hought might have been in her mind," assented the Chancellor,
"or else she--" He left his sentence unfinished, and sat with unseeing
eyes fixed in an owlish stare on the open page of Burke.

"I should like to know if you really meant what you said about my
marriage a little while ago." Egon ventured to attract his brother's
attention. "Because if you did--"

"If I did--"

"I might try very hard to please you in my choice of a wife."

"Be a little more implicit. You mean, you would try to prove to Miss
Mowbray that a Captain of Cavalry in the hand is worth an Emperor in
the bush--a bramble-brush at that, eh?"

"Yes. I would do my best. And as you say, I'm not without advantages."

"You are not. I was on the point of suggesting that you made the most
of them in Miss Mowbray's eyes--_until you brought me this red book_."

The large forefinger tapped the page of Mowbrays, while two lines
which might have meant amusement, or a sneer, scored themselves on
either side the Chancellor's mouth.

"And now--you've changed your mind?" There was disappointment in
Egon's voice.

"I don't say that. I say only, 'Wait.' Make yourself as agreeable to
the lady as you like. But don't pledge yourself, and don't count upon
my promise or my money, until you hear again. By that time--well, we
shall see what we shall see. Keep your hand in. But wait--wait."

"How long am I to wait? If the thing's to be done at all, it must be
done soon, for meanwhile, the Emperor makes all the running."

The Chancellor looked up again from the red book, his fist still
covering the Mowbrays, as if they were to be extinguished. "You are to
wait," he said, "until I've had answers to a couple of telegrams I
shall send to-night."

CHAPTER X

VIRGINIA'S GREAT MOMENT

The first and second dressing gongs had sounded at Schloss Lyndalberg
on the evening of the day after Egon von Breitstein's visit to his
brother, and the Grand Duchess was beginning to wonder uneasily what
kept her daughter, when ringed fingers tapped on the panel of the
door.

"Come in!" she answered, and Virginia appeared, still in the white
tennis dress she had worn that afternoon. She stood for an instant
without speaking, her face so radiantly beautiful that her mother
thought it seemed illumined from a light within.

It had been on the lips of the Grand Duchess to scold the girl for her
tardiness, since to be late was an unpardonable offense, with an
Imperial Majesty in