"Reckage declares that he will not appeal to Rome. There he is well-advised. But as he has already compromised Mrs. Parflete, surely his present scruples are entirely new and unlooked for? We must both despise him, if he should abandon her now."
"He has never compromised her," said Sara indignantly. "He has even been ridiculed for his honour. I had no idea, Excellence, that you were so wicked!"
"How else could I know all the news twenty-four hours before the rest of the world? This, however, is no laughing matter. Parflete may ask his wife to return to him. It may suit her purpose to agree."
"What! A woman who loves, or who has loved--Robert Orange? A few things in human nature are still impossible."
Prince d'Alchingen shrugged his shoulders, and continued--
"Parflete has a good back-stairs knowledge of Alberian politics. We never deny this, but we always add that he was dismissed, in disgrace, from the Imperial Household."
"Is there much use in denying the fact that he married the Archduke's daughter?"
"We meet the case by saying that the Archduke in his youth may not have been exempt from manly follies. And Duboc was irresistible--she drove one mad!"
"But I have always heard that Mrs. Parflete has no intention of giving trouble. They say she is an angel."
"You will find that she would far rather be an Archduchess! Orange may discover that his Beatrice is nearly related to Rahab!"
"Then you should hear Zeuill and General Prim on the subject. The Marquis of Castrillon is in London. Our friend Parflete will soon be labouring with copious materials for a divorce."
"How can you assume such horrors?" said Sara.
"The imagination," said His Excellency, "is always more struck by likelihoods than the reason convinced by the examination of facts! My dear friend, let us survey the position. Orange does not seem to have the most distant idea of making Mrs. Parflete his--his _belle amie_. Well and good. But ought he, at his age, so handsome, so brilliant, so much a man, to renounce all other women for the sake of a little adventuress? Can nothing be done? If he could have some convincing proof of her treachery, would he not turn to others more beautiful, more worthy----"
"If you like," replied the Prince, in his gentlest voice.