ce of mind. "If by playing the
fool, though, you mean falling in love, why then, brother, I should
say he had done little else during the three days; and perhaps even
the first of those was not the beginning."

The Chancellor growled out a word which he would hardly have uttered
in the Imperial presence, particularly in the connection he suggested.
"Let me hear exactly what has been going on from day's end to day's
end," he commanded.

Egon grew thoughtful once more. Clearly, here was the explanation of
the summons. He was to be let off easily, it appeared; but, suspense
relieved, he was not ready to be satisfied with negative blessings.

"Are you sure it isn't a bit like telling tales out of school?" he
objected.

"School-boys--with empty pockets--have been known to do that," said
the Chancellor. "But perhaps your pockets aren't empty--eh?"

"They're in a chronic state of emptiness," groaned Egon.

"On the fifteenth day of October your quarterly allowance will be
paid," remarked his brother. "I would increase the instalment by the
amount of five thousand gulden, if that would make it worth your while
to talk--and forget nothing but your scruples."

"Oh, you know I'm always delighted to please you!" exclaimed Egon.
"It's only natural, living the monotonous life you do when you're not
busy with the affairs of state, that you should like to hear what goes
on in the world outside. Of course, I'll gladly do my best as a
_raconteur_."

"My dear young man, don't lie," said the Chancellor. "The habit is
growing on you. You lie even to yourself. By and by you'll believe
yourself, and then all hope for your soul will be over. What I want to
know is; how far the Emperor has gone in his infatuation for this
English girl. I'm not afraid to speak plainly to you, so you may
safely--and profitably--do the same with me. In the first place I'll
put you at your ease by making a humiliating confession. The other
night the woman von Lyndal tried to 'draw me,' as she would express
it, on this subject, and I'm bitterly mortified to say she partly
succeeded. She suggested an entanglement between Leopold and the girl.
I replied that Leopold wasn't the man to pull down a hornet's nest of
gossip around the ears of a young woman who had saved his life. No
matter what his inclinations might be, I insisted that he would pay
her no repeated visits. This thrust the fair Mechtilde parried--as if
repeating a mere rumor--by saying that she bel