"You are quite safe," she declared. "The secret passage has not been
used for many years. It is unknown to any within the palace. I do not
know what made me think of it to-night."

"It was," Brand remarked, "a remarkable piece of good fortune for me.
I do not fancy that our friend Domiloff in a passion would be at all a
pleasant companion."

Her face hardened.

"Domiloff," she said, "is a traitor and a ruffian. When I saw you
alone with him and without Nicholas I knew that something must have
happened. My brother would never have suffered him to have stood by
your side to-night. This way."

They stepped into a large dimly-lit room, with high panelled walls and
a vaulted roof. The door rolled back behind them. The girl passed her
hands along the wall till even the crack was invisible. Then she moved
to the table and struck a gong.

"You must need wine," she said. "Basil!"

A grey-haired old servant entered the room, and at the sight of Brand
would have fallen upon one knee, but the girl stopped him.

"Basil, this is not Prince Ughtred," she said, "but a friend of his
and ours who has been taking the Prince's place in order that Domiloff
might be deceived. Bring us some wine."

Brand drank from the long Venetian glass, and afterwards sank
gratefully into the high-backed chair to which she motioned him. At
her request he told her everything which had happened since the coming
of Reist to London. And from below there came to them often the murmur
of the waiting crowds.

She was superbly devoid of nerves. She had no manner of apprehension.

"They will come," she said, "and the people will wait. Tell me some
more of your wonderful London."

"You have never been there?" he exclaimed in astonishment.

She shook her head.

"No, nor in Paris even. No further west than Vienna."

"It is incredible," he murmured.

"And why incredible?" she asked him, with delicately upraised
eyebrows. "I do not understand. Theos is my home--those places are
nothing to me. Whilst I was in Vienna I was miserable. All was hurry
and bustle. There was so little dignity, so little repose. I do not
think that people who live in such places can understand what it is to
love one's homeland. Everywhere, too, even amongst the aristocracy,
one met vulgar people. Shopkeepers and merchants who had made very
much money mixed freely with the nobles. They tell me that in England
it is also like this. In Theos I think that we are wiser."

She spo