"'And now, you and I must have it out.'"
Aurora had stopped. For a few minutes silence reigned. Then Melusine went to the window and swiftly drew back the curtains. We saw it was already light.
I looked at the Grand Duchess, lost in reverie, elbow on knee and chin in hand. Her beautiful features and clear skin betrayed not the slightest sign of her night-long vigil.
The chilly dawn found Aurora even more beautiful than the glowing dusk had left her.
[VII]
OCCASIONALLY, perhaps once or twice a week, the Grand Duchess preferred to be alone, and on these evenings I used to resign myself to work.
My study of the Königsmark had been virtually abandoned. I no longer found much pleasure in disturbing that ancient dust now that fate had summoned me to witness another drama, the actors in which lived and moved around me, and spoke to me every day.
There had been a great storm on a certain July evening which Aurora's pleasure doomed me to spend alone. Through the window, open to the lowering night sky, I heard the trees dripping. I was working in an extremely half-hearted manner, my mind straying from the tragedy of the Herrenhausen to the lands whither the Tumene princess's story had wafted me. Indeed, it was a piece of pure luck that thrust before my eyes the supremely important document of which I must now speak.
I told you some time back, with details which must have seemed tedious, of the dossier compiled by the Queen of Prussia with a view to the rehabilitation of her mother Sophie-Dorothea. That evening, after analysing two or three documents of secondary importance, I came to another, marked S.2—No. 87.
It consisted of two large pages covered with writing in German characters, crowded closely together. My listlessness vanished after the first few lines. My mind sprang to attention, for I realized that I had at last got hold of something decisive.