I helped the old man to his feet, and he rubbed the back of his head
grimly. He drew a revolver from his pocket.
"I had forgotten all about it," he said contritely. "Shall I follow
him, your Highness?"
"Let him go. It doesn't matter now. Betty, you were right, as you
always are. I have played the part of a silly fool. I _would_ have my
own way in the matter. Well, I have this worthless paper. At least I
can frighten the duke, and that is something."
"Oh, my dear, if only you would have listened to my advice!" the other
girl said. There was deep discouragement in her tones. "I warned you
so often that it would come to this end."
"Let us drop the matter entirely," said her Highness.
I gazed admiringly at her--to see her sink suddenly into a chair and
weep abandonedly! Leopold eyed her mournfully, while the English girl
rushed to her side and flung her arms around her soothingly.
"I am very unhappy," said the princess, lifting her head and shaking
the tears from her eyes. "I am harassed on all sides; I am not allowed
any will of my own. I wish I were a peasant!--Thank you, thank you!
But for you that wretch would have kissed me." She held out her hand
to me, and I bent to one knee as I kissed it. She was worthy to be the
wife of the finest fellow in all the world. I was very sorry for her,
and thought many uncomplimentary things of the duke.
"I shall not ask you to forget my weakness," she said.
"It is already forgotten, your Highness."
Under such circumstances I met the Princess Hildegarde of Barscheit;
and I never betrayed her confidence until this writing, when I have her
express permission.
Of Hermann Steinbock I never saw anything more. Thus the only villain
passes from the scene. As I have repeatedly remarked, doubtless to
your weariness, this is not my story at all; but in parenthesis I may
add that between the Honorable Betty Moore and myself there sprang up a
friendship which later ripened into something infinitely stronger.
This, then, was the state of affairs when, one month later, Max
Scharfenstein poked his handsome blond head over the frontier of
Barscheit; cue (as the dramatist would say), enter hero.