ABSTRACT
The Comtesse de Fontainebleau kept her own counsel and hope. Love has a method of picking locks unknown to the most expert burglar. Whilst Evelyn Harland lived the legitimist cause could not die. There was some grumbling at this want of confidence; but the President was master of the situation, and he was obviously disinclined to reveal his final plan of action, though its general nature was sufficiently indicated. Next day Vansittart was at lunch when a note reached him from the British Embassy. There was no pretence of carelessness or ennui on his part. He was simply waiting for action by others, and he was fixed in his determination to deal with events as they arrived, not to anticipate them. He was positively happy at the thought that finality was at hand, and his smiling self-possession deceived even the ladies when they came to tea in the billiard-room.
