g
more than a momentary gratification, but the very heat of the argument
into which she had thrown herself had warmed her malice, and sharpened
the weapon of her wit. She could justify her expressed opinion only by
events, and it occurred to her that she might be able to shape events
in such a way that she could say with eyes, if not in words, "I told
you so."

Her fading smile brightened. "Dear Chancellor, you do well to have
faith in your Imperial pupil," said she. "You've helped to make him
what he is, and you're ready to keep him what he should be. I suppose,
even, that if, being but a young man and having the hot blood of his
race, he should stray into a primrose path, you would take advantage
of old friendship to--er--put up sign-posts and barriers?"

"Were there the slightest chance of such necessity arising," grumbled
the Chancellor, shrugging his shoulders.

"It's like your integrity and courage. What a comfort, then, that the
necessity is so unlikely to arise."

The old man looked at her with level gaze, the ruthless look that
brushes away a woman's paint and powder, and coldly counts the
wrinkles underneath. "I must have misunderstood you then, a moment
ago," he said. "I thought your argument was all the other way round,
madam?"

"I told you I was amusing myself. What can one do at a ball, when one
has reached the age when it would be foolish to dance? Why, I believe
that Lady Mowbray and her daughter are not remaining long in
Kronburg."

At last she was able to judge that she had given the Chancellor a few
uneasy moments, for his eyes brightened visibly with relief. "Ah," he
returned, "then they are going out of Rhaetia?"

"Not exactly that," said the Baroness, slowly, pleasantly, and
distinctly. "I hear that they've been asked to the country to visit
one of his Majesty's oldest friends."

* * * * *

Leopold was not supposed to care for dancing, though he danced--as it
was his pride to do all things--well. Certainly there was often a
perfunctoriness about his manner in a ball-room, a suggestion of the
soldier on duty in his unsmiling face, and his readiness to lead a
partner to her seat when a dance was over.

But to-night a new Leopold moved to the music. A girl's white arm on
his--that slender arm which had been quick and firm as a man's in his
defense; the perfume of a girl's hair, and the gold glints upon it;
the shadow of a girl's dark lashes, and the light i