e Adelsberg, and many strange and
wonderful stories were related of this friendship. But Hartmut's
personality, above all else, created for him an enviable position no
matter where he turned. The young, handsome and genial stranger,
surrounded as he was with a halo of romance and mystery, had only to
appear to have all eyes turned upon him.

Soon after the return of the court to the city, the rehearsals for
"Arivana" began, and its author and Prince Egon had the matter in
charge.

The latter entered so enthusiastically into the spirit of it all, that
he made the lives of the director and theatre attaches miserable with
his many and contradictory suggestions concerning the setting of the
drama, a matter about which, it is unnecessary to add, they were much
more capable of directing than he. At first they could not get an
actress to suit them, but they finally secured the services of a young
and favorite opera-singer named Marietta Volkmar.

The preparations for the performance, which they had intended originally
to bring out late in the season, were now hurried forward with all
speed, for royal visitors were expected at court, and the duke was most
anxious that this weird and poetical drama with its Indian setting
should be presented before them. Unusual honors to the poet were
prophesied as a result of this spectacle.

Such was the condition of affairs when Herbert von Wallmoden returned to
the court, and he was, naturally, painfully surprised.

He had asked his wife casually, while inquiring for others, whether the
prince's Roumanian friend had yet left Fuerstenstein, and she had
answered in the negative. He had not expected Hartmut to leave at once,
for the latter had declared most positively he would not. But Wallmoden
imagined he would think it all well over, and when Prince Adelsberg left
Rodeck that would end the whole matter. Under no circumstances would
Rojanow appear by the prince's side at the capital where the ambassador
had threatened to denounce him at once.

But Baron von Wallmoden did not understand the unyielding defiance of
this man, who had indeed dared much. Now, upon his return from the
north, he found this "adventurer" established on a very sure footing, in
close intercourse with the court and society of the capital. It would be
a most embarrassing matter to explain everything at this late day, when
all were on the _qui vive_ of expectation, and when the duke was so
deeply interested both in