“No, ma’am; we ain’t been shipwrecked,” returned the man, politely but repressively. “I ’ope as you’ll excuse me sayin’ any more, for my master is a very well-known gentleman; but bein’ in difficulties just now, so to speak, ’e tell me not to mention ’is name. But we want a doctor badly, and as we couldn’t make out these fellers, nor them us, ’is Maj—— I mean my master, said as me and this chap ’ad better go on to the town there, and see where we was. We’ve tried ’em in English and in French and in Thracian——” he broke off suddenly, and stared at Nadia, whose attention had been caught by the last word, and who had turned and was regarding him fixedly.
“It is you, is it, Wright?” she said, with listless indifference. “Then you forsook him too?”
“Me forsook ’is Majesty, miss?” cried Wright, much injured. “Not until ’e tell me to. Would you ’ave me say, ‘Go yourself,’ when ’e sent me for the doctor?”
“He sent you?” Nadia almost screamed. “When? Where?”
“About ’alf a hour ago, miss; from this chap’s farm’ouse over there.”
“Then he is alive? They didn’t kill him? Tell me quickly, or I shall go mad. He is there, you say?”
“Why, yes, miss,” said Wright, stolidly, trying to disentangle the sheaf of questions which Nadia poured upon him in her agitation. “’E’s there, of course—leastways, I left ’im there, and it stands to reason as ’e ain’t dead.”
“Oh, Marraine!” sobbed Nadia, burying her face on the Princess’s shoulder, “do you hear? He’s alive, he’s alive!”
“Compose yourself, my child,” said the Princess, although Wright’s wooden face showed no sign of his having observed the girl’s excitement. “Who is this worthy man? Tell me.”
“He is the King’s groom, the man who brought me to meet Marie Karlovna. Oh, Marraine, he isn’t dead!”