My mandate is for peace, and my charge is from the Kaiser's lips." Stephanie, with the air of one a little weary of the conversation, broke away from a distant group and came towards them.

Her beautiful eyes seemed tired, she moved listlessly, and she even spoke with less than her usual assurance.
"Am I disturbing a serious conversation ?" she asked.

"Send me away if I am." "His Excellency and I," Dominey observed, "have reached a cul-de-sac in our argument,--the blank wall of good-natured but fundamental disagreement." "Then I shall claim you for a while," Stephanie declared, taking Dominey's arm.

"Lady Dominey has attracted all the men to her circle, and I am lonely." The Prince bowed.
"I deny the cul-de-sac," he said, "but I yield our host! I shall seek my opponent at billiards." He turned away and Stephanie sank into his vacant place.
"So you and my cousin," she remarked, as she made room for Dominey to sit by her side, "have come to a disagreement." "Not an unfriendly one," her host assured her.
"That I am sure of.

Maurice seems, indeed, to have taken a wonderful liking to you.