"Then perhaps you have come to explain it to me!"
"Ach, my young friend, you come too quickly to conclusions! Wait and listen, and be not sarcastic! Why do I say last night's explosion was injudicious? Because it could only make matters worse, whereas there was, unknown to you, a secret way of mending them. Why do I speak of the Landgrave's intentions? Because he is as certain to carry them out as it is that this candle burns, if the power shall remain to him. Did any one ever hear of anything ever standing in a prince's way when he wanted a particular woman?"
"It is time then for an exception to the rule."
"And if there shall be an exception in this case, what will cause it?"
"The lady herself," said Dick, half inclined to strike the Count's face across the table.
"The lady herself! Granted that she be a paragon of virtue, do you suppose that the will of an obscure lady-in-waiting will endure long as an obstacle to the desires of a Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, whose power over his subjects is absolute? What becomes of a woman who resists such power? How long does her life remain tolerable? What happens to those who support her resistance? Do princes have any pity for those who oppose their will, and will Frederick II. have any conscience where his desire to possess a woman is concerned?"
Dick shuddered. He knew what princely consciences were like, and that the sovereigns of Germany, of whatever title, had over their own people unlimited authority.
"But," he said, in a slightly husky voice, "you spoke as if there might be an exception in this case."
"And I asked you what would cause it. You could not tell me. Shall I tell you? Can I trust you?"
"Certainly."