"
And then suddenly they heard the sound of two men's voices, and the next
moment the _portieres_ parted, admitting Sansevero and Derby. Both the
princess and Nina sprang up; the princess in her joy ran straight to her
husband's arms. It was like a meeting after a long separation that had
been full of perils.
A little later she put out her hand to Derby. "I don't think I shall
ever be able to thank you enough; it was quite worth all the anxiety and
distress to have found such a friend." Her smile was entrancing. The
charm of her was always not so much in what she said, as in the way she
said it--in the way she gave her hand, in the way she looked at one, in
the varying inflection of her voice, in her sweetness, her calm, her
dignity, and, under all these attributes, always her heart. And never
had she shown them all more vividly than now as she put her hand into
Derby's.
Then they all four sat down--the princess in a big chair and her husband
on the arm of it leaning half back of her. And nothing could stop his
talk about his friend the American, and the effect upon the members of
the committee when the picture was produced and Derby presented his
chain of evidence. They had been more than polite and courteous to the
prince, that was true, but they _had_ detained him; him, a
Sansevero!--and in the telling he again grew indignant.
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