THE PRINCE OF
THE CAPTIVITY
The Epilogue to a RomanceBY
SYDNEY C. GRIER
AUTHOR OF
‘AN UNCROWNED KING,’ ‘ THE WARDEN OF THE MARCHES,’
ETC., ETC.
(Fourth in the Balkan Series)
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MCMII
CONTENTS.
XXII. OPENING THE PRISON DOORS
THE PRINCE OF THE CAPTIVITY.
CHAPTER I.
BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION.
There were only a few passengers by the South Wales Express, and toone young man in a first-class carriage the fact was very welcome. Hehad bought a paper almost unconsciously from the boy who came to thewindow, but it did him good service as a shield, from behind which hecould cast suspicious and hostile glances, after the manner of thetravelling Briton, at any one who seemed inclined to disturb hissolitude, as long as the train was in the station. But when once thedreary and dirty buff brick surroundings of the terminus had been leftbehind, the paper fell to the floor, and Lord Usk gazed out of thewindow with an expression which seemed too ecstatic to be evoked evenby the busy harvest-fields and the nursery-gardens full of asters andlate roses on which his bodily eyes were resting. And indeed the scenebefore him might still have been a brick-and-mortar desert for allthat he saw of it. His mental gaze was fixed upon the face of MissFélicia J. Steinherz, the sight of which had changed the whole courseof his life.
Could it really be the case, he was wondering, that a month ago he hadnever seen Félicia Steinherz? Yes, it was perfectly true, and thec