o'clock."

"I have already confided the result of my morning despatches to the
Prime Minister," Terniloff observed.

"I went through them before I came down here," was the somewhat doubtful
reply.

"You will have appreciated, I hope, their genuinely pacific tone?"
Terniloff asked anxiously.

His interlocutor bowed and then drew himself up. It was obvious that the
strain of the last few days was telling upon him. There were lines about
his mouth, and his eyes spoke of sleepless nights.

"Words are idle things to deal with at a time like this," he said. "One
thing, however, I will venture to say to you, Prince, here and under
these circumstances. There will be no war unless it be the will of your
country."

Terniloff was for a moment unusually pale. It was an episode of
unrecorded history. He rose to his feet and raised his hat.

"There will be no war," he said solemnly.

The Cabinet Minister passed on with a lighter step. Dominey, more
clearly than ever before, understood the subtle policy which had chosen
for his great position a man as chivalrous and faithful and yet as
simple-minded as Terniloff. He looked after the retreating figure of the
Cabinet Minister with a slight smile at the corner of his lips.