The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-11-03

1AAOuSA cOAuO Ack0A AOEulAIlblcn Lu6Ee which were necessary to secure her rights to certain property. We had arranged that they were to go to Italy towards the end of June 30 as to com ply with these formalities, and that on their return the marriage was to take place in the second week of July when was to take leave of absence for month and the honeymoon was to be spent in Scotland.
 This arrangement had been made or the day of our engagement, but wher war seemed imminent, we agreed that tnanedtdtely t scGs declared, the count, ess should go with her brother tc Italy, get through the legal formali. ties, which would only take 8 few hours, and return at once to England where we were to be married immed. lately after her arrival. Now, thii may seem 8 curious sort of arrange ment, and most people will probably say, "Why did she not go before wal broke outw We'll, the answers were manifold. In the first place she wal rather an invalid, and her physician said it would be we'll if she could a. void a journey just at that particular time. Then we were not quite cer- tain that war would be declared. and even if it were, there could no obstacle at least for long time to come, to her returning through Switzerland and France. And then-but this was perhaps, the strongest reason-the countess and I were very 10th to be separated just at that time, as we were apprehensive that her brother, if once he returned to Italy, would stay there and keep her with him, until July, when the marriage was to be celebrat- ed. Thus you will see that the ques- tion of war was 8 question of more than ordinary interest to each of the three of us.
 My duties kept me pretty constant ly in Downing street, and as the count was naturally most deeply interested in the turn that events were about to take, he used to call upon me frequent ly at my chambers in the foreign off, flee. Of course, I did not tell him anything about the contents of tele- grams which were passing between our foreign office and the ambassadors in St. Petersburg and other foreign capitals; he was too we'll bred and knew too much of the ways of diplom- acy to even hint at such thing but without my violating any confidence or etiquette he could, by seeing me, know whether for the present my view of the situation was cheerful in the sense of peaceable or not; if war were actually declared, there could be no occasion for concealing the fact |; and, being on the spot, he would be the first, or one of the first, to hear of it, which would be useful.
 Thus the count paid me many visits and spent hours in my private sitting room, smoking cigarettes and chat ting about things in general.
 On the - of June affairs appeared to come to crisis, and on the night of that day half England went to bed in the expectation that the morning would announce in large letters the dreaded declaration of war between England and Russia" i" for in large let ters, believe, the imaginary announce ment was stamped by anticipation on the public mind. Cattani and I dined at Lucas' at about six o'clock. We went back to the foreign office after a nasty dinner, and having staid there for a few minutes, drove up to Por- chester terrace, where we had supper with the countess, who was suffering from neuralgia that evening.
 It was my turn for night duty, and l had arranged with Evans that I was to attend to the telegrams between midnight and nine o'clock next morn- ing. Now, as I have said before. I am not going to tell you love story. and therefore I shall not trouble you with any account of what passed be- tween the countess and myself on this eventful evening. We had every req son to suppose that she would be on her way to Italy next day, and that I should not see her again until she came back to be united to me; while her brother was left behind with A drawn sword which the inscrutable ways of Providence might turn against the country of her adoption. 1t was altogether 8 peculiar and dis dressing situation; but there is no use in enlarging upon 1t; I only mention 1t because 1t supplies the raison opetre of my asking the count to accompany me to the foreign office that night. He had often sat with me there until late, or rather early, hour in the morning, chatting and smoking dur. ing the intervals between the messages had to decipher or translate.
 If anything of supreme importance had happened since we left Downing street or were to happen that night. they might as we'll know of it at once. and so we left Porchester terrace at about eleven o'clock, and reached the foreign office shortly before twelve.