"I will do as you ask," said the Emperor. Again he pressed the
Chancellor's hand, and it was very cold.

CHAPTER XV

THROUGH THE TELEPHONE

When Leopold arrived at Felgarde he went immediately to the hotel
which he had designated as a place of meeting. But no ladies answering
to the description he gave had been seen there. Either Miss Mowbray
had failed to receive his message, or, having received, had chosen to
ignore it.

The doubt, harrowing while it lasted, was solved on returning to the
railway station, though certainty proved scarcely less tantalizing
than uncertainty had been.

The telegram was still in the hands of the station-master, to whose
care it had been addressed. This diligent person professed to have
sent a man through the Orient Express, from end to end, calling for
Miss Helen Mowbray, but calling in vain. He had no theory more
plausible to offer than that the lady had not started from Kronburg;
or else that she had left the train at Felgarde before her name had
been cried. But certainly she would not have had time to go far, if
she were a through passenger, for the Orient Express stopped but ten
minutes at Felgarde.

It was evident throughout the short conversation that the excellent
official was on pins and needles. Struck by the Emperor's features,
which he had so often seen in painting and photograph, it still seemed
impossible that the greatest man in Rhaetia could be traveling thus
about the country, in ordinary morning dress, and unattended. Sure at
one instant that he must be talking with the Emperor, sure the next
that he had been deceived by a likeness, the poor fellow struggled
against his confusion in a way that would have amused Leopold, in a
different mood.

With a manner that essayed the difficult mean between reverence due to
Royalty, and common, every-day politeness, good enough for an ordinary
gentleman, the station-master volunteered to ascertain whether the
ladies described had gone out and given up their tickets. A few
minutes of suspense dragged on; then came the news that no such
persons had passed.

Here was a stumbling-block. Since Helen Mowbray and her mother had
apparently not traveled by the Orient Express, where had they gone on
leaving the hotel at Kronburg? Had they after all misled Baroness von
Lyndal as to their intentions, for the purpose of blinding the
Emperor; or had they simply changed their minds at the last minute, as
women may? Could it be p