A Prince to Order

ubterfuge of having caught it in a door. He was not altogether satisfied with the spot chosen for the day's outing. Had he been allowed unaided to make the choice he would undoubted

ing the mystery that surrounded him was his prime object, and for this purpose Versailles offered as propi

le jaunt delightfully diverting. The Fraülein had shaken off much of her melancholy of the previous evening, and her mood was cheerful, if not merry. Her appreciation, which was mingled with a joyousnes

t, solemn, old-fashioned gardens, cut up into squares and triangles and parallelograms and ornamented with statues and vases and

gardeners atheists?

replied, smiling; "I've never inve

she added, with a sweep of her hand, "h

er gallery of the palace, with their interminable succession of pain

queried; and then she laughed. "Do you suppose it was to encourage the kings and queens

o question. He certainly could gather no indication from her attitude, her manner, or her utterance that she was other than artless and sincere. She appeared, in fact, uncommonly simple-hearted, straightforward, and guileless, and, after weighing the evidence, he reached the conclusion that if she had a place in the scheme of his enemies it was most assuredly without her ken or connivance. It was nevertheless clear that she must be innocently aware of much that he wish

ange trees beside that long stretch of velvet lawn towards what is known as the basin of Apollo and had found seats on the marble coping of the fountain. As they sat there facing each other amid the perfume of the flowers and the spice of th

we in her voice, though her eyes were smiling. "But no," she a

, and her exclamation had startled him. She took his hand in her long, white, ros

d. "What does it me

it mean anything? Has not a gentleman a rig

gs; but no ordinary gentleman

"Suppose I have a title and bear arms, have I not a right

m out her deep-set, long-lashed eyes

e. And you are not the Crown Prince. I

on Einhard's, and Lindenwald's assertion must not only have been false but knowingly false, and with an object. If the Fraülein von Altdorf knew the ring as the Crown Prince's ring, Lindenwald must also have known it as such. It was for that reason he did not wish Grey to keep it. He feared, probably, just such a revelation as had come about. These points were plain enough,

very true. If I am the Crown Prince I am not your uncle, and if I am you

19 "I'd rather you were heir to the throne;

suppose you should learn that I

d, with conviction. "You ar

ing; disclosures were imminent, and they were coming quite natura

ance in her tone. "You were my Great-uncle Schlippenbach's nephew

d told him of how they had met in London a week after his setting foot on English soil; "

London. I wore a pale green frock. And poor Great-uncle Schlippenbach said: 'Min

else did

emember all th

t where we were going, an

then. But you must remember. Y

rey pleaded, his eyes a-twinkle.

as that

retty niece

cheeks deepened and

teasing me ag

od and his chariot which, surrounded by tritons, nymphs, and do

e Schlippenbach," he ventured, af

raülein returned. "You were in New Y

ette from his case and struck a match, "but I don't mean

knew he was

cour

have left Budavia. Just

did he give up? I've heard stories, to be sure,

of course he wasn't His Majesty then,122 but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince-Great-uncle Schlippenbach accompanied him on the grand tour. They visited every court in Europe and then went over to Africa and Turkey in Asia, and I don't kno

a mental wet-nurs

tter for weeks and months, growing more and more incensed, more and more bitter. In vain King Frederic tried to mollify him. He was very123 fond of Great-uncle Schlippenbach, and he wanted to smooth matters over, but the royal tutor was not to be pacified. He broke out in a torrent of rage, recounting his fancied wrongs and declaring that he had wasted the best years of his life in a hopeless effort to grow flowers

had to learn his words of four let

," Miss von Altdorf continued. "He disappeared th

red?" rep

ountry. That's why there's so much excitement now over rumours of his turning up at this late day. Oh, dear, Uncle

ughed j

on her blushing face. "And so," he added, "they are looking for th

silent, her

answer me?"

t you already know," she an

" Grey urged. "Tell me about it. What has

p, regarding h

you get it?

he answered, q

iron chest,125 inside an ordinary t

he description was no

, "not in anything at all.

re round wi

did it co

s why I'd like you to tel

on the floor of your ro

r it by the su

r showed it to you-n

" Grey

n some way got in with his effects. He did not find it until a year or more afterward. It had belonged to the King before his coronation, and to his father b

ncle Schlippenbach did not know where to find him, he simply p

found he started. He wished, he said, to put it on his finger with his own hand. 'His Royal Highness will probably travel incognito,' he said t

n, as I am your uncle I cannot be the Prince of Kronfeld, so we will take it off and wear it no more," Gr

continued127 the Fraülein, "is how

d; "how it got out of the casket, and

y the discordant piping of high-pitched voices, and turning their heads they saw

,'" Grey observed, annoyed at having their

lichen-stained marble balustrades to see their reflections in the dark, silent pools; loitered on banks of mossy turf beneath the shade of towering trees; stopped to admire, to criticise,

suggested to the girl. "I know you are familia

Minna was tired of sight-seeing, and the porcelains and the pictures proved alike uninteresting. The Petit Trianon pleased her much better because of it

emple de l'Amour." The number of visitors, however, was to both of them a disturbing influence. They would have liked the place t

where the fair ladies of Louis's Court were wont to play at peasant life, when the rippling laughte

rie Suisse?" Grey heard a woman's voi

a man r

still an unopened case of

middle-aged man, red-faced and well-groomed; a dainty little dark woman, all in red, with a tall, dark man in grey, and then-Grey went white as the whitest cloud overhead, for Hope Van Tuyl was approaching, and with her was the yo

g, his hand was half way to his hat, before his judgment came to the rescue-and held him; told him that it would be folly, that now as never before it was his dut

ey G

ers had passed on. Only she and Edson were there beside him. With an effort that cost him the most poignan

iss Van Tuyl's

le excitedly; "you've made

ite sure. I cannot be mistaken. His hair is changed; yes, and he has a beard, but his eyes-I should always know his eyes; and"

d Edson, "except the Crown Pri