"I need not impress upon your Imperial Highness the necessity for
discretion in this matter. To betray your knowledge of the affair would
be to betray me."
"Trust me," was her answer. "I know how to keep a secret, and I am not
likely to forget this important service you have rendered me."
"My only regret is that I was unable to approach you months ago, when I
first made the discovery. Your Highness would have then been able to
avoid the pitfalls constantly set for you," the man said meaningly.
The Princess Claire bit her lip. She knew to what he referred. She had
been foolish, ah yes; very foolish. And he dare not be more explicit.
"Yes," she sighed. "I know--I know to what you refer. But surely we
need not discuss it. Even though I am Crown Princess, I am a woman,
after all."
"I beg your Highness's pardon," he exclaimed quickly, fearing that she
was annoyed.
"There is nothing to pardon," was her reply. "You are my friend, and
speak to me in my own interests. For that I thank you. Only--only--"
she added, "all that you've just told me is such a startling revelation.
My eyes are opened now. I see the dastardly ingenuity of it all. I
know why my husband--"
But she checked herself instantly. No. However ill-treated she had
been she would preserve her secret. She would not complain to a
commoner at risk of her domestic infelicity going forth to her people.
It was true that within a year of marriage he had thrown her down in her
room and kicked her in one of his paroxysms of temper. He had struck
her blows innumerable; but she had borne all in patience, and De
Trauttenberg had discovered dark marks upon her white shoulders which
she had attributed to a fall upon the ice. She saw now the reason of
his estrangement; how his sycophants had poisoned his mind against her
because they feared her.
"Steinbach," she said at last, "tell me the truth. What do the people
think of me? You are a commoner and live among them. I, imprisoned at
Court, unfortunately, know nothing. The opinions of the people never
reach us."
"The people, your Highness, love you. They call you `their Claire.'
You surely know how, when you drive out, they raise their hats and shout
in acclamation."
"Yes," she said in a low, mechanical voice, "but is it real enthusiasm?
Would they really love me if I were Queen?"
"Your Highness is at this moment the most popular woman in the whole
kingdom of Marburg. If it were known that this plot was in progress
there would in all probability be a revolution. Stuhlmann and his
friends are hated everywhere, and their overthrow would cause universal
satisfaction."
"And the people do not really think ill of me?"
"Think ill of you, Princess?" he echoed. "Why, they literally worship
you and the little Princess Ignatia."
She was silent again, walking very slowly, and reflecting deeply. It
was so seldom she had opportunity of speaking with one of the people
unless he were a deputy or a diplomatist, who then put on all his Court
manners, was unnatural, and feared to speak. From the man beside her,
however, she saw she might learn the truth of a matter which was ever
uppermost in her mind. And yet she hesitated to approach what was,
after all, a very delicate subject.