“Her Royal Highness must not be forgotten. My father thought much of her.”
“But really I do not see why you are putting yourself to all this trouble. The king will pay off the indebtedness; the kingdom is said to be rich, or Austria wouldn't meddle with it.”
“The king, on the twentieth of this month, will be some three millions short.”
“And since he can not pay he is bankrupt. Ah, I see the plan. The duke knew that he wouldn't be able to pay.”
“You have hit it squarely.”
“But Austria, having placed Leopold here, is his sponsor.”
“Austria has too many debts of her own; she will have to disavow her protege, which is a fact not unthought of by the house of Auersperg. By constant machination and intrigue the king's revenues have been so depleted that ordinary debts are troublesome. The archbishop, to stave off the probable end, brought about the alliance between the houses of Carnavia and Osia. My business here is to arrange for a ten years' renewal of the loan, and that is what the duchess wishes to prevent, mon ami. What's to become of the king and his daughter if aught in the way of mishap should befall me? I have not seen the king, but I have seen her Royal Highness.”
“What is she like?” Maurice asked, innocently. He saw no reason why he should confide to the Englishman his own adventure.
“I'm not much of a judge,” said Fitzgerald cautiously. “I have lived most of my life in cantonments where women were old and ran mostly to tongue. I should say that she is beautiful.” A short sigh followed this admission.
“Ah!” said Maurice with a loud laugh to cover the sudden pang of jealousy which seized him; “in gratitude for saving her father's throne the daughter will fall in love with you. It is what the dramatist calls logical sequence.”