“Was the telegram from the Queen?”
“You don’t imagine she would send for me, even though he was dying? No; it is from his valet.”
“How are things settled in case anything happens to him?”
“By the Constitution the Queen is appointed regent, until the Crown Prince is sixteen. She loses the position if she remarries, and her second husband is debarred from holding any public office whatever in the kingdom. Of course the provision was intended to prevent her marrying a foreign prince and investing him with sovereign power.”
“Of course; very good idea. I’m glad the Constitution recognises the Queen’s rights so far as it does. One would have thought Drakovics might kick against taking orders from a woman.”
“Well, naturally he never expected anything of this kind to happen, at any rate so soon. The Constitution had to contain provisions in view of all emergencies, and he borrowed from somewhere or other what seemed the most equitable and prudent course in such a case. But if things go badly with Otto Georg, I am afraid we have hard times before us.”
“In view of the Queen’s youth and inexperience, you mean?”
“Not that merely. The worst thing is that she is so desperately unpopular.”
“Unpopular? A pretty woman, who has given the Thracians an heir to the throne?”
“That is the sole redeeming feature about her, and she has spoiled the effect of it by insisting that the child shall be brought up as a Lutheran. When Drakovics first thought of her as a wife for the King, his hope was that, being partly of Scythian blood, she would be willing to acquiesce in her children’s growing up in the Orthodox Church. But he had to give it up, for she insisted on a special protective clause in the marriage-contract. Otto Georg didn’t care a rap about it either way, and I daresay she wouldn’t have thought of the matter if her mother had not put her up to it.”