“I do not understand you, monsieur. I am not prepared to discuss the subject at this moment, and I do not intend to sign the paper without consideration. You may be sure that it shall not leave my possession.”
“If you wish for plain speaking, madame, you shall have it. I decline to leave the document for the inspection of Count Mortimer, with the certainty that as soon as my back was turned he would advise your Majesty to act contrary to my recommendations.”
“Your language is very strange, monsieur. I thought you had just recognised the fact that Count Mortimer is no longer one of my advisers.”
“Then how comes it, madame, that you have entered into a conspiracy with him to defeat the measures I feel it my duty to bring forward? Do you imagine I am ignorant of the determination you have expressed to refuse your assent to this document, and thus force me to resign office? You may be a very clever woman, madame; but you have not yet succeeded in hoodwinking me.”
“What is the purpose of these remarks, M. Drakovics?” The question came sharply, as Ernestine looked at the Premier with icy disdain.
“To show your Majesty that I am not a man to be trifled with. This paper which I hold is of the nature of an ultimatum. If you sign it, I remain in office; if you refuse or temporise, I resign—and you take the consequences.”
“Thank you, I will take the consequences. Bonjour, feu M. le Ministre!”
The crisply spoken words came on M. Drakovics like a thunder-clap, and appeared literally to take away his breath. He glared round helplessly for a moment; then his eyes fell on Cyril, fingering his account-books unconcernedly, and he made a step towards him as though to seize him by the throat. Ernestine placed herself between them involuntarily, and by the movement drew down his wrath on herself.
“You will take the consequences? Ha, ha! do you know who I am and who you are, madame? You owe your crown to me, as your husband did his. I fear you have forgotten the days before you came to Thracia. Do you realise that I brought you from a German principality about as large as your palace garden here, from a Court which was the scandal of Europe—that I seated you on the Thracian throne—do you realise this, I say?”
“I had imagined that it was the King who did all that,” said Ernestine coldly, as he broke off, foaming with rage; but the warning tone in her voice only served to excite him afresh.