“You are too transparent for a diplomatist, Princess. Every line of your face says how much better you think it would be if I married and settled down like Caerleon.”
“That was certainly not in my thoughts at the moment; but it is curiously connected with the subject on which I wanted to speak to you. This morning I spent at the Palace, where I heard from the Queen’s lips your story.”
Cyril’s face hardened. “I am sorry you should allow our affairs to trouble you, Princess. I hoped I had succeeded in reconciling the Queen to the only course possible in our difficult circumstances.”
“No, do not think that I am thrusting myself into your affairs. I will tell you how they came to my knowledge. You know that Countess Wratisloff and I are conducting a series of Bible-readings for ladies at the British Legation in the mornings while we are here? Yesterday I noticed among those present two ladies in deep mourning—both very young, apparently, but one of them wearing widow’s weeds—who were conducted by Lady Stratford to a seat in a corner, separated from the rest. I was taking the meeting, and my subject was the Will of God. I forget exactly what I said—I speak as it is given me to speak at the moment—but I noticed after a time that the young widow appeared very much affected, until, when I happened to say that ‘No love can look for happiness which is deliberately founded upon the misery of another human being,’ I saw that she was weeping bitterly under her veil. Before the end of the meeting her companion induced her to withdraw, and when the other people were gone, Lady Stratford came up to me. ‘Did you know that the ladies in black were the Queen and one of her maids of honour?’ she said. ‘I wanted you to speak to Princess Anna Mirkovics. She is the niece of the good Bishop of Karajevo, who has been so nice about the Bible Society, but of course she had to go with the Queen. I think she brought her to hear you—at any rate she wrote the note asking whether her Majesty might come incognito. Didn’t you think the Queen looked terribly sad? Poor thing! she is only as old as I am, and she was left a widow when she was twenty-one. One cannot wonder at her being so miserable, can one?’”
“Really,” said Cyril sharply, “Lady Stratford is more of a child than one would have imagined possible for a modern married woman.”
“I wish there were more women as innocent as she is. It would never strike her that the Queen’s grief could arise from anything but the loss of her husband. But to continue, Lord Cyril. This morning I received a note asking me to come to the Palace, as the Queen was anxious to see me. I went, and was received with some coldness by an elderly lady, who appeared to regard me with suspicion”—Cyril smiled as he imagined the reception which Baroness von Hilfenstein would accord to one whom she had been heard to call a Scythian fanatic—“but the Queen was most gracious—indeed, when I was alone with her she unburdened her heart to me. She loves you very deeply, Lord Cyril. Are you fully awake to the strength of her love?”
“I hope, Princess, that I appreciate at its proper value the honour which her Majesty has been good enough to confer upon me. I own that I did not expect to be only one of many to whom she would be pleased to communicate the intelligence.”
“Now you are doing her a grievous injustice. She made no attempt to ask me to induce you to alter the decision which you announced to her a week ago—deeply as I can see she grieves over it. No; it was quite a different matter in which she wished to make use of me. She is aware that you object to requesting private interviews with her, as likely to arouse suspicion, and she did not know how to convey to you an important piece of news, until she thought of asking me to bring it. It seems that two days ago M. Drakovics, in the course of an interview, took occasion to refer to the recent second marriage of the Dowager Grand-Duchess of Schwarzwald-Molzau, of which you have no doubt heard?”
“There is no parallel between the Grand-Duchess’s case and that of her Majesty. The territorial rights of the Schwarzwald-Molzaus are insignificant, and the present Grand-Duke is not a minor.”
“The parallel appears to exist in the mind of M. Drakovics. To the Queen’s intense astonishment, he remarked, after some conversation on the subject, that he had often felt of late that the Thracian Constitution erred on the side of harshness in not permitting a Queen-Regent to marry again. Disregarding her surprise at his words, he went so far as to ask whether a modification of the article dealing with the matter would be pleasing to her personally, adding that he was an old man, and she could confide in him without fear of being misinterpreted.”