"Why should I be with her?"
Gretchen laughed, but the key was false.
"Are you not going to marry her? Surely, it is easy after the King has
given his permission. Have you already fallen out of love with her,
after all your efforts to make her a Princess? Truly, man is as
unstable as sand and water! Ah, but you fooled us all to the top of
our bent. You knew from the first that she was a Princess; but you
could not find the proofs. Hermann and I were the means to the end.
But who shall blame you? Not I! I am very grateful to you for having
given to me a sister. And if you fooled me, I returned measure for
measure. It is game and quit. Time hung heavy on my hands, and the
victory, however short, was amusing."
"I never loved her!" I cried. Where were the words I needed?
"So much the worse for you," disdainfully. "But here comes Hermann to
announce your supper."
"I shall not break the bread of inhospitality," said I, in the
bitterness of my despair. I gathered up my traps--and then I let them
tumble back. The needed words came with a rush to my lips. I went
close to her. "Why did you humiliate yourself in begging my life of
the Prince? Why, if my life was nothing to you? Answer. Why did you
stoop to your knees to that man if I was worthless to you? Why?"
Her cheeks grew red, then white; her lips formed words which she could
not speak.
"Herr Winthrop's supper is ready," announced the innkeeper.
"Go and eat it!" I said childishly.
"Your appetite is gone then?" imperturbably.
"Yes, and get you gone with it!"
The innkeeper surveyed me for a space. "Will you kindly tell me from
whom you received the information that Her Highness was at the inn?"
I produced the unsigned letter. He read it carefully, while Gretchen
looked on nervously.
"Ach!" said the innkeeper, "that Stahlberg! He shall be dismissed."
Unhappily for him, that individual was just passing along the corridor.
The innkeeper signaled him to approach.
"How dared you?" began the innkeeper, thrusting the letter under
Stahlberg's nose.
"Dare?--I?--Herr," said the big fellow, "I do not understand. What is
it you accuse me of?"
"This," cried the innkeeper: "You have written to Herr Winthrop and
told him that Her Highness was at the inn. And you were expressly
forbidden to do so."