“The great point is not to let Parflete take the lead in the settlement. His present course of action isn't quite decent or consistent. Will Orange do nothing? It is wise to make peace whilst there is some faint appearance of choice left on the subject, so there is no time to be wasted.”
“What ought Orange to do?”
“Reckage declares that he will not appeal to Rome. There he is well-advised. But as he has already compromised Mrs. Parflete, surely his present scruples are entirely new and unlooked for? We must both despise him, if he should abandon her now.”
“He has never compromised her,” said Sara indignantly. “He has even been ridiculed for his honour. I had no idea, Excellence, that you were so wicked!”
“How else could I know all the news twenty-four hours before the rest of the world? This, however, is no laughing matter. Parflete may ask his wife to return to him. It may suit her purpose to agree.”
“What! A woman who loves, or who has loved—Robert Orange? A few things in human nature are still impossible.”
Prince d'Alchingen shrugged his shoulders, and continued—
“Parflete has a good back-stairs knowledge of Alberian politics. We never deny this, but we always add that he was dismissed, in disgrace, from the Imperial Household.”
“Is there much use in denying the fact that he married the Archduke's daughter?”
“We meet the case by saying that the Archduke in his youth may not have been exempt from manly follies. And Duboc was irresistible—she drove one mad!”