"I'm not going to send you away. It is I who have to go. Oh, beloved! I ought never to have come here this evening. But I thought if I might see you--just once again--before I went out into the night, I should at least have that to remember. . . . And then you sang, and it seemed as though you were calling me. . . ." "Yes," she said very softly. "I called you. I wanted you so." Then, after a moment, with sudden, womanish curiosity: "How did you know I was singing here to-night?" "Olga told me. She's bitterly opposed to all that I've been doing, but"--smiling faintly--"she has occasional spasms of compassion, when she remembers that, after all, I'm a poor devil who's being thrust out of paradise." "She loves you," Diana answered simply. "I think she has loved you--better--than I did, Max. But not more!" she added jealously. "No one could love you more, dear." After a pause, she asked: "I suppose Olga told you that I know--everything?" "Yes. I'm glad you know"--quietly. "It makes it easier for me to tell you why I must go away--out of your life." She leaned nearer to him, her hands on his shoulders. "Don't go!" she whispered. "Ah, don't go!" "I must," he said hoarsely. "Listen, beloved, and then you will see that there is no other way. . . . I married you, believing that when Nadine would be safely settled on the throne, I should be free to live my own life, free to come back to England--and you. If I had not believed that, I shouldn't have told you that I cared; I should have gone away and never seen you again. But now--now I know that I shall _never_ be free, never able to live in England." He paused, gathering her a little closer into his arms. "Everything is settled. Russia has helped, and Ruvania is ready to welcome Nadine's return. . . . She is in Paris, now, waiting for me to take her there. . . . It has been a long and difficult matter, and the responsibility of Nadine's well-being in England has been immense. A year ago, the truth as to her identity leaked out somehow--reached our enemies' ears, and since then I've never really known an instant's peace concerning her safety. You remember the attack which was made on her outside the theatre?" Diana nodded, shame-faced, remembering its ultimate outcome. "Well, the man who shot at her was in the pay of the Republic--German pay, actually. That yarn about the actor down on his luck was cooked up for the papers, just to throw dust in the eyes of the public. . . . To watch over Nadine's safety has been my work. Now the time has come when she can go back and take her place as Grand Duchess of Ruvania. _And I must go with her_." "No, no. Why need you go? You'll have done your work, set her securely on the throne. Ah, Max! don't speak of going, dear." Her voice shook incontrollably.