“You have no right to say that——” began Zoe warmly, but her tone changed. “No, why should I be ashamed to confess it? It is, and it always will be.”
“Couldn’t be a better man,” said Armitage, with settled depression. “I always knew that if he was against me I hadn’t the ghost of a chance. But why I asked was, that I thought I might look after him a little for you—see that he didn’t do rash things, you know.”
“If you would!” murmured Zoe. “But you will never, never let him guess why you are doing it?”
“He’ll put me down as a disgusting meddler, I know, but I can stand it. You can feel he has a deputy guardian angel to look after him, as you can’t be there yourself.”
“I can’t thank you enough,” said Zoe, giving him her hand; “but I do thank you. Oh, there is Princess Emilia looking for me on the terrace! She must have come up the other way.”
She hurried up the steps, leaving Armitage to return mournfully to the solitude of the marble bench, and try to rearrange his outlook on life in view of the change the last half-hour had made in it. Presently a dark shadow paused on the pounded marble of the walk, and looking up, he found the Dowager Princess contemplating with some surprise the interloper who had taken possession of her favourite seat. He sprang up in confusion, and would have departed in haste, with many apologies, if she had not graciously desired him to sit down again. The invitation did not place him altogether at his ease, since he was well aware of the Princess’s diplomatic reputation; but fearing that she might intend to worm some of his friends’ secrets from him, he determined to be intensely careful, and if possible to go so far in Machiavellian astuteness as even to penetrate the designs of his interlocutor. He had an uncomfortable feeling that she had probably decided to attack him as the easiest of the party to pump, and he tried to con over hastily all the points on which caution was necessary. But there was nothing dangerously political about the Princess’s first remark, uttered with a sympathetic smile.
“I see you find this a soothing spot, Lord Armitage, as I do. I have brought many troubles here—many perplexities, too, in the days when I was my husband’s chief counsellor, and Dardania was threatened by enemies on every side. Mine has not been a very happy life, but at least I can look with satisfaction on the Dardania of to-day, the only contented state in the Balkans. Some of the credit ought to be given to this quiet seat. I hope it has proved helpful to you also?”
“Well, hardly. Perhaps I haven’t tried it long enough,” said Armitage, rather at a loss.
“You can see no light on your difficulties? And yet I fancy your Princess feels more kindly towards you than you think.”
Armitage started involuntarily. “She has confided in you, madame?” he asked, feeling his way.