The bear opened his mouth at the word of command, and caught the cake which Artemisia threw. After that, amid screams and giggles, the kitchen-girls took their turn, until the cakes were gone. The gipsy smiled superior.
“Now, ladies, I hope you are satisfied. You should see this old fellow playing with the children—never a scratch nor a bite! And his kindness to a little cub we have got——”
“Why, where did you get a bear-cub at this time of the year?” asked a forester standing by.
“Found him in the woods, of course—eight or nine months old now, I suppose. Anyhow he’s there, and anyone who likes can come and see him. Does any lady or gentleman want a nice handsome young bear for a pet? We are open to an offer, for he scratches and bites like a little fiend—has to have a muzzle on whenever he sees company. Would the gracious Prince like to buy him, do you think? He would make a fine ornament to this courtyard, chained to a good strong pole in the middle.” Fresh screams, and vehement exclamations of dissent from the feminine part of the audience. “Well, you are not very encouraging, I must say, but if anyone can get me into the Prince’s presence, and he buys him, I can promise a handsome commission.”
The women-servants called down loud maledictions on anyone who might venture to influence the Prince in the desired direction, but Danaë was silent. When the gipsies and the bear moved towards the gateway, to give another performance for the benefit of the guards in their quarters, she followed in the crowd, and observed minutely the various words of command. Princess Theophanis, standing on the verandah of the Prince’s house, pointed her out to Armitage.
“That girl is absolutely heartless,” she said. “Look at her enjoying that wretched creature’s antics!”
“I should be inclined to believe that she hoped to slip outside with the gipsies, and so escape,” he said. “But I don’t think any of us really understand her yet.”
“At any rate, there will be no harm in warning the guard at the gate to be on the alert,” said Eirene, “since the Prince seems to think it is important to keep her here.”
A servant was summoned and took the message, and her safe custody assured, Danaë passed out of Armitage’s thoughts for an hour or two. Then, as he was passing the unused ground-floor rooms on the way to his own room in the dusk, a voice spoke to him out of a doorway. “Lord!” it said, and looking round, he saw a figure crouching against the door.
“Lord,” it said again, “were the caves where the gipsies live searched when the Lord Harold was lost?”