“He was not. But I have no reason to be afraid of him. I have outwitted him once.”
“They say that there are few people who can say that, and none that have outwitted him twice.”
“Nevertheless, I intend to do so. What can a man effect against two determined women? Not that I depend much on Ernestine’s powers of resistance. Her proposing the match has given me the standpoint I want; but I foresee that I shall have to do the fighting. She would not dare to oppose him seriously.”
“What?” the Prince raised his eyebrows interrogatively.
“Oh no; it is merely that he has a fascination for her, for he knows how to manage her, and he is the victor in every battle that they fight. She was eager to assure me—and herself—that she hated him, and she seizes every opportunity of revolt; but it is because she finds herself succumbing to his influence. She feels that she ought to obey him, which makes it worse.”
“And you encourage her to go on resisting him?”
“Of course. It will all help towards the great object.”
CHAPTER IX.
“WAYS THAT ARE DARK, AND TRICKS THAT ARE VAIN.”
Although he remained unconscious of the plot which was forming against the ultimate triumph of his policy, Cyril was not long in discovering that his daily task was not destined to be made lighter by any gratitude for the signal service he had been the means of rendering to his royal mistress and her son. He had been so short-sighted as to believe that the alarm produced by the near approach of such extreme peril would make it easy to induce the Queen to return to Bellaviste at once, or even to accept the despised Praka as her residence for the remainder of the winter, but he found himself mistaken. Queen Ernestine knew that he had averted the threatening danger not only without her help, but in spite of her unconscious opposition, and this was unpardonable. Moreover, although she was not one of the people who become the deadly enemies of any one that has the misfortune to do them a service, she knew that she had misjudged her Minister, and she could not forgive him either for allowing himself to be misjudged, or for failing to justify her bad opinion of him. It seemed to her, therefore, a pleasant piece of revenge to assure him that while he remained in attendance, she felt so safe that she had no intention of leaving the Villa before the spring. Cyril urged in vain that on another occasion he might not have the good fortune to discover the existence of a conspiracy in time to prevent its taking effect: the Queen replied that this might be a reason for added vigilance on his part, but not for the withdrawal of her confidence in him.
This peculiarly irritating conduct on the part of his liege lady Cyril attributed, rather unjustly, to the influence of the Princess of Dardania; for although Queen Ernestine saw her cousin frequently at this time, they disagreed almost invariably when they touched upon the subject of the Minister of the Household. As the sharp-eyed Princess had discerned, the Queen was divided between the desire of defying Cyril and the fear of alienating him from her son’s cause, between dislike of his tutelage and confidence in his guidance. Her cousin urged her to dismiss him, and thus avenge her wrongs, upon which Ernestine brought forward immediately her husband’s wish and her own promise. Torn in this way between willingness and reluctance, prudence and rashness, it is not surprising that she did not succeed in disguising all outward traces of her mental struggles. In other words, Queen Ernestine’s temper was very bad at this time, and not only Cyril, but the other members of the household, from Baroness von Hilfenstein to the youngest dresser, had it forced upon their notice that her Majesty was extremely hard to please. As it happened, one of these fits of ill-temper was destined to have far-reaching consequences.