Cyril closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again slowly. “And did she do nothing but look at me?” “She clasped her hands--like this. I don’t know whether it was because she was glad or sorry.” “Is that all? You are sure there was nothing else?” “She--she stooped down and--and kissed you, Count.” Mansfield’s abashed voice would have provoked his auditor to laughter at any other moment, but now Cyril only nodded approvingly. “I thought I couldn’t have dreamt it. And after that?” “They slipped back into the passage, and disappeared suddenly. I can’t find any door through which they could have gone.” “Well, we can think of that presently. I am heartily obliged to you, Mansfield. It’s a comfort to have a man about one who can tell his tale sensibly, without interlarding it with wretched feeble jokes. Any one could make a joke of this affair, no doubt, but not when it is looked at in the proper light. Of course you know who the lady is?” “I, Count?” Mansfield’s astonished face attested his ignorance sufficiently. “It has never once struck you that the Queen of the Desert and Queen Ernestine are one and the same person? Nor that one of the letters which the sheikh carried in that leather bag of his was from Fräulein von Staubach, and contained the news of your invasion of Brutli, and identified me with the Prince of the Jews?” “But how long have you known it? and why didn’t you----” “Share my knowledge with you? Because I thought that you and Hicks deserved a little punishment for mixing yourselves up in my affairs. I have not known the truth long, of course. When Fräulein von Staubach told you that she could not mention my name to the Queen for a fortnight, that set me on the track. Some time ago I chanced to hear that the Queen had held out for a whole fortnight before she would consent to see some one. Of course she was being sent for from here. When the coincidence had once flashed upon my mind, everything was clear--the Queen’s persistent isolation on the one hand, and the extraordinary proceedings of the Arab Princess on the other. The rescue of the persecuted tribe, the idea of obtaining the mediation of the Empress of Pannonia--who is Queen Ernestine’s sister-in-law--and the threatened appeal to the Powers, are all characteristic of her. Then you know that no one ever heard of the Queen of the Desert until two years ago, which corresponds roughly with the time Queen Ernestine disappeared from the public gaze. My hypothesis accounted for all the facts, and you see it was correct.” “But how can you be sure, when you didn’t see the lady last night?” Cyril smiled impatiently. “My dear Mansfield, I felt she was there. That’s enough for me. Did Hicks see her?” “No, he was asleep.”