"Of course not," she answered, and then, glancing round, she added: "This place is a little too public. Cannot we go across to the garden yonder?"
At her suggestion I rose and walked with her to a quiet spot in the gardens, where we sat down, and I listened with interest to her.
She told me that her name was Julie de Rouville, but she would give no account of where she lived, though I took it that she was a young widow.
"I have ventured to approach you, Count, because I cannot approach the Crown-Prince," she said presently. "You probably do not know the true reason of his visit here to Nice?"
"No," I said. "I admit that I do not. Why is he here?"
"It is a secret of his own. But, curiously enough, I am aware of the reason, and that is why I have sought you. Would it surprise you if I told you that in a certain quarter in France it will, in a few days, be known that the German Emperor is establishing a movement for an entente between Germany and Britain, and that the whole affair is based upon a fraud? The Emperor wants no entente, but only war with France and with Britain. The whole plot will be exposed in a few days!"
"From what source have you derived this knowledge?" I asked, looking at her in amazement that she should know one of the greatest State secrets of Germany.
But she again smiled mysteriously, and said:
"I merely tell you this in order to prove to you that I am in possession of certain facts known to but few people."
"You evidently are," I said. "But who intends to betray the truth to France?"