"Now, Your Majesty interests me," she said. "I have been waiting for that a month and more. What is the price for this order?"
"Simply the truth, madame," said the King.
"Sometimes, the truth is the highest price one can pay," she answered.
"It will be very easy here," he said. "You have a paper purporting to be a certificate of marriage between you and Armand Dalberg."
She inclined her head.
"On it you will endorse that it is a false certificate; that you are not and never were his wife; that it was procured for you, in New York, long subsequent to its apparent date; and that you were paid an enormous sum of money—fill in the actual amount, please—to go immediately to Dornlitz, exhibit the certificate, there, and publicly claim the Grand Duke Armand as your husband. That, madame, is all."
I was observing Lotzen; and, even now, his nerve never failed him. He watched the King, intently, as he spoke. At the end, his face took on a smile of cynical indifference—and, dropping from the respectful position in which he had been standing, he turned and sat on the table, one leg swinging carelessly over the corner.
Mrs. Spencer shot a quick glance at him—but he gave no answer back.
"Your Majesty has omitted one little matter," she said. "By whom shall I say the money was paid?"
"Thank you—so I had. Make it—by persons to you unknown."