"If you should obtain that situation," replied Lord Gustavus doubtingly.
"What do you mean?" asked his friend, in astonishment. "I thought the means we had taken must infallibly ensure success."
"They must ensure the election of Rosabella," replied Lord Gustavus.
"And is not that all we wish?"
"Not quite," returned Lord Gustavus dryly.
"I do not understand you," said Lord Maysworth.
"What can you mean?" demanded Dr. Hardman.
"I mean," replied Lord Gustavus, in his usual cold, precise manner, "that, thinking as I think, and as I am sure every one else must think, from the conversation that has just taken place between the princess and myself, I am convinced that our possession of the places she has promised to us, is by no means the necessary consequence of her accession to the throne."
"Oh!" cried his auditors, looking perfectly aghast: a farther explanation confirmed their fears. "I could not have believed it!" exclaimed both; and as the partizans of Rosabella continued to arrive, they were successively apprized of and paralyzed by the appalling news. Divers were the sensations thus excited: but amongst all, notwithstanding their professed disinterestedness, there was not one whose sentiments remained unchanged by the intelligence.
In the mean time, Rosabella, in the solitude of her own chamber, became aware of the imprudence she had committed, though she brooded in secret over her uneasiness, and felt too proud to avow it even to Marianne; whilst that faithful confidant, quite unsuspicious of the error of her mistress, exulted in her expected triumph with as much transport as though it had been her own.