the most specific of all being that he had designed his daughter for one
Bouverot, a disreputable court intriguer, his leaning towards Bouverot
being based on financial liabilities, and stimulated by financial
expectations. The minister's lady detested Bouverot, but in desiring
separation between Liana and Albano, she was her husband's ally. Behold,
then, Liana torn between duty towards her mother and love for Albano.

Once Albano saw her, but heard no explanation. The prince was wedded to
the Princess of Haarbaar, and it was at a wedding festivity in the
grounds of the pleasure palace of Lilar that Albano looked upon his
beloved. But she was pledged for the time to tell him nothing, and she
told him nothing. The princess looked curiously at her, for Liana
exactly resembled the princess's younger sister, the philanthropic
Idoine, who devoted herself to the idyllic happiness of her peasantry in
the Arcadian village that it was her whim to rule.

To the aged and saintly court chaplain, Spener, Liana at last brought
her perplexities. Here the history moves in veils. How he extorted from
her the promise to renounce her Albano for ever is a mystery watched and
hidden by the Great Sphinx of the oath she swore to him.

On the next day Albano was summoned, and stood with quivering lips
before the beloved.

"I am true to you--even unto death," she said; "but all is over."

He looked upon her, wild, wondering.

"I have resigned you," she said; "and my parents are not to blame. There
is a mystery that has constrained me--"