372  BLACK    DIAMONDS

"  There's  no  need  to  shake  hands  over  our  honorable
compact. Take  your  note-book  and  write  down  the
conditions,  and  be  sure  you  put  the  dates  correctly. To-
morrow, if  I  receive  by  one  o'clock  the  card  of  invitation
to  your  entertainment,  I  shall  remain  away  from  the  ex-
change. The  next  day  I  do  the  same ;  that  is,  if  I  re-
ceive befo7'e  one  o'clock  the  official  notification  that  your
civil  marriage  has  taken  place. On  the  fourth  day,  if
before  ouQ  o'clock  your  solicitor  brings  me  the  news  that
you  have  set  off  to  Brussels  to  negotiate  the  papal  loan,
and  that  he  hands  me  the  key  of  your  house,  with  the
request  that  I  will  look  after  the  business  in  your  ab-
sence, then  I  shall  go  down  to  the  exchange,  and  push
your  affair  as  if  it  were  my  own. Now  you  may  go,  sir,
and  indulge  your  outraged  feelings  in  private."


CHAPTER    XXXI

EVA    DIRKMAL

Felix  Kaulmann  felt  that  he  had  made  good  use  of
his  opportunity. All  would  now  go  well. The  prince
would  no  longer  avail  himself  of  the  Bondavara  catas-
trophe to  ruin  him  ;  on  the  contrary,  his  influence  would
stem  the  panic  which  the  news  had,  no  doubt,  already
caused  in  the  Vienna  money-market,  and  when  the  papal
loan  was  concluded  all  would  be  smooth. There  was
Eveline,  of  course  ;  but  a  man  such  as  Kaulmann,  whose
conscience  had  long  since  been  as  withered  as  was  his
heart,  soon  found  excuses  for  any  ill-doing. No  one
could  blame  him  for  the  prince's  infatuation  ;  it  would
be  only  a  fool  who  wouldn't  take  advantage  of  it,  es-
pecially one  in  his  situation. A  drowning  man  catches
at  any  plank  ;  and  as  for  Eveline,  she  owed  him  a  debt
of  gratitude. Had  he  not  raised  her  from  the  very  dust
of  the  coal-pit  to  her  present  situation,  saved  her  from  a
brutal  husband  like  the  savage  Saffran,  educated  her,
made  her  a  fit  companion  for  a  prince  ?  Better  women
than  she  w^ould  be  glad  of  the  elevation  that  was  await-
ing her ;  and  this  reminded  him  that  the  Abbe  Samuel's
interview  must  have  opened  the  matter,  so  he  went  in
search  of  him. The  priest,  however,  was  not  to  be
found  at  any  of  his  usual  haunts. 