“And I thought you were a man of sentiment!” Dominey scoffed.  “I thought you understood a little of human nature.  Stephanie Eiderstrom is Hungarian born and bred.  Even race has never taught her self-restraint.  You don’t seriously suppose that after all these years, after all she has suffered—­and she has suffered—­she is going to be content with an emasculated form of friendship?  I talk to you without reserve, Seaman.  She has made it very plain to-night that she is going to be content with nothing of the sort.”

“What takes place between you in private,” Seaman began—­

“Rubbish!” his companion interrupted.  “The Princess is an impulsive, a passionate, a distinctly primitive woman, with a good deal of the wild animal in her still.  Plots or political necessities are not likely to count a snap of the fingers with her.”

“But surely,” Seaman protested, “she must understand that your country has claimed you for a great work?”

Dominey shook his head.

“She is not a German,” he pointed out.  “On the contrary, like a great many other Hungarians, I think she rather dislikes Germany and Germans.  Her only concern is the personal question between us.  She considers that every moment of the rest of my life should be devoted to her.”

“Perhaps it is as well,” Seaman remarked, “that you have arranged to go down to-morrow to Dominey.  I will think out a scheme.  Something must be done to pacify her.”

The lights were being put out.  The two men rose a little unwillingly.  Dominey felt singularly indisposed for sleep, but anxious at the same time to get rid of his companion.  They strolled into the darkened hall of the hotel together.

“I will deal with the matter for you as well as I can,” Seaman promised.  “To my mind, your greatest difficulty will be encountered to-morrow.  You know what you have to deal with down at Dominey.”

Dominey’s face was very set and grave.

“I am prepared,” he said.

Seaman still hesitated.

“Do you remember,” he asked, “that when we talked over your plans at Cape Town, you showed me a picture of—­of Lady Dominey?”

“I remember.”

“May I have one more look at it?”

Dominey, with fingers that trembled a little, drew from the breast pocket of his coat a leather case, and from that a worn picture.  The two men looked at it side by side beneath one of the electric standards which had been left burning.  The face was the face of a girl, almost a child, and the great eyes seemed filled with a queer, appealing light.  There was something of the same suggestion to be found in the lips, a certain helplessness, an appeal for love and protection to some stronger being.

Seaman turned away with a little grunt, and commented: 

“Permitting myself to reassume for a moment or two the ordinary sentiments of an ordinary human being, I would sooner have a dozen of your Princesses to deal with than the original of that picture.”