"You might have said it had been destroyed," she said, happy because he had not said it.
"But that would have been a lie. Read it, your highness, and return it to me. It must be destroyed."
"It is too dark to read it here." Without a word he handed the paper to her and called the chair bearers, to whom he gave instructions that brought her speedily beneath one of the park lamps. She afterwards recalled the guilty impulse which forced her to sit on the tell-tale note while the men were carrying her along in the driveway. When it was quite safe she slyly opened the missive. His hand closed over hers, and the note, and he bent close once more.
"My only fear is that the test will make it impossible for me to kiss your hand again," said he in a strained voice. She looked up in surprise.
"Then it is really something disloyal?"
"I have called it a test, your highness," he responded enigmatically.
"Well, we'll see," she said, and forthwith turned her eyes to the all-important paper. A quick flush crossed her brow; her eyes blinked hopelessly. The note was written in the Graustark language!
"I'll read it later, Baldos. This is no place for me to be reading notes, don't you know? Really, it isn't. I'll give it back to you to-morrow," she was in haste to say.
An inscrutable smile came over his face.
"Ravone's information is correct, I am now convinced," he said slowly. "Pray, your highness, glance over it now, that I may destroy it at once," he persisted.