The Prince did not smile as he went out.
He had bidden the Chancellor to await his return in the salon of the "Royal suite," which was usually put at his disposal when he was in Rhaetia, and drove in from the Niederwald to Salzbrück. Other Royalties from foreign countries, or from the provinces, occasionally occupied it also—hence its name; and Apollo was not the first Prince whom old Eberhard von Markstein had visited in the "Royal suite" of the Hohenburgerhof. The Chancellor knew by heart the rich purple 277 hangings in the salon, with the gold double wolf-head of Rhaetia embroidered on their folds; and he sickened of them now, as the moments dragged on and on, and he was left alone.
When half an hour had passed, he could no longer sit still on the purple velvet sofa, but walked up and down, his hands behind him, scowling at the full-length portraits of Rhaetia's former Emperors, glaring a question at his own reflection in the many huge gold-framed mirrors, a question he would have given his life to hear answered in the way he wished.
Three-quarters of an hour had gone at last, and still the Chancellor paced the room from end to end, and still the Prince did not come back to tell the news. Had the young man failed him? Had that Vivian upstairs twisted the boy round her finger, as she had twisted one who was stronger and greater than he? Was it possible that she had wormed the whole secret from the Prince and then ordered him away from the hotel, leaving her enemy fuming in the house?
But no, there were footsteps outside the door; the handle was turned. 278 At least the Prince was true to his promise.
As the Chancellor had said, he was no longer as young as he had been. His lips parted; yet he could not speak, when he would have asked for the result. But the Prince caught the appeal in the glittering eyes, and did not wait to be interrogated.
"Well, I have seen the lady," he said, in a voice that was indefinably changed in the interval since he and the Chancellor had separated.
"And she is the one you had known?"
"Yes. She is the one I had known. What is more, Chancellor, it—it's all right about that plan of yours. She is going with me to Bünden."
"She is? Heaven be praised! When?