She became conscious of the futility of her attitude of prayer. She
raised her head and saw that a man kneeling close to the altar had
turned and was staring fixedly towards her. The man was the Prince of
Baden. Had he recognised her? She peered between her fingers; she
remarked that his gaze was puzzled; he was not then sure, though he
suspected. She waited until he turned his head again, and then she
silently rose to her feet and slipped out of the church. She found Wogan
waiting for her in some anxiety.
"Did he recognise you?" he asked.
"He was not sure," answered Clementina. "How did you know he was at
Mass?"
"A native I spoke with told me."
Clementina climbed up into the cart.
"The Prince is not a generous man," she said hesitatingly.
Wogan understood her. The Prince of Baden must not know that she had
come to Peri escorted by a single cavalier. He would talk bitterly, he
would make much of his good fortune in that he had not married the
Princess Clementina, he would pity the Chevalier de St. George,--there
was a fine tale there. Wogan could trace it across the tea-tables of
Europe, and hear the malicious inextinguishable laughter which winged it
on its way. He drove off quickly from the church door.
"He leaves Peri at nine," said Wogan. "He will have no time to make
inquiries. We have but to avoid the inn he stays at. There is a second
at the head of the village which we passed."
To this second inn Wogan drove, and was welcomed by a shrewish woman
whose sour face was warmed for once in a way into something like
enthusiasm.
"A lodging indeed you shall have," cried she, "and a better lodging than
the Prince of Baden can look back upon, though he pay never so dearly
for it. Poor man, he will have slept wakefully this night! Here, sir,
you will find honest board and an honest bed for yourself and your sweet
lady, and an honest bill to set you off in a sweet humour in the
morning."
"Nay, my good woman," interrupted Wogan, hastily. "This is no sweet lady
of mine, nor are we like to stay until the morrow. The truth is, we are
a party of four, but our carriage snapped its axle some miles back. The
young lady's uncle and aunt are following us, and we wait only for their
arrival."
Wogan examined the inn and thought the disposition of it very
convenient. It made three sides of a courtyard open to the road. On the
right and the bottom were farm-buildings and a stable; the inn was the
wing upon the left hand. The guest rooms, of which there were four, were
all situated upon the first floor and looked out upon a little thicket
of fir-trees at the back of the wing. They were approached by a
staircase, which ran up with a couple of turns from the courtyard itself
and on the outside of the house-wall. Wogan was very pleased with that
staircase; it was narrow. He was pleased, too, because there were no
other travellers in the inn. He went back to the landlady.