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Updated: May 31, 2025
I am the new Military Governor of Dornlitz." "Wonderful, Major! Your Royal Highness, I mean." "Drop the R. H., please," I said; "stick to Armand or Major." "Thank you, I shall, in private; it's handier. And when were you appointed?" "It will be in the Gazette this evening. His Majesty offered it to me this morning." "Does Lotzen know it?"
And if he had any curiosity as to my motives, he was courteous enough never to show it. "The best assistant in Europe," Courtney had once pronounced him. Then there was Pryor, the Naval Attaché. He had been off "cruising with the Army," as Cosgrove put it, pending my arrival and was not yet returned to Dornlitz.
Not so, however, with some of the elderly Valerian dignitaries and army officers; they were very evidently surprised and curious, and, very shortly, it was plain I was the object of their discussion and careful observation. "How do you enjoy it?" Courtney inquired. "You forget that this is not my first visit to Dornlitz," I answered. "Some day I'd like to know of those other visits."
No one else could, so it is not worth while attempting to describe it. I admit I lay awake most of the night trying to determine how to meet the Spencer woman's attack. And I had reached no satisfactory decision when I went down to breakfast. The formal ceremony of my taking over the Governorship of Dornlitz was fixed for noon.
The next day, while riding along a secluded bridle path some miles from Dornlitz, I came upon a woman leading a badly-limping horse. She was alone, no groom in sight, and drawing rein I dismounted and asked if I could be of service. Then I saw her face, and stepped back in surprise. Her pictures were too plentiful in the capital for me to make mistake. It was the Princess Dehra. I bowed low.
"Which means that I am to be held to the strict obligations of my position, but that the Grand Duke Armand can perpetrate any inconsistency he choose." The King smiled back at her. "I do not doubt that His Royal Highness will be most happy to be relieved of the necessity for being inconsistent," he said. "Good!" she exclaimed. "I am ready to leave Dornlitz and Valeria this very day."
You are simply graciously permitting me to be present when you carry out the bargain you have just made with the Governor of Dornlitz." She smiled very sweetly at the King; then, turned to me. "Will you begin, Armand," she said. I bowed. "After you, madame," said I. "And, perchance, when I have heard your story, I may revoke the order."
"I don't seem to be able to follow your argument," he said; "and I'm a poor guesser of riddles." "It means that I shall have to tell the whole ugly story of how I chanced to come to Dornlitz to pose as the wife of the Grand Duke Armand." He took a fresh cigarette and carefully lit it. "But, my dear girl," he said, "I don't see how that would affect me?" She laughed. "Still the premier artiste!
"As Governor of Dornlitz, I gave orders, this morning, that she be not permitted to leave the Capital." "But, she's an American subject!" he exclaimed. "She can't be held prisoner." "If she's my wife, she's a subject of Your Majesty." "True! But why do you want to keep her here?" "To give time to investigate her doings since I became an Archduke," I said.
I had met her in Washington some four or five years before, while on staff duty, and we had danced and dined ourselves into each other's regard. Then, Lord Radnor was transferred to Dornlitz and I went back into active service.
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