He welcomed Brott with relief.
"We have been sending all over London for you, sir," he said.
Brott nodded.
"I am better out of the way for the present," he answered. "Deny
me to everybody for an hour, especially Letheringham. There is
nothing here, I suppose, which cannot wait so long as that?"
The secretary looked a little doubtful.
"I think not, sir," he decided.
"Very good. Go and get something to eat. You look fagged. And
tell Hyson to bring up some liqueurs, will you! I shall be engaged
for a short time."
The secretary withdrew. A servant appeared with a little tray of
liqueurs, and in obedience to an impatient gesture from his master,
left them upon the table. Brott closed the door firmly.
"Prince," he said, resuming his seat, "I wished to speak with you
concerning the Countess."
Saxe Leinitzer nodded.
"All right," he said. "I am listening!"
"I understand," Brott continued, "that you are one of her oldest
friends, and also one of the trustees of her estates. I presume
that you stand to her therefore to some extent in the position of
an adviser?"
"It is perfectly true," the Prince admitted.
"I, too, am an old friend, as she has doubtless told you," Brott
said. "All my life she has been the one woman whom I have desired
to call my wife. That desire has never been so strong as at the
present moment.
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