"I think I have got a word to say in this: If he does disappear, I shall go to the Emperor and tell him the whole truth."

"You have fallen in love with this young man, eh?" inquired the Prince in a jeering voice.

"No, I will not say that. And besides, he is in love with somebody else. But understand me, if you please"--she spoke with her old imperiousness--"I will not have a hair of this young man's head harmed. He is young, he is innocent; he shall not fall a victim to your dastardly schemes."

Boris regarded her with his cold, hard glance. "Suppose I said that, in that case, even La Belle Quero herself must disappear. What then?"

Tears came into the beautiful woman's eyes. She looked at him, more compa.s.sionate than angry.

"Oh, Boris, have you sunk so low, have you let your ambitions overcome all the softer impulses of your nature? Would you really murder me for fear I should tell, and frustrate your schemes?"

She looked very beautiful as she appealed to him. For a moment the old love for her, the old infatuation surged up in his heart. He clasped her to his breast, and murmured softly the words: "Why are you not heart and soul with me, as you used to be?"

She disengaged herself gently from his embrace; it no longer thrilled her. "You are no longer the same to me, Boris," she whispered, with the usual subterfuge of the woman. "You have had other loves besides La Belle Quero."

"I do not admit that, Inez," he answered, in his rough, hard tones, a little shaken by his emotion. "But remember, we are bound together by solemn ties, by solemn oaths, to the same cause. Mark my words," he added, with a sudden access of savagery. "If you play me false in that respect, expect no mercy."

"If I play you false, Boris, I expect no mercy; I shall get none. I know the manner of man you are."

"Yes, you know the sort of man I am, Inez. Pursue your little flirtations, if you will. I shall not complain. But once play me false in other matters, and your doom is sealed."

He strode out of the room, and the face of Madame Quero went white as she remembered the threat. The Prince loved her in his rough, brutal way, but if she interfered with his plans, he would brush her out of his path with as little compunction as he would kill a fly that annoyed him with its impertinent buzzing.

And then, in a few moments, her thoughts went back to the handsome young Italian, Corsini. She had, in an unguarded moment, given him away. Zouroff's slow, but unrelenting, vengeance would pursue him. The Prince had said that Corsini must disappear. In this autocratic country people disappeared every day, and n.o.body seemed to wonder. It was such a common occurrence.

Next day Madame Quero, very disturbed, sought Corsini at his private office at the Imperial Opera. Her object was to gain a little time before Zouroff could put his evil designs into execution.

She approached him with her most winning smile.

"Signor, you reproached me for not having asked you to my villa. Will you allow me to repair the omission? Will you sup with me, _tete-a-tete_, on Thursday night?"

She had meant, in this intimate meeting, to give him a few hints as to his personal safety without too closely inculpating Zouroff and his a.s.sociates, whom she still greatly feared.

Nello expressed a thousand regrets. After his duties at the Opera were over, Prince Zouroff had requested his attendance at his Palace, as Princess Nada had wished to again hear his rendering of the romance which had now become celebrated.

The voice of the _prima donna_ grew agitated. She was very distrustful of Boris and his ways.

"But, Signor Corsini, why go there when you know so well that the Prince is quite indifferent to music? He does not care for any sort, yours or mine."

Nello darted at her a shrewd glance. "I do not think myself, Madame, that the Prince is a great connoisseur; but he is generally in his box when you sing."

The beautiful Spanish woman blushed ever so slightly. "Ah, Signor, he comes because I am the fashion. But all the same, I wish you would not go."

Her manner was very insistent. Nello could see that she was greatly agitated.

"Tell me, Madame. You have some reason for not wishing me to go?"

Madame Quero hesitated. She dared not tell the truth, that she feared there was some sinister design on the part of the Prince. Had he not said that Corsini must disappear? Her blood ran cold at the thought.

She relied on her woman's wiles. "Suppose," she whispered softly, "that I told you I was very jealous of the Princess Nada. Would that keep you away?"

Nello looked at her steadily. A few days ago her request might have had some influence on him, but now he knew her for a traitress. She was only seeking to trap him for her own ends. He was proof against her. Golitzine had warned him.

"The Princess Nada is an old friend of mine, Madame. I have promised to play that little romance for her whenever she wishes to hear it. I cannot break my promise."

The blood of the Biscayan peasant surged wildly in her veins. "You are a fool, Signor Corsini; you do not know your real friends, I a.s.sure you."

Corsini a.s.sumed his most diplomatic manner. He bowed profoundly. "I have made many friends in St. Petersburg, Madame, but I shall always remember that you were one of the first and best."

"Always excepting Princess Nada," remarked the _prima donna_ spitefully.

"Ah, Madame, I met her first in London; I cannot tell you under what tragic circ.u.mstances. Yes, to be quite frank, the Princess has a little niche in my memory that n.o.body else can occupy. You will forgive me?"

Madame Quero turned away from him scornfully, her warm Spanish blood all aflame at the mention of her rival.

"Go then to your beautiful Princess, with her bloom of the lilies and roses on her cheeks, and your fate be on your own head."

Corsini, in spite of his equable temperament, was a little disturbed by the interview. Madame Quero had been very insistent that he should not go to the Zouroff Palace. What was there behind this insistence?

He had pressed her closely as to her reasons, and she had led him to understand she entertained an undefined jealousy of the Princess Nada.

In all probability that was the true explanation. Anyway, she would give him none other.

He was very busy during the next day or two with the cares of management--the directorship of the Imperial Opera was no light task.

He met the singer several times, but she still appeared to nourish resentment.

Well, he could not help it. Wild horses would not have kept him away from the Zouroff Palace, from the few minutes' glimpse of the beautiful young Princess. The Thursday drew near, and his pulses beat with pleasurable antic.i.p.ation. If Madame Quero withdrew her friendship from him, it would not break his heart; and if she was the traitress that Golitzine a.s.sumed, her friendship was not worth having.

As for the woman herself, she was torn with conflicting emotions. At one moment she hated him, at another she wept to think that he should fall a victim to the machinations of the unscrupulous and unrelenting Prince. And on the Wednesday, the day before the reception at the Zouroff Palace, her softer feelings conquered.

She had seen the Prince the night before, and he had told her that he was going into the country and would not return to St. Petersburg till the midday of the Thursday.

She drove to the Zouroff Palace in the afternoon and sent up her card to the Princess Nada. On it she had pencilled--"To see you on an urgent matter."

The young Princess's maid, Katerina, who was devoted to her mistress, brought in the card.

Nada read it, and she frowned. She was not at all conventional for a girl of her rank and station, and she numbered many artists amongst her friends. But she had heard of the reputation of La Belle Quero.

Rumours had reached her of the peculiar relations between the singer and her brother, the Prince. Obviously, she was not the sort of woman she could receive in a private capacity.

"Go down yourself, Katerina, to this person, and be perfectly civil,"

she enjoined her maid. "Explain to her as politely as possible that I am not able to see any visitors to-day."

The young woman conveyed the cold, decisive message to the waiting Madame Quero. A dull, red flush spread over the singer's face as she recognised the reasons for the refusal to accord her an interview.

But she had not come unprepared for such a rebuff. "One moment, if you please," she said, drawing forth a letter and handing it to the maid.

"Take this to your young mistress. I will wait till you return. I fancy next time you will bring me a different answer."

The maid bowed and went back to the Princess. Nada tore the letter open angrily. The woman was a trifle too insolent and persistent. Then her angry mood pa.s.sed as she mastered the brief contents.

"I regret very much to intrude upon you; I can quite guess that my presence is not welcome. A great danger is threatening a certain gentleman, Signor Corsini, for whom I believe you have some friendship. You are the only person I can think of at the moment who can avert that danger, especially as it is threatened by a member of your own family. If you still persist in refusing to see me, please seal up this letter and return it by your maid."