“I don’t know anything of the etiquette which surrounds kings, but I do know, Prince, had I not trusted your word I should not have gone,” I replied with the severe manner of a man with a genuine grievance.
“I am deeply sorry, monsieur, profoundly sorry; but, as I say, I only treated you as I should my august master. And what effect, then, had it? It must have been serious, of course. I can tell that by the stress you lay upon it.”
“It was a breach of faith with Boreski.”
He waved his hand carelessly and smiled to show his indifference to that.
“He was clever enough to elude the pursuit, and had evidently come prepared for the trial of wits.”
“It made him suspicious, of course; and jaundiced his view of the documents I had to lay before him.”
“I am afraid you have failed with him, then. You did not get the papers?”
“No, I did not.” I spoke reluctantly, angry at the adroit manner in which he had got at the pith of the thing so quickly.
“That is very disappointing,” he said. “Yes, very disappointing. But I am sure it is no fault of yours.”
He appeared to be quite earnest in expressing his disappointment at the failure; but his manner of referring to the papers was in such contrast to his former reference to them that I could not fail to be struck by it. I jumped to the conclusion consequently that he knew of the interview between the Emperor and the Duchess Stephanie and thought they were still to be recovered through her.