"So am I," said Isabel with surprising viciousness. "I only hope he hurt himself. He did fall in the road, didn't he?" she added anxiously. "I think so," said Tony. "It sounded like it anyway." "I can't help feeling horrid about him," she went on. "It is all his fault that any of this has happened." "I am glad to hear something in his favour," said Tony. "Oh, I don't mean my being here and knowing you. I love that part of it. I mean Richmond and Pedro and Da Freitas, and--and--oh, all the hateful, ghastly time I have had the last month." She broke off with a slight shiver, as though the very memory were physically unpleasant. Tony smoked his cigarette in sympathetic silence until she felt ready to continue. "You see," she began, "after Miss Watson was sent away there was no one to help me at all. Uncle Philip wouldn't let me have any money, and the only person I could talk to was a horrible old Frenchwoman who spied on me all the time like a cat. I had a year of that, and then one day Uncle Philip told me that he had taken a house for us at Richmond in England, and that we were going over to live there at once. I didn't mind. Anything seemed better than Paris, and of course I had no idea what his real plans were." There was a short pause. "It didn't take me long to find out," she went on bitterly. "The day after we arrived, I was sitting in the drawing-room when who should come in but Uncle Philip and the Marquis da Freitas. You can imagine how astonished I was when Uncle introduced him. Of course I had always been brought up to look on him as the worst enemy we had. Well, he bowed and he smiled and he paid me a lot of compliments, and then he said that now Livadia was a republic it was only right that the two branches of the royal family should be friends. He kept on telling me how anxious King Pedro was to make my acquaintance, and at last it came out that he and the King were living in Richmond and that we were invited over to dinner the next night. "Even then," she continued slowly, "I didn't guess what was behind it all. It was only when he was gone and I was alone with Uncle that I found out the truth." She paused. "Yes?" said Tony. Isabel took another long breath. "They had arranged for a marriage between me and Pedro, and it was to come off in a couple of months." A low surprised whistle broke from Tony's lips. "By Jove!" he said softly. "By Jove!" For a moment he remained contemplating Isabel with a sort of grave enjoyment; then abandoning his cigarette he sat up straight in the seat. "This," he observed, "is undoubtedly a case of predestination. It must have been arranged millions of years ago that I should be in Long Acre on that particular evening." "Perhaps it was," said Isabel. "Anyway I shouldn't have married Pedro whatever happened. I made up my mind about that the first time I saw him." "Did you tell him?" asked Tony.