This reception would probably have annoyed Lord Daynesborough.
"Why should I be afraid?" I asked, mimicking Daynesborough's voice as well as I could.
"Why, because of your wife. I know you tremble before her."
"I have no wife," I said; "and, seeing what I do, I thank God for it."
She leaped up with a scream, loud and shrill.
A door opposite me opened, and a girl rushing in, crying:
She paused, looking bewildered. I walked quickly up to her.
"Go back and keep quiet;" and, taking her by the shoulders, I pushed her back into the next room.
The princess rushed to the other door, and, on finding it locked, screamed again.
"Nobody," I remarked, "should embark on these things who has not good nerves."
She recognized me now. Her fright had been purely physical--I suppose she thought I was a burglar. When she knew me, she came forward in a dignified way, sat down on the sofa, and said:
"Explain your conduct, sir, if you are in a condition to do so."
"I am sober, madame," said I; "and I have two messages for you."
"You present yourself in a strange way. Pray be brief," and she glanced anxiously at the clock.
"Time does not press, madame," said I. "Nobody will come."
"Nobody will---- What do you mean? I expect nobody."
"Precisely, madame--and nobody will come."
Her ivory fan broke between her fingers with a sharp click.
"First, Lord Daynesborough offers his apologies for being compelled to leave for Paris without tendering his farewell."
She turned very red, and then very white. But she restrained herself.
"His Royal Highness requests that you will avail yourself of my escort for an immediate return to Glottenberg."
"Oh, madame, as if I should inquire them!"
"You are merely insolent, sir. I shall not go to-night."
"Why had Lord Daynesborough to leave so suddenly?" she asked suspiciously.
"Apparently. She followed him to Glottenberg. She arrived there yesterday."
"Now I see--now I understand! I had to deal with a traitor."
"You must bestow trust, if you desire not to be deceived, madame. You dared to use me as a go-between."
The princess had a turn for repartee. I could not have set her right without quite an argument. I evaded the point.
"And yet Your Royal Highness thought me a clumsy animal!"
"Oh," she said, with a slight laugh, "it's wounded _amour propre_, is it? Come, Mr. Jason, I apologize. You are all that is brilliant and delightful--and English."
