With this, all uncertainty in the mind of the jaeger was swept away.
He knew his duty and determined to stand by it; and the Chancellor
saw that, if the master had given instructions meaning them to be
over-ridden, at least the servant was sincere. He put himself in the
doorway, and looked an obstacle difficult to dislodge.

"That is impossible, sir!" he exclaimed. "I have had my orders, which
are that his Royal Highness is not at home to-night, and until I know
whether or not these orders are to stand, nobody, not if it were the
Emperor, should force his way."

"Fool, those orders are not for us; and it is the Emperor who will go
in." With a step aside, the Chancellor let the light from the hanging
lamp in the hall shine full upon Leopold's face, hitherto masked in
shadow.

His boast forgotten, the jaeger uttered a cry of dismay, and with a
sudden failing of the knees, he moved, and left the doorway free.

"Your Majesty!" he faltered. "I did not see--I could not know. Most
humbly I beg your Majesty's gracious pardon. If your Majesty will but
hold me blameless with my master--"

"Never mind yourself, and never mind your master," broke in the
Chancellor. "Open that door at the end of the hall, and announce the
Emperor and Count von Breitstein."

The unfortunate jaeger, approaching a state of collapse, obeyed. The
door of the dining-room, which Leopold knew of old, was thrown open,
and a quavering voice heralded "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, and
the Herr Chancellor Count von Breitstein."

The scene disclosed was as unreal to Leopold's eyes as a painted
picture; the walls of Pompeian red; the gold candelabra; the polished
floor, spread with the glimmering fur of Polar bears; and in the
center a flower-decked table lit with pink-shaded lights, and
sparkling with gold and crystal; springing up from a chair which faced
the door, a young man in evening dress; sitting motionless, her back
half turned, a slender girl in bridal white.

At sight of her the Emperor stopped on the threshold. All the blood in
his body seemed rushing to his head, then surging back upon his heart.

The impossible had happened.

CHAPTER XIX

THE THIRD COURSE

The Prince came forward. "What a delightful surprise," he said. "How
good of you both to look me up! But I wish my prophetic soul had
warned me to keep back dinner. We have just reached the third course."
And his eyes met the Chancellor's.

"All the same," he went