s bothered you?"

"Your Majesty," said Marishka, plunging breathlessly into her subject,
"I was stopping at Konopisht at the castle of the Archduke Franz. The
Duchess of Hohenberg, formerly the Countess Chotek, was a friend of my
mother's, and for many years our families have been intimate."

She saw the slight contraction of the heavy brows at the mention of
Sophie Chotek's name, but she went on rapidly:

"Sire, when you know how long our families have been friendly, how kind
Her Highness has been to me since the death of my father and mother, you
will understand that what I am about to say--to reveal--is very painful
to me. I could not speak, Sire, even now, unless the welfare of Austria
and of Your Majesty were not more important to me than any personal
considerations whatever."

As she paused painfully again, he encouraged her with a smile.

"Go on, child," he said.

"I was at the tennis court, playing with"--she paused and blushed
prettily--"with a friend. The game finished, we--we went into the garden
and sat upon the lawn in the shade of some foliage where it was cool. I
did not know, Sire, nor did my companion, of the presence of royalty at
Konopisht, and did not remember that I had been told not to go into the
rose garden until it was too late."

"Too late?" he asked keenly.

"We were interested, talking, and not until the sound of footsteps upon
the graveled walk near the arbor, did I realize how grave a violation of
the hospitality of the Archduke had been committed. I should have fled,
but, Sire, I could not. I was frightened. And so we stayed, hidden in
the foliage by the arbor."

"So!" he broke in, his voice speaking the word with a rising inflection
of intense interest. "It is well that you have come. I, too, know
something of the visitors to the roses of Konopisht. The talk was not
all of roses, _nicht wahr_?" he said quietly, with a little bitterness.

"No, Sire. The talk was not all of roses," said Marishka.

"Go on, then," he continued. "Spare me no word of what you heard or saw.
Nothing."

And Marishka, composing herself with an effort, obeyed the command.

CHAPTER III

THE HABSBURG RAVEN

The Emperor heard her through until the end, with a word here, a sudden
question there, the gravity of the girl's disclosures searing more
painfully the deeply bitten lines at eye and brow. But he did not
flinch. It seemed that grief and pain had already done their worst to
that frail bod