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  The Powers and Maxine

  _By C.N. and A.M. Williamson_

  Author of

  "The Princess Virginia," "My Friend the Chauffeur,"
  "The Car of Destiny," "The Princess Passes,"
  "Lady Betty Across the Water," Etc.


  Copyright, 1907, by C.N. and A.M. Williamson.


  _With Illustrations
  By FRANK T. MERRILL_



  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I.  LISA'S KNIGHT AND LISA'S SISTER

  II. LISA LISTENS

  III. LISA MAKES MISCHIEF

  IV. IVOR TRAVELS TO PARIS

  V.  IVOR DOES WHAT HE CAN FOR MAXINE

  VI. IVOR HEARS THE STORY

  VII. IVOR IS LATE FOR AN APPOINTMENT

  VIII. MAXINE ACTS ON THE STAGE AND OFF

  IX. MAXINE GIVES BACK THE DIAMONDS

  X.  MAXINE DRIVES WITH THE ENEMY

  XI. MAXINE OPENS THE GATE FOR A MAN

  XII. IVOR GOES INTO THE DARK

  XIII. IVOR FINDS SOMETHING IN THE DARK

  XIV. DIANA TAKES A MIDNIGHT DRIVE

  XV. DIANA HEARS NEWS

  XVI. DIANA UNDERTAKES A STRANGE ERRAND

  XVII. MAXINE MAKES A BARGAIN

  XVIII. MAXINE MEETS DIANA

  XIX. MAXINE PLAYS THE LAST HAND OF THE GAME




LISA DRUMMOND'S PART





The Powers and Maxine




CHAPTER I


LISA'S KNIGHT AND LISA'S SISTER

It had come at last, the moment I had been thinking about for days. I
was going to have him all to myself, the only person in the world I ever
loved.

He had asked me to sit out two dances, and that made me think he really
must want to be with me, not just because I'm the "pretty girl's
sister," but because I'm myself, Lisa Drummond.

Being what I am,--queer, and plain, I can't bear to think that men like
girls for their beauty; yet I can't help liking men better if they are
handsome.

I don't know if Ivor Dundas is the handsomest man I ever saw, but he
seems so to me. I don't know if he is very good, or really very
wonderful, although he's clever and ambitious enough; but he has a way
that makes women fond of him; and men admire him, too. He looks straight
into your eyes when he talks to you, as if he cared more for you than
anyone else in the world: and if I were an artist, painting a picture of
a dark young knight starting off for the crusades, I should ask Ivor
Dundas to stand as my model.

Perhaps his expression wouldn't be exactly right for the pious young
crusader, for it isn't at all saintly, really: still, I have seen just
that rapt sort of look on his face. It was generally when he was talking
to Di: but I wouldn't let myself believe that it meant anything in
particular. He has the reputation of having made lots of women fall in
love with him. This was one of the first things I heard when Di and I
came over from America to visit Lord and Lady Mountstuart. And of course
there was the story about him and Maxine de Renzie. Everyone was talking
of it when we first arrived in London.

My heart beat very fast as I guided him into the room which Lady
Mountstuart has given Di and me for our special den. It is separated by
another larger room from the ballroom; but both doors were open and we
could see people dancing.

I told him he might sit by me on the sofa under Di's book shelves,
because we could talk better there. Usually, I don't like being in front
of a mirror, because--well, because I'm only the "pretty girl's sister."
But to-night I didn't mind. My cheeks were red, and my eyes bright.
Sitting down, you might almost take me for a tall girl, and the way my
gown was made didn't show that one shoulder is a little higher than the
other. Di designed the dress.

I thought, if I wasn't pretty, I did look interesting, and original. I
looked as if I could _think_ of things; and as if I could feel.

And I was feeling. I was wondering why he had been so good to me lately,
unless he cared. Of course it might be for Di's sake; but I am not so
queer-looking that no man could ever be fascinated by me.

They say pity is akin to love. Perhaps he had begun by pitying me,
because Di has everything and I nothing; and then, afterwards, he had
found out that I was intelligent and sympathetic.

He sat by me and didn't speak at first. Just then Di passed the
far-away, open door of the ballroom, dancing with Lord Robert West, the
Duke of Glasgow's brother.

"Thank you so much for the book," I said.

(He had sent me a book that morning--one he'd heard me say I wanted.)

He didn't seem to hear, and then he turned suddenly, with one of his
nice smiles. I always think he has the nicest smile in the world: and
certainly he has the nicest voice. His eyes looked very kind, and a
little sad. I willed him hard to love me.

"It made me happy to get it," I went on.

"It made me happy to send it," he said.

"Does it please you to do things for me?" I asked.

"Why, of course."

"You do like poor little me a tiny bit, then?" I couldn't help
adding--"Even though I'm different from other girls?"

"Perhaps more for that reason," he said, with his voice as kind as his
eyes.

"Oh, what shall I do if you go away!" I burst out, partly because I
really meant it, and partly because I hoped it might lead him on to say
what I wanted so much to hear. "Suppose you get that consulship at
Algiers."

"I hope I may," he said quickly. "A consulship isn't a very great
thing--but--it's a beginning. I want it badly."

"I wish I had some influence with the Foreign Secretary," said I, not
telling him that the man actually dislikes me, and looks at me as if I
were a toad. "Of course, he's Lord Mountstuart's cousin, and
brother-in-law as well, and that makes him seem quite in the family,
doesn't it? But it isn't as if I were really related to Lady
Mountstuart. I was never sorry before that Di and I are only
step-sisters--no, not a bit sorry, though her mother had all the money,
and brought it to my poor father; but now I wish I were Lady
Mountstuart's niece, and that I had some of the coaxing, 'girly' ways Di
can put on when she wants to get something out of people. I'd make the
Foreign Secretary give you exactly what you wanted, even if it took you
far, far from me."

With that, he looked at me suddenly, and his face grew slowly red, under
the brown.

"You are a very kind Imp," he said. "Imp" is the name he invented for
me. I loved to hear him call me by it.

"Kind!" I echoed. "One isn't kind when one--likes--people."

I saw by his eyes, then, that he knew. But I didn't care. If only I
could make him say the words I longed to hear--even because he pitied
me, because he had found out how I loved him, and because he had really
too much of the dark-young-Crusader-knight in him, to break my heart! I
made up my mind that I would take him at his word, quickly, if he gave
me the chance; and I would tell Di that he was dreadfully in love with
me. That would make her writhe.

I kept my eyes on him, and I let them tell him everything. He saw; there
was no doubt of that; but he did not say the words I hoped for. A moment
or two he was silent; and then, gazing away towards the door of the
ballroom, he spoke very gently, as if I had been a child--though I am
older than Di by three or four years.

"Thank you, Imp, for letting me see that you are such a staunch little
friend," said he. "Now that I know you really do take an interest in my
affairs, I think I may tell you why I want so much to go to
Algiers--though very likely you've guessed already--you are such an
'intuitive' girl. And besides, I haven't tried very hard to hide my
feelings--not as hard as I ought, perhaps, when I realise how little I
have to offer to your sister. Now you understand all, don't you--even if
you didn't before? I love her, and if I go to Algiers--"

"Don't say any more," I managed to cut him short. "I can't