“To get him to abdicate?” she said breathlessly.
“Just so.”
“How did he take the proposal?”
“’Tis a world of surprises,” said the General. “We might have spared ourselves the visit. Paul had already abdicated.”
“You are jesting,” she said, angrily.
“Fact!” smiled the General. “Abdicated in favour of Alexander.”
“Why this graceful act on his part?”
“Well, to be plainer——”
Here Benningsen bent his head and whispered a short sentence. Pauline received it with a keen, cold, steady look that seemed somewhat to disconcert him.
“A fortunate ending for us,” she remarked drily, “seeing the strait we were in. It matters little now who has found our lost document.”