ed low and marched off. Rojanow glanced after
him and shrugged his shoulders with a sneer.

"I admire your forbearance, Egon; you certainly permit your servants to
speak very freely--"

"Oh, Stadinger is an exception," declared Egon. "Of late days he has
allowed himself great latitude, but as to his sending Zena away he
wasn't far wrong. I'd have done the same thing in his place."

"It isn't the first time the old fellow has made so bold as to call us
both to account. If I were his master--he'd get his dismissal in this
same hour."

"I'm afraid if I attempted that, it would be all the worse for me,"
laughed the prince. "Such an old heir-loom, who has served three
generations already, and trotted me on his knee as a baby, deserves to
be treated with respect. I would gain nothing by commanding and calling
him to account. Peter Stadinger does what he pleases, and whenever it
suits him, reads me a little text into the bargain."

"How you can permit such liberties is incomprehensible."

"It is natural that you should not understand it, Hartmut," said his
friend, earnestly. "You only know the submissiveness of Sclavish
servants in your own home, and in the Orient. They kneel and prostrate
themselves whenever opportunity offers, and betray their masters at
every turn, when it can be done with safety. Stadinger is a man with no
civility in him. It doesn't make the least difference to him that I am
'your highness.' He is no respecter of persons, and has often said the
most insulting things to my face, but I could leave hundreds of
thousands in his hands, and he would guard every pfennig, and if Rodeck
were in a blaze, and I within it, his seventy years would not prevent
him plunging into the flames to rescue me--that's how it is with us in
Germany."

"Yes, with you in Germany," Hartmut repeated slowly, as he fixed his
eyes dreamily on the forest shadows.

"Are you as much prejudiced against us as ever?" asked Egon. "I had to
beg you hard enough to get you to come with me, for you seemed resolved
never to put foot on German soil again."

"I would I had not done so," said Rojanow, darkly. "You know--"

"That you associate bitter memories with my country--yes. You told me
that much, but you must have been a boy at the time. You should have
outgrown your dislike by now. You are, on this point, so obstinately
reserved, that to this day I have never learned what it is that you--"

"Egon, I beg you, drop the subject," said