you didn't stay
to see it."

She laughed. "Didn't I? I stayed long enough to see your sword
sticking in the turf. I took that to be the end--was there more of it,
later?"

"No; that was the end--for that time."

"And for that particular method, I fancy," said she. "He wields a
pretty blade."

"Had you known it?" he asked.

"He was the best swordsman in the American Army," she answered.

"Ordinarily, that does not mean much," said Lotzen. "But, as a matter
of fact, so far as I know, he has got only one superior in Europe."

"Then why not get that chap to fight him?"

The Duke laughed.

"I would be very willing to; only, the chap happens to be that infernal
Irish adventurer, Moore, who is on his Staff."

"Why don't you try it again, yourself?" she asked.

He tapped his cigarette carefully against the ash receiver.

"Because I'm not yet tired of life," he said. "I know when I have met
my master."

"But, one of your thrusts might go home," she insisted.

He looked at her with an amused smile.

"Yes--it might," he said. "But, you see, my dear girl, what troubles
me are the many thrusts he has, any one of which would be sure to go
home in me."

"You seem to have escaped, last night," she observed.

"Purely by his favor--even luck hadn't a finger in it."

"But discretion had," she remarked. "He would not dare kill you."

Lotzen shook his head.

"You don't seem to know this husband of yours. A Dalberg will dare
anything."

"Some Dalbergs," she scoffed.

The Duke flushed.

"I'm doing badly--you think me a coward," he said.

"Oh, no, Prince--only carefully discreet;" and she leaned back and
slowly fanned herself.

He looked at her for a bit.

"Are you aware, my dear, that you are conniving at--some might call it
instigating--the death of your husband?" he asked.

She smiled. "Am I?"

"It is a very extraordinary situation," he said, blowing a ring of
smoke and watching it circle away. "You are so tired of him you want
him killed; he seems equally tired of you, and, moreover, he is
determined to marry another woman. Yet, neither of you gets a
divorce--and you actually follow him here--and he, then, actually
refuses to let you depart."

The fan kept moving slowly.

"A very extraordinary situation, indeed, Your Highness,--as you state
it," she said.

"As I state it?" he echoed.

She nodded. "You have omitted the one material fact in the case."

"And what is that?" he asked.