Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto

234 PRINCE OTTO
with a quick and heavy tramp. It was the
Chancellor, followed by four of Otto's valets
and a litter. The servants, when they were
admitted, stared at the dishevelled Princess and
the wounded man ; speech was denied them,
but their thoughts were riddled with profanity.
Gondremark was bundled in; the curtains of
the htter were lowered ; the bearers carried
it forth, and the Chancellor followed behind
with a white face.
Seraphina ran to the window. Pressing her
face upon the pane, she could see the terrace,
where the lights contended ; thence, the avenue
of lamps that joined the Palace and town ; and
overhead the hollow night and the larger stars.
Presently the small procession issued from the
Palace, crossed the parade, and began to thread
the glittering alley : the swinging couch with its
four porters, the much-pondering Chancellor
behind. She watched them dwindle with
strange thoughts ; her eyes fixed upon the
scene, her mind still glancing right and left on
the overthrow of her life and hopes. There
was no one left in whom she might confide ;
none whose hand was friendly, or on whom she
dared to reckon for the barest loyalty. With
the fall of Gondremark her party, her brief
popularity, had fallen. So she sat crouched
upon the window seat, her broAv to the cool