"What was the answer?"
"'Yes,' of course, your highness."
"It was a masterpiece of effrontery then, and I shall take the opportunity of testing its truth. Go to the bank, Narischkin, and say that I need one hundred thousand rubles for an entertainment I propose to give to the czarina. I must have it in coin. Quick—begone."
"I fly, your highness, but first be so kind as to give me the imperial order. You well know that no coin can leave the bank without the signature of the empress."
"I should like to see whether they will dare to return MY signature," cried Potemkin, fiercely.
He wrote the order, and handing it to Narischkin, said: "Take this to the bank directors; and if they ask for the signature of the empress, tell them she will send it to-morrow, but I must have the money to-day."
Narischkin bowed lower than he had ever been seen to do toward the son of the empress himself, and left the room on reverential tiptoes.
CHAPTER CXXXIV.
THE PRUSSIAN AMBASSADOR.
When Potemkin felt himself quite alone, he leaned back in his arm-chair with an ugly frown.