Evening star., 1896-09-12

course. has never seen Rim. How could she @
1d to ~ wsn ha she had never
mediately suggest themselves: First. the
whole thing 10 a hoaxloof which your hum
BILE servant Is the dupaa second. the princess
me at the time the only possible expIana-
tons. but to anticipate tie denouement. I
afterward found that neither was correct.
Just at this moment hhe thought occurred
the princess Intended to fly with was no
other than my friend In the stocks. He
had been instructed. while waiting in his
carriage, to go around and enter the
pcstern door in the Ba1reerschlAct wall. and
he was obeyfng the commands of his high
kern lady love- when iher met me. He was:
without doubt. still gtSveiing on the floor
Of the bridge. with his heel fast between
place beside the fair fnamorata What q
turn Of the wheel Of fortune! The thought of
the contrast was too much for my eQua-
nimity. and 1 shook with half-repressed
merriment.
The princess looked up at me and spoke
rather sharply:
What are you laughing at, sir?,
I described the whole occurrence as per-
fectly as could, taking care to suppress
mention Of the spot where 1t had happened
l perhaps added to the narrative certain
unimportant innovations Of my own. It
could do no harm. and they certainly made
the story more interesting. Her hiehness
vas good enough to be immensely amused
by my description. She laughed merrily at
1t several times, her melancholy air disap-
peared little by little. and thought that
began to gain some headway in making her
acquaintance. To tell the truth, l was get
ting to be extravagantly jealous Of the
man, and 1t gave me exquisite pleasure to
put another spoke in his wheel and to make
the princess laugh at the baron even
though she did not know she was laughing
at him.
PART III.
Some of my readers will doubtless wonder
hat we talked about all the time that we
were at supper. This Is very natural
question. considering that had never seen
her before, and that she had never seen me
before. that she thought that was some
one else, and that knew that she thought
SO. was. of course. anxious not to show
my ignorance Of matters OF which the
baron would be supposed cognizant and
therefore confined myself to letting her
know that l thought her charming. l did
not tell her so in SO many words. either, but
strained my ingenuity to the utmost to see
how many times and In how many ways
could express IT to her without exactly say
Ing 1t; and think that discovered at least
fifty such ways. Flattery II given with deli
cacy and discretion. has always pleased and
will always please Lretty women.an think
that did not suffer In her opinion by the
use which l made Of II.
She. on her part. occupied considerable
time In explaining to me the relationship
which existed between the Andels and the
HohenzOllernS; they both being descended
from a common stock 1t is needless to
say that l could not dispute her conclu-
sions In the matter. even II had wished
to. To support her position. she read ex-
copy of which work she caused Melanie to
bring her. thought to myself, Here is
where find out who l am
Your highness will pardon me-" said L
THE authorities which you have quoted
from the Almanach are without doubt cor
rect 1 wish to call your attention, how
ever. to the fact that of late years many
,haeGuraeies mac hnss r. have f9Hna their way into
you have the kindness to turn to that page
Of the volume whictrcontains my manner"
She turned over theSsesses and presently
Here 1t Is: 'PilsaAer,' Johann Wolf
gang. Wilhelm Augustus No. it must be
further down. Ah have 1t now. Ludwig
Won Pilsener. born 1S56."l
Look at that" l exclaimed. DO look
as II l were born in 1S5S2f
You certainly doASnoH seem anywhere
near that age." she ahs&ered, with crit
icai look over my person.
should think noy said I. with some
warmth Il was born tnE1 1865 and 1 natur-
ally object to having tn years added to
my age by-a careless typesetter. That is
,aa what l meant BY the errors in the Alma
When we had come to the coffee and Me-
laEie had retired. the princess leaned back
IN her chair. looked At ma intenty for a
moment. and said:
''Well?'
"Well?" said l.
Have you brought 1t with your said
she.
Now. as l said before. had made up my
mind to stick to the truth, and therefore 7
could not say had brought 1t with me: II