Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/176

 But as the bell beats two, your helper shall arrive: welcome, I trust. Stay—do you bring any one?’ she added. ‘O, it is not for a chaperon—I am not a prude!’

‘I shall bring a groom of mine,’ said Otto. ‘I caught him stealing corn.’

‘His name?’ she asked.

‘I profess I know not. I am not yet intimate with my corn-stealer,’ returned the Prince. ‘It was in a professional capacity’

‘Like me! Flatterer!’ she cried. ‘But oblige me in one thing. Let me find you waiting at the seat—yes, you shall await me; for on this expedition it shall be no longer Prince and Countess, it shall be the lady and the squire—and your friend the thief shall be no nearer than the fountain. Do you promise?’

‘Madam, in everything you are to command; you shall be captain, I am but supercargo,’ answered Otto.

‘Well, Heaven bring all safe to port!’ she said. ‘It is not Friday!’

Something in her manner had puzzled Otto, had possibly touched him with suspicion.

‘Is it not strange,’ he remarked, ‘that I should choose my accomplice from the other camp?’

‘Fool!’ she said. ‘But it is your only wisdom that you know your friends.’ And suddenly, in