"I have asked you who you are!" bawled the prince, his nose turning
purple.
"My name is Max Scharfenstein. I am an American. If you will wire the
American consulate at Barscheit, you will learn that I have spoken the
truth. All this is a mistake. The princess did not elope with me."
"His papers give the name of Ellis," said the colonel, touching his cap.
"Humph! We'll soon find out who he is and what may be done with him.
I'll wait for the duke. Take him into the library and lock the door.
It's a hundred feet out of the window, and if he wants to break his
neck, he may do so. It will save us so much trouble. Take him away;
take him away!" his rage boiling to the surface.
The princess shrugged.
"I can't talk to you either," said the prince, turning his glowering
eyes upon the girl. "I can't trust myself."
"Oh, do not mind me. I understand that your command of expletives is
rather original. Go on; it will be my only opportunity." The princess
rocked backward and forward on the divan. Wasn't it funny!
"Lord help me, and I was perfectly willing to marry this girl!" The
prince suddenly calmed down. "What have I ever done to offend you?"
"Nothing," she was forced to admit.
"I was lonely. I wanted youth about. I wanted to hear laughter that
came from the heart and not from the mind. I do not see where I am to
be blamed. The duke suggested you to me; I believed you to be willing.
Why did you not say to me that I was not agreeable? It would have
simplified everything."
"I am sorry," she said contritely. When he spoke like this he wasn't
so unlovable.
"People say," he went on, "that I spend most of my time in my
wine-cellars. Well,"--defiantly,--"what else is there for me to do? I
am alone." Max came within his range of vision. "Take him away, I
tell you!"
And the colonel hustled Max into the library.
"Don't try the window," he warned, but with rather a pleasant smile.
He was only two or three years older than Max. "If you do, you'll
break your neck."
"I promise not to try," replied Max. "My neck will serve me many years
yet."
"It will not if you have the habit of running away with persons above
you in quality. Actions like that are not permissible in Europe." The
colonel spoke rather grimly, for all his smile.
The door slammed, there was a grinding of the key in the lock, and Max
was alone.