ting the wines for his dinner, when
Count von Breitstein's card was sent in. He was pleased to say that he
would receive his visitor, and (Egon having been sent about his
business) the Chancellor was shown into the purple drawing-room of the
suite reserved for Royalty.

As he entered, a young man jumped up from an easy chair, scattering
sheaves of illustrated papers, and held out both his hands, with a
"Welcome, my dear old friend!"

It would have been vain to scour the world in quest of a handsomer
young man than this one. Even Egon von Breitstein would have seemed a
more good-looking puppet beside him, and the Chancellor rejoiced in
the physical perfection of a Prince who might prove a dangerous rival
for an absent Emperor.

"This is the best of good fortune!" exclaimed Count von Breitstein.
"Egon told me you were here, and without waiting to get the note he
said you had left for me, I came to you, straight from the railway
station."

"Splendid! And now you must dine with me. It was that I asked of you
in my note. Dinner early; a serious talk; and an antidote for
solemnity in a visit to the Leopoldhalle to see Mademoiselle Felice
from the _Folies Bergere_ do her famous Fire and Fountain dance. A
box; curtains half drawn; no one need know that the Chancellor helps
his young friend amuse himself."

"I thank your Royal Highness for the honor you suggest, and nothing
could give me greater pleasure, if I had not a suggestion to venture
in place of yours, which I believe may suit you better. I think I know
of what you wish to talk with me, and I desire the same, while the
business I have most at heart--"

"Ah, your business is my business, then?"

"I hope you may so consider it. In any case it is business which must
be carried through now or never, and is of life and death importance
to those whom it concerns. How it's to be done, or whether done at
all, may depend on you, if you consent to interest yourself; and it
could not be in more competent hands. If I'd been given my choice of
an assistant, out of the whole world, I should have chosen your Royal
Highness."

"This sounds like an adventure."

"It may be an adventure, and at the same time an act of justice."

"Good. Although it was not in search of an adventure that I came to
you, any more than it was the hope of game which brought me on a
sudden impulse to my little hunting lodge, still, I trust I have
always the instinct of a sportsman."

"I am sure of