estions, my dear Count."

"Shall I find the king alone?" asked Rischenheim nervously.

"I don't think you'll find anybody with him; no, nobody, I think,"
answered Bernenstein, with a grave and reassuring air.

They arrived now at the door. Here Bernenstein paused.

"I am ordered to wait outside till his Majesty summons me," he said in
a low voice, as though he feared that the irritable king would hear him.
"I'll open the door and announce you. Pray keep him in a good temper,
for all our sakes." And he flung the door open, saying, "Sire, the Count
of Luzau-Rischenheim has the honor to wait on your Majesty." With this
he shut the door promptly, and stood against it. Nor did he move, save
once, and then only to take out his revolver and carefully inspect it.

The count advanced, bowing low, and striving to conceal a visible
agitation. He saw the king in his arm-chair; the king wore a suit of
brown tweeds (none the better for being crushed into a bundle the night
before); his face was in deep shadow, but Rischenheim perceived that the
beard was indeed gone. The king held out his hand to Rischenheim, and
motioned him to sit in a chair just opposite to him and within a foot of
the window-curtains.

"I'm delighted to see you, my lord," said the king.

Rischenheim looked up. Rudolf's voice had once been so like the king's
that no man could tell the difference, but in the last year or two the
king's had grown weaker, and Rischenheim seemed to be struck by the
vigor of the tones in which he was addressed. As he looked up, there was
a slight movement in the curtains by him; it died away when the count
gave no further signs of suspicion, but Rudolf had noticed his surprise:
the voice, when it next spoke, was subdued.

"Most delighted," pursued Mr. Rassendyll. "For I am pestered beyond
endurance about those dogs. I can't get the coats right, I've tried
everything, but they won't come as I wish. Now, yours are magnificent."

"You are very good, sire. But I ventured to ask an audience in order
to--"

"Positively you must tell me about the dogs. And before Sapt comes, for
I want nobody to hear but myself."

"Your Majesty expects Colonel Sapt?"

"In about twenty minutes," said the king, with a glance at the clock on
the mantelpiece.

At this Rischenheim became all on fire to get his errand done before
Sapt appeared.

"The coats of your dogs," pursued the king, "grow so beautifully--"

"A thousand pardons, sire, but--"