in rocked, going round a curve, and it was with difficulty that
the Chancellor kept his footing; but he stood rigidly erect,
supporting himself in the doorway, until the Emperor with more
politeness than enthusiasm, invited him to enter and be seated.

"I'm glad you're well enough to travel, Chancellor," said Leopold.
"We had none too encouraging an account of you from Captain von
Breitstein."

"I travel because you travel, your Majesty," replied the old man. "It
is kind of you to tolerate me here, and I appreciate it."

Now, they sat facing each other; and the young man, fighting down a
sense of guilt--familiar to him in boyish days, when about to be taken
to task by the Chancellor--gazed fixedly at the hard, clever face on
which the afternoon sun scored the detail of each wrinkle.

"Indeed?" was the Emperor's only answer.

"Your Majesty, I have served you and your father before you, well, I
hope, faithfully, I know. I think you trust me."

"No man more. But this sounds a portentous preface. Is it possible you
imagine it necessary to 'lead up' to a subject, if I can please myself
by doing you a favor?"

"If I have seemed to lead up to what I wish to say, your Majesty, it
is only for the sake of explanation. You are wondering, no doubt, how
I knew you would travel to-day, and in this train; also why I have
ventured to follow. Your intention I learned by accident." (The
Chancellor did not explain by what diplomacy that "accident" had been
brought about.) "Wishing much to talk over with you a pressing matter
that should not be delayed, I took this liberty, and seized this
opportunity.

"Some men would, in my place, pretend that business of their own had
brought them, and that the train had been chosen by chance. But your
Majesty knows me as a blunt man, when I serve him not as diplomat, but
as friend. I'm not one to work in the dark with those who trust me,
and I want your Majesty to know the truth." (Which perhaps he did, but
not the whole truth.)

"You raise my curiosity," said Leopold.

"Then have I your indulgence to speak frankly, not entirely as a
humble subject to his Emperor, but as an old man to a young man?"

"I'd have you speak as a friend," said Leopold. But a slight
constraint hardened his voice, as he prepared himself for something
disagreeable.

"I've had a letter from the Crown Prince of Hungaria. It has come to
his ears that there is a certain reason for your Majesty's delay in
following u