“Not going to force me. I’m going to stay because I like it, and keep you company, and stop people from talking to you.”
Frank said little, but he thought a great deal, and the most about how, in spite of his old belief that he should never thoroughly care for his fellow-page, the tie of sympathy between them from the similarity of their positions was growing stronger every day.
As it happened they did not lose much, for they found that they would have to be a good deal on duty, and the consequence was that much of the early part of the day was spent in the antechamber to help usher in quite a long string of gentlemen, who wished for an audience with the Prince.
In the afternoon, just as Frank was longing for his freedom so that he might go and inquire how Lady Gowan was, he received a sharp nudge from Andrew, and turned quickly, to find that a knot of ladies had entered the room, and naturally his first glance was to see if his mother was with them. But he did not see her, his eyes lighting instead upon the Princess, who was on her way to join her husband.
The blood rose to Frank’s cheeks as he saw that her Royal Highness was looking at him intently, and his confusion increased as she smiled pleasantly at him in passing. Instead of hurrying forward to open the door for her as usual, he stood in his place as if frozen, and the duty fell to Andrew, who joined him as soon as the last lady had passed through the door and the curtain was let fall.
“I say, Frank,” said the lad merrily, “she didn’t seem very cross with you. Lucky to be you, with your mother a favourite. You’re all right, and I don’t suppose you’ll hear another word about the business. It’s a good thing sometimes to be a boy.”
But Andrew proved to be wrong, and within the next hour or so; for the last of the audience—reckless officers praying for promotion and gentlemen asking the Prince’s support as they sought for place—had gone, when a servant entered the anteroom, and took Frank’s breath away by saying that the Prince wished to speak with him directly.
“It’s all over with you, Frank,” whispered Andrew; “leave me a lock of your hair, and you may as well give me your sword for a keepsake. You’ll never want it again.”
These bantering words did not quell the boy’s alarm, but he had no time for thought; he had to go, and, drawing himself up and trying to put on a firm mien, he went to the door, drew aside the curtain, knocked, and entered.
The Prince was busy at a table covered with papers, the Princess sat near him in the opening of one of the windows, and her ladies were at the other end of the room beyond earshot.