"Through the open window came up the strains of martial music, as an infantry regiment in their grey uniforms on the Russian model were marching past, and as I glanced around the quiet, comfortable, red-carpeted room, I saw that the only picture was a fine full-length portrait of the Prince. "For fully an hour we gossiped. Perfectly frankly I at last told his Excellency the object of my mission. "He shrugged his shoulders somewhat dubiously, and smiled, declaring that each of the Powers was endeavouring to ascertain the very same thing. I pressed my point, assuring him of Britain's good-will, and explaining certain facts which, after a while, decided him. "`But you see, _mon cher ami_,' he said, `supposing the truth got out to Constantinople! All my efforts of the past fifteen years would be negatived. And further--it would mean dire disaster for Bulgaria!' "`I have been entrusted with many State secrets before, your Excellency,' I replied. `It would, for instance, not be the first time you spoke with me in confidence.' "He admitted it, and assuring me of his good-will towards England, he declared that before he could speak, he must consult his royal master. "Therefore, the French Minister awaiting an audience, I rose and left, having arranged to dine with him at the Union Club that evening. "For nearly a week I idled in Sofia visiting many diplomatists and their wives, motoring about the neighbourhood, and driving out every night at one Legation or the other, no one, of course, being aware of my secret mission in the Bulgarian capital. Garrett kept eyes and ears open, of course. Useful man Garrett--very useful indeed. "One night with the Italian minister and his wife, I went to the official ball given by the Minister-President, and among others I had as partner a rather tall, fair-haired girl with clear blue eyes and a pretty childlike face. About twenty-two, she was dressed exquisitely in white chiffon, the corsage of which was trimmed with tiny pink roses, and on her white-gloved wrist gleamed a splendid diamond bracelet. Olga Steinkoff was her name, and as we waltzed together amid the smartly dressed women and uniformed and decorated men I thought her one of the most charming of cosmopolitan girls I had ever encountered south of the Danube. "Her chaperone was an old and rather ugly woman in dark purple silk, a stiff and starchy person who talked nearly the whole evening to one of the _attaches_ of the Turkish Legation, a sallow, middle-aged, bearded man in black frock-coat and red fez. "The girl in white chiffon was perfect in figure, in daintiness and _chic_, and a splendid dancer. We sat out two dances, and waltzed twice together, I afterwards taking her down to supper. She spoke French excellently, a little English, and a little Bulgarian, while Russian was her own language. Her father lived in Moscow, she told me, and she had spent four years in Constantinople with her aunt--the ugly old woman in purple.