“And are you going home disappointed, Mr. Lorry, because she is not here?”
“I leave the answer to your tender imagination.”
There was a long pause.
“May I ask when you expect to leave Graustark?” she asked, somewhat timidly.
“Why do you wish to know?” he asked in turn.
“Because I know how hopeless your quest has been. You have found Miss Guggenslocker, but she is held behind a wall so strong and impregnable that you cannot reach her with the question you came to ask. You have come to that wall, and now you must turn back. I have asked, how soon?”
“Not until your Princess bids me take up my load and go. You see, my lady, I love to sit beneath the shadow of the wall you describe. It will require a royal edict to compel me to abandon my position.”
“You cannot expect the Princess to drive you from her country,—you who have done so much for her. You must go, Mr. Lorry, without her bidding.”
“I must?”
“Yes, for your presence outside that wall may make the imprisonment all the more unendurable for the one your love cannot reach. Do you understand me?”