Page:In the name of a woman (1900).djvu/113

 you thought of the steps the Prince and those about him might take against you?"

"You may have influence with her," she answered, understanding me readily. "And I have had a half hope that you may be able to make her understand how hopeless are her efforts. Can you do this?"

"I am not hopeful. She is a woman of wild and vehement passions."

"She is mad; she hates me so violently that if she dared she would herself plunge a knife into my heart. She clings to the shadow of power which she wields through the Prince with all the tenacity of ambition venomed by malice. I know it, but I do not fear her," she said proudly. "She is the greatest enemy this country has, even in this hour when its enemies throng every street, and are found in every house. Daring, unscrupulous, reckless, and saturated with the lust of power, she would use the Prince for the pursuit of her own ends, and those only, however cleverly masked by a boasted love of the country."

The Princess was a very woman after all, I saw, for it was easy to read the personal dislike which breathed through her indignation.

"She may be very dangerous, Princess," I said warningly.

She turned swiftly and looked at me, reading in my voice my genuine alarm for her. After a moment, her face softened into a smile, and she put her hand on my arm.

"You are warning me, I see, against something you know but cannot tell me. I will not ask you. I will do more, for your sake, and to relieve your fears on my account. I will be very cautious. You have a most difficult part to fulfil at present; I understand that.