“How much better it would be if that were ‘Armand, Rex,’” she said.
The Prime Minister was putting up his papers.
“And better, still, if it were ‘Dehra, Regina,’” he returned, closing the portfolio and locking it.
She made a gesture of dissent.
“There would be no need for the Book, then,” he continued; “and no danger of Lotzen becoming king. It is God’s blessing on Valeria that you were you, and could assume the government—otherwise, we would have had civil war. Your Highness has no conception of the sentiment in the Army; it is two to one for the Archduke; but Lotzen’s third is unduly powerful because of a coterie of high officers, who are jealous of the ‘American,’ as he is styled, and their readiness to precipitate a contest; and Armand’s contingent is unduly weak, because they do not feel assured that he would countenance war. In a word, the rogues and rascals are for Lotzen—they recognize a kindred leader and the opportunity for high reward. But they would accept you for Queen with enthusiasm—even rogues and rascals love a pretty woman who can rule them with a heavy hand.”
Dehra looked at her hand, slender, soft, small, and smiled.
Count Epping nodded. “Very pretty,” he said, “very pretty, but it’s a Dalberg hand, you know—and they know, too.”
“And as they shall experience,” she remarked, eyelids narrowed just a trifle, “if they show a disposition to forget it.... And in the experience they may learn that the Governor of Dornlitz also has a Dalberg hand.”
“There will be no civil war now,” said the Count; “your regency has quite obviated any such catastrophe; and if the Book be found, its decision will be accepted without protest by the Army, as well as by the people at large. What I fear is the contest in the House of Nobles—the margin there will be very narrow, I apprehend; and that involves high feeling and fierce antagonism and smoldering family hate fanned into fire; and then, if Lotzen lose, the new king may have a chance to show his hand.”
“Armand the First will show it, never fear,” she said, with the pride a woman always has for him she loves.