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Updated: August 1, 2024
"Read that, and learn the treachery of the man you trusted." The letter was written by Steinbock. In it he disclosed all. It was a venomous, inciting letter. The girl crushed it in her hand. "Is he dead?" she asked, all the bitterness in her heart surging to her lips. "To Barscheit," briefly. "Now, what shall I do with this?" tapping the bogus certificate. "Give it to me," said the girl wearily.
Rather he saw the telegraphic despatches flying to the four ends of the globe, telling the peoples that he, the Grand Duke of Barscheit, had been outwitted by a girl; that the Princess Hildegarde had eloped with a man who was not the chosen one. In other words, he saw himself laughed at from one end of the continent to the other.
It is rather difficult in these days for a man who takes such scant interest in foreign affairs trust a whilom diplomat for that! to follow the continual geographical disturbances of European surfaces. Thus, I can not distinctly recall the exact location of the Grand Duchy of Barscheit or of the neighboring principality of Doppelkinn.
She is now the mother of several children, the most peaceful and unorative woman I know. You see, humanity goes whirring over various side-tracks, thinking them to be the main line, till fate puts its peculiar but happy hand to the switch. Scharfenstein had been plugging away over rusty rails and grass-grown ties till he came to Barscheit.
But what the deuce was a poor duke to do with a niece like this? For a time I feared that the United States and the Grand Duchy of Barscheit would sever diplomatic relations. The bicycle was, unfortunately, of American make, and the manufacturers wrote to me personally that they considered themselves grossly insulted over the action of the duke.
And then the door opened and he was told to come out. The grand duke had arrived. "This will be the final round-up," he laughed quietly, his thought whimsically traveling back to the great plains and the long rides under the starry night. The Grand Duke of Barscheit was tall and angular and weather-beaten, and the whites of his eyes bespoke a constitution as sound and hard as his common sense.
Truly I had stumbled into an adventure; but how to stumble out again? If the duke got wind of it, it would mean my recall, and I was of a mind, just then, that I was going to be particularly fond of Barscheit. All was silent. A door closed, and then came the tread of feet. I peered through the portières shortly to see the entrance of two men, one of whom was the old caretaker.
"The duke?" "Yes. I am the Princess Hildegarde." The Princess Hildegarde of Barscheit! My gloves and riding-crop slipped from my nerveless fingers to the floor. A numbing, wilting sensation wrinkled my spine. The Princess Hildegarde of Barscheit! She stood opposite me, the woman ought I not to say girl? for whom I had been seeking, after a fashion, all these months!
Now, sir, you have eaten the bread of my table, and I demand to know who you are. If you do not tell me at once, I shall be forced to confine you here till I am ready to leave." "Confine me!" nonplussed. This was more than I had reckoned on. "Yes." She reached out to strike the gong. "I am the American consul at Barscheit."
It was broken and useless, like the lock on the gate. And never a bell could I find. I swore softly and became impatient. People in Barscheit did not usually live in this slovenly fashion. What sort of place was this? Suddenly I grew erect, every fiber in my body tense and expectant. A voice, lifted in song!
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