"Danger!"
"Yes. There is a plot against the life of the Archduke. I thought that as a lifelong friend, you would like to know——"
"Assassination! Holy Virgin! Not that!"
She had started up from her chair and faced him, trembling violently.
"I swear to you," he said soberly, "that I have every reason for believing that in Sarajevo the lives of both will hang by a hair."
"But who——?" she stammered, her eyes wide with consternation.
She paused, the thoughts that had come first into her mind, stifled in horror.
"It is not necessary for me to say. I am merely giving my belief based on the closest study of political conditions."
A slight color had come into her cheeks.
"I am sure that you must be unduly alarmed," she said coolly. "The Archduke will be in the midst of his friends—his whole army at maneuvers!" Her lips found courage in a smile. "Why, the thing is impossible!"