The afternoon passed quickly, in its unwonted freedom from the Princess’s rather exacting society, and with the dusk arrived M. Drakovics, who had journeyed from Bellaviste expressly for the purpose of being present at the betrothal ceremony. Much to Caerleon’s relief, he made no pretence of congratulation, and displayed no special interest in the event of the morrow; but immediately after dinner produced a vast pile of reports and returns on the subject of the new liquor laws, and invited the King to go through them with him. Caerleon was only too glad to welcome any work that promised to distract his mind from the gnawing anxiety which assailed him whenever he reflected that it was possible that Princess Ottilie might not be able to carry out her plan after all, and he threw himself into the task with avidity. With Cyril it was otherwise. He was consumed by an intense restlessness, a haunting fear lest some unforeseen catastrophe should interfere with his schemes just as they were on the point of realisation; and he wandered from room to room, pausing now and then to turn over with unquiet fingers the documents which the other two were perusing so strenuously.
“What’s up, Cyril? Anything wrong?” asked Caerleon at last.
“Only the fidgets, as old nurse used to say when I was a kid. I’m as much excited as if it was I who was going to be betrothed to-morrow instead of you. I can’t keep quiet. I think I shall go for a walk.”
“Now? at this time of night?”
“Rather. I feel as if I had an inexhaustible fund of energy to work off. By the by, have those rubies arrived yet?”
“Yes. Wright went to fetch them from the town this afternoon. He was just in time to meet the Vienna express.”
“Did you send him on to Schloss Herzensruh with them?”
“No; of course not. I’m going to take them with me in the morning.”
“What an outer barbarian you are!” cried Cyril. “Do you expect Princess Ottilie to put them on in public? She must have them in time to study the effect properly in the glass, and admire herself in them. Give them to me, and I’ll take them to her at once.”
“You don’t mean that you would carry that case of jewels through the forest alone at night?”