Princess Zara

But whenever a man finds the real one, whenever it is his good fortune

to encounter the genuine article, there remains no doubt in his soul of

its reality. He sees and feels and knows. There is no denying the

absoluteness of it. It is a perfect knowledge brought home to him with

an absoluteness, which for the moment, is almost paralyzing in its

effect, and the immediate consequences of which are utterly beyond

comprehension.

Standing there in the presence of Zara de Echeveria, surrounded as we

were by throngs of guests, interrupted frequently as it was quite

natural we should be, we two were yet as utterly alone as if we had

been standing upon a solitary rock in the midst of a waste of waters

beyond which the vision could not penetrate.

We were utterly alone in a world by ourselves; and the strange part of

it was that we both seemed to realize the truth, although neither of us

at that moment could contemplate the understanding of the other.

Until I drove with the prince to that house where she received, my

whole mind and intelligence had been centered upon the work I had to do

at the Russian capitol; but having passed the portals of Zara's palace,

and being taken into her presence, made the whole world appear suddenly

small indeed, and left all that was great, and good, and worth

attaining, encompassed in the very small space in which she stood.

There was a sense of completeness to it all which is inexplicable;

there was a compelling force emanating from her, like the energy of

radium, unseen but all powerful, which dominated me as surely, though

nonetheless subtly, as the sun dominates the planets.

I have never remembered the words that passed between us at that first

interview, for the reason that whatever I said, was uttered

subconsciously, and became a mere incident in the great event. The

meeting itself was the event. We had come together from different parts

of the world. We were born of different nationalities. We had been

nurtured differently, and every impulse of our respective lives had

been trained in different grooves, and for different motives; and yet

out of that chaos of differences had happened the wonderful thing of

our meeting.

I suppose we talked as other people talk, who meet and part for the

first time as we met and parted then, if we were to be judged from the

standpoint and observation of others. To me it was an epoch, focused

into a moment of time. To her I now know that it was the same.

I was suddenly conscious that there were many others who were waiting

to claim her attention, and I got upon my feet.

"So soon, Mr. Dubravnik?" she said.

"Necessarily," I replied. "I cannot take to myself all the delight of

the evening."