opinion that I was open to psychic powers that had either followed me from the princess’ house, or had escaped from Portia’s magical circles in the courtyard! I laughed at her solemnly, but her grave expression was rather disquieting.
“There’s a great deal going on that I cannot explain to you just now, Auntie.” she said earnestly. “I hope that the necessity for explanation will never come, but I fear my hope is vain.”
Fu sing came rather hurriedly into the room as we were rising from the table, with the information that Mr. Edwardes was on the wire. There was an extension in the hall just off the dining room and I could hear my niece’s voice distinctly.
“Yes, this is Portia Differdale. Oh, yes, Owen. What? My dogs loose last night? Impossible! What? The princess saw them? Really. Owen, I—I don’t know what to say. Aunt Sophie and I had both dogs out with us last night, on the leash, and we didn’t let them away from us once.”
All at once her voice sounded pleading.
“Owen, as a favor to me, please don’t mention that my dogs were out last night. Deny it, please, in my name. I—I have a special reason for my request. Thank you. dear friend.”
She rang off and came to rejoin me in the dining room. Her eyes were alight with the fire of purpose. Her whole bearing had become invested with a dignity, a force, that reminded me of the tone of some of her letters to me after her marriage with Mr. Differdale.
“Aunt Sophie, the Princess Tchernova has been complaining that two immense white wolfhounds were loose in her grounds last night, trying to worry her wolves in the wolf-den at the foot of her grounds.”
“Impossible that she could have seen us, Portia!”
“It matters little how she knew, Aunt Sophie. I am persuaded that her selecting last night to complain of my dogs is merely a coincidence, and that she has made the accusation to cover up something, to afford an excuse for some trick she is contemplating—what, I can only imagine, and my imagination is playing me unholy tricks this morning,” my niece said thoughtfully.
“But what, good could it possibly do her to have it known that Boris and Andrei were loose last, night in her grounds?” I persisted, very much puzzled.
“I can surmise, Auntie, but I cannot make my surmises public at this stage. It’s hard to do so, but I must wait until—until something happens.”
There was in Portia’s voice a strange note that troubled me vaguely, yet it was nothing upon which I could put my finger, so to speak. “One thing I must ask of you, Aunt Sophie, and that is that you keep within the walls of this place after dusk. I’m not asking this for a whim, but out of my knowledge of a terrible danger that I am now persuaded lurks about us: that is crouching, ready to spring out upon us at the moment when we least suspect it.”
“I presume you will remain inside yourself, then?” I inquired, naturally enough.
“If I can manage to do so, I will,” she rejoined. “Do not forget that I have learned much since I lived with you in Reading, Auntie. There are certain potent influences, certain natural laws, upon which I can depend for protection by my knowledge of them, and hence my power over them. But there—I see that you do not in the least understand me.”
“I must say you are talking in riddles, my dear Portia.”
“I see that I must speak plainly. There is a certain mighty power for evil that has taken up its residence
