Milan. What becomes of you after
that is of no consequence to me. Am I making myself clear?"

"_Verdampt!_ Do I believe my ears?" furiously. "Are you telling me to
leave Bellaggio to-morrow morning?"

"As directly as I can."

Herr Rosen's face became as red as his name. He was a brave young man, but
there was danger of an active kind in the blue eyes boring into his own.
If it came to a physical contest, he realized that he would get the worst
of it. He put his hand to his throat; his very impotence was choking him.

"Your Highness...."

"Highness!" Herr Rosen stepped back.

"Yes. Your Highness will readily see the wisdom of my concern for your
hasty departure when I add that I know all about the little house in
Versailles, that my knowledge is shared by the chief of the Parisian
police and the minister of war. If you annoy Miss Harrigan with your
equivocal attentions...."

"_Gott!_ This is too much!"

"Wait! I am stronger than you are. Do not make me force you to hear me to
the end. You have gone about this intrigue like a blackguard, and that I
know your Highness not to be. The matter is, you are young, you have
always had your way, you have not learnt restraint. Your presence here is
an insult to Miss Harrigan, and if she was pleasant to you this afternoon
it was for my benefit. If you do not go, I shall expose you." Courtlandt
opened the gate.

"And if I refuse?"

"Why, in that case, being the American that I am, without any particular
reverence for royalty or nobility, as it is known, I promise to thrash you
soundly to-morrow morning at ten o'clock, in the dining-room, in the
bureau, the drawing-room, wherever I may happen to find you."

Courtlandt turned on his heel and hurried back to the villa. He did not
look over his shoulder. If he had, he might have felt pity for the young
man who leaned heavily against the gate, his burning face pressed upon his
rain-soaked sleeve.

When Courtlandt knocked at the door and was admitted, he apologized. "I
came back for my umbrella."

"Umbrella!" exclaimed the padre. "Why, we had no umbrellas. We came up in
a carriage which is probably waiting for us this very minute by the
porter's lodge."

"Well, I am certainly absent-minded!"

"Absent-minded!" scoffed Abbott. "You never forgot anything in all your
life, unless it was to go to bed. You wanted an excuse to come back."

"Any excuse would be a good one in that case. I think we'd better be
going, Padre. And