Clementina

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.