"Including Prince Udo," smiled Hyacinth.
"That's a splendid idea. We'll make her have Udo. It will annoy your father, but one can't please everybody. Oh, I can see myself enjoying this."
They got up and wandered back along Wiggs's path, hand in hand.
"I'm almost afraid to leave the forest," said Hyacinth, "in case something happens."
"What should happen?"
"I don't know; but all our life together has been in the forest, and I'm just a little afraid of the world."
"I will be very close to you always, Hyacinth."
"Be very close, Coronel," she whispered, and then they walked out together.
If any of the servants at the Palace were surprised to see Coronel, they did not show it. After all, that was their business.
"Prince Coronel will be staying here," said the Princess. "Prepare a room for him and some refreshment for us both." And if they discussed those things in the servants' halls of those days (as why should they not?), no doubt they told each other that the Princess Hyacinth (bless her pretty face!) had found her man at last. Why, you only had to see her looking at him. But I get no assistance from Roger at this point; he pretends that he has a mind far above the gossip of the lower orders.
"I say," said Coronel, as they went up the grand staircase, "I am not a Prince, you know. Don't say I have deceived you."
"You are my Prince," said Hyacinth proudly.
"My dear, I am a king among men to–day, and you are my queen, but that's in our own special country of two."
"If you are so particular," said Hyacinth, with a smile, "Father will make you a proper Prince directly he comes back."
"Will he? That's what I'm wondering. You see he doesn't know yet about our little present to the Countess."
But it is quite time we got back to Belvane; we have left her alone too long. It was more than Udo did. Just now he was with her in her garden, telling her for the fifth time an extraordinarily dull story about an encounter of his with a dragon, apparently in its dotage, to which Belvane was listening with an interest which surprised even the narrator.
"And then," said Udo, "I jumped quickly to the right, and whirling my—no, wait a bit, that was later—I jumped quickly to my left—yes, I remember it now, it was my left—I jumped quickly to my left, and whirling my―"
He stopped suddenly at the expression on Belvane's face. She was looking over his shoulder at something behind him.
"Why, whoever is this?" she said, getting to her feet.
Before Udo had completely cleared his mind of his dragon, the Princess and Coronel were upon them.
"Ah, Countess, I thought we should find you together," said Hyacinth archly. "Let me present to you my friend, the Duke Coronel. Coronel, this is Countess Belvane, a very dear and faithful friend of mine. Prince Udo, of course, you know. His Royal Highness and the Countess are—well, it isn't generally known at present, so perhaps I oughtn't to say anything."
Coronel made a deep bow to the astonished Belvane.
"Your humble servant," he said. "You will, I am sure, forgive me if I say how glad I am to hear your news. Udo is one of my oldest friends"—he turned and clapped that bewildered Highness on the back—"aren't you, Udo? and I can think of no one more suitable in every way." He bowed again, and turned back to the Prince. "Well, Udo, you're looking splendid. A different thing, Countess, from when I last saw him. Let me see, that must have been just the day before he arrived in Euralia. Ah, what a miracle–worker True Love is!"
I think one of the things which made Belvane so remarkable was that she was never afraid of remaining silent when she was not quite sure what to say. She waited therefore while she considered what all this meant; who Coronel was, what he was doing there, even whether a marriage with Udo was not after all the best that she could hope for now.
Meanwhile Udo, of course, blundered along gaily.
"We aren't exactly, Princess—I mean―What are you doing here, Coronel?—I didn't know, Princess, that you― The Countess and I were just having a little—I was just telling her what you said about—How did you get here, Coronel?"
"Shall we tell him?" said Coronel, with a smile at Hyacinth.
Hyacinth nodded.
"I rode," said Coronel. "It's a secret," he added.
"But I didn't know that you―"
"We find that we have really known each other a very long time," explained Hyacinth.
"And hearing that there was to be a wedding," added Coronel―
Belvane made up her mind. Coronel was evidently a very different man from Udo. If he stayed in Euralia as adviser—more than adviser she guessed—to Hyacinth, her own position would not be in much doubt. And as for the King, it might be months before he came back, and when he did come would he remember her? But to be Queen of Araby was no mean thing.
"We didn't want it to be known yet," she said shyly, "but you have guessed our secret, your Royal Highness." She looked modestly at the ground, and, feeling for her reluctant lover's hand, went on, "Udo and I"—here she squeezed the hand, and, finding it was Coronel's, took Udo's boldly without any more maidenly nonsense—"Udo and I love each other."
"Say something, Udo," prompted Coronel.
"Er—yes," said Udo, very unwillingly, and deciding he would explain it all afterwards. Whatever his feelings for the Countess, he was not going to be rushed into a marriage.
"Oh, I'm so glad," said Hyacinth. "I felt somehow that it must be coming, because you've seen so much of each other lately. Wiggs and I have often talked about it together."
("What has happened to the child?" thought Belvane. "She isn't a child at all, she's grown up.")
"There's no holding Udo once he begins," volunteered Coronel. "He's the most desperate lover in Araby.
"My father will be so excited when he hears," said Hyacinth. "You know, of course, that his Majesty comes back to–morrow with all his army."
She did not swoon or utter a cry. She did not plead the vapours or the megrims. She took unflinching what must have been the biggest shock in her life.
"Then perhaps I had better see that everything is ready in the Palace," she said, "if your Royal Highness will excuse me." And with a curtsey she was gone.
Coronel exchanged a glance with Hyacinth. "I'm enjoying this," he seemed to say.
"Well," she announced, "I must be going in, too. There'll be much to see about."
Coronel was left alone with the most desperate lover in Araby.
"And now," said the Prince, "tell me what you are doing here."
Coronel put his arm in Udo's and walked him up and down the flagged path.
"Your approaching marriage," he said, "is the talk of Araby. Naturally I had to come here to see for myself what she was like. My dear Udo, she's charming; I congratulate you."
"Don't be a fool, Coronel. I haven't the slightest intention of marrying her."
"Then why have you told everybody that you are going to?"
"You know quite well I haven't told anybody. There hasn't been a single word about it mentioned until you pushed your way in just now."
"Ah, well, perhaps you hadn't heard about it. But the Princess knows, the Countess knows, and I know—yes, I think you may take our word for it that it's true."
"I haven't the slightest intention—what do you keep clinging to my arm like this for?
"My dear Udo, I'm so delighted to see you again. Don't turn your back on old friendships just because you have found a nobler and a truer― Oh, very well, if you're going to drop all your former friends, go on then. But when I'm married, there will always be a place for―"
"Understand once and for all," said Udo angrily, "that I am not getting married. No, don't take my arm—we can talk quite well like this."