'Of course, if it be so, he is right not to speak even to me,' she mused, and her only desire was now to save him from the insistence and the indignation of the Princess, and the examination which these were sure to entail upon him when he should meet her at the noon breakfast now at hand.
To that end she sought out her aunt in her own apartments, taking with her the tiny Ottilie, who always disarmed all irritation in her godmother by the mere presence of her little flower-like face.
'Dear mother,' she said softly, when the child had made her morning obeisance, 'I am come to ask of you a great favour and kindness to me. Réné returned last night. He has done what he thought right. I do not even ask his reasons. He has acted from force majeure by dictate of his own honour. Will you do as I mean to do? Will you spare him any interrogation? I shall be so grateful to you, and so will he.'
Mdme. Ottilie, opening her bonbonnière for her namesake, drew up her fragile figure with a severity unusual to her.
'Do I hear you aright? You do not even know the reasons of the insult M. de Sabran has passed upon the Crown and Cabinet, and you do not even mean to ask them?'
'I do mean that; and what I do not ask I feel sure you will admit no one else has any right to ask of him.'
'No one certainly except His Majesty.'
'I presume His Majesty has had all information due to him as our Imperial master. All I entreat of you, dearest mother, is to do as I have done; assume, as we are bound to assume, that Réné has acted wisely and rightly, and not weary him with questions to which it will be painful to him not to respond.'
'Questions! I never yet indulged in anything so vulgar as curiosity, that you should imagine I shall be capable of subjecting your husband to a cross-examination. If you be satisfied, I can have no right to be more exacting than yourself. The occurrence is to me lamentable, inexcusable, unintelligible; but if explanation be not offered me you may rest assured I shall not intrude my request for it.'
'Of that I am sure; but I am not contented only with that. I want you to feel no dissatisfaction, no doubt, no anger against him. You may be sure that he has acted from conviction, because he was most desirous to go to Russia, as you saw when you urged him to accept the mission.'