“Probably. If we were punished as severely for our evil deeds as for our good ones, we should come off pretty badly, shouldn’t we, Ernestine? I’m sure the best thing I ever did in my life was when I threw myself on your mercy and induced you to marry me, and I’m tolerably certain the next best was bringing Usk and Helene together, and yet it’s just those two things these people can’t forgive me.” “But must you stay, Cyril? Do let us go.” “Before we have seen the young people made happy? No, no; we’ll see the thing through after having so much to do with it.” “Well, then, as soon as Michael’s wedding is over, you can meet me at Trieste, and we will leave for Beyrout at once. Why should you run into danger for the sake of Prince Malasorte?” “It’s not that. I failed my friends when they trusted me, and now that they have thrown in their lot with Malasorte, I won’t spoil their plans a second time, as I should do if I left Europe before he brings off his _coup d’état_. They trust him, and I don’t, but if I can help them a bit by getting public suspicion concentrated on me instead of him, I will. And that’s my last word, Ernestine.” With a couple of weddings approaching, there was no time to lose, and the Schwarzwald-Molzau family were most anxious to get the less important of the two over, and be able to devote themselves to the preparations for the gorgeous state ceremonial which would mark the marriage of King Michael. Hence Usk made a hasty business journey to England very shortly after the Emperor’s visit, and when he returned it was in company with his parents, who were duly installed by the Grand-Duke, not with the best possible grace, in a wing of the great Schloss at Molzau. The transaction with the Aberkerran and Western Hills Railway Company, to which Cyril had alluded, proved, when carried out on the lines he suggested, highly beneficial to Lord Caerleon’s exchequer; and he was able to leave on the minds of the Molzau people an impression of sober magnificence which checked any misgivings as to the match their little Princess was making. Quite unintentionally, Lord Caerleon also produced a distinct impression on the Grand-Duke, who revenged himself afterwards by alluding to him as “the stone image,” but at the time actually asked Cyril whether his brother would like to be received with the honours due to an ex-sovereign, purely as a compliment, of course, and without prejudice to King Michael’s rights. Cyril declined the offer on Caerleon’s behalf, but he derived a good deal of amusement as well as relief from the fact that his brother could overawe the irascible Grand-Duke to such an extent that the occasion was not marked by a single burst of temper. The wedding was very quiet. Princess Theresia induced her mother to be present, and that amiable lady, who was always at her daughter’s beck and call, shed the lustre of her historic jewels on the ceremony, but Europe as a whole turned its head away and refused