Caroline continued
drily. "Von Ragastein was her lover in Hungary. He fought a duel with
her husband and killed him. The Kaiser was furious and banished him to
East Africa."

Dominey picked up his shooting-stick and handed his gun to Middleton.
The beaters were through the wood.

"Yes, I remember now," he said. "She addressed me as Leopold."

"I still don't see why it was necessary to invite her here," his
companion observed a little petulantly. "She may--call you Leopold
again!"

"If she does, I shall be deaf," Dominey promised. "But seriously, she is
a cousin of the Princess Terniloff, and the two women are devoted to one
another. The Princess hates shooting parties, so I thought they could
entertain one another."

"Bosh! Stephanie will monopolise you all the time! That's what's she's
coming for."

"You are not suggesting that she intends seriously to put me in the
place of my double?" Dominey asked, with mock alarm.

"Oh, I shouldn't wonder! And she's an extraordinarily attractive woman.
I'm full of complaints, Everard. There's that other horrible little man,
Seaman. You know that the very sight of him makes Henry furious. I am
quite sure that he never expected to sit down at the same table with
him."

"I am really sorry about that," Dominey assured her, "but you see His
Excellency takes a great interest in him on account of this Friendship
League, of which Seaman is secretary, and he particularly asked to have
him here."

"Well, you must admit that the situation is a little awkward for Henry,"
she complained. "Next to Lord Roberts, Henry is practically the leader
of the National Service movement here; he hates Germany and distrusts
every German he ever met, and in a small house party like this we meet
the German Ambassador and a man who is working hard to lull to sleep the
very sentiments which Henry is endeavouring to arouse."

"It sounds very pathetic," Dominey admitted, with a smile, "but even
Henry likes Terniloff, and after all it is stimulating to meet one's
opponents sometimes."

"Of course he likes Terniloff," Caroline assented, "but he hates the
things he stands for. However, I'd have forgiven you everything if only
Stephanie weren't coming. That woman is really beginning to irritate me.
She always seems to be making mysterious references to some sentimental
past in which you both are concerned, and for which there can be no
foundation at all except your supposed likeness to her exiled lover.