 Chapter one of Prince or chauffeur, a story of Newport. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Prince or chauffeur, a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry. The Midnight Express. John Armitage, Lieutenant USN, followed the porter into the rear car of the Midnight Express for Boston, and after seeing his bag deposited under a lower berth, stood for a minute in frowning in decision. A half hour must elapse before the train started. He was not a bit sleepy. He had in fact dozed most of the way from Washington, and the idea of threshing about in the hot berth was not agreeable. Finally, he took a short thick pipe from his pocket and picking his way gingerly between the funerial swaying curtains and protruding shoes. He went outside to talk to the porter. The features of this functionary relaxed from the ineffable dignity and self-containment of a dozing sarian into an expression of open interest as Armitage ranged alongside with the remark that it was cooler than earlier in the evening. Yes, sir, agreed the porter. It's certainly a mighty cooler just now, sir. He cocked his head at the young officer, using the navy, sir, ain't you, sir, I knowed. He had it as Armitage nodded aboard affirmative that you was because I seen the USN on your grip. So when that man a minute ago asked me, was there a navy gentleman on my kia, why I said, A, Armitage turned upon him so quickly that the negro recoiled, asked for me, who, what did he say, when did he ask? I came out in the kia after carrying in your bag, major replied the porter unctuously, and there was a man just come up and ask me what I told you. He asked, sir, says I just took in the colonel's bag, so he goes in and then out, he comes again, given me 50 cents and hoofed it out through the gates, like he was in a hurry. Armitage regarded the negro strangely, what did he look like? He asked, quick, he was a lean, lanky man with a mustache and eyeglasses. He looked like a foreigner, he, but Armitage had started on a run for the iron gates. In the big waiting room, there were perhaps the score of persons dosing or reading, no one of whom resemble the man described by the porter. He passed across to the telephone booths, and as he did so, the one for whom he was searching emerged from the telegraph office, walked rapidly to the 42nd street doors and jumped into a taxi cab waiting at the curb. And so, Armitage missed him, he walked back to the train with a peculiar smile, emotions of pleasurable excitement and a sense of something mysterious conflicting. Missed him, he said in answer to the porter's look of inquiry. Friend of yours, sir? Well, said the officer, smiling grimly, I should have liked to shake hands with him. His desire would have been keener, could he in any way have known the nature of the message which the curious stranger had sent to a squalid little house on William Street in Newport. A leaves here for Torpedo Station on Midnight Train. Though he did not know it, dispatchers of a similar nature had been following or preceding him these past three months. In fact, certainly not uncomplementary to an officer who had been out of the academy, a scant 10 years, whatever the additional aspects. As it was Armitage not given to worrying, dismissed the incident for the time being and yielded full attention to the valuable porter. The young officer was from Kentucky, had been raised with negroes and understood and liked them thoroughly. With five minutes remaining before midnight, he was about to knock the fire from his pipe when a bus at the gate attracted his attention. A party, two women, their maids and a footman bearing some luggage was approaching the train. The older woman was of distinguished bearing and evidently in no amiable mood. The younger was smiling, trying to pacify her. Well, mother, she said as the party stopped at Armitage's car, the worst of the ordeal is over. It has all been so funny and quite exciting, really. That she was an interesting girl, Armitage could see even in the ghastly effulgence of the arc lamps, slightly above the medium height with a straight slim figure she was, he judged about 22 or three years old. Her light hair flowed and rippled from under a smart hat, her face an expressive oval, her mouth not small, the lips full and red. Armitage could not tell about the eyes but considering her hair and the complexion they were he decided probably hazel. From his purely scientific or rather artistic investigation of the girl's face, he started suddenly to find that those eyes were viewing him with an unmistakably humorous disdain. But only for a second, then as though some mental picture had been vaguely limbed in her mind, she looked at him again quickly this time with a curious expression as of a person trying to remember not quite certain whether she should bow. She didn't, instead she turned to her mother who was advancing toward the porter, voicing her disapproval of her daughter's characterization of the situation. Funny, exciting, she exclaimed, you are quite impossible, Anne. Porter, is this our car? The negro examined the tickets and waved his hand toward the steps. He asked them to our five, state room A and upper and lower, 10, four damn ladies indicating the maids. He asked them, just stepped his way. With a few directions to the footman who there upon retraced his steps to the station, the woman followed her daughter and the maids into the car. A minute or so later, the train was rolling out into the yard with its blazing electric lights. An arbitrage now hopelessly wakeful was in the smoking compartment, regarding an unlighted cigar. Here, the porter found him. Say, general, he said, damn folks is of the very first quality. They had got about a yacht this evening, so they were saying, and something was broken, the machinery. So they come a show from where they went on the ship at the yacht club station. They simply had got to get to Newport tomorrow because they Gwine received some foreign king or other and Sam interrupted armatures. Did you find out who they are? Yes, I suddenly did, was the pompous reply. They is the Wellington's. Wellington armatures regarded the Port of Gravely. Sam, I have been in Newport off and on for some time, but I've been too busy to study the social side. Still, I happen to know you have the honor of having under your excellent care the very elective society. Well, they only give me 50 cents, grimaced the porter, and that don't elect them to nothing with me. Armatures laughed. You were lucky, he said. You should have paid them for the honor. The porter shook his head gloomily, two bits, I don't see no society partiality in that. No armatures reached into his pocket. Here Sam is 50 cents for hefting that young woman's bag. He paused and smiled. It is the nearest I have ever come to paying the bills for such a beautiful creature. I like the experience. Now don't forget to call me at Wickford Junction or the other people either, for when I get them aboard the general, I'm going to start a mutiny. Throw the maider overboard and go to sea. For Sam, I rather imagine Miss Wellington glanced at me as she boarded the train. The porter laughed, pocketing the silver piece and left armitage to his own devices. He sat for a long time, still holding the unlighted cigar, smiling quizzically. Some underlying romantic emotion, which had prompted his vicarious tip to the porter, still thrilled him. And it was not until the train had flashed by Larchmont that he went to his birth. The full moon was swimming in the east, bathing the countryside in a light which caused trees and hills, fences and boulders to stand out in soft distinctness. Armitage raised the window curtain and lying with face pressed almost against the pane, watched the ever-changing scenes of a veritable fairyland. He was anything but a snob. He was not lying awake because a few select representatives of the few hundred happened to be in his car, not by a long shot, but that girl he admitted irrespective of caste was a cause for insomnia, good and sufficient. And he muttered the name to himself. By George it fitted her. He did not know they bred her sort in the Newport Cottage Colony. Armitage was sufficiently conceded to believe that he knew a great deal about girls. He had this one placed precisely. She was a good fellow that he would wager and unaffected unspoiled, which if he were correct in his conjectures was a wonderful thing he told himself considering the environment in which she had been reared. I may be wrong, Anne Wellington, he said to himself, but I've an idea we're going to know each other better. At any rate, we, speaking in an editorial sense, shall strive to that end. He chose to ignore the obvious difficulties which presented themselves in this regard. Who were the Wellingtons? His great-great grandfather was signing the Declaration of Independence when the Wellingtons were shoeing horses or carrying sedan chairs in London. His father was a United States Senator and while Ronald Wellington might own one or two such, he could not own Senator Armitage, nor could anyone else. The train flashed around the curve into Greenwich and the sound appeared in the distance of a spool of shimmering silver. Armitage started. That torpedo of mine could start in that creek back there and flick clean into the sound and chase a steel hull from here to Gehenna. In two weeks, I'll prove it. Howe had Anne Wellington suggested his torpedo or was it the moonlight? Well, if he set his mind on his torpedo, he would surely get no sleep. It had cost him too many wakeful hours already. He lowered the curtain and closed his eyes. End of chapter one, chapter two of Prince or chauffeur, a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry. This liberal box recording is in the public domain. Miss Wellington enlarges her experience. Few places in the well-ordered centers of civilization are so altogether dreary as Wickford Junction, shortly before five o'clock in the morning when the usual handful of passengers are light from the Boston Express. The sun has not yet climbed to the top of the seaward hills of Rhode Island, the station and environment rest in a damp semi-gloom. Everything shut in, silent, as though nature herself had paused for a brief time before bursting into glad effulgent day. The station is locked. One grocery store in the distance presents a grim boarded front to the sleeping street. No one is awake save the arriving passengers. They are about half so hungry and in the nature of things cross. Mrs. Wellington was undisguisedly in that mood. Armitage found some degree of sardonic pleasure in watching her as she viewed with cold disapproval the drowsy maids and her daughter, who although as immaculate and fresh and cool and altogether delightful as the morning promised to be, persisted in yawning from time to time with the utmost abandon. Armitage had never seen a woman quite like the mother, somewhat above medium height. There was nothing in the least way matronly about her figure. It had still the beautiful supple lines of her youth and her dark brown hair was untinged by the slightest suggestion of gray. It was the face that portrayed the inexorable progress of the years and the habits and all that in them had lain. Cold, calculating, unyielding, the metallic eyes dominated a gray lineament, seemed and creased with fine hair-like lines. No flippant, light-headed pleasure seeking creature of society was Belle Wellington. Few of her sort are public belief to the contrary notwithstanding. Her famous fight for social primacy, now lying far behind in the vague past, had been a struggle worthy of an epic. However meticulous the object of her ambition may have appeared in the eyes of many good people. At all events she had striven for a goal not easy of attainment. Many years before on the deck of her husband's yacht, withered by methods she sternly had forgotten, had been lured a select few of a select circle. The fight had begun. Even now she awoke sometimes at night with a shudder, having lived again in vivid dream that August afternoon in Newport Harbor when she sat at her tea table facing the first ordeal. She had come through it with what rare felicity had she scattered her conversational charms with what skill had she played upon the pet failings and foibles of her guests, what unerring judgment had been hers and memory of details unfailing tact and exquisite taste. A triumph, yes, and the first knowledge of it had come in a lingering hand clasp from the great man of them all and a soft deer in the farewell words of his wife. But she had fainted in her cabin after they left. Since that day she had gone far. She was on familiar terms with an English Earl and two Dukes. She had entertained an emperor aboard her yacht in New York and Newport. There were but two women to dispute her claims as social dictator and one of these through a railroad coup of her husband's would soon be forced to her knees. It was all in her face. Armitage could read it there in the hard shrewd lines, the cold heartless vindictive lines or the softer lines which the smiles could form when smiles were necessary, which was not so often now as in former years. And in place of the beauty now gone she ruled by sheer power and wit which time had turned to biting acidity and by the bitter diplomacy of the meta cheese. Ugg, Armitage drew his pipe from his pocket with humorous muttering, a dread knot all right and out and out sun downer. And I beg lead to advise myself that the best thing about Fair Anne is that she favors her father or some relative considerably more saintly than my lady of the Marvel face. As Armitage passed the group and pacing the platform the woman whom he had been studying raised her eyes and gazed at him with just a touch of imperiousness. I beg your pardon, she said and a trace of the little formal smile appeared but can you tell me when we are to have a train? Armitage glanced at his watch. It is due now, he said, I think here it comes. He added, inclining his head towards a curve in the track around which a little locomotive was pushing to dingy cars. Mrs. Wellington nodded her thanks and turned to her daughter as though dismissing Armitage who indeed had events no desire to remain walking toward the upper end of the platform where his bag proposed upon a pile of trunks. He did not see them again until they boarded the general at Wickford Landing for the trip down Narragansett Bay. They were all in the upper cabin where Mrs. Wellington was evidently preparing to doze. Armitage walked forward and stood on the deck under the pilot house watching the awakening of the picturesque village across the narrow harbor until the steamboat began to back out into the bay. The sunlight was glorious, the skies blue and the air fresh and sparkling. Armitage faced the breeze with bare head and was drawing in deep drafts of air when footsteps sounded behind him. And, and, Wellington and her maid came to the rail. How perfectly delightful, Amelia, she exclaimed, now if I could have a rusk and some coffee I should enjoy myself thoroughly. Why don't they conduct this boat like an English liner? Her eyes filled with humorous lights swept past Armitage. Yes, they were hazel. I am so hungry, Amelia. She smiled in sniffy air with mock ardor. Amelia didn't you smell that tantalizing odor of hot biscuits in the cabin? I wonder where it came from? Armitage suddenly remembered a previous journey in this boat and he was on the point of addressing the girl when he checked himself but only for a minute. Her mother had addressed him in her presence. Had she not, certainly that constituted, well, if not an acquaintance, at least something which involved warrant to assist her in times of stress which he decided to be here and now. So he turned to the girl with that boyish grin and that twinkling of his clear gray eyes which people found so contagious in him and addressed her in the most natural way. If I don't intrude egregiously, he rounded out this beautiful word of his father's with a drawing tentative inflection which caused Anne to smile in spite of herself. Seeing which Armitage continued, I happen to know that the steward in the galley below makes biscuits and brews coffee at this hour each morning such as are given to few mortals. If you'll allow me the honor of playing waiter, I'll be delighted to serve you in the cabin. Anne Wellington heard him in wide-eyed astonishment. Then she laughed, not at all, effectively and glanced swiftly through the cabin windows to where her mother sat, apparently, in slumber. I thank you, it's awfully polite of you, but you needn't play waiter. Instead, would it be too much trouble for you to show us where the galley suggested Armitage, where the galley is? Armitage hesitated. No, he said, it would be a pleasure. Only the galley, or rather the mess room, is rather a stuffy place. I, oh, I shouldn't mind that in the least. I'm not unused to roughing it. She turned to her maid a million ago until Morgan to say to mother, if she wakes that we are in the galley, breakfasting on plumb duck. Armitage said nothing while they waited for her return and Wellington was silent too. She simply stood waiting, tapping the toe of one of her small russet pumps on the deck and gazing out over the bay with a curious little smile rippling up from the corner of her mouth. Armitage did not quite understand her, while she had been cordial enough, yet there was an underlying suggestion of reserve, not at all apparent and yet unmistakably felt. It was he felt as though in her life and training and experience, she had acquired a poise, a knowledge of at least certain parts of the world and its affairs, which gave her confidence, made her at home and taught her how to deal with situations which other girls less broadly in doubt would have found overpowering or at best distinctly embarrassing. Not that Armitage had in any way sought to embarrass Wellington, he had spoken simply upon impulse, being of that nature and he could not but admire the way in which she had diagnosed his motive or rather lack of motive save a chivalrous desire to serve. Evidently, she had long been accustomed to the homage of men and more she was apparently a girl who knew how to appraise it at its true value in any given case. If Armitage had but known it, this was a qualification not without its value to the girls and elder women who occupied and Wellington's plane of social existence. The society calendar of scandal is mainly a list of those who have not possessed this essential. When the maid returned, Miss Wellington smiled and nodded to Armitage who led the way into the cabin and to the main stairway and thence down into the hold. The steward was a bustling, valuable little man with well rounded proportions and a walrus-like mustache. As Armitage and his two companions entered, he was engaged in removing a coffee-stained table cover. The crew had finished breakfasting, which he replaced with a spotless red and white checkered cloth. Steward said, Armitage, falling unconsciously into the crisp voice of command, get some coffee and biscuits for this lady and her maid, please. Yes, sir, the steward smiled affably. Certainly, sir, they're fine this morning. The biscuits, I mean, fine. Very good, said Armitage. He pulled two chairs to the table and was leaving the room when the girl looked over her shoulder. Aren't you going to join us, she asked. Well, said Armitage, smiling, I was going to breakfast in the galley. It is so warm by the range, you know. Nonsense, don't mind us. It's rather novel breakfasting with one's maid and a stranger. She said this in rather an absent manner, as though the fact to which she called attention were almost too obvious for remark. Certainly was not said in any way to impel Armitage to introduce himself and he had no wish to take advantage of a lame opportunity. Yes, he said, seating himself at one end of the table, it impresses me that way too. To say that the biscuits were delicious and the coffee uplifting, inspiring, we're in the mind of all who have shared the matutino hospitality of the steward of the general, be an inadequate expression of gastronomic gratitude. Let it be sufficient to note that Anne Wellington beamed gratefully upon the steward who expanding under the genial influence discussed his art with rare unction. The secret, he said, leaning confidentially over the back of Ms. Wellington's chair is to be sparing of the yeast and then there is something in raisin proper. Now the last time Mrs. Jack Vanderlip was down here, she made me give her the receipt for them identical biscuits, give me a dollar for it. Mrs. Jack Vanderlip cried, Ms. Wellington, did she ever grace your table? Did she ever grace this table? Well, I should say so. And the Tyler girls and hammy Ben Rensler and Billy M. Strother, he comes down here often. Ms. Wellington laughed. I often have marveled at Billy's peach blow complexion. She said, now I have the secret. Don't tell him I said so, Ms. Wellington said the steward. The girl with the biscuit poise daintily in her fingers did not seem surprised to hear her name. Your acquaintance is rather extend, rather large, she said. The steward actually blushed. I live in Newport, Miss. He said, oh, that was all. And the curious little smile did not leave her face. But Armitage noticed that in some way the steward found no further opportunity for exercising his gorilla tea. Evidently, she assumed that Armitage now knew whom she was if he had not known before. The steward uttered her name, for he noticed a slight modifying of her previous attitude of thorough enjoyment. For his part, Armitage, of course, had no reason for altering his bearing and that he did not was observed and appreciated by his companion. This eventually had the effect of restoring both to their former footing. Yes, she said, finally, it has been rather a novel experience. I am indebted to you. Not to me, said Armitage. Then by way of conversation, novel experiences as a rule are not so easily had. No, I grasped them whenever she jerked her head toward the cabin above and smiled whenever I can conveniently. My old tutor in Munich was always impressing it upon me never to neglect such opportunities. Opportunities, OIC, slumming. Armitage glanced about the apartment and laughed. She frowned. I was speaking categorically, not specifically. At least I meant to. I did not mean slumming. I detested. Sine, er, far, rungen, er, bitern, enlarging one's experience is the way my teacher put it. Life is so well-ordered with us. There are many well-defined things to do. Any number of them, the trouble is they are all so well-defined. We glide along and take our switches, as Father would say, like so many trains. She smiled, and so I love to run off the track once in a while. May I have the credit of having misplaced the switch? Armitage's eyes were twinkling as the girl arose with a nod. In the upper cabin, Mrs. Wellington apparently still slept to Armitage's great joy. Her daughter, with hardly a glance into the cabin, stepped through the rail and looked down the bay with radiant face. The promise of the early hours had been established. It was a beautiful day. It was one of these mornings typical of the hour. It looked like morning, smelt like morning. There was the distinct, clean, pure, inspiring feel of morning. The skies were an even turquoise, with little filmy, fleece-y shreds of clouds drifting across. The air was elixir, and the blue waters capped here and there with white, randroiously to meet the green sloping shores, where the haze still lingered, a head and island glowed like an opal. Perfect, perfectly stunning, cried the girl. Somehow Armitage felt the absence of that vague barrier which heretofore she had seemed almost unconsciously to interpose, as her eyes, filled with sheer vivacity, met his. What are those little things bobbing up and down in the water over there? She asked. I believe that is the torpedo testing ground, he said. Torpedoes, ah, she shrugged her shoulders. Mother knew Bearish Shogun, who was in the Petra Pavlovsk when she struck the Japanese torpedo and turned upside down. Do you know anything about torpedoes? Not much. A little Armitage thrilled at the first sign that she had given him that she considered or was in any way curious regarding his personality. She looked at him. I'm certain I've seen you before. She said you don't live in Newport. That is not my home, said Armitage. I come from Kentucky. I am something of a wanderer, being a sort of fighter by profession. The girl started, not a prize fighter. She glanced quickly at the handsome square fighting face, the broad chest and shoulders and flesh. Are you really that? Armitage had intended to tell her he was a naval officer but obsessed of the imp of mischief he nodded. I can imagine situations wherein I might fight for a prize. She overlooked what she regarded as the apparent modesty of his answer. Really, she explained how interesting. Now I am glad I met you. I had no idea you were that of all things. You seemed, she checked herself, to tell me, how did you begin? Tommy Dallas is keen on your sort. Did he ever, ever back you? I believe he calls it in a fight. The new trend speedily had become distasteful to Armitage, who inwardly was floundering for a method of escape from the predicament into which his folly had led him. He had no wish to pose as a freak in her eyes. Still, no solution offered itself. No, he said at length, he never backed me as a matter of fact, I am more of a physical instructor now. Oh, she said disappointedly, I was going to gloat over Tommy, physical instructor, do you know father is looking for one for my two kid brothers, why don't you apply? Thanks, said Armitage, a bit ungraciously, perhaps I shall. Plainly the girl's interest in him was fast waning, extremely chapped, fallen and deeply disgusted with himself, Armitage bowed and muttering something about looking after his luggage withdrew. End of chapter two, chapter three of Prince or chauffeur, a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Prince Vasily Coltsoff. When Miss Wellington entered the cabin, she found her mother in the same position in which she had left her, but her eyes were open looking straight at the girl. Mother, I never knew you to do anything quite so bourgeois before there was a gleam of mischief in her eyes, sleeping in a public place. You weren't sleeping, were you? No, I was not, said her mother. I've been thinking, planning. Oh, Prince Coltsoff. Yes, Mrs. Wellington raised her hand languidly to her face. He wrote he was coming to us this afternoon direct from the Russian ambassadors at Bar Harbor. Did he not? Yes, unless Miss Hatch was mistaken in what she said the other day. Miss Hatch said the elder woman is one of the few secretaries I ever had who does not make mistakes. However, that is neither here nor there. Prince Coltsoff has been in Newport for a week. A week, the idea where not with the van antwerps, Miss Wellington's eyes blazed with interest. No, not with anyone that I was able to discover, but Claree Pembroke of the British legation was driving from the reading room to the art club with your father the other day. He told me he was certain he saw Coltsoff standing on a side street near the Aquedneck. Why on earth didn't you tell me before, cried the daughter, what a delightful mystery. She smiled with mischief. Do you suppose after all he is some no account? You know Russian princes are as numerous as Russian bears. They can be as great bounders and as indigent as Italian counts. All of which you have heard me say quite frequently, interrupted Mrs. Wellington placidly. Coltsoff is not pinched back. The Coltsoffs are an illustrious Russian family and have been for years. I think I know my Almanac de Gaulle, why Coltsoff is a decant to the Tsar and has, I believe, estates in southern Russia. His father fought brilliantly in the Russo-Turkish war and gained the cross of St. Anne. His great or great-great grandfather, I don't recall which, was a general of note of Catherine the Great's. And if certain intimate histories of that time are not wholly false, her rewards for his services were scandalously bestowed. No doubt, said the girl carelessly, and Coltsoff, a genuinely distinguished fellow. He was educated, of course, at the Cadet School in St. Petersburg and during the Japanese War, was with the Tsar. I met him in London last May at Lord Macon Rose, as I have already told you, I think, and when he spoke of coming to America this summer I engaged him for August. It was rather far-sighted of you, said the girl admiringly. Newport needs some excitement this season. If he's anything like that last Russian who came here on a warship two years ago, you will shine as a benefactor, especially in the eyes of reporters. Mrs. Wellington smiled grimly. The Grand Duke Ivan, yes, what a great bearded beast he was. I remember father bemoaning when Ivan the Terrible departed, that there was no more of his favorite planet, Brandy, left in the reading room cellars. Mrs. Wellington did not smile. She was eyeing her daughter curiously. I want you and the Prince to become good friends, she said. That will depend upon whether he can gracefully explain his mysterious presence in Newport the past week, replied the girl, laughingly. Suddenly her face grew grave. What do you mean, mother? I merely that I expect that Prince Coldsoft hopes and under her daughter's steady gaze, she did something she had done but once or twice in her life, floundered and then paused. The girl's lip curled, not merthly. Ah, I begin to understand, she said. Prince Coldsoft's visit was conceived hardly in the nature of ordinary social empress. Now please don't go on and, said the mother. I have expressed nothing but a wish, have I? Wait until you know him. But you said Coldsoft had expressed a hope naturally. He saw Sergeant's portrait of you in London. How romantic, I do not wonder you couldn't sleep, mother. Perhaps there were other reasons who was the man you ensnared outside. Miss Wellington laughed, trust you, mother. He was very decent, he took me below and fed me hot biscuits and coffee. He said he was a prize fighter. A prize fighter, he said so, but he was not telling the truth. He was awfully good looking and had a manner that one does not acquire. I'm rather curious concerning him. You don't imagine he was Coldsoft in cog. Mrs. Wellington glanced witheringly at her. I imagine he may have been a reporter and why aren't you more careful? There may come a time when your efforts to uphold your reputation for eccentricity and for doing the cleverly unexpected will react disagreeably. It was the first time her mother had given her reason to believe that she shared in any way in the views concerning her which were prevalent among the younger set at least, the girl was not flattered. Mother, don't be so absurd, she said. The only efforts I've ever made have been to lead a normal human life and not a snobbish, affected one. Eccentric, the conditions under which we live are eccentric. My only desire is to be normal. Life is relative, you know, said Mrs. Wellington. If you, she glanced out the window and saw the torpedo station slipping past. Why, we are almost in, she said. Morgan, go out please and see if they have sent a motor for us. The handful of passengers were falling down to the main deck and Mrs. Wellington, her daughter and Amelia followed where Morgan presently joined them with the announcement that she had not seen a Wellington car. Pest, murmured Mrs. Wellington, this is the last of Dawson if he hasn't sent a car. I telegraphed last night. Telegrams have been known to go astray, suggested her daughter. What, so has Dawson observed Mrs. Wellington. It was only two plane when they crossed the game, playing that something or somebody had gone wrong. No automobile or horse-drawn vehicle bearing the Wellington insignia was at the landing. Having adjusted herself to the situation upon receiving her maids report, Mrs. Wellington immediately signaled two of the less dingy hacks, entered one with her daughter, leaving the other for the maids. The crags, she said, designating her villa to the hackman who touching his hat with the first sign of respect shown, picked up the reins. The driver half turned in his seat to catch any conversation of an interesting nature, guided his horse to Tim Street and then salonged that quaint, narrow thoroughfare toward Harbor Road. Mrs. Wellington glanced at the driver and then looked at her mother solemnly. Do you suppose they won't be up yet, Mama? She said with a sort of twanging nasal cadence. Mrs. Wellington turned her head composedly toward the show windows of a store. I don't see why you won't say what you think, Mama, resume the girl. You know some of these new porters, so the papers say do not breakfast before eight o'clock. Eight o'clock, there was an explosion of the risk of mirth on the seat above them. Ladies, the driver looked down with red cheeks and watery eyes. If you expect to see Rome, Wellington's people, you'd better drive round till 11 o'clock and at that they won't have the sleep out of their eyes. Do these society people really sleep as late as that? Asked the girl. The driver glanced at her a second. Oh, stop, you're kidding. He said, all I can say now is that if you try to wake them up now, they'll set the dogs on you. Very well, let them interpose, Mrs. Wellington. Now drive on as quickly as possible and no more talking please. The driver had a good look at her as she spoke. His round face became red and pale in turn and he clucked asthmatically to his horse. Good Lord, he muttered, it's herself. But he had not much farther to go just as they turned into the harbor road of Wellington car came up. That may connoisseur had been losing no time but when he caught sight of the Wellington's, he stopped within a distance which he pride himself was five feet less than any other living driver could have made it in without breaking the car. The footman was at the side of the hack in an instant and assisted the mother and daughter into the tunnel which they entered in silence. Mrs. Wellington in fact did not speak until the car was tearing past the golf grounds. Here she turned to her daughter with a grim face and she said, I've about made up my mind that you escaped being really funny with that impossible hackman. Yes, mother said the girl absolutely viewing the steadily rising roof of her home. Our ideas of humor were ever alien. I wonder if Prince Colt Soft has arrived. The crags was one of the few Newport Villas bordering on the sea whose owners and architects had been sufficiently temperamental to take advantage of the natural beauties of its site. Upon huge black rocks rising 25 or 30 feet, the house had been built. Windows on either side looked down upon the waters ever shattering into white foam on half hidden reefs or rushing relentlessly into rocky weed hung fishers or black caverns. Sometimes in the autumn storms when the in rushing waves would bury deep the grim reefs off Bateman's point and pile themselves on the very bulwarks of the island, the spray rattled against the windows of the crags and made the place seem a part of the elemental theory. In front of the house was an immense stretch of sword boarded with box and relieved by a wonderful parterre and by walks and drives lined with blue hydrangeas. The stable garage and gardeners cottage were far to one side all but their roofs concealed from the house and the roadway by a small grove of poplars. Supplementing the processes of nature by artificial means, Ronald Wellington had had a sort of fjord blasted out of the solid rock on the seaward side as a passage for his big steam yacht with steps leading from the house to the little warp. Here lay the Mayfair when not in service. From the road you could see her mass tops as though protruding from the ground. But now the Mayfair was down in a South Brooklyn shipyard. This thought recurring to Mrs. Wellington framed in her mind a mental picture of all that she had undergone as a result of that stupid blowing out of steam valves which by the way had seriously scalded several of the engine room staff and placed the keenest of edges upon her homecoming mood. No subject of nervous irritability, she incidents, affairs, persons or things qualified to set the fibers of the average woman of her age tingling were with her as the heat to steal. They tempered her, made her hard, keen, cold, resilient. The butler flanked by two or three men servants met them at the door breakfast was served. He said, Prince Koltsof indeed had already arrived and had breakfasted. The Prince, Mrs. Wellington checked herself and hurried into the breakfast room with inscrutable face. Her daughter followed smiling broadly. The Prince seems to have anticipated us, she said. Mrs. Wellington glanced at the alert faced second man who had just brought in the coffee and compressed her lips into a straight line. There was no conversation in the course of the short light breakfast and went to her apartments while Mrs. Wellington, after arising from the table, stood for a minute gazing from the window toward the polo grounds. Then slowly she mounted the stairs and entering her boudoir rang for her maid. An hour and a half later massaged, bathed and robed in a dainty morning gown, Mrs. Wellington stepped into her office then which no one of her husband's many offices was more business-like and seated herself at a large mahogany desk. Ms. Hatch, her secretary, arose from a smaller desk with typewriter attachment and laid before her a number of checks for signing bills rendered invitations and two bank books. Then she resumed her seat in silence. Mrs. Wellington did not glance at the mass of matter with a muttered thank you. She gazed thoughtfully at the row of white push buttons and laid at her elbow. There were more than a dozen of them and they ranged from the pantry to the kitchen, from the garage to the stable. By means of them the mistress of the crags kept in touch with nearly 50 servants. Here at her desk she could plan her campaigns, lay counter-mine against mine, plan the stratagems and devise ideas. Her superiority over those who sought or had sought in the past to rival her lay in the fact that she could devise, outline and execute her projects without assistance. A former secretary with some degree of literary talent had, upon dismissal, written up that office and its genius for a Sunday newspaper and several hundred thousand good people upon reading it had marveled at the tremendous means employed to such trivial ends. But after all, who shall say what is trivial in this world and what is not? Let it rest with the assertion that in any other sphere, business, sociology, charity, Belle Wellington's genius would have carried her as far as in that domain wherein she had set her endeavors. As to charity for that matter she had given a mountain recluse of physician five hundred thousand dollars with which to found a tuberculosis sanitarium. And but those were things which not even her friends knew and concerning which therefore we should remain silent. Slowly she leaned forward and pressed a button. Mrs. Stetson, the housekeeper, soon appeared. Good morning, Mrs. Stetson, she said, Prince Coltsoff seems to have anticipated us. She suddenly remembered she had utilized her daughter's expression and bitter lips when did he arrive. He came last night in the French ambassador's carriage. Last night Mrs. Wellington glanced at her secretary. Will you bring my engagement book please? This in hand she turned the pages hastily then put it down. There has been some mistake. He was not to come to us until luncheon today. Was Monsieur Renault with him? Yes, Mrs. Wellington, but he did not stay. The Prince seemed to know he was not expected. He apologized profusely but said that events had brought him here a day early and trusted there was no inconvenience. He did not dine but spent the evening in the smoking room writing. He sent two cable dispatchers by Parker. Hmm, dégagé, even for a Russian, said Mrs. Wellington, and he arose early. Very early he asked Mr. Dawson for a car to go to the village at half after six. Mrs. Wellington almost revealed her intense interest, a car to the village, she said. Did he say, did he explain the reasons for his early trip? No, but Parker told Mr. Dawson he stopped at the telegraph office. Where is the Prince now? He is in the morning room writing. Thank you, Mrs. Stetson. As the housekeeper left Mrs. Wellington pressed another button summoning the superintendent. Mr. Dawson, she said, you received my wire last night that the mayor fair had broken down that we were taking the midnight train from New York. Yes, Mrs. Wellington. And you thought the Prince was going to meet us with that car? That was the reason for your failure to follow my instructions. Yes, madame, thank you. I suppose Prince Koltsov knew you were coming and that he had ordered the car to meet you. When this proved wrong, I sent Remini. I'm glad he was not late. He was late. He met us, packed in a miserable hack. Hereafter, I must insist upon strict compliance with my wishes. Do not assume things, please. Am I quite clear? Thank you. Mrs. Wellington turned from him and pressed still another button. In a moment, the tutor of her two sons, Ronald, 16 years old and royal, 12, stood before her. He was a Frenchman whose facial expression did not indicate that his duties had fallen in the pleasantest of places. Good morning, Monsieur Dumois. Where are my sons? She spoke in French. They attended a party at Bailey's Beach and remained the night with Master Van Antwerp. How have they been? Very well, thank you, except, except, I found Master Ronald smoking a cigarette in the smoking room yesterday. Mrs. Wellington dashed a note on her pad. Thank you, she said in her soft turn of dismissal. Lest, Miss Wellington forget, you might on your way remind her in my name not to meet Prince Koltsov until I receive him at luncheon. She turned to the master correspondence on her desk and selected for first reading a long telegram from her husband who, when he sent it, was speeding eastward through the middle west in his special car. She laid it down with a faraway smile in her eyes. She loved and admired her big husband who did things, knock men's heads together, juggled rare roads and steamships in either hand, and this love and admiration in whatever she had done or wherever she had placed had always been as twin flaming angels guarding her with naked swords. Presently, she turned to her secretary and dictated a statement concerning the arrival of Prince Koltsov, who he was on a list of several of the entertainments given in his honor. You might call Mr. Kraft at the Newport Herald office and give him this, she said. Half an hour was spent in going over accounts, signing checks, auditing bills, and the like, and then with a sigh she rose and passed into her dressing room. Ordinarily, she would have dressed for the beach or the casino, but today she threw herself on a couch in her boudoir and closed her eyes, but she did not sleep. Monsieur Dumois hastening to comply with his mistress' command failed to find the girl in her apartments. At the moment indeed that Emilia was informing the tutor that the girl had left for the stables, and Miss Wellington from a corner of the hall was gazing, interestingly, at the prince who sat with his profile toward her. He was bending over a table upon which was spread a parchment drawing. The sunlight fell full upon him. He was not at all unprepossessing, tall and slim, with waist in and well-padded shoulders, his blonde hair and bandied beard, long white eyelashes, darker brows, and glittering blue eyes. He was the very type of the aristocratic Muscovite. As the girl looked, she saw his lips part and his teeth glistened. He half arose, leaned forward, and smote the chart. Miss Wellington hurried down the hall and out of the house. Prince, cold soft, she murmured as she swung down the path to the stable, I would give worlds to know what you're up to. I definitely placed you as a rascal, but oh, such a romantically picturesque one. End of chapter three. Chapter four of Prince or chauffeur, a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The tame torpedo. That night, Lieutenant Armitage in a marine's drab shirt and overalls stood among a silent group of mechanics on up here near the goat island lighthouse. A few hundred feet out lay a small practice torpedo boat with the rays of a searchlight from the bridge of the parent ship of the first flotilla resting full upon her. Suddenly, Armitage leaned forward. When he straightened, there came a doll report, a lurid flash of light and with a sharp whirring sound, a model torpedo about half the regulation size leaped through the darkness and with a clear parting of the waters disappeared. A green, very star cleaved the night. Intense silence followed. One second, two seconds elapsed and then from the practice boat out in the harbor a red star reared. Armitage turned to the master mechanic at his side. Bullied, he said. I aimed at least 20 feet wide of the Dumont. The magnetos fetched her, but wait. In the glare of the searchlight, he could see the head lowered a boat and were recovering the torpedo. He saw a group of young officers gather about it as it was hauled aboard and then in a minute or so the red and green ardua lights began to wink. As Armitage watched with straining eyes, he spelled the message as it came letter by letter. Out there hit, but the wrong end struck. The Dumont was sufficiently near the pier for the message to have been shouted, but tests of new torpedoes are not to be shouted about. Armitage discharged a white star from his pistol, the signal to come in for the night and walked toward the shops. You may turn in, he said to the men. I have a good night's work alone ahead of me. She should not have struck with her stern, sir, said a short squat man, hurrying to Armitage's side. He spoke with a strong accent and passed as a Lithuanian. His expert knowledge of electricity as well as his skill in making amending apparatus had caused Armitage to entrust him with much of the delicate work on the model as well as on the torpedo of regular size based on the model now in course of construction. His was a position of peculiar importance as the blueprints of the invention from which detailed plans were worked passed into the shops. They came into the hands of this man who thus many times in the course of the day had the working prints of the controlling mechanism and his exclusive possession. For some reason that he could not explain all this shot through Armitage's mind as the man spoke. No, Yiski, it should not, but I'll fix that. By the way, how long? No matter, I shan't need you any more tonight, Yiski. As he entered the shop, the storekeeper was leaving, he nodded to the officer. What luck, Lieutenant Armitage. There, the wrong end hit first. I think the regulation size would have worked all right at all events. I'll study it out tonight. He paused then as the storekeeper stepped past him, he called him back. Mr. Jackson, I may be silly, but I've been a bit worried of late. You keep a close eye on the record of parts, don't you? Yes, indeed, sir, I go over it every night. Do you ever actually go over the parts to see that they tally with the records? What I mean is important parts might be missing, although the daily record might be so juggled as to make it appear they were not. By George, exclaimed the storekeeper, I never have done that. I'll begin tomorrow. Thanks, I should, if I were you. Good night. Armitage passed into the shop and switched on an electric light over a long pine table in the center of the apartment. Then he went to the safe, opened it, and returned to the table with an armful of rolled parchment and specifications. These he spread out and thereafter, while the night waned, he was lost to the world and its affairs. Briefly, Armitage had invented a torpedo whose steering was so controlled by delicate magnetos that while ordinarily proceeding in the line of aim, if such aim through the movement of the vessel aimed at or through some other cause should result, in a miss, the effect of the steel hull of the objective ship on the delicate magnetos of the Armitage torpedo would be such as to cause a change in the course of the deadly missile. And have her go directly toward the vessel and even follow her. Armitage, whose mechanical genius had marked him while at the academy as a man of brilliant possibilities had developed his idea in the course of several years. And when it was perfected in his mind, he had gone to the chief of ordinance at Washington and laid the matter before him in all its details. The chief at once gave the lie to the theory long current that the department was averse to progress along whatever line by expressing unqualified delight. He had Armitage ordered to the torpedo station at Newport to carry on experiments forthwith and instructed the superintendent of the station to give the inventor every facility for carrying on his work. Two months had already elapsed and the work was at the stage when a destroyer and a practice torpedo boat had been detached from regular duty and placed at his exclusive service. The government was deeply interested in the progress of the work and had shown it in many ways, the significance of such a torpedo in any war in which the country might become involved was patent. Rumors more or less vague had leaked as such things due to foreign war offices and there was not a naval attaché at Washington but had received imperative orders to leave nothing undone by which the exact nature of the torpedo and its qualifications might be ascertained. But neither Armitage nor the department had any idea of permitting the slightest information regarding the invention to escape. All matters connected with the invention had been carried forward with the utmost secrecy while the pedigree of every man employed in the work had been investigated carefully. Albert Yieski were native born mechanics and he had come from a great electrical plant in New Jersey with highest recommendations as to character and ability. The sound of bells ringing for early mass was floating across the water from the city when Armitage with a deep breath of relief walked from the table and threw himself with legs outstretched into a chair. No, he said with a triumphant grimace there will be no mistake next time. There was not a single fault in the model except he suddenly started bolt upright and looked about him then he settled back laughing of fine state of nerves he added when I am afraid to talk to myself. He arose with the pleasing design of enjoying a cold tub and a shave on board the destroyer that does sting but the idea of pumping his water did not accord with his mood. He walked over to Billy Harrison's house Billy commanded the first flotilla and being married had quarters on the reservation. A drowsy servant answered the bell she said that the Harrison's were still asleep. Well, nevermind said Armitage chuckling I'll be back later. Instead of going away he went around to the side seized a handful of gravel and threw it into an open second story window he could hear it rattle against the wall and floor a short silence followed and Armitage was about to pick up more gravel when a girl in a green and white dressing gown appeared. Jack Armitage she cried falling to her knees so that only her head rose above the sill what on earth do you want now? Why hello, Letty left Armitage where's Billy? He's here sleeping what do you mean by throwing stones into my window? I want to talk to Billy said Armitage he's asleep I tell you what do you want? Well, I want to borrow your tub and Billy's razor why didn't you say so? Ring the bell and come right up I'll have some towels put in and say Jack really what? I hope you drown waking me this way and Jack stay to breakfast won't you like a good chat? Which Jack did an hour or so later fresh and cool and with that comfortable feeling which follows a well-cooked navy breakfast bacon and eggs his pipe sending blue clouds into the sparkling air Armitage walked over to the torpedo boat slips across the harbor lay the city bathed in golden sunshine the tree-clad streets rising tear by tear to the crown Bellevue Avenue his gaze wandered seaward and for the first time since sunset he thought of Anne Wellington would he ever see her again what was she doing now he wondered no doubt she would attend service at Trinity many of the cottages did he too would go to church there he had not been lately it would do him good he told himself thus thinking he stepped aboard the black ominous oily destang made his way out and clamored down the companion ladder there was the usual Sunday morning gathering of young officers from the boats of the flotilla the smoke mainly from pipes three weeks having elapsed since payday was thick and an excited argument not over speeding records or cold consumption but over the merits of an English vaudeville actor who had appeared the week before at Free Body Park was in progress hello jack said a tall dark officer in spotless white uniform how's the tame torpedo this morning fine fine blackie Grand Armitage how's that tin cup misnamed the Jefferson today didn't eat out of your hand last night did she observe Tommy Winston of the Adams a tired and blue trousers and a flannel shirt no but she will said Armitage no doubt replied Winston with his quaint southern drawl look here Jackie where are you going this morning all dressed up in gorgeous sits clothes to church replied Armitage to Trinity anyone want to go with me he asked ignoring the divisive chorus there was a moment silence and then Bob black looked at him quizzically does anyone want to go with you he jeered who's the girl I wonder but seriously I've never been to the service there and since the Wellington's asked me to drop into their pew any Sunday I the Wellington's exclaimed Thornton of the submarine pilot you don't mean the Ronald Wellington's no I don't mean any Wellington's at all I was joking why then you didn't hear if Thornton's run in with them last week said Winston that's so you were in Washington what was it Joe asked Armitage turning to Thornton why nothing much two of my men were arrested last Thursday for assaulting the Wellington kids it seems they were walking past Bailey's beach and the youngsters bombarded them with clamshells and gravel it would have been all right but one of the shells caught Kelly on the cheek and cut him the men didn't do a thing but jump over that hedge into the holy of holies gather in the young signs and knock their heads together you don't say what happened then they were arrested and the chief sent over here I got the men story and then called the Wellington's house on the telephone Mrs. Wellington's secretary answered I told her who I was and that I wanted to talk about the case with someone in authority she asked me to hold the wire and in a few seconds the queen herself was holding pleasant converse with yours truly you say the men are under your command she said I replied even so then she gave me the name of her lawyer and said Kelly and Burke would be prosecuted on every charge that could be brought to bear Armitage laughed trust her what did you say I got hot under the collar right away then Mrs. Wellington I said my men were not to blame if they were I should not have called you on the phone but your sons through shells and cut one of them they were punished unjustly and I now advise you I'm going to have counter warrants issued against your boys if the charge is pressed in court today just like that her voice came Chris you say my sons were at fault have you any proof of that I came back in a second I have sufficient proof to convince even your lawyer very well she said then do it I shall direct him to see you at once if what you say is true we will of course take no further action the case was dropped all right bully for you said Armitage my lady evidently has a sense of justice here's a paragraph said Winston holding up a local paper which says that a physical instructor is wanted at the crags they're going to prepare for future engagements with our men evidently but let me tell you that Anne Wellington is a corker observed black suddenly Anne Wellington said Armitage ingenuously yes continue black the daughter I saw her at the casino the other day she was joshing some little old rooster who was trying to play tennis and she had him a mile up in the air she's beautiful too that's more than you can say of most of these alleged society beauties which reminds me said Armitage glancing at his watch that I am due for church come on Joe he had it be a good chat Thornton in the goodness of his nature arose all right he said I'm gained Thornton had been a star fullback at Annapolis when Armitage was an all-American end and he would have gone to worse places than church for his old mess mate nowadays he spent his time in sinking the polyp among the silt on the harbor bottom for which work his crew received several dollars a piece extra pay for each descent Thornton received not even glory unless having gone to the floor of Long Island Sound with a president of the United States be held as constituting glory End of chapter four chapter five of Prince or chauffeur a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry this Libre Box recording is in the public domain at Trinity old Trinity rests on the hillside serene in the afterglow of its 184 years the spotless white walls, the green blinds the graceful colonial spire are meatly set in an environment which strikes no note of dissonance on either side are quaint narrow streets lined with decent door yards and houses almost as old as the church within the cool interior the cottagers and representatives of a native aristocracy direct descendants of the English of the 16th and 17th centuries who are so conservative so proudly scornfully aloof that one would doubt they existed at all were it not for their stately homes in the older sections of the city their giant elms keep watch and ward over eave and column and dormer window their hydrangeas sweep the doorstep and fawn and satyr rough hewn, pier through the shrubbery sit primly in the box-like pews with the preacher towering above them under the white sounding board the church was not half-filled when Armitage and Thornton arrived but a double line of visitors were standing in the rear aisle Armitage caught the eye of one of the ushers and beckoned to him but that froth-coated austere personage coldly turned his glance elsewhere and Armitage had started forward to enlist his attention in a manner that would admit of no evasion when his companion caught him by the sleeve chuckling look here, old chap, he whispered you have to wait until they know how many pew-holders are going to be absent this isn't a theater Armitage turned his head to reply when a rustling of skirts sounded behind him and Thornton punched him in the ribs the Wellington bunch he whispered and the Russian they have captured it was a fine entry as circus folks say first came Mrs. Wellington in a simple but wonderfully effective embroidered linen gown then her two sons, likely enough boys and then Anne Wellington with Prince Coltsoff she almost touched Armitage as she passed the skirt of her lingerie frock switched against his ankles on behind she left not perfume but an intangible essence suggestive somehow of the very personality of the cool beautiful, live, young woman as Armitage turned in response to Thornton's prod in the ribs he met her eyes in full but she gave no sign of recognition and of course Armitage did not the Wellington's had two pews according to the diagram on the rear seats and as Armitage followed the party with his eyes he saw the mother, her daughter and the prince enter one the boys seating themselves in the stall ahead in the meantime the congregation had assembled in large numbers and the body of the church as well as the side aisles were comfortably filled from time to time the ushers with machine like precision took one or two persons from the patiently waiting line of non-pew holders and escorted them to seats a proceeding which began to irritate Armitage seeing which Thornton grinned and observed so to voce that one might worship here only at the price of patience it's the sheep and the goats, Jack he whispered I don't know about the sheep but were the goats all right? replied Armitage and I for one am going to beat it right now he had started for the door and Thornton was following when an usher hurrying up touched him on the shoulder bowing unctuously Miss Wellington he said asked to have you gentlemen shown into the Wellington pew his voice clearly indicated that he felt he had been neglecting angels unawares to say nothing of a desire to atone for his indiscretion young men nodded as indifferently as the situation seemed to require and followed the man to the stall in which the boys were seated who pushed in hospitably enough and then returned to their prayer books it must be said that two handsome men or men better constructed physically never sat together in old Trinity Thornton a perfect brawny, rangy blonde Armitage shorter, better knit perhaps with shoulders just as broad and short crinkling brown hair surmounting his squarely defined sun brown features the sermon was somewhat revolutionary but and Wellington paid but slight attention while the good clergyman warned his hears of the terrible reckoning which must eventually come from neglect by the upper classes of the thousands born month after month in squalor and rear to mid sort of vicious surroundings the girls eyes rarely wandered from the two men in front of her it was uplifting conducive to healthful normal emotions to look at them and such emotions were exactly what she needed radiating as it were from Prince Colt's off was an influence she did not like on the contrary feeling its power she'd begun to fear it he attracted her peculiarly she could not quite explain the sensation it was indefinable, big but palpable nevertheless then he was high in the Russian nobility upon terms of friendship with the Tsar a prominent figure in the highest society of European capitals his wife would at once take a position which any girl might covet true she would probably be unhappy with him after the first bloom of his devotion but then she might not she might be able to hold him Miss Wellington flattered herself that she could and if not well she would not be the first American girl to pocket that loss philosophically and be content with the contractual profits that remained a Russian princess of the highest patent of nobility there was a thrill in that thought which while it did not dominate her might eventually have that effect at all events she found it not at all objectionable that Prince Colt's off was apparently enamored of her of this she was quite certain he had a way of looking his devotion his luminous blue eyes were wonderful in their expressiveness they could convey almost any impression in the gamut of human emotions say perhaps kindliness and among other things they had told her he loved her that was flattering but the trouble was that so often his eyes made her blush confusedly without any reason more tangible than that he was looking at her and Wellington was as thoroughly feminine as any girl that ever lived and had always gloried in her sex she had never wished she were a man still there is a happy mean for every normal American girl and already she'd begun to wonder if the Prince was ever going to forget that she was a woman and treat her as an ordinary human being with the question of sex and the abstract at least yet on the other hand there was that thrill which she could not deny she thought as though she were living through an experience and was curious as to the outcome with her curiosity was a challenge with all for the first time in her life she was afraid of herself and so she found her study of the two young men in front of her wholesome and antiseptic as Kipling says as the preacher suddenly paused and then demanded in ringing tones what those of the upper classes intended to do about the situation which he had been eloquently portraying a poorly old gentleman whose breath would have proclaimed that he had had a cocktail at the reading room before service heaved a loud hopeless sigh she saw Thornton nudge armitage with his shoulder and the replying grin wrinkle Jack's face swiftly her eyes turned sideways to the Prince he was sitting half turned in the seat regarding her with worshiping gaze she thrilled under the contrast compared to the men in front of her Coltsoff was a mere yes a mere monkey what did he take her for a schoolgirl billed with her emotions she impulsively opened a little gold pencil with which she had been toying and wrote rapidly upon one of the blank pages of her hymnal which later she surreptitiously tore out when the service was ended in armitage and Thornton with slight boughs of acknowledgement passed into the aisle the girl leaned toward the younger of her two brothers Muck she said be good chap and give this note to the dark haired man who sat next to you do it nicely now Muck so no one will see you I'll pay you back for it hurry Muck who adored his sister nodded and worked his way through the departing worshipers until he came up with armitage he pushed the note into the young officer's hand and as armitage started in surprise the boy nodded his head knowingly say nothing he warned so well had the boy carried it through that not even Thornton observed the incident armitage said nothing to enlighten him but spread the page open in his hand as though he had taken a memorandum from his pocket it was as follows my dear Mr. Prizefighter I was really serious the other day about your applying for the position of physical instructor my small brothers were mauled by sailors the other day and mothers keen for someone who will teach them how to obtain their revenge someday you might see mother or her secretary any morning after eleven I've spoken to both about you AVDW twice armitage read it and then he folded it carefully and placed it in his breast pocket a curious smile playing over his face we think he said addressing himself under his breath as was his want upon occasion we think we shall keep this for future reference for we never know how soon we may need a job it has been observed there this how many truths are sometimes spoken in jest end of chapter five chapter six of prince or chauffeur a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry this Librivox recording is in the public domain an encounter with a spy at the door of the church Thornton met a retired rear admiral and his wife whose daughter he knew so he paused and was appably solicitous whether they found the glorious August weather conduced to their general well-being armitage bowed and drew to one side just as the Wellington party passed out into the churchyard and walked down the path to their motor panting at the curb the prince helped Mrs. Wellington and her daughter into the tunnel with easy grace and then motioned the two boys to precede him he was not at all bad looking armitage decided tall and rather wasp wasted he was nevertheless well set up and his tailor easily might have left a pound or so of padding out of the blue jacket and still have avoided the impression that the prince was narrow-backed his manner certainly bore every impress of courtly breeding and the insolence of rank was by no means lacking as armitage learned the next instant when a man whose back was strangely familiar suddenly appeared at Colt's soft side and with hat in hand assayed to address him armitage watching eagerly saw the Russian's form stiffen, saw his eyes as cold and steady as steel discs fixed themselves unseemingly over the man's head who bowed awkwardly and turning hurriedly with a flushed face stumbled against a horse post a low exclamation leaped from armitage's lips he hesitated just an instant and then fairly ran out of the doorway and down the path through the street he caught up with the fellow before he had gone a hundred feet looking back to see that the Wellington car had gone he touched him on the arm look here, Yeeski, he said as the man wheeled in nervous haste who was that chap you spoke to at that motor car Yeeski hesitated a moment and then looked the officer full in the eyes I do not know, he said, I thought it was Commander Harris I was going to ask him about those coils which have not come yet when I found I mistook I was ashamed armitage returned the electrician's gaze for a second he was at a loss there was a slight resemblance between Harris and the Prince to be sure then suddenly as he recalled the incident at the Grand Central Station and his fears of the previous evening a wave of anger swept over him and he thrust his face belligerently toward the workman the muscles of his right shoulder calling nervously for action Yeeski, he said you are lying who do you think you are up against a child he shook his finger in the man's face now quick tell me what business you had with that man Yeeski drew himself up with an air of offended dignity not altogether compatible with his impudative station in life armitage noticed it and pressed on do you hear he said in a low tense voice he was already past saving he had never been a diplomat hurry up speaker I'll knock your pollock head off before the man could reply Thornton who had hurried up interposed what's the matter Jack did this gentleman have the misfortune to demand all of the sidewalk armitage replied over his shoulder you go along Joe and leave this to me I saw this man trying to talk to that Russian prince and he's employed on confidential work in the shops I know Jack said Thornton soothingly placing his hand on armitage his shoulder but it isn't policy to get into a street fight about it you know old chap it wouldn't be a fight began armitage sneeringly he turned suddenly toward Yeeski I've been pestered and worried for a week now I know I was shattered in New York now that I've a clue I'm not going to let go of it of course not said Thornton but you don't want to go off half cock remember you were up all last night just heave to a second as anything happened at the shops no said armitage cooling a bit not that I know of but this fellow's doing inside work here on the torpedo and I saw him talking to that Russian talking I mean he tried to he says he thought the man was Harris and he wanted to ask him about some coils that was too fishy for me did the prince talk to him no snubbed ignored him oh smile Thornton well I say Jack honestly I think you might be wrong Harris does suggest that Prince chap I thought so in church of course you can decide about this fellow's future in the shops as you think best but you really can't do anything here I suppose you are right said armitage reluctantly in utter toward the man yeeski if you are straight meet me at the storekeeper's office at three o'clock this afternoon I hope by that hour to be in a position to apologize to you in the meantime is good nature as with all persons of warm temperament speedily returning if I have wronged you I am sorry you have wronged me replied yeeski but I understand your feelings I shall certainly meet you at three o'clock three sharp and armitage with Thornton's arm drawn through his walk down the street yeeski stood watching them for a second and then clapping his hand to his pocket a smile spread slowly over his face he followed the two stalwart officers for a few steps and paused irresolutely then without further hesitancy he walked rapidly to spring street and then stood the hotel awkward neck where he entered the telephone booth when he emerged he paid toll on five charges this done he went into the writing room and called for a small piece of wrapping paper and twine when it came he took from his pocket a bulky heavy object done up in a newspaper without removing this he wrapped it neatly in the manila paper bounded securely and addressed it in printed letters he sat for a moment looking thoughtfully at the package then he drew a sheet of note paper toward him cut off the hotel heading and dipped his pen in the ink he began Vasily Andreevich I am sending you by messenger as you instructed over the telephone the vital part there is nothing more to do and I leave Newport this hour for excellent reasons I was seen trying to address you this morning so watch out Yiske read this last sentence again and then the thought that he would be confirmed as a bungler in his superior's mind occurred to him he inked out the sentence muttering that Koltsov must take care of himself as he had had to do and then resumed his writing when you get this I shall be in parts unknown I begin to fear I am suspect you can reach me care of Garlok, Boston tonight and Blavatsky Halifax on Wednesday On that day I go via the dominion line to England and then to the secret police office in St. Petersburg forgive I pray this haste but I've done all there is to be done I accept your congratulations and now having no desire to pose as the center of a diplomatic situation I go oh wow he called the messenger dispatched the package and the letter and within half an hour was in a trolley car bound for a fall river end of chapter six chapter seven of prince or chauffeur a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Miss Wellington crosses swords with a diplomat as Koltsov who had been summoned to the telephone returned to the morning room of the Wellington house he looked about him with a triumphant gleam in his eye he loved the part he was playing in Newport apart by the way which he had played not always ineptly in other quarters of the world he loved mystery unlike many Russians the fact that he was apart the center of any project of international and prize questionable or otherwise was to him the very breath of life innuendo political intrigue diplomatic turboversation in all these he was a master nor did he neglect the color the atmosphere here was his weakness vague hints a significant smile here a shrug there a lifting of the brows all temptations too great for him to resist had at times the effect of setting his effectiveness in certain ventures partially if not completely at nought temperamental proclivities are better for their absence among the component elements other diplomats mental equipment he had now in contemplation a genuine out there do cure thus far everything had gone well he sighed the sigh of perfect self-adjustment sign of a mind agreeably filled and stretching out his legs picked up a volume of bourgeois he fingered the pages idly for a few minutes and then laid it aside and half closed his eyes nodding and smiling placidly he sat thus when and wellington entered rays of sunlight flooding through the windows glorified the girl made her radiant as a spirit and the prince who if genuine in few things was at least a true worshipper of beauty was exalted he rose about slightly and then advanced with wonderful charm of manner my dear miss wellington he murmured you come as the morning came so fresh and so beautiful how polite of you smile the girl if our men were so facile she opened one of the French windows and stepped out on the veranda looking over the restless waters to the yellow green Narragans at hills so fast so as cold soft following so fast so in their compliments I'm afraid we should grow to be unbearable she paused and smile brightly at the prince and yet women of your country are not so at least those whom I had met that replied the Russian turning his eyes full upon hers is because we are discriminating if as you say facile and flashed and laughed and then dropped lightly into a big wicker chair conscious that cold soft had not withdrawn his gaze she leaned forward and flicked her skirts over her ankles nervously pulled a stray wisp of hair from her neck then she slowly met the eyes of the man standing at her side and propounded an inquiry having to do with nothing less than now than his views of America thus far Prince cold soft tossed his head and thus threw off the question this amused the girl really she said don't you find a remarkable resemblance between Newport and the Isle of Wight at least pray sit down won't you I've found them very like Prince cold soft seated himself daintily in a chair at her side and his face lit under the influence of a triumphant thought you speak of the Isle of Wight Miss Wellington neglecting one great point of difference Newport possesses you they are therefore to me totally different he waved one hand slightly and drew a cigarette case from his pocket with the other glancing at the girl oh certainly she said please smoke but the difference pursued cold soft don't you think it remarkable that it should be so apparent to me do you know she said glancing down at the toes of her slippers I'm not sufficiently in her she stopped abruptly and shrugged her shoulders oh let us be impersonal Prince cold soft it is so much nicer the Prince frowned but please he said I wish to be personal am I at fault if I find you interesting character is one of my most absorbing studies I'm rather scientific I see sometimes in persons more than others see who are not so observing or scientific as you please he lit his cigarette in you for instance Miss Wellington caught off her guard started the flash of a smile crossed cold soft's face his inclination to show off to reveal his cleverness triumphed over his small supply of tact I for instance what do you mean Prince cold soft why this morning at your church as hidden depths of character reveal themselves the Prince raised his eyes that belay shout we say belay do he raised his shoulders and let them fall slowly women are most interesting for a moment and maintained her expression of mild inquiry but within she was mentally perturbed irritation succeeded and she resolved to punish him for his insolence even at the risk of indiscretion you see many things do you not she said mockingly yes he agreed following her lead I see very very many things it is a faculty it has been most useful I should not flatter myself that I alone possess that faculty Prince cold soft if I were you she leaned forward her chin upon her hand engaged thoughtfully seaward I also am not sightless she leaned back in her chair languidly and watched the Prince's change of expression with open amusement so you have found it worthwhile to observe me I'm quite flattered his impression that she had discharged a random shot grew with his words and soon became conviction hi thank you and laughed you are quite welcome to all you received in the way of my interest in you it is only fair however to suggest that we do not always obtain information concerning our friends you for instance she mimicked him perfectly through general observation some things may uptrude themselves don't you know in the most what was your word oh yes scientific the most unscientific manner the prince looked at her intently you are speaking in innuendo miss wellington he replied his tone was low and wrapped with I'm speaking quite truthfully Prince cold soft she said with an m flexion of emphasis how could I doubt that that is why I am certain that you will be more explicit there you really don't insist do you he saw a malicious light in her eyes my dear miss wellington most assuredly I do insist I I beg your pardon I do more I demand certainly it is my right and was all mischief now very well then I'm able to inform you that you were in newport in cog several days before you came to us do you conceive my right to call this to your attention in view of the fact that you told us you have just arrived from washington prince cold soft as though absorbing her meaning sat motionless gazing at her steadily then he leaned forward and placed his hand on hers for a moment miss wellington you have done well I pride myself on some diplomatic experience you have negotiated your coup in a manner worthy of a distal you would adorn the service I wonder if you realize the possibilities of your future in an international sphere to you I have no fear of talking listen then unconsciously the girl bent toward him I am a diplomat he continued there are things which he lifted his brows newport the french ambassador is here the german ambassador is that narrowgans appear and I who knows where I am and why but someday he drew a long breath rest content now miss wellington that I am progressing toward the gratitude of my government you shall hear more of course he waved his hand I have spoken for your ear of course said miss wellington calmly but inwardly curious nevertheless should you care to walk to the stables he nodded and then walking beside her he continued impulsively I'm not a soldier miss wellington but all victories are not one on the battlefields the art one of the arts of diplomacy is to bring on war if war must be when you are ready and your adversaries are not there are other functions let it be so I but observe that one may wield things other than the sword and better than the sword to serve one's country I quite believe you there was enthusiasm in her voice you may never expect the glory of the soldier and yet how glorious the work must be the matching of wits instead of guns and then you have the opportunity of winning the victories of peace of which the world seldom hears interpolated the prince but that makes it finer she said have we any real diplomats who oh I don't know make themselves felt in the inner circle of things mean that we that the country does not know of who are doing the the things you are the prince smart I don't know really you have the new diplomacy which is shouting what other people whisper or keep to themselves and the girl Jordan the laughable big stick it amuses us more than it impresses I assure you he regarded the girl closely and she smiled questioningly you do not flush you are not irritated he asked why should I be what do you mean I was speaking lightly of your country oh were you I did not notice I fear I am used to that having spent much time in Europe the prince looked at her curiously she colored no she said I do not go in strongly for the fewer Americanists if that is what you mean so your country must look to its bourgeois for its Jones of Arc but then your men are ungallantly self-sufficient in Russia the prince shrugged his shoulders we send women to Siberia or decorate them with the order of st. Catherine you actually shame me Prince Colt's off we are different here even our suffer jets would by no means allow devotion to their cause to carry them to jail and as for influencing statesmen or setting their plans at naught she shook her head why I do not even know who they are they are not in our set laughing really we are pretty much butterflies from your from any viewpoint aren't we but after all why ah why he turned to her suddenly do you love your country miss Wellington what an absurd question of course I do easily answered replied the prince but think a moment I said love that love which inspired your women to send their sons and husbands to die for their country in your civil war the love that exalted Charlotte Corday have you breathed the quicker when you saw your flag in foreign lands he looked at her strangely would you love the man you loved if you learned he had injured your country thank miss Wellington your fervor renders it quite impossible for me to think if it will satisfy you I will say I don't believe I begin to know what patriotism is yet I would not have you think I am altogether shallow Sir Clarence Pembroke has praised my grasp of British affairs I've always regarded that as quite a compliment you have reason you know we know that the American woman who would move in the tense affairs of the world must find her opportunity in Europe it does not exist here and never can exist in a republic I imagine said the girl at least in a republic constituted as ours is no surely not by the by who is your secretary of the navy your attorney general help cried the girl and mocked despair really Prince Colson I must ask you to consider your demonstration of my unfitness to even consider myself an American complete further humiliation is unnecessary at least I suppose I should feel humiliated but somehow I'm not that's the pitiable part of it and yet miss Wellington have you ever considered what would lie before you with your pardon me your beauty and your wit in Europe no I never have said and not quite truthfully please Prince Colson let us change the subject end of chapter seven chapter eight of Prince or chauffeur a story of Newport by Lawrence Perry this Lieberbach's recording is in the public domain when a prince woos a prince cold soft evidently deemed it expedient to obey the letter not the spirit of the wish an ardent lover of horses he gave himself holy to them when they arrived at the stables conversing freely with the grooms and going over the various equines with the hands and eyes of an expert when at length they strolled from the stables to a little wooded knoll near the boundary of the estate commanding a view of the main road which ran straight for a quarter of a mile and then dived into the purple hills with their gray outjeaning rocks the girl who had been left pretty much to her own thoughts felt an ever-growing degree the disadvantage at which she had been placed in the course of their conversation she had said it seemed as a child at the feet of a tutor at least in the mood she had developed she would have it so the thought did not please her and then she began to burn with the memory that on the veranda the prince had placed his hand upon hers and that for some reason beyond her knowledge she had permitted it to remain so until he had withdrawn it this sufferance she felt had somehow affected at the very outset a degree of tacit intimacy between them which would not otherwise have occurred in a fortnight perhaps never but he had done it with an assurance almost if not quite hypnotic and he had removed his hand to move she recognized which offered more opportunities for bungling than the initial venture with the exact degree of insouciance of abstraction but at the same time not without a slight lighting of the eyes expressive a like of humility and gratitude lurking in her mind was an irritation over the position in which she had been placed and her only solace was the thought that her revenge might be taken when cold soft tried it again as she had no doubt he would if she had analyzed her emotions she would have been obliged to face the disagreeable truth that she and wellington was jealous jealous of a stable of horses after all introspection however deep might not have opened her eyes as to the basic element of her mood for jealousy had never been among the components of her mental equipment at all events she was as she would have expressed it peeved why because he had held her hand and talked to her like a schoolgirl but silence smilingly indifferent was the only manifestation of her state of mind if he noticed this he said nothing to indicate that he did but resumed his conversation as though no interruption had occurred and curiously enough even her simulation of indifference disappeared as he turned to her bringing words in all the subtle charm of his personality to bear strange elation possessed him and she yielded again as freely as before to that indescribable air of the world which characterized his every action and word he spoke english with but the faintest accent once he lapsed into french speaking as rapidly as a native and caught him perfectly and answered him at some length in the same tongue cold soft stopped short and gazed at her glowingly there you have demonstrated what i've been trying to say so poorly permit me to carry on my point more intimately yes it is so you are typically an american girl but wherein do such young women such as you my dear miss wellington find their metier in america in new york in newport no they are abroad the wives of diplomats cabinet ministers or royal counselors of france germany austria idly and the prince about slightly of my native land here what lies before you ah he stooped and snatched a bit of clover i've seen i've studied have i not washington what is it to you a distant place and it's affairs bar merely items to be skipped in the newspapers as you have admitted you know nothing of them you do not know your cabinet officers and so you marry and and what do you americans say settle down how knowingly you picture us smile the girl the prince waved his hands you travel yes but at best most significantly your lives are narrow your wives and mothers living in ruts as well defined as those of your most prosaic middle-class women what do you know of the inner world it's moving affairs who of you can read the significance open though it may be of the cable statement or speech of a prime minister in relation to america perhaps our opportunities or incentives do not exist replied the girl gravely i've heard father say ours is a government of politicians and not statesmen precisely that is it but in europe where conditions are different what do we find lady camel in egypt an american girl the princess stein in st petersburg the marquis de velier in france lady clan claren in london owes scores all american girls some of whom have made their influence felt constructively as i can personally assure you american history is so uninteresting because there is not a woman in it you know the marquis de velier exclaimed the girl won't you tell me sometime all about her how interesting her story must be i've heard garble versions of the berlin incident i do know her the prince smiled as he thought how intimate his knowledge was and i shall delight in telling you all about her sometime but now he continued allow me to carry on my thought you travel yes you even live abroad as the butterfly your own word lives i know have not i heard of you have i not followed you in the newspaper since i saw your face on canvas i read from a dossier that i formulated concerning you he drew a notebook from his pocket and glanced at the girl may i it is yours was the reply january he read miss w is tobogganing in switzerland february she is viewing the battle of flowers at niece march she is at monaco at montecala a april miss w has arrived in paris may in june she is in london july she is attending english race meetings with young clan claren the prince paused with a sibilant expulsion of breath i must not read my comment yes you must please i never heard of such a romantic russian the prince raised his eyebrows and glanced at the book with young clan claren damn him august continued colt salt hurriedly drowning her subdued exclamation at clan claren scott shooting box september she is again in england deerstalking most favored deer october november she is writing to hounds in england december she is doing the grand tour of english country houses the prince paused so our acquaintance my acquaintance with you is of more than a few days i've known you for more than a year do you find it not agreeable not agreeable i don't know i am i i oh i don't know it seems almost uncanny to me not at all my dear miss wellington surely not uncanny let us ascribe it to the genius of sergeant to the inspiration of a face on canvas but you really haven't known me at all you he interrupted know you ah don't i i know you above these trivial things the world of affairs will feel the impress of your personality of your wit your intellect of your beauty then veil the idle flashing days of pleasure iron will enter into your life but you will rejoice for who is there that finds power not joyous ambassadors will confide in you prime ministers will forget the interests of their offices he paused who knows when or how soon but it shall be surely inevitably i wonder he was speaking very slowly now if you will recognize your opportunity who knows she said softly the prince remains silent looking at her she seemed to feel the necessity of further words but was holding without inspiration she glanced down the road and saw a boy in blue toiling along on a bicycle her exclamation was out of all proportion to the event a messenger boy he brings word from father we expect him tomorrow you know he brings no word from your father replied the prince mysteriously is there and concerns me you shall see they moved to the gate and the boy alighting glanced at the two with his alert irish eyes say does a fellow name cold south live here i am he give me the package boy it is prepaid very well here is something for you tossing the urchin a quarter thanks said the boy who suddenly paused in the act of remounting his wheel and clapped his hand to his pocket here's a letter to as he wrote away the two slowly retraced their steps he will pardon me if i read this note and strangely abstracted nodded and cold soft tore open the envelope as he read the letter his brow darkened gone he muttered then he read the letter again yefsky would not have departed without the best of reasons he held the inked outline to the light but could make nothing of it he walked along beside the girl and deep thought his hands trembled he knew that in his possession was that which represented the triumph of his career there were few honors which a grateful government would withhold from him besides it meant the probable rehabilitation of the prestige of the russian arms that thought thrilled him no less for he was a patriot and yet amid all his exaltation indecision filled him duty pointed a direct and immediate course to st petersburg other emotions dictated his remaining at the crags the package could not be entrusted to the express companies it must be carried personally to russia and yet and yet he could not leave newport now just a little while he must wait to his czar to his country he owed haste to himself he owed delay which debt should he cancel suddenly with a sharp upward turn of the head he dismissed all conflicting thoughts from his mind refused utterly to allow them to remain and turn to the girl they were entering a small grove of trees an inspiration had flashed over him dominant compelling he spoke impulsively almost wildly so much so that and stopped startled in his outstretched hand the package was within a few inches of her face miss wellington cried we were speaking of opportunities but a while ago may i call upon you now i have said i'm not in newport for pleasure alone a great matter has been consummated i hold it in my hand who can trust servants my valet no who can i trust you miss wellington can i place my honor my life in your hands for a week not more why i began and is it then too much to ask i hope not prince cold soft tell me and then i can judge so and cold soft held out the package to her keep this for me let no one know where it is except myself keep it until i ask for it if matters arise of such nature to prevent my asking keep it still keep it cold soft was now acting as he loved to act keep it until i ask for it or until i am dead if the ladder throw it over the cliffs my country is on the verge of a war with with you may guess whom japan no less that that which you hold in your hand is the heart of our hopes he paused he was really sincere his desire was to forestall any defeat of his plans by having the package out of his hands until such time as he would leave newport one of his valets had once been successfully bribed but equally did he desire that the girl should have a bond of interest akin to his through this he knew must lie the success of that understanding which alone kept him from following yiski out of newport forthwith but the girl could not know this her pride in sharing in so intimate a way a matter which she believed to and for that matter really did affect the policy of a great empire held her spellbound there was the feminine delight too in being on the inner side of a mystery she nodded mechanically i shall do as you ask she said the prince sprang forward caught her hands and pressed upon them hot lingering kisses into these hands he said i commit my destiny and my honor end of chapter eight