"Three years, Bessie. Chalice is only twenty; and I am her aunt, you know."
We all smiled at this. "But that is no reason why you should get into all this bother on account of the Prince," objected Bessie.
"The simplest thing will be to let the truth be known," I put in.
"Oh no, no," protested Althea vehemently. "Anything but that; at any rate for the present. Herr Grumpel declares her voice will take the whole country by storm; and she is to make her debut soon. She has a brilliant future before her, and if she were to incur the displeasure of the Court at such a time it would ruin everything."
"But Prince von Graven won"t wish his wife to be a singer," I objected, "even supposing such a marriage were ever sanctioned."
"Chalice declares she will not do a thing to hurt his interests. That is why she will not have a betrothal."
"But what about you, Althea?" cried Bessie indignantly. "Are you to be packed off to prison or out of the country in order that the secret may be kept?"
"It must be kept, Bessie," said Althea very decidedly.
"I think a little plain talk to the Prince would be a good thing," I suggested.
"He thinks only of Chalice, and will not do anything against her wish."
"Something like a deadlock, then," I murmured. If everything was to hinge only on Chalice"s wishes, the case promised to be awkward. We were silent for a while, and then I said: "You will be placed in a very ugly fix. We all know what the Kaiser is when any one opposes him. You surely won"t go to the extreme of letting yourself be arrested?"
This appeared to alarm her seriously. "No, no. There are other reasons, too," she exclaimed hastily.
"Then your only course is for you to leave the country."
"I can"t even leave Berlin while Chalice is here."
"Then take her with you."
"There is Herr Grumpel. If she left now, it would ruin everything."
I tossed up my hands with a smile. The position was impossible.
"Hadn"t you better fetch your trunks from the station, Paul?" asked Bessie.
"I"m afraid there"s nothing in them that will solve this puzzle."
"At any rate you will not go home now," she retorted meaningly. "And while you go for them, Althea and I can talk things over. I have made up my mind. She must, of course, stay with us for the time."
"No, no," protested Althea. I rose, delighted at the idea.
"We shall have everything settled by the time you"re back, Paul."
"There"s Gretchen, remember," I replied as I went out of the room.
I walked to the station and started to think things over, but there was one thought which for the time crowded out all others. Althea was not in love with the Prince! Thank Heaven for that. And compared with that, nothing mattered. I would find some way out of the tangle, and in the meantime--well, I could hope again. And then I began dreaming and planning with the sanguine vanity of a man very much in love and once more able to hope for the best.
Dormund was still at the station, and met me as I entered. "Ah, Herr Bastable, going on your journey after all?"
"Not to-night. I don"t travel at night if I can help it."
"Well that is perhaps as well. It will give you more time. All pa.s.sports have to be vised afresh. But of course I can see to that for you, if you like."
"Why"s that? Anything happened?"
"It would interest you if you were still on your paper. Trouble with those cursed Poles again. A plot to rob one of the Imperial couriers of his papers. We had news from Koln and prevented it; but some of the scoundrels are known to be here in Berlin, and we are watching for them.
If we were to behead a few of them it would save a lot of trouble."
"There would be so many less to make the trouble, anyway," I replied carelessly. "Do you know the people in it?"
"I know who is at the bottom of it, and so do you; for you have written about him often enough. That Baron von Ringheim. There"s no proof, of course; there never is; but proof or no proof, I"d put him in safe keeping if I had my way. He"s the most dangerous man in Europe to our Government."
"I think you have him on the brain, Dormund," I laughed.
"I"d rather have him under lock and key," he retorted almost angrily.
"But get the evening paper; you will see something about it there."
I had heard a good deal about this Baron von Ringheim. He had been banished many years before for some offence against the Government, and his estates had been confiscated. He was believed to have allied himself with all parties who had grievances against the Government; had been very active in the work of sedition; and was credited with having originated a policy of combination among them for the common purpose of discrediting the Government. The policy had been very successful, with the result that, whenever a daring coup of any sort was made or attempted, he was credited with the responsibility.
"Then I suppose I owe it to the Baron that if I go to-morrow I must get my pa.s.sport vised," I replied after a pause.
"Yes; but of course it will only be a form in your case. By the way, Lieutenant Bernhoff was here after you left this afternoon. He came to bid you good-bye, he said; but I suppose it was more to see your sister.
He tells me he has hopes some day of----eh?" and he smiled insinuatingly.
"One never knows what may happen, Dormund."
"He is a good fellow, and rich. He would have done me the honour to present me to your sister this afternoon. You may have seen that I was very interested in her."
"We must find another occasion then. I am sure the pleasure will be mutual," I said with a smile, the meaning of which he fortunately did not understand.
"You are very good." He was pleased at the compliment.
I a.s.sumed a more confidential air. "By the way, Dormund, I"ve been thinking a good deal about that arrest you were after--of Fraulein Korper."
"You know her well?"
"She is a very great friend of my sister." I managed to suggest more than the words implied and he smiled. "I can"t bring myself to think of her as a criminal of any sort. It took my breath away."
"Of course I can"t tell you anything I know officially, but there can be no harm in my saying that the arrest was ordered from Count von Felsen"s office."
"I"m not after newspaper copy," I laughed. "But it bewildered me."
At that moment some one came up to him and he excused himself. I bought the evening paper and drove off home with my trunks.
I had not learnt much in regard to Althea, but the fact that the arrest had been ordered from Count von Felsen"s office might mean that it was connected with her supposed relations with Prince von Graven. It was certainly unusual, and the Kaiser"s hand might well be in the background.
Then I read the account of the affair Dormund had spoken of. It read very much like one of the Baron"s coups. The courier had been in possession of some very important State papers, and these had all but fallen into the hands of those who had attempted to steal them. The same thing had been done more than once before, I knew. The object was to get hold of such things, and then make them public at the moment when they would do the greatest damage.