"Tell me," he said gently, "how all this came about. How did you come to
know the Prince?"

"Only by seeing him at the Court; then I recognized that we had met
often before, when I had not known who he was."

"Why should he have concealed it?"

"He did not; one day he told me, and I would not believe him, it seemed
so unlikely. Neither did he believe me when I told him who I was; he
said that the facts were incompatible, and that mine was the more
unlikely story of the two."

"Did you--did you begin liking him very soon?"

"I began by almost hating him. He used to scoff at everything, he seemed
not to believe in anything that was good. Almost the first time that we
met he told me that the dress I wore was 'provocative'--'a lure of
Satan's devising' he called it, and said that nothing tempted men more
than for women to wear what he described as 'the uniform of virginity.'
He declared that it was because of my dress that he got lost following
me through the slums."

"Did not that warn you what sort of man he was?"

"No; for it was not true. We just happened to meet, and he helped me
when I was single-handed. He confessed afterwards that he had said
everything he could to shock me--to put me to the test. He has grown up
distrusting all religious professions."

"A scoffer? Did not even that warn you?"

"No; under the circumstances it seemed the most natural thing; it showed
me that he was honest."

These sounded dreadful words to the Archbishop, coming from his
daughter's lips; he felt that, in passing from theory to practice she
had become shockingly latitudinarian in her views; and again, cautious
and circumspect, he shifted his ground.

"My dear," he said, "you do realize, I suppose, that from a worldly
point of view the Prince has committed a very grave indiscretion."

She smiled. "He tells me so himself; it rather pleases him. But now the
King has given his consent."

"Yes, nominally he has," replied the Archbishop. "But in that there is a
good deal more than meets the eye. When his Majesty first gave that
promise he never intended that it should take effect."

She paled slightly at his words, and he saw that only now had he scored
a point.

"Why do you think that?"

"I do not think it, I know; but I am not at liberty to reveal secrets of
State. Let us put that aside, I cannot give you proof; if you wish to
disbelieve it, do. But now I come to my main point. There is a side to
this question abou