Once when he had been in danger she had warned him. On another occasion when he had been about to commit an act that was not worthy of himself or his rank she had stopped him.
Her influence had always been far greater than anyone realised except the Prince himself.
The reason why he had never married, although she had wished him to do so, was that he had never found a woman with the deep intrinsic goodness and sensitivity of his own mother.
It was, he told himself now, the urgings of his soul which had made him tell Lokita that he was deceiving her and prevented him from going on with the pretended marriage.
‘She loves me! I know she loves me,’ he told himself as he waited for her return to the room where he was sitting.
He thought that he must let her think for herself and realise th
