Draconmeyer waited eagerly for his message.
"Lady Hunterleys is lying down, sir," the man announced.

"She is very much upset and begs you to excuse her." Draconmeyer waved the man away and walked up and down the apartment, his hands behind his back, his lips hard-set.

He was face to face with a crisis which baffled him completely, and yet which he felt to be wholly unworthy of his powers.

His brain had never been keener, his sense of power more inspiring.

Yet he had never felt more impotent.