“I shall have to endure my misfortune as best I can,” said Hartmut with a shrug.

The young prince came nearer, and laid his hand affectionately on his shoulder.

“Or perhaps you incurred her displeasure day before yesterday?  It is not your wont to go off on a tangent when you are conversing with a charming woman.  O, I know all about it; the baroness thought fit to reprove you for your attack on Germany, and you resented it.  Now, a man should agree to everything which comes from such lips.”

“You seem to be quite excited,” sneered Hartmut.  “Better look to it that the gray-haired husband does not grow jealous, in spite of his years.”

“Yes, they’re a singular couple,” said Egon, half aloud, as if lost in thought.  “This old diplomat, with his gray hair and his keen, immobile face, and the young wife with her dazzling beauty like a—­like a—­”

“Northern light, above a sea of ice.  It is a question which of the two is farthest below freezing point.”

Prince Egon laughed out at the comparison.  “Very poetical and very malicious.  But you are right enough.  I felt the icy breath of this polar star several times myself.  It’s just as well I did, for it is all that saved me from falling head over heels in love with her.  But I think we’d better be starting now, don’t you?” He turned to the door to order the groom to bring around the horses.

Hartmut, on the point of following him, turned once more to glance from the window at the carriage, which could be seen through an opening in the trees.  He clenched his fist as he muttered: 

“We will speak yet, Herr von Wallmoden.  I will remain now.  He shall not imagine that I am a coward and flee from him.  Egon shall bring my work to the notice of the court.  We shall see then whether he will dare to treat me like an adventurer.  He shall pay yet for that glance and tone.”

CHAPTER VII.

At Fuerstenstein everything was in readiness for the reception of the Court.  The ducal party was coming this autumn for the entire hunting season, which lasted for several weeks, and the duchess was expected as well.  The second floor of the castle, with its countless rooms, was prepared for the illustrious guests, and some of the officials and servants had already arrived.  The little town of Waldhofen, through which the duke would pass, was in a state of excitement, too, as the townspeople made their modest preparations to do the great man honor.  The Wallmodens had come for a short visit, but under existing circumstances, decided to prolong it; in fact the duke himself, learning of their whereabouts, and desirous of showing the ambassador and his wife some especial mark of his favor, had expressed a desire to meet them at Fuerstenstein.  This amounted to an invitation which it would have been unwise to refuse.