“Come, come!” said the Admiral reprovingly. “We don’t do things of that sort in England, Princess, off the stage—or at least we don’t talk about doing them. You have treated your husband very badly, and I don’t wonder he feels it, but there’s no need to make things worse.”
Eirene drew herself up, and the Admiral noted with secret satisfaction that Maurice moved nearer her involuntarily, and that his voice was very chilling as he said, “My wife and I can settle that between ourselves, Admiral. But if you think there is anything to be done about this paper——”
“You would like to approach the Princess Dowager about it, perhaps? We might frighten her with the threat of making it public. But I fancy she is merely a tool. What I should like would be to get at the person behind her.”
As if in answer to the aspiration, Zoe opened the door and came in, closing it carefully. “Maurice, Prince Soudaroff is here, and is very anxious to see you. I told him the Admiral was with you, and he said he was come about a paper. Do you think it could be——”
“The very man I should have chosen!” said the Admiral.
“Bring him in, Zoe,” said Maurice, taking his stand resolutely beside Eirene, with his hand on her shoulder—a point that Prince Soudaroff noted immediately as he entered. His decision had been reached the moment he learned that the Admiral was closeted with Maurice and Eirene, and he did not wait to be addressed. The Princess Dowager must be thrown over.
“I have come on rather a painful errand,” he said. “There is a document in existence, I understand, affecting the honour of Prince Theophanis. How it was fabricated I hardly know, but I have a horrible fear that a certain exalted lady of our acquaintance has been meddling with politics again. These little irregularities will occur, one must regretfully admit, when ladies interfere in things they know nothing about.”
“The document embodied a certain engagement, to be carried out if Prince Theophanis was elected?” asked the Admiral, who had the paper, face downwards, in his hand.
“Exactly. And I fear the absurd thing has been made the means of causing some little pain to Princess Theophanis? Ah, I was afraid so. Really, a woman can be very cruel when her affections are concerned, and of course the lady of whom I speak imagined she was acting in the interests of her son.”
“Which was a pure delusion?” said the Admiral.