“Eirene! You will make the Admiral think——” cried Maurice, but the Admiral held up his hand.
“One at a time, please. We will hear the Princess first. You deceived your husband, ma’am—for his good, of course?”
“Of course,” said Eirene, unconscious of sarcasm. “I made him sign that paper, when he thought he was only signing a letter.”
“You had better see it,” said Maurice, handing the document across the table. The Admiral read it with astonishment.
“This has never left your own possession, I hope, Princess?”
“I wrote it for the Princess Dowager of Dardania, and she has had it till now. She has great influence at the Scythian Court, and she got the Emperor to save Maurice’s life, in return for that. I knew he wouldn’t like my doing it, so I had to mislead him about it.” Eirene’s tone was impenitent.
“And your feeling is that if the existence of this document should ever be asserted, you would be unable to deny it?” asked the Admiral of Maurice, who nodded. “Well, it seems to me that it is at least as discreditable to Scythia as to you—more so, in fact. They can hardly have intended ever to make it public. It was to be a weapon held over you, I presume.”
“Yes. I was to get him to resign without mentioning it, if I could,” assented Eirene, charmed with the Admiral’s penetration. “And it has saved his life, and if I could have helped it he would never have known anything about it. But I know it is just the kind of thing he will never forgive——”
“Eirene!” cried Maurice, stung beyond endurance. “Can’t you see that it is not the thing itself, but your having done it, that is so horrible?”
“And so,” said Eirene, looking very straight at the wall to keep her tears from overflowing, “I am going to take all the blame, and go away to a convent, and never see him again.”