Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/235

Rh ported her. Then, smiling still, he looked down on her, and said in a low tone, yet distinct enough for all to hear:

"All is well, dearest."

My wife gripped Bernenstein's arm, and he turned to find her pale-faced too, with quivering lips and shining eyes. But the eyes had a message and an urgent one for him. He read it; he knew that it bade him second what Rudolf Rassendyll had done. He came forward and approached Rudolf; then he fell on one knee, and kissed Rudolf’s left hand that was extended to him.

"I'm very glad to see you. Lieutenant von Bernenstein," said Rudolf Rassendyll.

For the moment the thing was done, ruin averted, and safety secured. Everything had been at stake: that there was such a man as Rudolf Rassendyll might have been disclosed; that he had once filled the King's throne was a high secret which they were prepared to trust to Helsing under stress of necessity; but there remained something which must be hidden at all costs, and which the Queen's passionate exclamation had threatened to expose. There was a Rudolf Rassendyll, and he had been King; but, more than all this, the Queen loved him and he the Queen. That could be told to none, not even to Helsing; for Helsing, though he would not gossip to the town, would yet hold himself bound to carry the