"I am glad that you are well enough to travel, Chancellor," cried 222 Maximilian. "We had none too encouraging an account of you from Captain Otto the day before yesterday."
"I travel because you travel, Your Majesty," said "Iron Heart."
They now sat facing each other, on opposite seats, and the Emperor, combating a boyish sense of guilt, stared fixedly at the square visage, on which the afternoon light cruelly scored the detail of each wrinkle.
"So?" said Maximilian.
"Your Majesty, I have served you, and your father before you. I think you trust me somewhat?"
"No man more. But this sounds a momentous preface. Is it possible you find it necessary to lead up to the subject, if I can have the pleasure of doing you a favour?"
"It is no preface, Your Majesty. I am too blunt a man to begin with prefaces when I serve in the capacity, not of diplomat, but friend. For you have allowed me to call myself your friend."
"I have asked it of you."
"If I seemed to lead up to what I have to say, it is only for the sake 223 of explanation. You are wondering, perhaps, how I knew that you would travel to-day, and why, knowing it, I ventured to follow. I learned your intention by accident" (the Chancellor did not, for all his boasted bluntness, tell what lay behind that accident); "wishing much to talk over with you a pressing matter which brooks no delay, I took this liberty, and seized the opportunity of speaking with you alone. Some men in my situation would think it wiser to pretend that business of their own had brought them on the journey, and that the meeting had come about by chance. But I am not one to work in the dark, and I want Your Majesty to know the truth." Which no doubt he did; but perhaps not quite the whole truth.
"You raise my curiosity," said Maximilian.