hing of this sort amuses and interests me. Let us
use a little diplomacy in the matter."

"Yes," said Hillars; "let us lie a little."

"And who can do it better than a journalist?" the Prince laughed.

"Diplomatists," Hillars sent back.

"What is her Serene Highness to you?" resumed the Prince.

"Nothing--positively nothing."

"Then you are afraid to acknowledge your regard for her?"

"I?" Hillars dropped his arm from my shoulders. "I am not afraid of
anything--not even the Count here." Then he laughed. "If her Serene
Highness was anything to me, your Highness, I should not be afraid to
say so before the King himself."

"You impudent--" But a wave of the Prince's hand silenced the Count.

"Have patience, my friend. This is not impudence; it is courage and
prudence. I believe," re-addressing Hillars, "that once you were on
the point of eloping with the Princess Hildegarde."

Hillars thrust his hands into his pockets.

"So they say."

"And yet you deny your regard for her!"

"Oh, as to that affair," said Hillars, easily, "it was the adventure
more than anything else. It is not every man in my position who has
such a chance. And then, perhaps, I saw a good newspaper story." The
muscles in his jaws hardened, despite the airy tone he used.

"I see that there is nothing to be gotten from you." Then the Prince
directed his glance to me. "And you, sir; what is she to you? What is
her Serene Highness to you?"

"She is everything in the world to me," said I.

The consternation which followed cannot be described here. The Count
stepped back, dumb-founded. Hillars regarded me as though he thought I
had suddenly gone mad. The countenance of the Prince alone remained
unruffled.

"Count," he said, laughing, "it seems that the Princess gathers lovers
as a woolen coat does teasels. Her lovers--there must now be a
legion!"

"You lie!" said Hillars, in an oddly suppressed tone. "You know that
you lie."

The Prince's lips drew to a thin line, but that was all.

"Still, who will disprove it?" he asked.

"If you will allow me," said a voice behind us.

We beheld the Princess framed in the doorway. There was a pallor and a
look of utter weariness in her face. At the sight of her the Count
uncovered and the Prince rose.

"Your arrival is quite timely," said he. "Here are two champions of
yours. Come, which do you love?"

A fury sprang to my head, and I said, "You have too much confidence in