"
"Would you know Prince Frederic if you were to see him?" quietly asked
Lorry.
"I have not seen him since he was a very small boy, and then but for a
moment--on the day when he and his mother were driven through the
streets on their way to exile."
"We have a new man in the Castle Guard and there is a mystery attached
to him. Would you mind looking at him and telling us if he is what
Frederic might be in his manhood?" Lorry put the question and everyone
present drew a deep breath of interest.
Mizrox readily consented and Baldos, intercepted on his rounds, was led
unsuspecting into an outer chamber. The duke, accompanied by Lorry and
Baron Dangloss, entered the room. They were gone from the assemblage but
a few minutes, returning with smiles of uncertainty on their faces.
"It is impossible, your highness, for me to say whether or not it is
Frederic," said the duke frankly. "He is what I imagine the pretender
might be at his age, but it would be sheer folly for me to speculate. I
do not know the man."
Beverly squeezed the Countess Dagmar's arm convulsively.
"Hurrah!" she whispered, in great relief. Dagmar looked at her in
astonishment. She could not fathom the whimsical American.
"They have been keeping an incessant watch over the home of Frederic's
cousin. He is to marry her when the time is propitious," volunteered the
young duke.
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