“You must see that in a case like this it is my bounden duty to minimise your personal advantages as far as possible. If you were not tall and straight and fair-haired, with a beautiful wife and two fine children, there would be no need to be afraid of you; but as it is, what chance has a poor, wretched little woman, who has succeeded in alienating every single person with whom she has anything to do, in comparison with you and your family? There wouldn’t even be the excitement of a struggle. The Queen and little Michael would go down like ninepins. But if I smuggle you through in that venerable ulster and a cap which may have cost you twopence-halfpenny when it was new (but I doubt it), your worst enemy couldn’t accuse either of us of trying to catch the public eye. So come along.”
Ensconced in the corners of a reserved carriage, they made the journey without discovery, and at Tatarjé Cyril succeeded in transferring his brother unnoticed to the closed landau which was in waiting. They drove straight to the Villa, and entered by a side-door, thus gaining Cyril’s office without meeting any one.
“Stay here till I want you,” commanded Cyril. “There are some cigars in that drawer; but keep the door shut, for the Queen objects to smoking, as she does to most things. When I produce you, it will be by way of a grand tableau.”
He hurried up-stairs, and the servant announced him at the door of the anteroom. The lady sitting there, who happened to be Baroness von Hilfenstein’s daughter Paula, gave him a look full of interest and excitement as he passed, and said in a low voice—
“The Princess of Dardania is with her Majesty.”
“This is more thrilling even than I thought,” he murmured back, with his hand upon the door, and immediately entered, to find Nadia sitting on the sofa between the Queen and the Princess. Before he could do more than bow to the royal ladies, Philippa sprang up from the corner where she had been playing with the other children, and, running to him, caught his hand.
“Oh, Uncle Cyril, these ladies have been saying such horrid things about you. I thought that one,” indicating the Princess, “was nice, but,” in a perfectly audible whisper, “I don’t now. They say that it was you who had father put in prison!”
“And you are the only one to believe in me?” said Cyril. “Brave little girl!”
“Oh no, Cyril,” said Nadia eagerly. “It is only that the Queen and the Princess don’t know you as we do, and so can’t see the absurdity of the idea. If you would just assure them that you had nothing to do with Caerleon’s arrest, they must be convinced.”
“I should be delighted to oblige you if it was in my power,” returned Cyril. “Unfortunately it is not possible, since the arrest was effected by my order.”