The prince trembled.

“Is it a note?”

“No, a verbal message; she had hardly time even for that. She begs you earnestly not to go out of the house for a single moment all today, until seven o’clock in the evening. It may have been nine ; I didn’t quite hear.”

“But⁠—but, why is this? What does it mean?”

“I don’t know at all; but she said I was to tell you particularly.”

“Did she say that?”

“Not those very words. She only just had time to whisper as she went by; but by the way she looked at me I knew it was important. She looked at me in a way that made my heart stop beating.”