"I am more accustomed to plain Miss, Mr. Barnes, than to either of the titles you would give me."
"Don't you feel that I am deserving of a little enlightenment?" he asked. "I am working literally as well as figuratively in the dark. Who are you? Why were you a prisoner at Green Fancy? Where and what is your native land?"
"Sprouse did not tell you any of these things?"
"No. I think he was in some doubt himself. I don't blame him for holding back until he was certain."
"Mr. Barnes, I cannot answer any one of your questions without jeopardising a cause that is dearer to me than anything else in all the world. I am sorry. I pray God a day may soon come when I can reveal everything to you—and to the world. I am of a stricken country; I am trying to serve the unhappy house that has ruled it for centuries and is now in the direst peril. The man you know as Loeb is a prince of that house. I may say this to you, and it will serve to explain my position at Green Fancy: he is not the Prince I was led to believe awaited me there. He is the cousin of the man I expected to meet, and he is the enemy of the branch of the house that I would serve. Do not ask me to say more. Trust me as I am trusting you,—as Sprouse trusted you."
"May I ask the cause of O'Dowd's apparent defection?"
"He is not in sympathy with all of the plans advanced by his leader," she said, after a moment's reflection.
"Your sympathies are with the Entente Allies, the prince's are opposed? Is that part of Sprouse's story true?"
"Yes."
"And O'Dowd?"