Then transpired the thing which brought about Hollingsworth Chase’s sudden banishment from Rapp-Thorberg, and came near to making him the laughing stock of the service.

The Princess had not seen the two men; nor had the fervent conductor, whose impassioned French was easily distinguishable by the unwilling listeners.  The sharp, indignant “no” of the Princess, oft repeated, did much to relieve the pain in the heart of her American admirer.  Finally, with an unmistakable cry of anger, she halted not ten feet from where Chase sat, as though he had become a part of the stone rail.  He could almost feel the blaze in her eyes as she turned upon the presumptuous conductor.

“I have asked you not to touch me, sir!  Is not that enough?  If you persist, I shall be compelled to appeal to my father again.  The whole situation is loathsome to me.  Are you blind?  Can you not see that I despise you?  I will not endure it a day longer.  You promised to respect my wishes—­”

“How can I respect a promise which condemns me to purgatory every time I see you?” he cried passionately.  “I adore you.  You are the queen of my life, the holder of my soul.  Genevra, Genevra, I love you!  My soul for one tender word, for one soft caress!  Ah, do not be so cruel!  I will be your slave—­”

“Enough!  Stop, I say!  If you dare to touch me!” she cried, drawing away from her tormentor, her voice trembling with anger.  The little conductor’s manner changed on the instant.  He gave a snarl of rage and despair combined as he raised his clenched hands in the air.  For a moment words seemed to fail him.  Then he cried out: 

“By heaven, I’ll make you pay for this some day!  You shall learn what a man can do with a woman such as you are!  You—­”

Just at that moment a tall figure leaped from the shadows and confronted the quivering musician.  A heavy hand fell upon his collar and he was almost jerked from his feet, half choked, half paralysed with alarm.  Not a word was spoken.  Chase whirled the presumptuous suitor about until he faced the gates to the garden.  Then, with more force than he realised, he applied his boot to the person of the offender—­once, twice, thrice!  The military jacket of the recipient of these attentions was of the abbreviated European pattern and the trousers were skin tight.

The Princess started back with a cry of alarm—­ay, terror.  The onslaught was so sudden, so powerless to avert, that it seemed like a visitation of wrath from above.  She stared, wide-eyed and unbelieving, upon the brief tragedy; she saw her tormentor hurled viciously toward the gates and then, with new alarm, saw him pick himself up from the ground, writhing with pain and anger.  His sword flashed from its scabbard as, with a scream of rage, he dashed upon the tall intruder.  She saw Chase—­even in the shadows she knew him to be the American—­she saw Chase lightly leap aside, avoiding the thrust for his heart.  Then, as if he were playing with a child, he wrested the weapon from the conductor’s hand, snapped the blade in two pieces and threw them off into the bushes.