"A great deal that you would not say to a countess?" she asked, playing with fire.
"A great deal that a child four days old could hardly be expected to grasp, Miss Cameron," he replied, pointedly. "Having lived to a great age myself, and acquired wisdom, I appreciate the futility of uttering profound truths to an infant in arms."
She beamed. "O'Dowd could not have done any better than that," she cried. Then quickly, even nervously, as he was about to speak again: "Now, tell me all that Mr. O'Dowd had to say."
He seated himself and repeated the Irishman's warning. Her eyes clouded as he went on; utter dejection came into them.
"He is right. It would be difficult for me to clear myself. My own people would be against me. No one would believe that I did not deliberately make off with the jewels. They would say that I--oh, it is too dreadful!"
"Don't worry about that," he exclaimed. "You have me to testify that--"
"How little you know of intrigue," she cried. "They would laugh at you and say that you were merely another fool who had lost his head over a woman. They would say that I duped you--"
"No!" he cried vehemently. "Your people know better than you think. You are disheartened, discouraged. Things will look brighter to- morrow. Good heavens, think how much worse it might have been. That-- that infernal brute was going to force you into a vile, unholy marriage. He--By the way," he broke off abruptly, "I have been thinking a lot about what you told me. He couldn't have married you without your consent. Such a marriage would never hold in a court of-- "
"You are wrong," she said quietly. "He could have married me without my consent, and it would have held,--not in one of your law courts, I dare say, but in the court to which he and I belong by laws that were made centuries before America was discovered. A prince of the royal house may wed whom and when he chooses, provided he does not look too far beneath his station. He may not wed a commoner. The state would not recognise such a union. My consent was not necessary."
"But you are in my country now, not in yours," he argued. "Our laws would have protected you."
"You do not understand. Marriages such as he contemplated are made every year in Europe. Do you suppose that the royal marriages you read about in the newspapers are made with the consent of the poor little princes and princesses? Your laws are one thing, Mr. Barnes; our courts are another. Need I be more explicit?"