"It is beautiful here in the summer," defensively.
"I wish you had waited till then, or brought a mackintosh. Your Princess would have kept." He shoved his head deeper into his collar, and began to laugh. "This is the discomfort man will go through for love. If she is a true woman she will feed you first and explain afterward. But, supposing she is not here?"
"Where else can she be?" I asked.
"The world is very large—when a woman runs away from you."
This set me thinking. If she shouldn't be there! I set my teeth and gave the horse a cut, sending him into a gallop, which I forced him to maintain till the end. At length we turned into the roadway. A man I had never seen before came out.
"Where is the innkeeper?" I asked, my heart sinking.
"He is not here," was the answer,
"Is Her Highness the Princess Hildegarde—"
"Her Highness?" he cried, in astonishment. "She has never been here.
This is an inn; the castle is in the village."
"How long have you been here?" asked Pembroke.