CHAPTER IV.
THE AWFUL REVELATION.
Time passed on.

A settled sadness rested once more upon the countenance of the good duke's daughter.

She and Conrad were seen together no more now.

The duke grieved at this.

But as the weeks wore away Conrad's color came back to his cheeks and his old-time vivacity to his eye, and he administered the government with a clear and steadily ripening wisdom.
Presently a strange whisper began to be heard about the palace.