“You really can’t expect a foreigner to know the name of every place he passes. I know one has to go through any number of formalities. Do you mean to say that this thing is not correct?”
“Very far from correct. It lacks a most important verification. I cannot accept this passport. We are warned to be very careful about foreign travellers.”
“But surely that warning was directed against possible Scythian spies?” objected Cyril, who began to find the measures of precaution, the adoption of which he had recommended in his official capacity, recoiling on his own head.
“Yes, to please you English—at least, your countryman, Count Mortimer—and therefore it is only fair that I should use it against you. I must insist on your returning to Tatarjé with me, in order that this matter may be inquired into, instead of continuing your journey.”
The blow was a crushing one; but Cyril allowed no stronger feeling than natural irritation to appear in his face as he turned from the sub-prefect, dressed in his little brief authority, to the Queen, who had been listening anxiously.
“It’s a horrid bother, Lilian; but this fellow talks of taking us back to Tatarjé with him, because of some informality in this wretched thing.”
To his delight she neither shuddered nor changed colour, but replied promptly in English with an unmistakable pout, “Oh, Arthur, how awfully tiresome! We shan’t be able to get to Bellaviste for Easter, and it’s all through your insisting on coming this way. Can’t you give the man something to make him hold his tongue?”
“And the unprincipled little wretch calmly proposes to bribe her own officials to wink at an infraction of her own laws!” was the ecstatic thought that passed through Cyril’s mind as he turned again to the sub-prefect. “Look here,” he said, “the lady is very anxious to get to Bellaviste for Easter. Can’t we arrange this somehow? Perhaps”—he drew the official away from Paschics, and took from his pocket an Anglo-Thracian phrase-book to help him in his assumed difficulties with the language—“Perhaps you could affix a stamp to the passport which would help us in future? Of course, the fee would have to be paid.”
The sub-prefect’s eyes gleamed for a moment; but there was real sadness in them when he answered, much more politely than before.
“Alas, no! I have no stamp that would answer the purpose.”