"Glück, shut the door," commanded the Prince. "Now, my dear sir, proceed."
"Your Highness is, of course, aware," began the detective, sitting down with a back very straight, and drooping his lids until his eyes were almost closed, "that France is deeply interested in this question of the succession, and that its sympathies are wholly with Prince Ferdinand, the cousin of Your Highness, and whom, I understand, Your Highness represents."
Markeld nodded.
"We should naturally expect France's sympathy," he said.
"France," proclaimed Tellier, raising his chin proudly, "is always on the side of justice and decency."
"More especially," continued the Prince, drily, "when the Emperor of
Germany happens to be on the other side. Come now, confess—if the
Emperor were for us, you would be against us—is it not so?"
Tellier permitted the faintest shadow of a smile to flicker across his lips.
"Your Highness speaks with a bluntness disconcerting," he said, deprecatingly.
"I wished merely to clear the air," said the Prince, "and to prick at the outset the bubble with which you were trying to dazzle me. Let me assure you that we thoroughly understand France's attitude in this matter. She is on our side simply because she sees an opportunity of humiliating, through us, an old enemy."
"'At least," said Tellier, "Your Highness agrees that we are on your side—the reasons for this attitude do not concern me. I only know that we are anxious to do all we can to help Your Highnesses cause. Consequently, when it was learned that Lord Vernon was coming to this place, the Department of State, fearing some duplicity, asked that a competent man be sent here to—to—"