As the day wore on Lorry grew irritable and restless.  He could not bring himself into full touch with the situation, notwithstanding Harry’s frequent and graphic recollections of incidents that had occurred and that had led to their present condition.  Their luncheon was served in the Count’s room, as it was inadvisable for the injured man to go to the dining-hall until he was stronger.  The court physician assured him that he would be incapacitated for several days, but that in a very short time his wound would lose the power to annoy him in the least.  The Count and Countess Halfont, Anguish and others came to cheer him and to make his surroundings endurable.  Still he was dissatisfied, even unhappy.

The cause of his uneasiness and depression was revealed only by the manner in which it was removed.  He was lying stretched out on the couch, staring from the window, his head aching; his heart full of a longing that knows but one solace.  Anguish had gone out in the grounds after assuring himself that his charge was asleep, so there was no one in the room when he awakened from a sickening dream to shudder alone over its memory.  A cool breeze from an open window fanned his head kindly; a bright sun gleamed across the trees, turning them into gold and purple and red and green; a quiet repose was in all that touched him outwardly; inwardly there was burning turmoil.  He turned on his side and curiously felt the bandages about his head.  They were tight and smooth, and he knew they were perfectly white.  How lonely those bandages made him feel, away off there in Graustark!

The door to his room opened softly, but he did not turn, thinking it was Anguish—­always Anguish—­and not the one he most desired to—­

“Her Royal Highness,” announced a maid, and then—­

“May I come in?” asked a voice that went to his troubled soul like a cooling draught to the fevered throat.  He turned toward her instantly, all the irritation, all the uneasiness, all the loneliness vanishing like mist before the sun.  Behind her was a lady-in-waiting.

“I cannot deny the request of a princess,” he responded, smiling gaily.  He held forth his hand toward her, half fearing she would not take it.

The Princess Yetive came straight to his couch and laid her hand in his.  He drew it to his lips and then released it lingeringly.  She stood before him, looking down with an anxiety in her eyes that would have repaid him had death been there to claim his next breath.

“Are you better?” she asked, with her pretty accent.  “I have been so troubled about you.”

“I thought you had forgotten me,” he said, with childish petulance.

“Forgotten you!” she cried, quick to resent the imputation.  “Let me tell you, then, what I have been doing while forgetting.  I have sent to the Regengetz for your luggage and your friend’s.  You will find it much more comfortable here.  You are to make this house your home as long as you are in Edelweiss.  That is how I have been forgetting.”