"How do they stand?" he inquired. II That evening when Jenifer returned home the Archbishop was waiting her arrival. The door of his private library stood ajar. "Come in, my dear," he called, hearing her step in the corridor, "come in; I wish to speak to you." She entered with a flushed face. "_I_ wanted to speak to you, father," she said. He saw that she was come charged for the delivery of her soul, and perceiving what a strategic advantage it would give him to hear the story first from her own lips, he waived his prior claim. "Very well, my dear," he replied, "for the next hour I am free, and at your disposal." "It may take longer than that," she warned him; "I have something to tell you that seems to me almost terrible." "Anything wrong?" "Oh, no, but so tremendous I hardly know how to begin." Her breast labored with the burden of its message, but in her face was a look of dawn. "Has it to do with yourself?" "Yes, papa. I am engaged to marry Prince Max." The Archbishop paused for a moment, thinking how best to avoid any appearance of foreknowledge. "My child," he said, "what Prince Max do you mean?" "The only one that I know of," she answered. "You mean the heir to the throne?" "Yes, papa." "You say you are engaged to him?" "Yes." "With whose knowledge, may I ask?" "The King knows; he has just given his consent. That is why I am telling you now." "Why only now?" There was reproach in his tone. "Until we had his consent we were not engaged." "And now--being engaged--you come for mine?" "No, papa; only to let you know." She paused. "Of course I should be glad of your approval." The Archbishop sat silent for a while. "How long have you known Prince Max?" he inquired at last. "About six months." "Is not that rather a short time?" "Yes." "For so important a decision, I mean." "Yes; it is, I know." "For learning a man's character, shall I say?" "Some characters one learns more quickly than others. I know him, papa, better than I do you." "That may well be, youth does not easily understand age. And so my question remains: Do you know him well enough to marry him?" "I want to marry him," she said. "You know there are objections?" "Oh, yes." "Very serious ones." "Yes, I told him; I said it was quite impossible. He said he could get the King's consent. I did not think so: I felt sure, indeed, that he could not. But to-day he came and showed it to me in writing--a promise made conditionally more than two months ago." "Conditionally?" "Yes; it named a date. That is why until to-day there was nothing that I could tell you." "Not even the fact that he had asked you to marry him?" "I could not wish that to be known, if nothing was to come if it--not by any one." "It would have been better, my child." "No, papa; why should you, or any one, know what I had had to give up?" "Of course, it would have been painful; that I can understand."