between you in private," Seaman began--

"Rubbish!" his companion interrupted. "The Princess is an impulsive, a
passionate, a distinctly primitive woman, with a good deal of the wild
animal in her still. Plots or political necessities are not likely to
count a snap of the fingers with her."

"But surely," Seaman protested, "she must understand that your country
has claimed you for a great work?"

Dominey shook his head.

"She is not a German," he pointed out. "On the contrary, like a great
many other Hungarians, I think she rather dislikes Germany and Germans.
Her only concern is the personal question between us. She considers that
every moment of the rest of my life should be devoted to her."

"Perhaps it is as well," Seaman remarked, "that you have arranged to go
down to-morrow to Dominey. I will think out a scheme. Something must be
done to pacify her."

The lights were being put out. The two men rose a little unwillingly.
Dominey felt singularly indisposed for sleep, but anxious at the same
time to get rid of his companion. They strolled into the darkened hall
of the hotel together.

"I will deal with the matter for you as well as I can," Seaman promised.
"To my mind, your greatest difficulty will be encountered to-morrow. You
know what you have to deal with down at Dominey."

Dominey's face was very set and grave.

"I am prepared," he said.

Seaman still hesitated.

"Do you remember," he asked, "that when we talked over your plans at
Cape Town, you showed me a picture of--of Lady Dominey?"

"I remember."

"May I have one more look at it?"

Dominey, with fingers that trembled a little, drew from the breast
pocket of his coat a leather case, and from that a worn picture. The
two men looked at it side by side beneath one of the electric standards
which had been left burning. The face was the face of a girl, almost a
child, and the great eyes seemed filled with a queer, appealing light.
There was something of the same suggestion to be found in the lips, a
certain helplessness, an appeal for love and protection to some stronger
being.

Seaman turned away with a little grunt, and commented:

"Permitting myself to reassume for a moment or two the ordinary
sentiments of an ordinary human being, I would sooner have a dozen of
your Princesses to deal with than the original of that picture."

CHAPTER VIII

"Your ancestral home," Mr. Mangan observed, as the car turned the first
bend in the grass-gro