There was a little pause, and the color slowly left his face.

Somehow that pause frightened Etta.
"I am afraid I must go," he said gravely at length.
"Must--a prince ?" "It is on that account," he replied.
"Then I am to conclude that you are more devoted to your peasants than to--me ?" He assured her to the contrary.

She tried once again, but nothing could move him from his decision.

Etta was perhaps a small-minded person, and as such failed to attach due importance to this proof that her power over him was limited.

It ceased, in fact, to exist as soon as it touched that strong sense of duty which is to be found in many men and in remarkably few women.
It almost seemed as if the abrupt departure of her lover was in some sense a relief to Etta Sydney Bamborough.