Thus they gazed at one another for a few seconds, whilst silence reigned around and the moon peered down cold and chaste from above, illumining the old house, the neglected garden, the vast park with its innumerable dark secrets and the mysteries which it hid. She was the first to step back, to recoil before the ironical intensity of that fixed gaze. She felt as if she were in a dream, as if a nightmare assailed her, which in her wakeful hours would be dissipated by reason, by common sense, by sound and sober fact. She even passed her hand across her eyes as if to sweep away from before her vision, a certain image which fancy had conjured up. His laugh--strident and mocking--roused her from this dreamlike state. "I ... I ... do not understand," she murmured. "Yet it is so simple," he replied, "did you not ask me awhile ago if nothing could be done?" "Who ... who are you?" she whispered, and then repeated once again: "Who are you?" "I am His Royal Highness, Prince Amédé d'Orléans," said Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse lightly, "the kinsman of His Majesty, King Louis of France, the mysterious foreigner who works for the religious and political freedom of his country, and on whose head _le roi soleil_ hath set a price ... and who, moreover, hath enflamed the romantic imagination of a beautiful young girl, thus winning her ardent love in the present and in the near future together with her vast fortune and estates." He made a movement as if to remove his perruque but she stopped him with a gesture. She had understood. And in the brilliant moonlight a complete revelation of his personality might prove dangerous. Lady Sue herself might still--for aught they knew--be standing in the dark room behind--unseen yet on the watch. He seemed vastly amused at her terror, and boldly took the hand with which she had arrested his act of total revelation. "Nay! do you recognize your humble servant at last, fair Editha?" he queried. "On my honor, madam, Lady Sue is deeply enamored of me. What think you of my chances now?" "You? You?" she repeated at intervals, mechanically, dazed still, lost in a whirl of conflicting emotions wherein fear, amazement, and a certain vein of superstitious horror fought a hard battle in her dizzy brain. "The risks," she murmured more coherently. "Bah!" "If she discover you, before ... before ..." "Before she is legally my wife? Pshaw! ... Then of a truth my scheme will come to naught ... But will you not own, Editha, that 'tis worth the risk?" "Afterwards?" she asked, "afterwards?" "Afterwards, mistress," he rejoined enigmatically, "afterwards sits on the knees of the gods." And with a flourish of his broad-brimmed hat he turned on his heel and anon was lost in the shadows of the tall yew hedge.