"Then he must have an astral body," said she, "since one or the other
has been with me all day; and it was to him--or his Doppelgaenger--that
you offered your purse to make up for accusing him of stealing!"

The Grand Duchess sat down; not so much because she wished to assume a
sitting position, as because she experienced a sudden, uncontrollable
weakness of the knees. For a moment she was unable to speak, or even
to speculate; but one vague thought did trail dimly across her brain.
"Heavens! what have I done to him? And maybe some day he will be my
son-in-law."

Meanwhile, Frau Yorvan--a strangely subdued Frau Yorvan--had
droopingly followed the chamois hunter into the inn.

"My dear old friend, you must learn not to lose that well-meaning head
of yours," said he in the hall.

"Oh, but, your Majesty--"

"Now, now, must I remind you again that his Majesty is at Kronburg,
or Petersbrueck, or some other of his residences, when I am at
Alleheiligen? This time I believe he's at the Baths of Melina. If you
can't remember these things, I fear I shall be driven away from here,
to look for chamois elsewhere than on the Schneehorn."

"Indeed, I will not be so stupid again, your--I mean, I will do my
very best not to forget. But never before have I been so tried. To see
your high-born, imperial shoulders loaded down as if--as if you had
been a common Gepaecktraeger for tourists, instead of--"

"A chamois hunter. Don't distress yourself, good friend. I've had a
day of excellent sport."

"For that I am thankful. But to see your--to see you coming back in
such an unsuitable way, has given me a weakness of the heart. How can
I order myself civilly to those ladies, who have--"

"Who have given peasant Leopold some hours of amusement. Be more civil
than ever, for my sake. And by the way, can you tell me the names of
the ladies? That one of them--a companion, I judge--is a Miss
Manchester, I have heard in conversation; but the others--"

"They are mother and daughter--sir. The elder, who in her ignorance,
cried out such treasonable abominations from the window (as I could
tell even with the little English I have picked up) is Lady Mowbray. I
have seen the name written down; and I know how to speak it because I
have heard it pronounced by the companion, the Mees Manchester. The
younger--the beautiful one--is also a Mees--and the mother calls her
Helene. They talk together in English, also in French, and though I
have so few