"It's very nice for a change, but--" She stopped abruptly.

Her eye had fallen on Rudolf Rassendyll.

He knew her: she was no less a person than the wife of Helsing the chancellor; his was the house at which the carriage had stopped.

The trick that had served with the sergeant of police would not do now.

She knew the king too well to believe that she could be mistaken about him; she was too much of a busybody to be content to pretend that she was mistaken.
"Good gracious!" she whispered loudly, and, catching her daughter's arm, she murmured, "Heavens, my dear, it's the king!" Rudolf was caught.