est voice.

For a second or two each of them looked away. Sara glanced toward her
canaries in their cage. Prince d'Alchingen leant forward to inhale the
perfume of some violets in a vase near him.

"Delicious!" he murmured, "delicious!"

"Mr. Disraeli," said Sara, still gazing at the birds, "has always wished
for the marriage with Lady Fitz Rewes. Yet what can we do? I cannot see
the end of it."

"The heroic are plotted against by evil spirits, comforted by good ones,
but in no way constrained," observed the Ambassador; "let us then
support Mr. Orange, and wait for his own decision. I doubt whether we
could drive him to Lady Fitz Rewes."

"To whom else?" asked Sara, fastening some flowers in her belt. They
were white camellias sent that morning from the infatuated, still
hopeful Duke of Marshire. "To whom else--if not Pensee?"

"I dare not answer such questions yet. Have patience and you shall see
what you shall see. Much will hinge on the events of the next few days."

"I will not believe," she insisted, "that Robert Orange has been
deceived by that woman."

"You may change your opinion. Come to Hadley Lodge next Saturday--I ask
no more."

"Really, sir," said Sara, with a mocking smile, "you frighten me. Am I
at last to fly through an intrigue on the wings of a conspiracy?"

The Prince smiled also, but he saw that the lady had risen to the
occasion and would not prove false to her Asiatic blood.

"Mrs. Parflete and Castrillon are cut out for each other," said he, "but
Orange has no business in that _galere_. He is reserved for a greater
fate."

"What do you mean?" said Sara.

"All now depends on you."

"On me?"

"Plainly. Reckage wishes Orange to get out of his way and become a
Religious. Can this be permitted?"

"It would be outrageous. It would be a crime."

"Ah, worse than that. It might prove a success. We don't want any more
strong men in the Church just now."

Sara agreed. She, too, was opposed to the Church. And she was glad of
the excuse this thought offered for the pains she would take to save
Orange from the Vatican grasp.

"Then we are allies," said His Excellency. "You will help me."

"Gladly, and what is more, as a duty. But how?"

"Keep the two men apart, and treat both of them--both--with kindness."

His Excellency then rose, kissed her hands once more, and took his
departure. Sara, when the door was closed, paced the floor with swift
and desperate steps, as though she were e