of
furniture from all over the house had been placed in our suite; flowers
were everywhere, and servants fairly swarmed at our commands.

Jimmie, in reality, was not at all pleased by any of this, but he has
such a blissful sense of humour that he could not help seeing the
pitiful front it put upon human nature, both Austrian and American. He
permitted himself, however, only one remark. This was now done with his
wife's sanction, and loyalty to her closed his lips. But he beckoned me
over to the window, and, handing me a paper-knife, he turned up the sole
of his shoe, saying:

"Scrape 'em off!"

"Scrape what off, Jimmie?"

"The servants! I haven't been able to step to-day without crushing a
dozen of 'em!"

As I turned away he called out:

"There aren't any on the shoes I wore yesterday!"

A rumour somewhat near the truth had swept through the hotel, for
wherever we appeared we found ourselves the object of the deepest
attention, not only by the slavish minions of the hotel from the
proprietor down, but from the other guests.

It was so pronounced that my feeble spirit quaked, so to borrow some of
my sister's soul-sustaining joy, I went into her room and said:

"Bee, what does all this mean, anyhow? Where will it land us?"

Bee's eyes gleamed.

"If you aren't actually blind to opportunity," she said, slowly, "you
certainly are hopelessly near-sighted. Don't you understand how nobody
can do anything or be anybody without royal approval? Haven't you seen
enough here to-day, to say nothing of the attentions we had from women
in Ischl, to know what all this counts for?"

"Yes, I know," I hastened to say. "But what of these men? You know what
they will think; they are Austrians, Russians, and Hungarians, remember,
not Americans!"

Bee laughed.

"A man is a man," she said, sententiously. "Don't worry for fear the
poor dears' hearts will be broken. Now I'll tell you something. Mrs.
Jimmie's sincere indifference and my silent eye-homage have stirred
these blase officers out of their usual calm. There you have the whole
thing. Von Engel thinks Mrs. Jimmie's indifference is assumed, and both
Von Engel and Von Furzmann are determined that my silence shall voice
itself. I have no doubt that they would like to have me _write_ it, so
that they could boast of it afterward to their fellow officers. Now, as
Jimmie would say in his frightful slang, 'I'm going to give them a run
for their money.' Von Engel will probably