“But I will,” Ruperta exclaimed impetuously. “I will. He shall tell me what he has done. I will challenge him this very night. There is no secret now between us; and if there were, the time for fearing him is past. Happily, this abominable scheme has given me a hold over him, and he shall see that he has not a baby to deal with.”
There was a reception that night at the Palace, and Princess Ruperta kept her word. No one who saw her as she entered the Hall of Audience could have guessed her sufferings. Except that she was slightly flushed, she seemed cold and proud and as magnificently beautiful as ever. When the formal reception was over, the Duke descended from the daïs and stood chatting with the members of his immediate circle. The general company began to circulate in the hall and the suite of state apartments which led from it, and the hum of a subdued conversation rose.
Princess Ruperta, watching her opportunity, met Rollmar as, putting an end to what seemed the somewhat inconvenient questioning of one of the foreign representatives, he turned away in his abrupt manner and left the royal circle.
A less acute man would have recognized that she had planted herself in his way with an object, but he gave no sign that he so understood it, his face showing nothing but a courtier’s smile as he bowed before her. The Court etiquette kept clear a space round them, so that the low tones of their talk could not well be overheard, although curious glances might note the remarkable contrast between the withered old man and the radiant beauty.
Ruperta came to the point at once, since it was doubtful how long opportunity might serve her.
“You, or rather your hirelings, took a strange liberty last night, Baron.”
Her voice was just steady, but he knew the effort it cost her. An old diplomatist and word-fencer, he never hesitated to cut short his party when he saw an opening for a riposte. He looked up from his bow into the proud, indignant face.
“One which was forced upon me by the liberty which your Highness has been so unwise as to permit yourself.”
He spoke with the firmness and confidence of a strong will and the prestige of successful statesmanship. But she met unflinchingly even the electric touch of his dominant personality.
“It is abominable,” she said. “I will not submit to your interference.”