ne June day, on which she seemed to have withdrawn into
herself all the tokens of summer, brought decision to our lover of
artificial roses, who had cared so little hitherto for the like of her.
Grand-duke perforce, he would make her his wife, and had already
re-assured her with lively mockery of his horrified ministers. "Go
straight to life!" said his new poetic code; and here was the
opportunity;--here, also, the real "adventure," in comparison of which
his previous efforts that way seemed childish theatricalities, fit only
to cheat a little the profound ennui of actual life. In a hundred
stolen interviews she taught the hitherto indifferent youth the art of
love.

Duke Carl had effected arrangements for his marriage, secret, but
complete and soon to be made public. Long since he had cast complacent
eyes on a strange architectural relic, an old grange or hunting-lodge
on the heath, with he could hardly have defined what charm of
remoteness and old romance. Popular belief amused itself with reports
of the wizard who inhabited or haunted the place, his fantastic
treasures, his immense age. His windows might be seen glittering afar
on stormy nights, with a blaze of golden ornaments, said the more
adventurous loiterer. It was not because he was suspicious still, but
in a kind of wantonness [150] of affection, and as if by way of giving
yet greater zest to the luxury of their mutual trust that Duke Carl
added to his announcement of the purposed place and time of the event a
pretended test of the girl's devotion. He tells her the story of the
aged wizard, meagre and wan, to whom she must find her way alone for
the purpose of asking a question all-important to himself. The fierce
old man will try to escape with terrible threats, will turn, or half
turn, into repulsive animals. She must cling the faster; at last the
spell will be broken; he will yield, he will become a youth once more,
and give the desired answer.

The girl, otherwise so self-denying, and still modestly anxious for a
private union, not to shame his high position in the world, had wished
for one thing at least--to be loved amid the splendours habitual to
him. Duke Carl sends to the old lodge his choicest personal
possessions. For many days the public is aware of something on hand; a
few get delightful glimpses of the treasures on their way to "the place
on the heath." Was he preparing against contingencies, should the
great army, soon to pass throu