The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-29
 THE PRINCE OF" =GRAUS AR K.
By George Barr McCutcneon



 in the bedroom door.
 F'Thank you, Hobbs. You may or der luncheon for us in the Ritz res l taurant. The head waiter has been l instructed to reserve the corner table for the whole voyage,
 | In two minutes Hobbs was back with the information that two ladies had taken the table and refused to be 1 dislodged, although the head waiter had vainly tried to convince them that it was reserved for the passage by R. Schmidt and party. q am quite sure, sir, he put it to them very hagreeably and politely, but the young lady gave i'm the 'aughtiest look I've ever seen on nor tai fee, sir, and he came back to me so tumble that T could 'ard1y believe he was the cad waiter.''
 "I hope he was not unnecessarily persistent said the prince. annoyed 1sIt really is of no consequence where we sit.'' /
 etLadies first, world without end,'' said Dank EEspecia1ly at sea-
 Twenty minutes later R. Schmidt, seated in the Ritz restaurant, hap pened to look fairly into the eyes of the loye1iest girl he had ever seen, and on the instant forgave the ex- traordinary delinquency Of the hith- erto infaI1ible Hobbs
 Later On R. Schmidt sat { lone in a sheltered corner of the promenade deck, where chairs had been secured by the forehanded Hobbs. The thin drizzIe now aspired to something more definite in. the shape of a steady down. pour, and the decks were almost de- serted save for the few who huddled in the unexposed hooks where the sweep and swish of the rain failed to penetrate. There was faraway look in the young mans eyes, as Of one who dreams pleasantly with little ef- fort, but excellent effect His pipe had gone out, so his dream must have been long and uninterrupted. Eight Bells sounded. But what is time to a dreamer? Then came one bell and 1 two, and now his eyes were closed. Two women came and stood over him, but little did they suspect that his dream was of one of them-the one with the lovely eyes and the soft brown hair. They surveyed him, whis- pering, the one with little perpIexed frown on her brow, the other with dis tinct signs of annoyance in her face. 1 The girl was not more than twenty, her companion quite old enough to be | her mother, a <considerate if not com- p1imentary estimate. for girls moth- CT may be either forty, fifty or even l ffty-ive when you come to think of it.
 They were looking for something. That was quite clear.a And it was de- I plorably clear that whatever it was R. Schmidt was sitting upon it. They saw that he was asleep, which made the search if not tn actual recovery 1 quite out of the question. The older woman was on the point of poking the sleeper with the toe of her shoe, be- | ing a matter of fact sort of person, when tf1e< girl imperatively shook her | head and froWned upon the lady in | way to prove that, even though she was old enough to be the mother of girl of twenty, she was by no means the mother of this one.
 At that very instant R. Schmidt opened his eyes. It must have been a kindly poke by the god of sleep that aroused him so opportunely; but, even 1 so, the toe of a shoe could not have 1 created a graver catastrophe than that which immediately befe1I him. He completely lost his head. If one had suddenly asked what had become of it he couldn't have told, not for the life of him. For, that matter he couldn't have put his finger. so to speak, on any part of his person and proclaimed with confidence that it be- longed to R. Schmidt of Vienna He was looking directly up into a pair of dark, startled eyes, in which there was a very pretty confusion and far from impervious blink
 q beg your pardon,'' said the older woman without the faintest trace of mbarrassment-inde with some asperity-"I think you are occupying one of our c1airs.'
 He scrambled out of the steamer rug and came to his feet, b1ushing to the roots of his hair.
 "L beg your pardon he stammered and found his awkwardness rewarded by an extremely sweet snniIe-in the eyes of the one he addressed.
 We were looking for letter that ] am quite. sure was left in my chair said she.
 "A letter?" he murrnured vaguely { and at once began to search with his eyes.
 From her father" volunteered the elderly one, as if it were a necessary bit of information. Then she jerked the rug away, and three pairs of eyes examined the place where R. Schmidt had been reclining. That's odd Die you happen to. see it when you sal , down, sir?"
 tI am confident that there was nc l letter. began he and then allowed his gaze to rest on the name card a
 the top of the chair. t'This happens r to be my chair, madam he went on B pointing to the card. fR- Schmidt. I 1 sn very sorry
 I ''The steward must have put tha
 card there while you were at lunch 8 con, dear. What right has he to sel 9 our chairs over again? I shall repor l this to the captain"-