I would have to see him. But
how could I manage it after refusing--as I must refuse--to let Raoul go
home with me? Raoul was coming to me after my death scene on the stage.
At the very least, he would expect to put me into my carriage when I
left the theatre, even if he went no further. Yet there would be
Godensky, waiting, and Raoul would see him. What could I do to escape
from such an _impasse_?
CHAPTER IX
MAXINE GIVES BACK THE DIAMONDS
I tried to answer the question, to decide something; but my brain felt
dead. "I can't think now. I must trust to luck--trust to luck," I said
to myself, desperately, as Marianne dressed me. "By and by I'll think it
all out."
But after that my part gave me no more time to think. I was not Maxine
de Renzie, but Princess Helene of Hungaria, whose tragic fate was even
more sure and swift than miserable Maxine's. When Princess Helene had
died in her lover's arms, however (died as Maxine had not deserved to
die), and I was able to pick up the tangled threads of my own life,
where I'd laid them down, the questions were still crying out for
answer, and must somehow be decided at once.
First, there was Raoul to be put off and got out of the way--Raoul, my
best beloved, whose help and protection I needed so much, yet must
forego, and hurt him instead.
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