"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. I cannot remember that you ever met before, except for
that day or two in Saxony?"

"That is so. The first time I exchanged any intimate conversation with
the Prince was in London. I have the utmost respect and regard for him,
but I cannot help feeling that the pleasant intimacy to which he has
admitted me is to a large extent owing to the desire of our friends
in Berlin. So far as I am concerned I have never met any one, of any
nation, whose character I admire more."

"Maurice lives his life loftily. He is one of the few great aristocrats
I have met who carries his nobility of birth into his simplest thought
and action. There is just one thing," she added, "which would break his
heart."

"And that?"

"The subject upon which you two disagree--a war between Germany and this
country."

"The Prince is an idealist," Dominey said. "Sometimes I wonder why
he was sent here, why they did not send some one of a more intriguing
character."