sh to do a foolish thing--_pour encourager les
autres_," was his reply. "I intend to meddle with a love-affair."

"Whose love-affair?"

"I will tell you presently. I never venture upon any work trusting alone
to my hopes. I am not of those who discover rifts in their harness only
on the morning of the battle! I prepare for all contingencies. First,
then, let me put you through a little catechism. Do men ever believe
evil reports about the women they love?"

"The _posse non peccare_ is not the _non posse peccare_," said Sara
quickly.

"Do you mean that they can believe the evil, but, as a rule, they
won't?" returned the Prince.

"You translate freely, but you have caught the spirit!"

"Very well. I come to my second question. Is a man better off with a
dangerous woman whom he adores than with a good woman who adores _him_?"

"All men who desire love, deserve it," said Sara. "The _means_ to this
are always, in a manner, certainties, the _end_ is always problematical.
But those who want love could never be satisfied with mere
welfare--never."

"You have a right to direct my opinion," he exclaimed; "where else do I
hear such sound good sense? The usual women one meets in our circle are
old, ugly, and proud--incapable of conversation with persons of
intelligence. My wife," he added smoothly, "makes this complaint about
her lady friends. It is very dull and very sad for her, although she is
a saint."

No conversation or letter was ever exchanged between Sara and the Prince
without some emphatic tribute to the sanctity, prudence, and charm of
the Princess.

"The dear Princess!" murmured Sara.

"And now," said His Excellency, drawing his chair an inch nearer, "I
must be serious. You have guessed, of course, that I am thinking about
Robert Orange and Mrs. Parflete. I stayed at Brookes's till after twelve
last night in hopes of seeing Orange. I was discussing him with Lord
Reckage."

"What did Reckage say?"

"Reckage doesn't mind raising a blister, but he won't often tell one
what he thinks."

Sara shivered a little and compressed her lips.

"Reckage is fond of Orange," she said, "yet there is a certain
jealousy.... Formerly, Orange had need of Reckage, and depended on him;
now Reckage needs him and depends on Orange. Could he but know it,
Orange is the one creature who could pull him through his difficulties
with the Bond of Association. A man who has no personal ambition, who
desires nothing that any one ca