ve I may add,
Prince, that I speak with authority."

"With authority!" the Prince echoed.

"We all," the Duchess continued, "look upon your husband's arrival as
inopportune and unfortunate. We are all agreed that you must be kept
apart. Certain obligations have been laid upon you. You could not
possibly fulfil them with a husband at your elbow. The matter will be
put plainly before your husband, as I am now putting it before you. He
will be warned not to attempt to see or communicate with you as your
husband. If he or you disobey the consequences will be serious."

Lucille shrugged her shoulders.

"It is easy to talk," she said, "but you will not find it easy to keep
Victor away when he has found out where I am."

The Prince intervened.

"We have no objection to your meeting," he said, "but it must be as
acquaintances. There must be no intermission or slackening in your task,
and that can only be properly carried out by the Countess Radantz and
from Dorset House."

Lucille smothered her disappointment.

"Dear me," she said. "You will find Victor a little hard to persuade."

There was a moment's silence. Then the Prince spoke slowly, and watching
carefully the effect of his words upon Lucille.

"Countess," he said, "it has been our pleasure to make of your task so
far as possible a holiday. Yet perhaps it is wiser to remind you that
underneath the glove is an iron hand. We do not often threaten, but
we brook no interference. We have the means to thwart it. I bear no
ill-will to your husband, but to you I say this. If he should be so mad
as to defy us, to incite you to disobedience, he must pay the penalty."

A servant entered.

"Mr. Reginald Brott is in the small drawing-room, your Grace," he
announced. "He enquired for the Countess Radantz."

Lucille rose. When the servant had disappeared she turned round for a
moment, and faced the Prince. A spot of colour burned in her cheeks, her
eyes were bright with anger.

"I shall remember your words, Prince," she said. "So far from mine
being, however, a holiday task, it is one of the most wearisome and
unpleasant I ever undertook. And in return for your warnings let me tell
you this. If you should bring any harm upon my husband you shall answer
for it all your days to me. I will do my duty. Be careful that you do
not exceed yours."

She swept out of the room. Lady Carey laughed mockingly at the Prince.

"Poor Ferdinand!" she exclaimed.

CHAPTER XIII