"Your Highness will pardon me," said Mr. Vandeleur, "and permit me, with
all respect, to submit to him two queries?"

"The permission is granted," replied the Prince.

"Your Highness," resumed the Dictator, "has called Mr. Scrymgeour his
friend. Believe me, had I known he was thus honoured, I should have
treated him with proportional respect."

"You interrogate adroitly," said the Prince; "but it will not serve your
turn. You have my commands; if I had never seen that gentleman before
to-night, it would not render them less absolute."

"Your Highness interprets my meaning with his usual subtlety," returned
Vandeleur. "Once more: I have, unfortunately, put the police upon the
track of Mr. Scrymgeour on a charge of theft; am I to withdraw or to
uphold the accusation?"

"You will please yourself," replied Florizel. "The question is one
between your conscience and the laws of this land. Give me my hat; and
you, Mr. Rolles, give me my cane and follow me. Miss Vandeleur, I wish
you good-evening. I judge," he added to Vandeleur, "that your silence
means unqualified assent."

"If I can do no better," replied the old man, "I shall submit; but I
warn you openly it shall not be without a struggle."

"You are old," said the Prince; "but years are disgraceful to the
wicked. Your age is more unwise than the youth of others. Do not provoke
me, or you may find me harder than you dream. This is the first time
that I have fallen across your path in anger; take care that it be the
last."

With these words, motioning the clergyman to follow, Florizel left the
apartment and directed his steps towards the garden gate; and the
Dictator, following with a candle, gave them light, and once more undid
the elaborate fastenings with which he sought to protect himself from
intrusion.

"Your daughter is no longer present," said the Prince, turning on the
threshold. "Let me tell you that I understand your threats; and you have
only to lift your hand to bring upon yourself sudden and irremediable
ruin."

The Dictator made no reply; but as the Prince turned his back upon him
in the lamplight he made a gesture full of menace and insane fury; and
the next moment, slipping round a corner, he was running at full speed
for the nearest cab-stand.

_Here_ (says my Arabian) _the thread of events is finally diverted from_
THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN BLINDS. _One more adventure, he adds, and we
have done with_ THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND. _That last link in