"
"What makes you so positive?"
"Knowledge."
"Do you love her?" bluntly.
"No."
"Because--?"
"There is another. Pembroke, to-night will be pregnant with
possibilities. You will see the woman you love and the woman I love."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you ever heard of her Serene Highness the Princess Hildegarde of
Hohenphalia?"
"So high?"
"Yes."
"Then the woman I saw in Vienna--"
"Was the Princess."
"But this remarkable likeness?"
"Perhaps I had best tell you all." And when I had done, his
astonishment knew no bounds.
"Great George, that makes Miss Landors a Princess, too!"
"It does, truly. Herein lies the evil of loving above one's station.
In our country love is like all things, free to obtain. We are in a
country which is not free. Here, those who appear to have the greatest
liberty have the least."
"And she knows nothing about it?"
"Nothing."
"Why tell her?" he asked, fearful of his own love affair now.
"It is a duty. Some day she might learn too late. This afternoon I
shall visit the Chancellor and place the matter before him and ask his
assistance.
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