The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-11-03


 and very much attached to each other, came to the same hotel at Nice in which had "put up." We became acquainted, used to go to Monte Carlo together, and the end of the matter was that I fell madly in love with the countess and proposed to her. She herself would have accepted me there and then; but, for many good and suf- ficient reasons, which I need not trouble you by recapitulating, it was necessary that she should first obtain the consent of her brother, as he was her guardian. He took 8 very sensi- ble view of the matter when I con- suited him. His sisters income was very small, and was almost entirely dependent on my salary from the for eign office. It would be well, there- fore, he thought, if my position were little improved before we took upon ourselves the very serious obligations of matrimony, more especially as I was expecting to be appointed before long to very important office, which, among other things, would bring 8 substantial addition to my income. They intended coming to London early in the spring, when our acquaintance would be renewed, and under the cir cumstances, and until then, his opin- ion was that the engagement ought to be postponed. At the same time he assured me that, personally, he would be exceedingly glad to welcome me as brother in- law.
 They came to London early in March and took up their abode in furnished house in Dorchester Terrace, where, peed hardly say, was daily visitor, that is, until the - of May, the day I have spoken of; for then my new du- ties required me to reside and spend much more of my time in the foreign office, where I was provided with 8 suite of apartments, which I shared with the clerk with whom was now associated. And this brings me to the nature of my new appointment. You know, dare say, that all telegraphic messages from the secretary of state to ambassadors at foreign courts are sent in cipher. The ambassador or his sec- retary has a key to the cipher, and another key is kept at the foreign office in charge of two clerks, one of whom is always on the premises. When telegram arrives in cipher, 1t is the business of one of these clerks to decipher it and send on the translation to the foreign secretary. And, agair, when the foreign secretary sends tel egram to an ambassador abroad, he gives, or sends it under seal, to the cipher clerk in Downing street, who translates 1t from ordinary language into cipher, and then dispatches it. Thus you will perceive that the posi- tion of cipher clerk is one of very great importance. Vast confidence is reposed in him. He knows some of the most weighty state secrets, and, especially in troublous times, a mis- take or breach of confidence on his part might be productive of conse- quences the most portentous to the nation. Now you have the situation before you. I was engaged to be mar ried to very beautiful women whom had met accidentally abroad, and I was placed in position of extraordi- nary responsibility, where the slight est miscarriage on my part might lead to the most disastrous results. My visits to .Pofchester Terrace were not. as 1 have already intimated, quite so frequent after my new appointment as they had been before, the reason of which was that foreign affairs had be- come very unsettled, and the confus- ion increased every day. France, Ger many, Italy and Austria were all of them in state of uproar approaching to panic, but what concerned us most was that war between England and Russia seemed daily to become more inevitable. We'll, I need only delay my story by describing the political complications which increased gradu- ally, though quickly, until a general European war seemed to be within measurable distance, and possibly would have broken out had it not been for the extraordinary thing that happened to me. Who can tell? Out of evil there sometimes comes good, and in crisis it is impossible to say what the result of the slightest acci- dent may be. It may precipitate the impending calamity, or in ways that we cannot detect or anticipate, avert it. At all events, as I have not trou- bled you with much of love story, SO neither shall trouble you with his tory of facts which must be within your recollection; my purpose is to get on to that terrible night of June about three weeks after the day when the cipher was given into my charge, and was accepted by the Countess Cattani as her affianced lover.
 My colleague Evans and were con. stantly engaged in receiving and de- spatching telegrams. During the day one or the other of us was at work almost necessarily; between twelve v-H l. n