“If I succeed this time, Princess, the luck will have turned, and I am not afraid of its turning again.”
“Lord Cyril, will nothing turn you from your purpose? I have known you now for many years, and each time that I see you leaves a sadder impression on my mind than the last. It seems to me that God must deal with you very signally before you will learn to give up your own way. I am an old woman, on the very border of the grave, and I do entreat you, by any kindness you may have for me, by your love for Ernestine, by the great work in which you are engaged, to relinquish this plan of revenge.”
The old lady bent forward with clasped hands, panting in her eagerness, her eyes fixed anxiously on Cyril’s face. He met her look with good-humoured frankness.
“Really, Princess, I am sorry not to be able to please you. One doesn’t often get a chance of redressing the inequalities of the world a little, and I can’t give it up when it comes.”
“Then I feel it my duty to say that I intend to warn the Princess of Dardania against you. I shall postpone my journey for a day, and ask for an interview with her. I shall make no use of what you have told me, of course; to bear of my own suspicions should serve to put her on her guard.”
“As you please, Princess. Her Royal Highness may possibly prefer my word to yours, after all. How can the poor old lady be so quixotic as to show me her hand?” he asked himself as he went out. “It only means that I must be at the villa first.”
A cipher telegram from Czarigrad was awaiting him when he returned to his hotel. “Scythian opposition withdrawn; concession will probably be granted in a day or two,” it ran, and Cyril smiled.
“I think that for many reasons to-morrow will be a good day for undeceiving her Royal Highness, and possibly for electrifying the world,” he said to himself, all unconscious that Dr Texelius had already prepared the way for both processes, by means of the indictment so considerately drawn up by Prince Soudaroff.
When Cyril repaired to the villa early the next day, he was ushered into the great drawing-room, which he found deserted, almost for the first time in his experience. The servant who had admitted him went to seek Countess Birnsdorf, but had no sooner closed the door behind him than Cyril heard the Countess’s voice in the inner room.
“The Princess Soudaroff is very anxious to wait upon you, madame.”