Prince Michael flushed hotly, but said nothing. The czar smiled grimly.
"What detained you?" he demanded.
"The same business which detains me in Russia, your majesty."
"Ah; you were concerned in the work of our fraternity?"
"I was."
"I understood that you were much more pleasurably employed."
"Whoever gave you so to understand that either did not know, or lied." I turned so that I half faced the prince, and I saw that he made a motion as if to spring upon and strike me; but he did not dare to commit such an act in the czar's presence, and long training got the better of his temper.
"Why, sir, did you take Princess Zara d'Echeveria to the house of Prince Michael?" continued the czar.
"Because I believed him to be an honorable man who would stand ready to protect her good name, and who would conceal from all the world, even from your majesty, the fact that she was there. Because he had told me that he loved her, and I was innocent enough to believe that his love was unselfish; and further, because I regarded him as my friend. There are three reasons, your majesty, any one of which seems to me to be sufficient."
"But why was it necessary to take her anywhere?"