The Goose Girl

oach that subject? There can be no alli

chancellor, coolly returning the

asons why, but it is not

e, your Highn

at satis

rha

ountry so perfidious as Jugendheit. What! I make overtures? I,

dence have you that Ju

his time the duke struck the desk savagely. "Why do you always rouse me

ow, you persist in averring that the late king was the chief conspirator in abducting her serene highness, aided by Arnsberg, whose successor I have the

our h

wo

uck the bell on th

to bring me the packet mar

excesses which at that time were making the east side of the Rhine the scandal of the world had in no wise sullied his name. Ehrenstein means "stone of honor," and he had always carried the thought of this in his heart. He was frank in his likes and dislikes, he hated secrets, and he loved an opponent who engaged him in the open. Herbeck often

ght lips. He was a born financier, with almost limitless ambition, though only he himself knew how far this ambition reached. He had not brought prosperity to Ehrenstein, but he had fortified and bastioned it against extravagance, and this

s on the chancellor's desk. "It was the packet A, you

You ma

ry bowed an

angrily, took one of them an

t. Whose wri

an over it several times. At length he opened a drawer in his desk, sorted so

Arnsberg. But"-mildly-"who may sa

one from the late king of Jugendheit

d slowly an

er light. Presently his hands fell behind his back and met about the paper, while he

d the duke

hair. "I wish that you ha

what

cused t

, but he d

a le

ere, re

the two. "Where d

loved and trusted and advanced to the highest office in my power. Is that not the way? Do we ever trust any one fully without being in the end

r come back,"

onfiscated was nothing but his estate. But do you believe me"-putting a hand against his hear

e very

n man? You do not know all, Herbeck, not quite all. Franz also sought the hand of the Prin

er has been rest

, nothing will ever fill up the gap between, nothing

died him th

me, but I don't know what it is,

t your highn

wide, perhaps the separa

plicit. He opened another drawer and took fo

lly asking the hand of the Princess Hildegarde for his nephew, Frederick, wh

ce that I respe

think about the matter. You can change your mind at any time. A reply like this

the breach

ssal blunder. Victory would leave us where we began thirty years ago. One does not go to war for a cause that has been practically dead these sixteen years. And an insult to

on your head be it if yo

up his documentary evidence,

m day to day. I have an excellent memory. Who knows but that I might find

ou to be careful w

easure them

in the wrong, he was never impatient, he was never hasty, he never had to go over a thing twice. This supernal insight, which overloo

heet of paper, affixed the state seal, and in a flowing hand wrote a diplomatic note, considering the proposal of his royal highness, the prince regent of

ment in her hands. Hildegarde was singing. The duke paused, shutting his eyes and striving to recall the voice of the mother. When the voice d

and and drawing her toward a window-seat, "

, fat

en

ng of Jugendheit?" There w

a proposal. How would you regard it, knowing what you do of the past, the years tha

ather. Whatever your decisi

nately for you you love no one yet." He put his hand under her chin and searched the deeps of her gray eyes. These eyes were more like her

hands. You kno

outright, indignantly, contemptuously, as became one of the

ging his hand and turning

oung king has been in Paris most of the time. That's the way they educate kings these days. They teach them all the vices and make virtue an accident. Yo

nd with a strange pa

y any one," wistfully. "But a

dvises this alliance, and while I realize that his judgment is ri

eople? Would it be for

y objections are merely

h I love, I am ready to make any

ver any retracing a step of this kind." He stood up, hi

r eyes and face and lips yearning with love. Curiously enough, the duke happe

girl!" with a bit o

" She strok

e room it was w

esden the agents of Herbeck found her, a singer in the chorus of the opera. The newspapers and illustrated weeklies raged about her for a while, elaborated the story of her struggles, the mysterious remittances which had, from time to time, saved her from direst poverty, her ambition, her education which, by dint of hard work, she had acquired. It was all very puzzling and interesting and romantic. For what purpose had she been stolen, and by whom? The duke accused Franz of Jugendheit,

and Franz Josef of Austria congratulated the duke, everybody else fell into line, and every troop in the duchy came to Dre

and lack-care of her Dresden garret, her musician friends, the studios, the crash and glitter of the opera. To be suddenly deprived of the fruit

y princesses in story-books. All fell in love with her, from the groom who saddled her horse,

e most beautiful women in Europe. Later he modified this statement by declaring that she was the most beautiful woman in Europe or elsewhere. Yet

She distrusted him a little, she knew not why; yet, when he bent ove

nnounce to you that there waits for you a

crown in J

fath

the matter who

st evidence of emotion she had ever

ate. A princess like yourself

nd and resourceful, but without a

to say that your marriage could neve

I am a princess, simply

t is young. I do not see how he can help loving you the moment he k

y not be h

be, pol

I hate the word! Someti

I beg of you never to give that thought

his is new to me, even yet. I am living in a dr

his lips. It was more of

nsent to thi

any good to

it would do Ehre

a week,

the moment comes that I see the crown of Jugendheit on your beautiful head, all my work

ther, my answer w

thing more,

d t

ides in the morning with his

to women. "He is a gentleman, he amuses me, and there is no harm

your Highness; I merely

u will, but in this I shall have my way."

a week. But once the banns are publ

a word, Count, th

s talk is merely for the sake of s

d took his

I had rather my g

nd lingered about one of the little