Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/300

286 "Oh why should he 'wait'?" burst from their cautious companion—only to be caught up, however, in the next breath, so swift her gracious revolution. "Wait, wait indeed, Mr. Bender—I won't give you up for any Prince!" With which she appealed again to Lord John. "He wants to 'congratulate'?"

"On Theign's decision, as I've told you—which I announced to Mackintosh, by Theign's extraordinary order, under his Highness's nose, and which his Highness, by the same token, took up like a shot."

Her face, as she bethought herself, was convulsed as by some quick perception of what her informant must have done and what therefore the Prince's interest rested on; all, however, to the effect, given their actual company, of her at once dodging and covering that issue. "The decision to remove the picture?"

Lord John also observed a discretion. "He wouldn't hear of such a thing—says it must stay stock still. So there you are!"

This determined in Mr. Bender a not unnatural, in fact quite a clamorous, series of questions. "But where are we, and what has the Prince to do with Lord Theign's decision