o has told me your
name and he must also have spoken of me to you. You yourselves have said
that it was lovely here in my forest and surely you must be weary enough
to remain a little time longer. It is not as though we were entire
strangers, with Frederick your friend and my relative."

This time Betty laughed outright. "Your cousin is scarcely our friend;
we have only boarded in the same pension with him in Berlin while my
sister was there studying music." She looked a little more searchingly
at Esther. Esther had not been very well for several weeks and now
certainly was unfit for the long walk home in the hottest part of the
afternoon without more rest.

With an inclination of her pretty head the Princess surrendered.

"If you really are sure that you won't mind we should like to sit here
in the shade a little longer," she confessed. "That is if we will not
trouble you. You must not feel that you must remain with us, for I
promise that we shall do nothing any harm."

Without replying, Carl von Reuter then led Esther to her discarded tree
trunk, the other girls having already found seats.

"If you will be good enough to wait for a few moments I should like very
much to bring you some tea. The little house there is my hunting lodge
and I have all sorts of bachelor arrangements inside," he announced. And
the suggestion was far too welcome for any one of the girls to decline.

Then in the five minutes of the young man's absence as rapidly as
possible Betty sketched the outline of her acquaintance with him and the
knowledge of his history which she had since been able to acquire. He
was the son of the German count whose stone castle they had seen, and of
course the heir to the title and estate. He was also, as she had already
revealed, a lieutenant in the German army and probably about twenty-two
or-three years old. The family was a very old and proud one and although
they still owned a great deal of land, they were extremely poor.

But Betty had to cease her confidences abruptly, seeing that their
unexpected host was coming toward them with four cups of tea and a tray
of small crackers and cakes.

No American man could have performed these small social services with so
little embarrassment, but as Carl explained he had had an English mother
and had been taught to assist her with their guests from the time he was
a boy.

And by the time the tea had been drunk and the cakes eaten the little
company had apparentl