
“It isn’t the scenery that has brought us here,” said Usk bluntly.
“Ah no, I understand. A family bereavement, is it not? and one of a particularly distressing character. You have no good news yet, I fear?”
“Fear? you mean hope!” was Usk’s unuttered comment. Aloud he said, “None.”
“But we hope to learn something soon,” said Helene eagerly. “We were so glad to hear that Prince Pelenko has returned home, because he seems to have seen Count Mortimer later than any one else on the evening that he disappeared, and we want to ask him so many things.”
Again a look of uncertainty flitted across the Scythian statesman’s face. “Ah, I see!” he exclaimed. “I fear you will be disappointed, madame. It is not Prince Valerian, the head of the family, who is at the Pelenko mansion, but his younger brother, Prince Shishman Pelenko, who holds a commission in my imperial master’s bodyguard, and it is on his account I am here. Ten days ago this young man was engaged in a duel, and had the misfortune to kill his opponent. The sad event preyed so much upon his mind that he wrote a hasty resignation of his commission, and retired to the family estate, to bury himself among these hills. My august master received his decision with much regret, and graciously entrusted me with a mission to the unfortunate young man, and it is from the discharge of this mission I am returning—unsuccessful, alas! Ah, madame, how can I hope to explain to one so youthful and innocent as yourself the depth of grief, of remorse, in which this unhappy Prince Shishman is plunged? He confines himself to the enclosed grounds immediately surrounding the paternal abode, and in these narrow limits he paces up and down like a caged tiger. Until the unfortunate dispute which separated them, he and his rival had been the closest of friends, and now no assurances that his conduct throughout was that of a man of the nicest honour will comfort him. He cannot forgive himself,” and Prince Soudaroff, deeply affected either by his own eloquence or by the moving picture he had conjured up, brushed away a tear.
“I am so glad you have told us this,” said Helene, in conscience-stricken tones. “We were going to ask leave to walk through the woods on the estate.”