till, I might take it into my head to throw you out."

"You'd better not try."

"Are you afraid?"

"Yes. There would be a scandal. Not that I would care about the death
of a miserable adventurer, but it might possibly reflect upon the
virtue of her Highness the Princess Hildegarde."

"What do you want?" I growled.

"I want to see if your passports are proper so that you will have no
difficulty in passing over the frontier."

"Perhaps it would be just as well to wake the American Minister?" I
suggested.

"Not at all. If you were found dead there might be a possibility of
that. But I should explain to him, and he would understand that it was
a case without diplomatic precedent."

"Well?"

"You are to leave this country at once, sir; that is, if you place any
value upon your life."

"Oh; then it is really serious?"

"Very. It is a matter of life and death--to you. Moreover, you must
never enter this country again. If you do, I will not give a pfennig
for your life."

He found my passports in good order. I permitted him to rummage
through some of my papers.

"Ach! a damned scribbler, too!" coming across some of my notes.

"Quite right, Herr General," said I. I submitted because I didn't care.

My luggage was packed off to the station, where he saw that my ticket
was for Paris.

"Good morning," he said, as I entered the carriage compartment. "The
devil will soon come to his own; ach!"

"My compliments to him when you see him!" I called back, not to be
outdone in the matter of courtesy.

"And that is all, Jack," concluded Hillars. "For all these months not
an hour has passed in which I have not cursed the folly of that moment.
Instead of healing under the balm of philosophy, the wound grows more
painful every day. She did not love me, I know, but she would have
been near me. And if the King had taken away her principality, she
would have needed me in a thousand ways. And it is not less than
possible that in time she might have learned the lesson of love. But
now--if she is the woman I believe her to be, she never could love me
after what has happened. And knowing this, I can't leave liquor alone,
and don't want to. In my cups I do not care."

"I feel sorry for you both," said I. "Has the Prince married her yet?"

"No. It has been postponed. Next Monday I am going back. I am going
in hopes of getting into trouble. I may never see her again, perhaps.
To-morrow, to-morrow! Who