to my
apartments."

The Minister bowed. "If Your Highness will permit." He touched a
bell. The raw-boned woman was in the room so quickly that Ruth
wondered if she had been all the time just outside the door. At a
signal from His Excellency, the woman picked up Ruth's wrap and gloves.
His Excellency meanwhile, with a low bow, had opened the door. Ruth
passed into the broad corridor and, accompanied by the Minister,
proceeded to a handsome suite of rooms.

The Minister turned to Ruth. "I am sorry, Your Highness, but I have
strict instructions in the event of your refusal to comply with my
suggestion, that you are to remain in strict seclusion. I cannot
permit you to see or speak to anyone outside, so I hope you will not
embarrass me by making any such request." He pointed toward the
windows. "You will notice, Highness, that there is a balcony in front
of your apartments. In the next room, which also opens upon the
balcony, is a guard. There will be a guard also at your door and
another on the lawn below. Your windows will be under constant
surveillance, though you will never see the guards unless you venture
forth. Your guards will be changed constantly, and it will be--" the
minister's pause was significant, the tone of his voice even more so
"--unwise--to attempt to gain their friendship. They might find
it--disastrous." Again the smooth significance of the voice. He
paused for a moment, then spoke more lightly.

"If Your Highness will permit, Madam, my wife, will call on you and be
at your disposal at any time, as also my daughters. Since you have no
maid with you, Madame Helda," His Excellency called the raw-boned woman
from the next room as he spoke, "will wait upon you. Everything to
make your stay pleasant and comfortable has been arranged. But you are
an important personage and if we are firm, Your Highness, it is not
because we wish to be, but only because of duty to your country, and to
yourself. If you decide, at any time, that you should like to see
America, you have only to summon me. Your Highness will permit me to
retire?"

"Certainly, Your Excellency, and thank you."

With a profound bow His Excellency left the room. Ruth examined her
apartments with a pleased smile of gratification--for they looked
anything but a prison. The Minister knew how to make rooms pleasant.

The diplomat went slowly downstairs. He had lost his smile, and his
face was contracted with worry. The g