“You do us too much honour, Madam,” was the courtier’s answer. “But I feel sure that you will approve of the advice I have been giving my daughter—not to listen too much to the empty talk of the young fops who haunt the Court.”
“You are quite right, Count,” said Hermengarde, with an approving nod. “You have a right to look higher for your daughter. Your rank and services to the State entitle you to expect no ordinary son-in-law. And you, too, Gertrude,” she continued, fixing her keen gaze on the girl’s telltale face, “perhaps you have already fixed your thoughts on some suitor of pretensions lofty enough to satisfy even your father’s just ambition for you.”
“Madam,” Gertrude stammered out, “I have no thoughts in the matter, except to obey my father.”
“An admirable answer!” exclaimed the Princess, lightly. “Count, I congratulate you on your child. I only hope mine will prove as obedient. But I am forgetting what I was about to say to you. Have you been much in the company of the King lately?”
The Chancellor lifted his head and darted a swift glance at her, and then drew back a couple of inches, with the instinctive movement of one who feels himself on dangerous ground.
“Not more than usual, Madam. There has been nothing to take me specially into his Majesty’s company.”
“Quite so. And you have not noticed anything unusual in his demeanour—anything that has led you to suspect that something important was going on?”
This time the Minister failed to conceal his nervous apprehension.
“I confess I fail to understand you, Madam. So far as I know, the King has been engaged in his ordinary pursuits. Of course, he is a good deal taken up with the preparations for taking possession of this new palace of his at Seidlingen.”
The Princess watched Von Sigismark keenly as he spoke, and a slight look of scorn passed across her countenance, to be instantly replaced by an indulgent smile.