"What devil's lie are you inventing now?" she murmured. "Your English mother, Hilda Tressilian, was content to be wooed and won without asking the church to consecrate her love." If it be possible for the human heart to suspend its pulsation, then Barbara's heart did at that moment. When at last she spoke it was in a voice breathless with indignation. "Can there be a more base deed than to slander a dead mother in the presence of her daughter?" "No slander, but the solemn truth do I speak. Your father, Prince Thaddeus, withheld this knowledge from you, from a desire to spare your feelings. When after the Dalmatian earthquake of two years ago, you were wavering between the crown of a princess and the veil of a nun, the knowledge that you were of illegitimate birth might have deterred you from accepting the crown; therefore Prince Thaddeus kept that matter a secret. He invented the story that the church, the scene of his marriage, had been burnt, and the record of the union destroyed; and the more effectually to deceive you he made choice in his fiction of a certain church which had actually been consumed by fire. But the preservation of the edifice would have availed you nothing, for its marriage-book contained no such names as Thaddeus Lilieski and Hilda Tressilian." "It is a question betwixt my father's word and yours. I prefer my father's." "Naturally, inasmuch as it suits your interests. When on your crowning-day, and before a vast assembly, I rise to deny that you are Natalie Lilieski, will you dare affirm it, knowing, as you do, that you lack a certain birth-mark of that princess? If you aver that you are in reality Barbara Lilieska, the elder daughter of Thaddeus, what answer will you give to those who challenge you to produce the proofs of Thaddeus's early marriage? Barbara Tressilian, you are illegitimate, and as such debarred from reigning. Your beauty has made you many enemies among the proud and envious ladies of Czernova. Those over whom you have queened it will be able to point the finger of scorn at the discrowned princess, branded with the stain of illicit birth." He marked with secret pleasure the shiver of wounded pride on the part of Barbara, and clenched his remarks with the question,-- "Knowing what I can effect, do you still maintain your defiance of me?" "I do," responded Barbara, quietly. "Believing myself to be the lawful princess of Czernova, I shall hold to my throne. Girt around with earthly perils, I tranquillize my mind by looking above, confiding in the justice of heaven." That any one should think of trusting to such a shadowy weapon as the justice of heaven drew a sneer from the atheistic cardinal. "The history of Poland should have taught you that God is always on the side of the strong." And then, conscious of the futility of further argument, he made a mock bow, and with the words, "Farewell, Princess Lackland," he withdrew from the saloon.