“I don’t indeed.”
“My dear Ernest, you are a rare and admirable example to the rest of us—you are a truly modest man.”
What did he mean?
V.
EVENTS followed, on the next day, which (as will presently be seen) I have a personal interest in relating.
The Baroness left us suddenly, on leave of absence. The Prince wearied of his residence in the country; and the Court returned to the capital. The charming Princess was reported to be “indisposed,” and retired to the seclusion of her own apartments.
A week later, I received a note from the Baroness, marked “private and confidential.” It informed me that she had resumed her duties as lady-in-waiting, and that she wished to see me at my earliest convenience. I obeyed at once; and naturally asked if there were better accounts of her Highness’s health.
The Baroness’s reply a little surprised me. She said, “The Princess is perfectly well.”
“Recovered already!” I exclaimed.
“She has never been ill,” the Baroness answered. “Her indisposition was a sham; forced on her by me, in her own interests. Her reputation is in peril; and you—you hateful Englishman—are the cause of it.”