n of good family and
wealth, who because of his education in a German university had found
the offer of the post of Vienna singularly attractive. He had filled his
position with circumspection, if not with brilliancy, and had made
himself sufficiently popular in court circles to be sure that if not a
triumphant success in the drudgery of the office, he was at least not
altogether a social failure. Good looking, wealthy, talented though he
was, it was something indeed to have won Marishka Strahni, who, apart
from her high position in Vienna and the success of a season, was, as he
well knew, the finest girl in all Austria. Even yet he doubted his good
fortune. He had come to Konopisht, where the girl was visiting the
Duchess of Hohenberg, who had been a childhood friend of her mother's.
As everyone in Vienna knew, Sophie Chotek was ineligible for the high
position she occupied as consort of the Heir Presumptive. Though a
member of an ancient Bohemian family, that of Chotek and Wognin, the law
of the Habsburg's that archdukes may marry only those of equal rank,
forbade that the Duchess of Hohenberg and her children should share the
position of husband and father. She had been snubbed upon all the
occasions of her appearance at court functions, and had at last retired
to the Archduke's estates at Konopisht, where she led the secluded life
of the _ebenburtige_, still chafing, rumor had it, and more than ever
jealous and ambitious for the future of the children.

Upon the occasion of a previous visit of the Countess Marishka to
Konopisht, Renwick had spent a week end at the castle, but he thanked
his stars that he was now stopping at the village inn. It would have
been difficult to go through the formality of leave-taking with the
shadow of this impending tragedy to Europe hanging over him. He pitied
Marishka from the bottom of his heart for he had seen the beginnings of
the struggle between her devotion to the Duchess and her duty to her
sovereign. But he knew enough of her quality to be sure that she would
carry out her plan at whatever the cost to her own feelings.

As Renwick approached the gates which led into the Castle grounds, he
had an actual sense of the consequence of the Archduke's guests in the
appearance of soldiery and police which were to be seen in every
direction, and while he waited in the village road two automobiles came
out of the gate and dashed past him in the direction of the railroad
station, in the