in Bosnia, and because one hears with the mind, and not with the
ear, he did not hear the sharp question of the sentry who ran down the
stairs and paused for a second at the cloak-room. Well for Olga, too,
that old Adelbert did not hear her reply.

"He has not passed here," she said, with wide and honest eyes; but with
an ear toward old Adelbert. "An old gentleman came a moment ago and got
a sandwich, which he had left in his overcoat. Perhaps this is whom you
are seeking?"

The sentry cursed, and ran down the staircase, the nails in his shoes
striking sharply on the marble.

At the window, old Adelbert cut off another slice of sausage with his
pocket-knife and sauntered back to his table of opera glasses at the
angle of the balustrade. The hurrying figure of the sentry below caught
his eye. "Another fool!" he grumbled, looking down. "One would think new
legs grew in place of old ones, like the claws of the sea-creatures!"

But Olga of the cloak-room leaned over her checks, with her lips curved
up in a smile. "The little one!" she thought. "And such courage! He
will make a great king! Let him have his prank like the other children,
and--God bless him and keep him!"

CHAPTER II. AND SEES THE WORLD

The Crown Prince was just a trifle dazzled by the brilliance of his
success. He paused for one breathless moment under the porte-cochere of
the opera house; then he took a long breath and turned to the left.
For he knew that at the right, just around the corner; were the royal
carriages, with his own drawn up before the door, and Beppo and Hans
erect on the box, their haughty noses red in the wind, for the early
spring air was biting.

So he turned to the left, and was at once swallowed up in the street
crowd. It seemed very strange to him. Not that he was unaccustomed to
crowds. Had he not, that very Christmas, gone shopping in the city,
accompanied only by one of his tutors and Miss Braithwaite, and bought
for his grandfather, the King, a burnt-wood box, which might hold either
neckties or gloves, and for his cousins silver photograph frames?

But this was different, and for a rather peculiar reason. Prince
Ferdinand William Otto had never seen the back of a crowd! The public
was always lined up, facing him, smiling and bowing and God-blessing
him. Small wonder he thought of most of his future subjects as being
much like the ship in the opera, meant only to be viewed from the front.
Also, it was surprising t