“You are to return to your hotel presently, and say to your landlord:  ’Pack up my luggage.  I have finished with this old town and my ancestors, and the Grand Duke, whom I do not care to see, and I shall leave Alstadt tomorrow!’”

“Thank you!  I don’t catch on.”

“Of what necessity should you?  I have said it.  That should be enough for a chivalrous American like you.”  She again significantly looked down at her hand.

“If you mean that you know the extent of the favor you ask of me, I can say no more,” he said seriously; “but give me some reason for it.”

“Ah so!” she said, with a slight shrug of her shoulders.  “Then I must tell you.  You say you do not know the Grand Duke and Duchess.  Well!  They know you.  The day before yesterday you were wandering in the park, as you admit.  You say, also, you got through the hedge and interrupted some ceremony.  That ceremony was not a Court function, Mr. Hoffman, but something equally sacred—­the photographing of the Ducal family before the Schloss.  You say that you instantly withdrew.  But after the photograph was taken the plate revealed a stranger standing actually by the side of the Princess Alexandrine, and even taking the Pas of the Grand Duke himself.  That stranger was you!”

“And the picture was spoiled,” said the American, with a quiet laugh.

“I should not say that,” returned the lady, with a demure glance at her companion’s handsome face, “and I do not believe that the Princess—­who first saw the photograph—­thought so either.  But she is very young and willful, and has the reputation of being very indiscreet, and unfortunately she begged the photographer not to destroy the plate, but to give it to her, and to say nothing about it, except that the plate was defective, and to take another.  Still it would have ended there if her curiosity had not led her to confide a description of the stranger to the Police Inspector, with the result you know.”

“Then I am expected to leave town because I accidentally stumbled into a family group that was being photographed?”

“Because a certain Princess was indiscreet enough to show her curiosity about you,” corrected the fair stranger.

“But look here!  I’ll apologize to the Princess, and offer to pay for the plate.”

“Then you do want to see the Princess?” said the young girl smiling; “you are like the others.”

“Bother the Princess!  I want to see you.  And I don’t see how they can prevent it if I choose to remain.”

“Very easily.  You will find that there is something wrong with your passport, and you will be sent on to Pumpernickel for examination.  You will unwittingly transgress some of the laws of the town and be ordered to leave it.  You will be shadowed by the police until you quarrel with them—­like a free American—­and you are conducted to the frontier.  Perhaps you will strike an officer who has insulted you, and then you are finished on the spot.”