They were still talking together as Franzel, with whom Armitage had
spoken below, entered hurriedly. He held a crumpled note, whose contents,
it seemed, had shaken him out of his habitual melancholy composure.

"Is Baron von Marhof in the room?" he asked of Armitage, fumbling
nervously at his monocle.

The Austrian Ambassador, with several ladies, and led by Senator
Sanderson, was approaching.

The attaché hurried to his chief and addressed him in a low tone. The
Ambassador stopped, grew very white, and stared at the messenger for a
moment in blank unbelief.

The young man now repeated, in English, in a tone that could be heard in
all parts of the hushed room:

"His Majesty, the Emperor Johann Wilhelm, died suddenly to-night, in
Vienna," he said, and gave his arm to his chief.

It was a strange place for the delivery of such a message, and the
strangeness of it was intensified to Shirley by the curious glance that
passed between John Armitage and Jules Chauvenet. Shirley remembered
afterward that as the attaché's words rang out in the room, Armitage
started, clenched his hands, and caught his breath in a manner very
uncommon in men unless they are greatly moved. The Ambassador walked
directly from the room with bowed head, and every one waited in silent
sympathy until he had gone.

The word passed swiftly through the great house, and through the open