ible!" he commented. "These fears are sometimes hysterias, but
what you say of the preparations for flight--I thought the boy was very
popular."

"With some. But when has a child stood between the mob and the thing it
wants? And the thing they cry for is liberty. Down with the royal house!
Down with the aristocracy!"

She was calm enough now. Karl was listening, was considering, looked
uneasy. She had been right. He was not for acquiring trouble, even by
marriage.

But, if she had read Karl, he also knew her. In all the years he
had known her she had never been reckless. Daring enough, but with a
calculating daring that took no chances. And yet she had done a reckless
thing by coming to him. From under lowered eyelids he considered her.
Why had she done it? The situation was serious enough, but even then--
"So you came to-day to tell me this?"

She glanced up, and catching his eyes, colored faintly. "These are
things you should know."

He knew her very well. A jealous woman would go far. He knew now that
she was jealous. When he spoke it was with calculating brutality. "You
mean, in view of my impending marriage?"

So it was arranged! Finally arranged. Well, she had done her best. He
knew the truth. She had told it fairly. If, knowing it, he persisted, it
would be because her power over him was dead at last.

"Yes. I do not know how far your arrangements have gone. You have at
least been warned."

But she saw, by the very way he drew himself up and smiled, that he
understood. More than that, he doubted her. He questioned what she had
said.

The very fact that she had told him only the truth added to her
resentment.

"You will see," she said sullenly.

Because he thought he already saw, and because she had given him a bad
moment, Karl chose to be deliberately cruel. "Perhaps!" he said. "But
even then if this marriage were purely one of expediency, Olga, I might
hesitate. Frankly, I want peace. I am tired of war, tired of bickering,
tired of watching and being watched. But it is not one of expediency.
Not, at least, only that. You leave out of this discussion the one
element that I consider important, Hedwig herself. If the Princess
Hedwig were to-morrow to be without a country, I should still hope to
marry her."

She had done well up to now, had kept her courage and her temper, had
taken her cue from him and been quiet and poised. But more than his
words, his cruel voice, silky with friendship, drove her