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There were few men who probed more accurately the likely trend of future events, or who were quicker to recognize opportunities and seize them than the Frenchman, and Lord Cloverton argued that he was far too clever a man to tell such an unlikely story merely to serve his own ends.
First came the news of the return of Captain Ward's cloak. The messenger who brought it was promptly taken before the Ambassador and sharply questioned. He had received it from Captain Ellerey himself an hour before midnight, he said. "Why were you chosen as a messenger?" asked Lord Cloverton. "I cannot say. I brought it because I was paid to do so." "You seem very certain of the time.
What caused it, Lord Cloverton?" "I was referring to Baron Petrescu's affair. No one has talked of anything else to-day." "And you can tell me the truth of it," she exclaimed. "I am glad. I have heard many stories since I entered the Bois." "I was expecting to hear the real truth from you," said the Ambassador, fixing his eyes upon her. "From me!
If heaven were pleased to remove him we should have one obstacle the less in our way; but many would still remain. Death would have to be busy to make our enterprise sure." "Lord Cloverton stands by most of those obstacles to give them strength," answered the Queen, her hands tightening a little. "The King would be pliant in my hands were this man not beside him to stiffen him.
"You are very good, my lord, and I thank you; but I regret that I cannot comply with your wishes. I shall not leave Sturatzberg." "You prefer to be crushed?" "Yes, in the service of my adopted country. We fight with different weapons, Lord Cloverton." "Then it is to be war between us?" "You seem to say so. I cannot leave Sturatzberg."
"However could such a slip of a girl do so great a deed?" "Why, it's nothing at all," returned Beth, flushing; "we're trained to do such things in the gymnasium at Cloverton, and I'm much stronger than I appear to be." "'Twas her head, mostly," said Patsy, giving her cousin an admiring hug; "she kept her wits while the rest of us were scared to death." Uncle John had been observing the Count.
"It is a very strange thing for you to hear. I only saw her once, for ten minutes, perhaps. She was a schoolgirl, and playing truant. We met upon the downs one breezy morning, a hat blown away by the wind served for introduction, and I have never seen her since." "It was not for her sake, then, that you came to Wallaria?" "Ah! is that what Lord Cloverton thinks!" exclaimed Ellerey.
It has nothing to do with Sturatzberg, but with England." Ellerey was silent. Could Lord Cloverton have repeated his story? "May I know the nature of the crime is it? which is imputed to me?" "It is no crime, Captain Ellerey rather a romance. I should have repudiated the idea of a crime in connection with you." "Countess, that is the kindest thing you have ever said to me."
"Deeds done here will not count in England." "And in England, or for England, I am debarred from doing anything. A sorry position, is it not, my lord?" "I am advising you to alter it." "But you have not told me why," said Ellerey. "Shall I tell you the reason, Lord Cloverton? You wish me to leave Sturatzberg." "Why should I?" "That you must tell me."
She even suggested that such a marriage might have a political significance, might lead to complications which would have serious consequences, even to some revolution such as Lord Cloverton had accused her of fostering. It was no laughing matter as his Majesty would make it, and her interference was not unnecessary, but intended to serve the State.
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