Julian, who knew that Stair never did anything without a reason, asked him if he had found everything clear from the lookout.
"Oh, all clear," said Stair, and sat down to make a pretence of breakfasting. But he could not keep his eyes from wandering in the direction of Julian Wemyss, who, seated in the great chair between the window and the fire, was presently bending his brows over the packet he had received. Eight sheets of a fine and light handwriting like that of the address--from the Princess Elsa, of that there could be no question. Julian read on and on, wrapped up in the daintily written words, unconscious of the thick enclosure on paper like parchment, which had slipped down on the floor of the Bothy. Stair could see the huge black downstrokes of the superscription. He stopped eating and began to clear away.
Julian looked up from his reading at the sudden clattering of pottery.
"Hold there," he said, "it is my day--you must not forget. I claim my rights."
But Stair continued with a smile to prepare for that part of the work which is the curse of every bachelor ménage--the washing-up after.
"I think," he said quietly, "that you will have enough to do with your correspondence--I take everything upon me for to-day. Your pardon, Mr. Wemyss, but I am afraid you have dropped something!"
"Ah, so I have--it is nothing--I am much obliged to you."
He spoke the truth. It was nothing to him--what, indeed, could be anything in comparison with those eight closely written sheets of large letter paper from his Princess--only the half of which he had yet mastered. Elsa of Saxe-Brunschweig had never written him so long a letter since the day when they agreed, long ago in Vienna, that for the good of her house and country she must marry the old duke-elector.
So it came to pass that Julian Wemyss was grateful to Patsy for bringing him such good fortune. Nor was he surprised out of measure when he heard that his niece had the offer of the hand of a Prince reigning in his own right.
But better than any one else, Julian could measure the greatness of the Prince's affection, because he knew what these royal and grand ducal persons think of their order. He saw that it was in some sort a defiance flung at the court of Austria, which Eitel of Altschloss had served so bravely, and which had done nothing for the young captain of horse till he found himself suddenly pistoned into a princedom.