Chapter 32
"Oh, Rue, I'm just beginning. She's kind, that's all--an energetic, intelligent woman, full of interest in life. I _know_ she'll give you some splendid advice--tell you how to get settled in Paris--Lord! You don't even know French, do you?"
"No."
"Not a word?"
"No.... I don't know anything, Mr. Neeland."
He tried to laugh rea.s.suringly:
"I thought it was to be Jim, not Mister," he reminded her.
But she only looked at him out of troubled eyes.
In the glare of the pier's headlights they descended. Pa.s.sengers were entering the vast, damp enclosure; porters, pier officers, s.h.i.+p's officers, sailors, pa.s.sed to and fro as they moved toward the gangway where, in the electric glare of lamps, the clifflike side of the gigantic liner loomed up.
At sight of the monster s.h.i.+p Rue's heart leaped, quailed, leaped again. As she set one slender foot on the gangway such an indescribable sensation seized her that she caught at Neeland's arm and held to it, almost faint with the violence of her emotion.
A steward took the suitcase, preceded them down abysmal and gorgeous stairways, through salons, deep into the dimly magnificent bowels of the ocean giant, then through an endless white corridor twinkling with lights, to a stateroom, where a stewardess ushered them in.
There was n.o.body there; n.o.body had been there.
"He dare not come," whispered Neeland in Ruhannah's ear.
The girl stood in the centre of the stateroom looking silently about her.
"Have you any English and French money?" he asked.
"No."
"Give me--well, say two hundred dollars, and I'll have the purser change it."
She went to her suitcase, where it stood on the lounge; he unstrapped it for her; she found the big packet of treasury notes and handed them to him.
"Good heavens!" he muttered. "This won't do. I'm going to have the purser lock them in the safe and give me a receipt. Then when you meet the Princess Mistchenka, tell her what I've done and ask her advice.
Will you, Rue?"
"Yes, thank you."
"You'll wait here for me, won't you?"
"Yes."
So he noted the door number and went away hastily in search of the purser, to do what he could in the matter of
"James!" she exclaimed. "Have you come aboard to elope with me?
Otherwise, what are you doing on the _Lusitania_ at this very ghastly hour in the morning?"
She was smiling into his face and her daintily gloved hand retained his for a moment; then she pa.s.sed her arm through his.
"Follow the porter," she said, "and tell me what brings you here, my gay young friend. You see I am wearing the orchids you sent me. Do you really mean to add yourself to this charming gift?"
He told her the story of Ruhannah Carew as briefly as he could; at her stateroom door they paused while he continued the story, the Princess Mistchenka looking at him very intently while she listened, and never uttering a word.
She was a pretty woman, not tall, rather below middle stature, perhaps, beautifully proportioned and perfectly gowned. Hair and eyes were dark as velvet; her skin was old ivory and rose; and always her lips seemed about to part a little in the faint and provocative smile which lay latent in the depths of her brown eyes.
"_Mon Dieu!_" she said, "what a history of woe you are telling me, my friend James! What a tale of innocence and of deception and outraged trust is this that you relate to me! _Allons! Vite!_ Let us find this poor, abandoned infant--this unhappy victim of your s.e.x's well-known duplicity!"
"She isn't a victim, you know," he explained.
"I see. Only almost--a--victim. Yes? Where is this child, then?"
"May I bring her to you, Princess?"
"But of course! Bring her. I am not afraid--so far--to look any woman in the face at five o'clock in the morning." And the threatened smile flashed out in her fresh, pretty face.
When he came back with Rue Carew, the Princess Mistchenka was conferring with her maid and with her stewardess. She turned to look at Rue as Neeland came up--continued to scrutinise her intently while he was presenting her.
There ensued a brief silence; the Princess glanced at Neeland, then her dark eyes returned directly to the young girl before her, and she held out her hand, smilingly:
"Miss Carew--I believe I know exactly what your voice is going to be like. I think I have heard, in America, such a voice once or twice.
Speak to me and prove me right."
Rue flushed:
"What am I to say?" she asked navely.
"I knew I was right," exclaimed the Princess Mistchenka gaily. "Come into my stateroom and let each one of us discover how agreeable is the other. Shall we--my dear child?"
When Neeland returned from a visit to the purser with a pocket full of British and French gold and silver for Ruhannah, he knocked at the stateroom door of the Princess Mistchenka.
That lively personage opened it, came out into the corridor holding the door partly closed behind her.
"She's almost dead with fatigue and grief. I undressed her myself.
She's in my bed. She has been crying."
"Poor little thing," said Neeland.
"Yes."
"Here's her money," he said, a little awkwardly.
The Princess opened her wrist bag and he dumped in the s.h.i.+ning torrent.
"Shall I--call good-bye to her?" he asked.