a mystic pattern upon the smooth green turf.

"These are two things," she said, "which I do not understand. The
Baron Domiloff has repute as a cunning and very shrewd diplomatist.
Did he ask you for no pledge that you would not speak of these things
to the King?"

Brand shook his head.

"It would have been useless," he answered. "I think that he knew quite
well that I should give no such pledge. That is what makes me believe
that the matter is serious. He is so sure of coming events that
failing my joining with him he expressed himself as indifferent as to
what my course of action might be. There was only one condition he
made before I left--and that one I agreed to."

She looked at him inquiringly.

"It was that I should come to you--before I went to the King."

Their eyes met. In that single luminous moment he learned that these
things came at least as no surprise to her. He seemed even to divine
something of that desire which had eaten its way into her heart.

"To me!" she murmured. "Well?"

"Countess," he said, gravely, "for myself there is but one course of
action possible. I came here as the friend of Ughtred of Tyrnaus. I am
bound to his cause by every tie of honour, as well as my own
sympathies. Before the morning I shall have told him all that I have
told you."

Her fan fluttered idly in her fingers. She remained silent, but he had
a fancy that a shadow had fallen between them.

"Domiloff sent me to you," he continued. "What does that mean?"

She shook her head.

"The ways of Baron Domiloff," she said, "are not easy to understand."

"Are you and your brother concerned in this--plot?" he asked, gravely.

"My brother," she said, "would, I believe, shoot you if you asked him
such a question. It is only a few months ago that he himself brought
Ughtred of Tyrnaus here. Nicholas has too little ambition. He is a
patriot, pure and simple."

"And you--yourself?" he asked.

"I have had no dealings with Baron Domiloff," she answered, "but I
think that he knows my views. I do not love the family of Tyrnaus, and
I do not think that Ughtred had any claim to the throne of Theos. His
father and grandfather misgoverned the country, and estranged all the
nobility, who were the backbone of the State. We alone are left, and
if Ughtred should marry the daughter of this American tradesman we,
too, must become exiles."

"But you would not stoop," he murmured, "to plot against the King?"

"It is not necessary,"