Pagratide, at Cara's elbow, was silent, respecting her silence.
When at last the two had the deck to themselves and Manhattan had become a shadowy and ragged monotone, she turned and smiled. It was a smile of accepting the inevitable. He went with her to the forward deck where her staterooms were situated, and left her there in silence.
Von Ritz, standing apart near the threshold of the smokeroom, heard his name paged almost before the speaker had entered the door, and turned to take from the hand of the bearer a Marconigram just relayed from shore. He read it and for an instant a look of pain crossed the features that rarely yielded to expression. Then he sought out Karyl's stateroom.
Karyl turned wearily from the wintry picture of a sullenly heaving sea, to answer the rap on the door. His face did not brighten as he recognized Von Ritz.
The Colonel was that type of being upon whom men may depend or whom they must fear. Whenever there was need, Karyl had come to know that there would be Von Ritz, but also there went with him an austerity and an impersonality that robbed him of the gratitude and love he might have claimed.
Now there was a note almost surly in the expression with which the Prince looked up to greet his father's confidential representative.
For answer the officer held out the message.
Karyl puckered his brows over the intricacies of the code and handed it back.
"Be good enough to construe it," he commanded.
"The King," said Von Ritz, "is ill. His Majesty wishes to instruct you in certain matters before--" He broke off with something like a catch in his voice, then continued calmly. "Recovery is despaired of, though death may not be immediate."
Karyl turned away, not wishing the soldier to see the tears he felt in his eyes, and Von Ritz discreetly withdrew as far as the door. There he paused, and after a moment's hesitation inquired:
"Her Highness goes to Maritzburg--to her father's Court--I presume?"
With his back still turned, the Prince nodded. "Why?" he demanded.
"Because--the message holds no hope--" Von Ritz paused, then added quietly "--and if Your Highness is called upon to mount the throne, it is advisable to hasten the marriage."
He backed out, closing the door behind him.