CHAPTER X.

The winter gaieties had fairly begun in the South-German capital, and in the exclusive court circle the artistic element played a prominent part.  The duke, who loved and fostered art, took great pride in being accounted its patron, and strove to make his capital an intellectual and artistic centre.  The young poet who had been received so favorably by the court, and whose first great work was soon to be produced at the court theatre, was an object of great interest to the little world.  It was an almost unheard of feat for a Roumanian to write in the German tongue, even though it was admitted that, in this instance, the writer had received his education in Germany.  Here, as at Rodeck, he was the bosom friend and guest of Prince Adelsberg, and many strange and wonderful stories were related of this friendship.  But Hartmut’s personality, above all else, created for him an enviable position no matter where he turned.  The young, handsome and genial stranger, surrounded as he was with a halo of romance and mystery, had only to appear to have all eyes turned upon him.

Soon after the return of the court to the city, the rehearsals for “Arivana” began, and its author and Prince Egon had the matter in charge.

The latter entered so enthusiastically into the spirit of it all, that he made the lives of the director and theatre attaches miserable with his many and contradictory suggestions concerning the setting of the drama, a matter about which, it is unnecessary to add, they were much more capable of directing than he.  At first they could not get an actress to suit them, but they finally secured the services of a young and favorite opera-singer named Marietta Volkmar.

The preparations for the performance, which they had intended originally to bring out late in the season, were now hurried forward with all speed, for royal visitors were expected at court, and the duke was most anxious that this weird and poetical drama with its Indian setting should be presented before them.  Unusual honors to the poet were prophesied as a result of this spectacle.

Such was the condition of affairs when Herbert von Wallmoden returned to the court, and he was, naturally, painfully surprised.

He had asked his wife casually, while inquiring for others, whether the prince’s Roumanian friend had yet left Fuerstenstein, and she had answered in the negative.  He had not expected Hartmut to leave at once, for the latter had declared most positively he would not.  But Wallmoden imagined he would think it all well over, and when Prince Adelsberg left Rodeck that would end the whole matter.  Under no circumstances would Rojanow appear by the prince’s side at the capital where the ambassador had threatened to denounce him at once.