"And am I free to go when I will?" he asked.
"You will be escorted to the frontier, and will remain on the other side. Should you return under any circumstances, you will meet with different treatment."
I rang the bell, and Colonel Woolgast appeared.
"You will conduct Prince Alexis to his room, Colonel, and return to me as soon as possible."
I sat staring from the window waiting for his return. I was uncertain, in my mind, about the wisdom of the course I had adopted with Alexis.
He was capable of any villainy, any crime, but I had given him the money with an object; I wished to gain time. It ought to last him for a year or eighteen months; and much could be done between now and then.
I had had suspicions before that Bornia had covetous designs with regard to Rudarlia.
Well, we would see. Thank God, my stepfather had made it possible for me to do much, without fresh taxation.
I was just thinking of the degraded spectacle Prince Alexis was, almost ashamed of myself for having allowed him even to suggest the things he had, when I heard a woman's voice raised in altercation with the guardsman outside the door. To my amazement she spoke in English.
"I want to see His Majesty, I tell you."