E-text prepared by Al Haines
HIPPODROME
by
RACHEL HAYWARD
George H. Doran Company
New York
Copyright, 1913,
By George H. Doran Company
TO
EDYTH AND ARTHUR APPLIN
WITH LOVE AND HOMAGE.
"Car vois-tu chaque jour je t'aime davantage,
Aujourd'hui plus qu'hier, et bien moins que demain."
(Rosemonde Rostand)
THE HIPPODROME
CHAPTER I
"Aujourd'hui le primtetemps, Ninon, demain l'hiver.
Quoi! tu nas pas l'étoile, est tu vas sur la mer!"
DE MUSSET.
Count Emile Poleski was obliged to be at the Barcelona Station at fiveo'clock in the afternoon one hot Friday in May. His business, havingto do with that which was known to himself and his associates as "theCause," necessitated careful attention, and required the performance ofcertain manoeuvres in such a way that they should be unobserved by thevarious detectives to whom he was an object of interest.
He looked round, scowling, till he found the man he wanted, and who wasto all outward appearances the driver of one of the row of fiacresthat waited outside the station. Cigarettes were exchanged, and a tinyslip of paper passed imperceptibly from hand to hand, then he turnedostensibly to watch the incoming train from Port-Bou. As he was on theplatform it would be better to look as if he had come to meet someone,and as he had nothing particular to do just then it would make adistraction to watch the various types of humanity arriving at thiscontinental Buenos Ayres, the city of romance, anarchy, commerce andvaried vices.
Emile Poleski called it l'entresol de l'enfer, and certainly he wasnot there by his own choice. It was the centre of intrigue, and tointrigue his life, intellect, and the little money he had left from hisPolish estates, were devoted. To him life meant "The Cause," and thatexigeant mistress left little room for other and more naturalaffections.
In his career women did not count, at least they did not count aswomen. If they had money to spend, or brains and energies that couldbe utilised, that was a different matter. He had a trick of studyingpeople as one studies natural history through a microscope.
It was all very interesting, but when one had done with the specimensone threw them away and looked about for fresh material.
The train came in, slackened speed and stopped, and its contentsresolved themselves into little groups of people all hunting with moreor less excitement for their luggage, and porters to convey the same tocabs.
The figure of a girl who had just alighted and was standing alone,caught and held his roving eyes. The pose of her abnormally slim bodyhad all the grace of a figure on a Grecian vase in its clean curves andeasy balance.
Her head was beautifully set upon a long throat, and her feet wereconspicuously slender and delicate in their high French boots ofchampagne-coloured kid. Her face, which as far as he could see was ofa startling pallor, was obscured by a white lace veil tied looselyround her Panama hat, and left to fall down her back in floating ends;and she wore a rather crumpled, cream-coloured dress.
She stood, looking round, as if uncertain how to act, evidently inexpectation of someone to meet her. No one appeared an