Only you must understand that the country I
love--my own country--must enter soon upon a new phase of her
history. We who look into the future can see the great clouds
gathering. Some of us must needs be pioneers, must go forward a
little to learn our safest, and best course. May I tell you that
much?"
"Of course," she answered softly.
"And now," he added, leaving his seat as though with reluctance,
"the Duchess reminded me, above all things, that directly I found
you I was to take you to supper. One of your royal princes has
been good enough to signify his desire that we should sit at the
same table."
She rose at once.
"Does the Duchess know that you are taking me?" she asked.
"I arranged it with her," he answered. "My time draws soon to an
end and I am to be spoilt a little."
They crossed the ballroom together and mounted the great stairs.
Something--she never knew quite what it was--prompted her to
detain him as they paused on the threshold of the supper room.
"You do not often read the papers, Prince," she said. "Perhaps
you have not seen that, after all, the police have discovered a
clue to the Hamilton Fynes murder."
The Prince looked down upon her for a moment without reply.
"Yes?" he murmured softly.
She understood that she was to go on--that he was anxious for her
to go on.
"Some little doctor in a village near Willington, where the line
passes, has come forward with a story about attending to a
wounded man on the night of the murder," she said.
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