"I mean that larger forces than yours and mine have taken control of the situation."
"Then your message has been delivered?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I cannot believe it of you——" she said, staring at him in anguish.
He smiled gently.
"I have only done my duty——"
"Your duty!" she said bitterly. "And what of your duty to me? You promised——"
"Merely," he put in quickly, "that I would wait until you had been to Schönbrunn."
"No, no, you promised," she said, with rising anger. "It was my secret—not yours. I have never given you permission to reveal it."
"Nor having been to Schönbrunn would have given it now, Marishka," he said firmly.