“No,” she answered, bluntly, irritated by his manner.
“Well, Caerleon intends to offer your brother a commission in the palace guard. Is that important enough to satisfy you?”
“I daresay it is important, but it is not what you came to say.”
“You are a little exacting, mademoiselle. Is this what you want? My brother asked me to tell you that he proposes to begin to-day the investigation you recommended him to set on foot.”
“That is good!” she cried. “I knew I should not be disappointed in him. But you have another message still.”
“Pardon me, I have no other message, although my business with you grows, if I may say so, out of that last message.”
“Precisely, and I know what it is. You wish to say that his Majesty’s eager compliance with my wishes betokens a state of affairs which you, as a man of the world, consider highly inexpedient when it exists in connection with the King of Thracia and a penniless foreigner.”
“I had no intention of saying anything so rude; but I will own that although when Caerleon and I first had the honour of meeting your family, I saw no insuperable objection to his pleasing himself in marrying, things are different now. I blame myself very much that I did not foresee this change and try——”
“I don’t want your regrets, Lord Cyril,” interrupted Nadia. “Let us keep to the facts as they are. They are sufficiently obvious. I agree with you, that for the King to marry me would probably cost him his throne, and that is a sacrifice I could not accept.”
“I’m very glad you see it in this light,” began Cyril, rather taken aback by her coolness; but she interrupted him.