Dominey and Rosamund returned about one o'clock to find a note from Seaman, which the former tore open as his companion stood warming her feet in front of the fire. There were only a few lines: “I am following an idea. It takes me to London. Let us meet there within a few days. “S.” “Has he really gone?” Rosamund asked. “Back to London.” She laughed happily. “Then we shall lunch _à deux_ after all! Delightful! I have my wish!” There was a sudden glow in Dominey's face, a glow which was instantly suppressed. “Shall I ever have mine?” he asked, with a queer little break in his voice. CHAPTER XXV Terniloff and Dominey, one morning about six months later, lounged underneath a great elm tree at Ranelagh, having iced drinks after a round of golf. Several millions of perspiring Englishmen were at the same moment studying with dazed wonder the headlines in the midday papers. “I suppose,” the Ambassador remarked, as he leaned back in his chair with an air of lazy content, “that I am being accused of fiddling while Rome burns.” “Every one has certainly not your confidence in the situation,” Dominey rejoined calmly. “There is no one else who knows quite so much,” Terniloff reminded him. Dominey sipped his drink for a moment or two in silence. “Have you the latest news of the Russian mobilisation?” he asked. “They had some startling figures in the city this morning.” The Prince waved his hand. “My faith is not founded on these extraneous incidents,” he replied. “If Russia mobilises, it is for defence. No nation in the world would dream of attacking Germany, nor has Germany the slightest intention of imperilling her coming supremacy amongst the nations by such crude methods as military enterprise. Servia must be punished, naturally, but to that, in principle, every nation in Europe is agreed. We shall not permit Austria to overstep the mark.” “You are at least consistent, Prince,” Dominey remarked. Terniloff smiled. “That is because I have been taken behind the scenes,” he said. “I have been shown, as is the privilege of ambassadors, the mind of our rulers. You, my friend,” he went on, “spent your youth amongst the military faction. You think that you are the most important people in Germany. Well, you are not. The Kaiser has willed it otherwise. By-the-by, I had yesterday a most extraordinary cable from Stephanie.” Dominey ceased swinging his putter carelessly over the head of a daisy and turned his head to listen. “Is she on the way home?” “She is due in Southampton at any moment now. She wants to know where she can see me immediately upon her arrival, as she has information of the utmost importance to give me.” “Did she ever tell you the reason for her journey to Africa?” “She was most mysterious about it. If such an idea had had any logical outcome, I should have surmised that she was going there to seek information as to your past.”