"What could have happened to him?" asked Hyacinth, not apparently very much alarmed.
"Oh, your Royal Highness, it's just a sort of silly feeling of mine. There may be nothing in it."
There was a noise of footsteps from below; a man's voice was heard. The Princess and the Countess, both extremely nervous, but from entirely different reasons, arranged suitable smiles of greeting upon their faces; Wiggs and Woggs stood in attitudes of appropriate meekness by the table. The Court Painter could have made a beautiful picture of it.
"His Royal Highness Prince Udo of Araby," announced the voice of an attendant.
"A nervous moment," said Belvane to herself. "Can the ring have failed to act?"
Udo trotted in.
"It hasn't," said Belvane.