But the Raja spoke. “The order of the ceremony, Madam,” he said with courteous, princely insolence, “will not be at these gentlemen’s choice.” She hid her face in her hands, and stood cowering in distraught despair. “But do not be alarmed. No constraint shall be put upon your inclinations. Dr. Traherne reproached me with lack of consideration for your sex, and I then hinted, if you so pleased, your sex should meet with every consideration. I gather that you do not so please? Well, I scarcely hoped you would—I do not press the point. None the less, the suggestion remains open. And now, I’m afraid I’ve been talking a great deal. You must be fatigued,” he added solicitously.
At that moment the major-domo stood at a door, holding a salver with a slip of paper folded on it. The Raja gestured him nearer, advanced to meet him, and took up the paper, and scanned it thoughtfully. But his face did not change.
“Ah, this is interesting!” he told them. “If you will wait a few minutes, I may have some news for you. Excuse me.” He bowed as he left them, and the old major-domo followed him from the room.
The clocks ticked almost a minute away.
They stayed as if frozen, where he had left them, and gazed at each other in speechless horror. The men thought that they heard the woman’s heart beat.
“And we were saved this morning—only for this!” Lucilla sobbed brokenly at last.
“Courage!” Traherne said, with his soul in his eyes, his heart in his voice. “There must be some way out.”
“The whole thing’s a damned piece of bluff!” Crespin cried with a gust of hysterical laughter. “And the scoundrel almost took me in.”
Bluff! They looked at him in pitying amazement. They both pitied him then. And they knew it was no bluff.
Lucilla caught suddenly at her throat, catching her locket convulsively in her icy fingers. “Oh,” she sobbed, stumbling down on to the big ottoman in a passion of grief, “my babies! Oh, my babies! Never to see them again!” Crespin’s face twisted. “To leave them all alone in the world! My Ronny! My little Iris! What can we do? Antony! Dr. Traherne! Think of something—something—”