There's always a German princeling handy
for any vacant throne!"--contemptuously--"and in the event of a big
European War, Ruvania in German hands would provide an easy entrance into
Russia. So you see, Nadine, alive and in safety, was a perpetual menace
to the German plans. For some years she was hidden in a convent down in
the West Country, not very far from Crailing, and after a while people
came to believe that she, too, had perished in the revolution. It was
only then that Max allowed her to emerge from the convent, and by that
time she had grown from a young, unformed girl into a woman, so that
there was little danger of her being recognised by any casual
observer--or even by the agents of the anti-royalist party."
"Max seems to have done--a great deal--for her," said Diana, speaking
slowly and rather painfully.
Olga flashed her a brief look of understanding.
"Yes," she said quietly. "He has done everything that patriotism
demanded of him--even"--meaningly--"to the sacrificing of his own
personal happiness. . . . It was entirely his idea that Nadine should
pass as an actress. She always had dramatic talent, and when she came
out of the convent he arranged that she should study for the stage. He
believed that there was no safer way of concealing her identity than by
providing her with an entirely different one--and a very obvious one at
that. And events have proved him right.
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