aving a carefully
thought-out basis. He was frankly afraid of animals, nervous with
firearms, and never crossed the Channel without mentally comparing the
numerical proportion of lifebelts to passengers. On horseback he
seemed to require as many hands as a Hindu god, at least four for
clutching the reins, and two more for patting the horse soothingly on
the neck. Lady Barbara no longer pretended not to see her son's
prevailing weakness, with her usual courage she faced the knowledge of
it squarely, and, mother-like, loved him none the less.

Continental travel, anywhere away from the great tourist tracks, was a
favoured hobby with Lady Barbara, and Lester joined her as often as
possible. Eastertide usually found her at Knobaltheim, an upland
township in one of those small princedoms that make inconspicuous
freckles on the map of Central Europe.

A long-standing acquaintanceship with the reigning family made her a
personage of due importance in the eyes of her old friend the
Burgomaster, and she was anxiously consulted by that worthy on the
momentous occasion when the Prince made known his intention of coming
in person to open a sanatorium outside the town. All the usual items
in a programme of welcome, some of them fatuous and commonplace, others
quaint and charming, had been arranged for, but the Burgomaster hoped
that the resourceful English lady might have something new and tasteful
to suggest in the way of loyal greeting. The Prince was known to the
outside world, if at all, as an old-fashioned reactionary, combating
modern progress, as it were, with a wooden sword; to his own people he
was known as a kindly old gentleman with a certain endearing
stateliness which had nothing of standoffishness about it. Knobaltheim
was anxious to do its best. Lady Barbara discussed the matter with
Lester and one or two acquaintances in her little hotel, but ideas were
difficult to come by.

"Might I suggest something to the Gnaedige Frau?" asked a sallow
high-cheek-boned lady to whom the Englishwoman had spoken once or
twice, and whom she had set down in her mind as probably a Southern
Slav.

"Might I suggest something for the Reception Fest?" she went on, with a
certain shy eagerness. "Our little child here, our baby, we will dress
him in little white coat, with small wings, as an Easter angel, and he
will carry a large white Easter egg, and inside shall be a basket of
plover eggs, of which the Prince is so fond, and