Part 28 (2/2)

”He shall, he shall!” she exclaimed; ”he will do it for me, I know.”

The old Count's face softened in one of its rare smiles.

”He would be a poor sort of man, indeed, my lady, who would deny anything to you,” he said, and in his stately, old-fas.h.i.+oned way he bent and kissed her hand.

As he arose, the Princess suddenly slipped an arm around his neck, and for the briefest moment her soft lips rested on his forehead.

The Prime Minister kept his face lowered; when he raised it, the tears still trembled in his eyes.

”Don't tell the Archduke,” she laughed gayly, seeing how he was moved.

”No,” said he, laughing with her now, ”I'll not tell him-and lose all chance for another.”

”I'll give you another now,” she cried, and, springing on the chair beside him, she kissed him on the cheek. ”Now go-you've had more than your share-but you shall have a third the day Armand is king.”

He took her hand, and gallantly helped her down.

”You give me another object in life,” he said.-”I shall claim it if the King permit.”

”You may claim it, before him and all the Court,” she answered.

After Count Epping had gone, the Princess turned to the table, and sitting on the corner, one foot on a chair, the other dangling, took up some papers he had left with her for examination. In the midst of it the Duke of Lotzen was announced.

”I am engaged,” she said curtly; ”I cannot see him ... or stay, admit him.”

After her question and his answer in the garden near the sun-dial, two days before, she had decided she would receive him only upon occasions of ceremony, when, to exclude him, would have required a special order; but this unexpected and, for him, amazingly early visit, piqued her curiosity too sharply to resist.

But there was no cordiality in her look nor att.i.tude, as he bowed before her in the intensely respectful manner he could a.s.sume so well. She made no change in her position, nor offered him her hand, nor smiled; her eyes showed only polite indifference as, for a s.p.a.ce, she let him wait for leave to speak. When she gave it, her voice was as indifferent as her eyes.

”Well, Your Royal Highness,” she said, ”how can we serve you?”

Not a shade of her bearing had missed the Duke, and though his anger rose, yet his face bore only a placid smile of amused unconcern.

”I desire the Regent's permission,” he said, ”to absent myself from the country for an indefinite period.”

”It is granted-a year, if you wish.”

The Duke laughed softly, almost mockingly, indeed.

”I fear I may not stay quite so long,” he answered, ”much as it would please me to oblige you. My presence will be necessary in a certain ceremony in the Cathedral, that is fixed for a few weeks short of a year.”

The Regent's eyes narrowed. ”In the crypt, you mean?-your absence will, at least, postpone the ceremony-had you remained, I imagine it would have occurred much earlier.”

Even Lotzen's calmness was disturbed by such a threat from a woman-and, momentarily, his color heightened and his eyes snapped in irritated surprise. Then he bowed.

”I am glad to have been shown the claws so early,” he replied with sneering sarcasm; ”I shall endeavor to keep beyond their reach. But I shall do my best to furnish the crypt another tenant, though I will not promise to put my Court in mourning for him.”

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