Helga was at the door now, and she thrust her head round young Bernenstein's broad shoulders.

Thus she saw what happened.

The queen, forgetting the servants, and not observing Helsing--seeming indeed to stay for nothing, and to think of nothing, but to have her thoughts and heart filled with the sight of the man she loved and the knowledge of his safety--met him as he ran towards her, and, before Helga, or Bernenstein, or Rudolf himself, could stay her or conceive what she was about to do, caught both his hands in hers with an intense grasp, crying: "Rudolf, you're safe! Thank God, oh, thank God!" and she carried his hands to her lips and kissed them passionately.
A moment of absolute silence followed, dictated in the servants by decorum, in the chancellor by consideration, in Helga and Bernenstein by utter consternation.

Rudolf himself also was silent, but whether from bewilderment or an emotion answering to hers, I know not.

Either it might well be.