“The honourable gentleman sees?” asked the landlord triumphantly, red in the face from the exertion of his salute. “His Excellency would make the same response if any one cried, ‘Down with the Englishman!’ but the man would be in prison before another hour was over. Now you see why I said the people do not like him. They know that he despises them.”
“This is a sensation we never hoped to experience, Mansfield,” said Usk to his friend, when they had paid their bill, and were hurrying back to the station. “What is your opinion of my redoubtable relative?”
“I think he has got a very comfortable berth—for a man without friends or vices—so long as he keeps it, but a very hot one if he should ever be threatened with losing it.”
“Just what I think. It’s rather difficult to believe that he’s younger than my father, isn’t it? He might be any age, from his face.”
“Will the English gentlemen he pleased to come this way?” said a voice, as they entered the station, and they found themselves confronted by a tall dark man who had occupied the seat opposite the Premier in the carriage. “His Excellency Count Mortimer requests the honour of their company for part of the journey. I am his Excellency’s secretary. My name is Paschics.”
“Could he have seen us?” whispered Usk in surprise to Mansfield, as they followed the secretary. “It was only a moment, and he didn’t appear to notice us at all, but nobody else could know who we are.”
Emerging on the platform, they found Count Mortimer in the midst of the officials who had come to witness his departure. He shook hands with one or two, spoke a few words to some, and nodded to others, then entered his carriage, whither Paschics conducted the two young men. To their bewilderment, the Premier received them as strangers.
“I think I cannot be mistaken in supposing that you are English, gentlemen? It is a pleasure to an old exile to meet two fellow-countrymen in foreign parts. If you have no objection, may I count on the pleasure of your company as far as Vienna? The railway people will fetch your things, if you will tell them which your carriage was.”
Much mystified, Mansfield gave the required directions, and retreated into the background with Usk while Cyril stood at the window and conversed a little with his colleagues on the platform. When the train had started, however, he turned towards them, and broke into a laugh at the sight of their blank faces.
“Well, Usk, are you thinking that I am an unnatural relative? Why, my dear boy, I knew you at once from your likeness to your mother; but there is a look of Caerleon about you too. Introduce your friend, pray.”