A servant entered with a tray, spread a cloth on a small round table, upon which he set out coffee, with rolls and butter and preserves.  For a few moments they talked lightly of the weather, of her crossing, of mutual friends in Berlin and Vienna.  Then Anna, as soon as they were alone, leaned a little forward in her chair.

“You know that I have a sort of mission to you,” she said.  “I should not call it that, perhaps, but it comes to very nearly the same thing.  The Emperor has charged me to express to you and to Count Lanyoki his most earnest desire that if the things should come which we know of, you both maintain your position here at any cost.  The Emperor’s last words to me were:  ’If war is to come, it may be the will of God.  We are ready, but there is one country which must be kept from the ranks of our enemies.  That country is England.  England must be dealt with diplomatically.’  He looks across the continent to you, Prince.  This is the friendly message which I have brought from his own lips.”

The Prince stirred his coffee thoughtfully.  He was a man just passing middle-age, with grey hair, thin in places but carefully trimmed, brushed sedulously back from his high forehead.  His moustache, too, was grey, and his face was heavily lined, but his eyes, clear and bright, were almost the eyes of a young man.

“You can reassure the Emperor,” he declared.  “As you may imagine, my supply of information here is plentiful.  If those things should come that we know of, it is my firm belief that with some reasonable yet nominal considerations, this Government will never lend itself to war.”

“You really believe that?” she asked earnestly.

“I do,” her companion assured her.  “I try to be fair in my judgments.  London is a pleasant city to live in, and English people are agreeable and well-bred, but they are a people absolutely without vital impulses.  Patriotism belongs to their poetry books.  Indolence has stagnated their blood.  They are like a nation under a spell, with their faces turned towards the pleasant and desirable things.  Only a few months ago, they even further reduced the size of their ridiculous army and threw cold water upon a scheme for raising untrained help in case of emergency.  Even their navy estimates are passed with difficulty.  The Government which is conducting the destinies of a people like this, which believes that war belongs to a past age, is never likely to become a menace to us.”

Anna drew a little sigh and lit the cigarette which the Prince passed her.  She threw herself back in her chair with an air of contentment.

“It is so pleasant once more to be among the big things,” she declared.  “In Berlin I think they are not fond of me, and they are so pompous and secretive.  Tell me, dear Prince, will you not be kinder to me?  Tell me what is really going to happen?”

He moved his chair a little closer to hers.

“I see no reason,” he said cautiously, “why you should not be told.  Events, then, will probably move in this direction.  Provocation will be given by Servia.  That is easily arranged.  Tension will be caused, Austria will make enormous demands, Russia will remonstrate, and, before any one has time to breathe, the clouds will part to let the lightnings through.  If anything, we are over-ready, straining with over-readiness.”