“I know what I should consider your duty, my dear Baroness, but whether you will see it at first in the same light is open to question.”
“And what is your view of my duty, may I ask?”
“To go on as before, seeing and knowing nothing. Anything else could do no good, and would only make the Queen miserable.”
“You appear to disregard the absolute necessity of my laying the matter before her Majesty’s family, that they may exercise their influence to bring about your removal from Thracia.”
“But why should I be removed from Thracia?”
“Because it is absolutely impossible for you to remain here.”
“How? If we have been engaged for nearly a year without so much as rousing your suspicions, it seems to me quite possible that we should go on in the same way.”
“When you have the presumption to aspire to the hand of her Majesty?”
“Precisely. Now, Baroness, listen to me. The Queen does not propose to marry me until the King is of age, and the regency at an end—which means a twelve years’ engagement. You will be at hand to watch over the decorum of the whole thing—as you have been doing unconsciously hitherto. Now isn’t it better to acquiesce in that quiet and peaceful state of affairs than to hound me out of Thracia, and then discover one fine day that the Queen had escaped to join me?”
“But you cannot marry her Majesty.”