To Vera’s surprise the Baroness did not faint. True, she gave a great start, but grew calm again in a moment.
“Is this an answer to my prayer?” she murmured to herself. “An invitation from heaven to speak the truth and fear not?” Aloud she said, “What brings him here? Does he suspect that——?”
“I think not, my lady. He is taking a quiet sail on the Neva in his gondola with his equerries, Princes Ouvaroff and Volkonski, and has pulled up off Runö for the purpose of paying his devoir to the Baroness. He is in the entrance hall awaiting my lady.”
“Where is Lord Courtenay—and—and—?”
It was with a ghastly smile that Vera replied—
“Lord Courtenay is by the lake making love to the Czarina!”
CHAPTER XXIX
WOOING A CZARINA
Wilfrid and his Princess occupied their favourite seat by the Fairies’ Mirror. Marie was musing upon her kinsfolk—she supposed she had such—and, with a mind dominated by her love for Wilfrid, had come to the conclusion that should they now appear with intent to restore her to her former life she would be disposed to resist their action. Her life at Runö had been so happy that she felt that any change must be for the worse.
“You saw me in my old life,” she remarked. “Tell me, did I seem very happy in it?”