Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/227

Rh So the Chancellor, having given his orders, and being himself aflame with the liveliest curiosity, lost no time in obeying the King's commands, and arrived at my house before six o'clock.

When the visitor was announced Rudolf was upstairs, having a bath and some breakfast. Helga had learnt her lesson well enough to entertain the visitor until Rudolf appeared. She was full of apologies for my absence, protesting that she could in no way explain it; neither could she so much as conjecture what was the King's business with her husband. She played the dutiful wife whose virtue was obedience, whose greatest sin would be an indiscreet prying into what it was not her part to know.

"I know no more," she said, "than that Fritz wrote to me to expect the King and him at about five o'clock, and to be ready to let them in by the window, as the King did not wish the servants to be aware of his presence."

The King came and greeted Helsing most graciously. The tragedy and comedy of these busy days were strangely mingled; even now I can hardly help smiling when I picture Rudolf, with grave lips but that distant twinkle in his eye (I swear he enjoyed the sport), sitting down by the old Chancellor in the darkest corner of the room, covering him with flattery, hinting at most strange things,