Polly the Pagan: Her Lost Love LettersAnderson, Isabel
General
Polly the Pagan: Her Lost Love Letters
Anderson, Isabel
Americans -- Europe -- Fiction; Diary fiction; Epistolary fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
During the days that followed, so busy that we could not believe
anything lay outside our crowded wards, I forgot both property and
owner. Only when I reached Paris several months later did I make an
effort to discover her. After consulting the police and the American
Embassy officials without result, I decided to break open the lock and
see if there was any clue inside to her identity.
The bag proved to be full of papers which I felt obliged to read. What
might they contain?--romance, scandals, and maybe military secrets?
There was a clipping about a mysterious Russian Prince masquerading
under the name of Kosloff, and a Red Cross badge and some secret
service insignia. Did these badges belong to the blonde lady herself
or to the Prince, or to her friend, the diplomat mentioned in the
letters? Well, we will see. I searched the lists of American Embassy
officials for the diplomat, but without success; I discovered that
their names were legion, and the Prince, too, I was unable to trace.
The difficulties lay in the fact that all the letters were signed with
nicknames--and with the death of so many people in the war and the
length of time which had evidently passed since they were written,
most of the avenues of identification had been blocked.
Nevertheless I put notices in several of the Paris papers asking for
information regarding a little fair-haired American woman who had
disappeared from the Grande Hotel du Nord during the night of the air
raid, leaving a black morocco bag in charge of a stranger. The only
three letters which I received in answer were as follows:
Dear Madame,
In reply to your advertisement in _Le Matin_, I would say that
I think I saw the woman you refer to at the Café Russe on the
Rue des Capuchins one evening in February. She was dining with
a big blonde foreigner whom she addressed as Prince. Catching
a word or two of their conversation that implied they knew
more of the military situation than ordinary civilians should,
my suspicions were aroused so when they left, I followed them.
The man evidently noticed me and knew my game, for he put the
lady in a taxi, telling the driver to go to the Grande Hotel
du Nord, and then led me a chase, round corners and down alley
ways, finally dodging into a crowded music hall where I lost
him.
She was so charming that I could not believe her guilty, and
yet, her companion awakened deep distrust in me. I have often
wondered if by chance she were a member of our own American
secret service and he a German spy. I never saw her again,
though if I did, I should know her at once. Since the hotel
you mentioned was her destination, it may be that your lady
and mine are one and the same. This is all the information I
am able to give you, but I hope that even this faintest of
clues may lead you a little farther in your search. I beg to
remain
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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