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Updated: May 28, 2025
"Not only is the kingdom a small one," Courtledge remarked, "but there are something like five lives between him and the succession. However, it's very good-natured of you, Baron, to think of lending him a hand. I'll let him down as lightly as I can. You know him better than any one; I wonder if you could make an excuse to send him out of the room? I'd rather no one saw me talking to him."
"He is a very rich financier who has recently blossomed out in London," the secretary said. "One sees him everywhere. He has a good-looking wife, who is playing in the other room." "A good-looking wife," the visitor remarked, thoughtfully. "But, yes! I thank you very much, Mr. Courtledge for showing me round. I will find my friends now."
He turned away, leaving Courtledge alone, for a minute or two, on the threshold of the card room. The secretary's attention was riveted upon the table near the wall, and the frown on his face deepened. Just as he was moving off, the Baron de Grost rose and joined him. "They are playing a little high in here this evening," the latter remarked quietly. Courtledge frowned.
"I wish I had been in the club when they started," he said, gloomily. "My task is all the more difficult now." The Baron de Grost looked pensively, for a moment, at the cigarette which he was carrying. "By the bye, Mr. Courtledge," he asked, with apparent irrelevance, "what was the name of the tall man with whom you were talking just now?" "Count von Hern.
I mean to have a talk with the boy afterwards, and if I am satisfied with what he says, the money will be all right." Courtledge raised his eyebrows. "You know, of course, that he has a very small income and no expectations?" "I know that," Baron de Grost answered. "At the same time, it is hard to forget that he really is a member of the royal house, even though the kingdom is a small one."
He seemed just then scarcely capable of speech. When they had reached the pavement, however, the Baron took his arm. "My young friend," he inquired, "how much does it all amount to?" The Prince turned towards him with darkening face. "You knew, then," he demanded, "that Mr. Courtledge was going to speak to me of my debts?" "I was sorry to hear that it had become necessary," the Baron answered.
Courtledge," he said, "I think that you will allow me to ask you something without thinking me impertinent. You know that my wife and I have taken some interest in Prince Albert. It is on his account, is it not, that you look so gloomy to-night, as though you had an execution in front of you?" Courtledge nodded.
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