When he had gone Prince Aribert took the other doctor aside. ‘Forget everything, doctor,’ he said, ‘except that I am one man and you are another, and tell me the truth. Shall you be able to save his Highness? Tell me the truth.’
‘There is no truth,’ was the doctor’s reply. ‘The future is not in our hands, Prince.’
The doctor looked at Prince Aribert. ‘No!’ he said shortly. ‘I am not. I am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side.’
‘I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must have observed that.’
‘No,’ said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella’s finger.
With a gesture she beckoned him towards the ante-room.
‘If you choose,’ she said, when they were alone, ‘Prince Eugen can be saved.
‘You have arranged it?’ He bent over her, almost with an air of alarm. ‘Go and tell him that the million pounds which is so necessary to his happiness will be forthcoming. Tell him that it will be forthcoming today, if that will be any satisfaction to him.’
‘I mean what I say, Aribert,’ and she sought his hand and took it in hers.
‘Just what I say. If a million pounds will save Prince Eugen’s life, it is at his disposal.’
‘But how--how have you managed it? By what miracle?’
‘My father,’ she replied softly, ‘will do anything that I ask him. Do not let us waste time. Go and tell Eugen it is arranged, that all will be well.
‘But we cannot accept this--this enormous, this incredible favour. It is impossible.’
‘Aribert,’ she said quickly, ‘remember you are not in Posen holding a Court reception. You are in England and you are talking to an American girl who has always been in the habit of having her own way.’
The Prince threw up his hands and went back in to the bedroom. The doctor was at a table writing out a prescription. Aribert approached the bedside, his heart beating furiously. Eugen greeted him with a faint, fatigued smile.
‘Eugen,’ he whispered, ‘listen carefully to me. I have news. With the assistance of friends I have arranged to borrow that million for you. It is quite settled, and you may rely on it. But you must get better. Do you hear me?’
Eugen almost sat up in bed. ‘Tell me I am not delirious,’ he exclaimed.
‘Of course you aren’t,’ Aribert replied. ‘But you mustn’t sit up. You must take care of yourself.’