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Page 36
"I dare not stay another second," he said, in a strangled voice.
"Ivan will guard your room, and my sister will come to you soon.
Do as I tell you, beloved one, and then all will be well."
With which he opened the door, and left her standing by the sofa
quivering with a strange joy and perplexity--and some other wild
emotion of which she had not dreamed.
CHAPTER VIII
It seemed an endless time the hour that she waited in her room,
and then a knock came to the door, and Ivan's voice saying his
master desired her presence in the sitting-room at once, and she
hurriedly went there to find Count Roumovski standing by the
mantelpiece looking very grave.
"Stella," he said, "there has been an accident to the train my
sister was to have arrived by--it is not serious, but she cannot
be here now until the early morning perhaps--unless I send the
automobile to Viterbo for her. The line is blocked by a broken-
down goods train which caused the disaster," he paused a moment,
and Stella said, "Well?" rather anxiously.
"It will be impossible for us to remain here," he continued,
"because it may be that your relations, aided by the Embassy, will
have traced us before then, and if they should come upon us alone
together, nothing that I could say or prove could keep the
situation from looking compromising,"--he now spoke with his old
calm, and Stella felt her confidence reviving. He would certainly
arrange what was best for them, she could rely upon that.
"What must we do then?" she asked gently, while she put her head
on the sleeve of his coat.
"I will wrap you up in the fur cloak, darling," he said, "and you
must come in the automobile with me to meet Anastasia. Your family
must not find you again until your are in my sister's company. We
ought to start at once."
It spoke eloquently for the impression which he had been able to
create in Stella's imagination of his integrity and reliability,
for the thought never entered her brain that it was a most unusual
and even hazardous undertaking to start out into the night in a
foreign land with a stranger she had not yet known for a week. But
that was the remarkable thing about his personality; it conveyed
always an atmosphere of trust and confidence.
It was not long before Miss Rawson was ready, wrapped in the long
gray cloak she had worn before, and with the veil tied over her
hat, and was descending in the lift alone with Ivan--her lover
having gone on by the stairs.
Their departure was managed with intelligence. Stella and the
servant simply walking out of the hotel and down the street to
where the car waited, and then presently Count Roumovski joined
them, and they started.
"Ivan will remain behind to answer any questions if the reverend
clergyman and your aunt do come," he said, when they were seated
in the car in the settling sunlight. "And now, sweetheart, we can
enjoy our drive."
Stella felt deliciously excited, all the exultation of adventure
thrilling her, and the joy of her lover's presence. She cared not
where they were going, it was all heaven.
"We shall stop at a little restaurant for some dinner," he said,
"it will be rather bad, but we must not mind, it would not have
been wise to risk any well-known place," and soon they drew up at
a small cafe on the outskirts of Rome, where there were a few
people already seated at little tables under the trees. They were
all Italians, and took no notice of the Russian and his lady.
It was the greatest amusement to them both, this primitive place,
and to be all alone ordering their first meal together, and Sasha
Roumovski exerted himself to charm and please her. He had
recovered complete mastery of himself, it would seem, and his
manner, while tenderly devoted, had an air of proprietorship which
affected Stella exceedingly.
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