"Count von Rudloff!"

It was one of the two members of the suite I had seen with the Emperor before my interview with him.

"You are addressing me, sir?" I asked.

"I am addressing the Count von Rudloff," he answered, with that air of impa.s.sive coolness that men of his kind affect.

I made an effort to regain my self-possession, and to answer him with the same measured calmness.

"I am the Count von Rudloff," I said.

"I bring you a letter from the Emperor, count."

He waited while I tore it open with fingers that trembled. It was short and peremptory enough, but what did it not mean to me?

"I have decided to restore to you your t.i.tle and possessions. The question of your future career remains in abeyance for the present."

That was all; with the signature of the Emperor himself.

"May I be the first to offer a word of congratulation, count?" asked the messenger.

"Thank you, thank you," I murmured. "It is all unexpected."

He still waited, and I thought there might be something more to add.

"Is there anything more to add?" I asked.

"His Majesty suggests that you should travel for a time--a year or so, perhaps--so that the manner of your return to Berlin and your resumption of your position may not seem to come as the result of this business here in Munich."

"I understand," I said, though I still seemed in a dream. "And am I free to go where I please now?"

"Certainly," he returned, smiling. "Can I be of any a.s.sistance?"

"No, thank you. No. I have some urgent business that will not wait another second."

A minute after that I had left the palace, and was hurrying as fast as horses could drag me to Minna to tell her the brilliant news.

CHAPTER x.x.x

THE END

When I reached Minna's house, I had an experience that at first amused me. I could not, of course, any longer treat the house as my own, nor look on myself as having any right to enter, and I found the servants very reluctant to admit me at all, and it was only after some difficulty that I succeeded in getting shown into a room close to the door, while they said they would carry my message. I waited in some little fever of impatience, and when the delay had grown into minutes I began to wonder that Minna should take so coolly the fact of my return and the news she must know I should carry. I saw the explanation, however, when the door was opened and the Baroness Gratz sailed in, pompous and very angry.

"What can be your business here now?" she asked, staring at me through her eyegla.s.s.

"I have come to see Minna," I replied, with an inclination to smile at her conduct.

"I am astounded that you should have the a.s.surance to come here after your egregious imposture. Of course you do not expect to see her?"

"Indeed I do," said I quickly, "and as soon as possible."

"And pray in what character now?"

This with a contemptuous and insulting curl of the lip. I paused to give my reply the greater emphasis.

"In a double character--a messenger from his Majesty the Emperor, and as her affianced husband."

"You are not her affianced husband, and I will not suffer that tale to be told in my presence. As for the rest, it is more like a play-actor's story. You imposed upon us too long. You will not do it again." She said this very angrily indeed, and added, almost spitefully: "The countess does not wish to see you."

"In this case I am afraid she cannot choose," I answered. "The Emperor's business cannot wait upon any prejudices for or against his messengers."

There was a little stretch of authority insinuated in this. "Moreover, I am bound to say that I prefer to have her decision straight from herself."

"You suggest that I lie, I suppose," she cried, her eyes flashing. "You are too brave a man not to seize a chance of insulting a defenceless woman. That is your stage chivalry. But you will find I am not so defenceless as you suppose."

She rang the bell sharply twice, and then, somewhat to my surprise, and a good deal to my pleasure, the Baron Heckscher was shown in.

"I am told you wish to see me, baroness," he said, ignoring my presence.

"I wish you to tell this person what we have decided as to his prosecution."

I swung round on him instantly.

"I am glad there is a man to deal with. How dare you presume to meddle in my affairs, Baron Heckscher?"

"Really--but how shall I call you? Not the Prince any longer, I presume?

Then what?" and he regarded me with an insolent smile.

"His Majesty the Emperor, within the last few minutes, has been good enough to call me by my own name--the Count von Rudloff. That may be a precedent good enough for even you to follow."

He stared at me in blank astonishment. The fact that I had been closeted with the Emperor might mean everything to him, and at the thought all other considerations were dwarfed. I enjoyed his discomfiture. All his insolence disappeared.

"You do not believe what he says, surely?" cried the vindictive old lady when he made no immediate answer, for he stood in great perplexity what course to take toward me.

"You will see you cannot remain here in the face of the baroness's att.i.tude," he said to me at length, with an air that was half truculent and half deprecatory.

I laughed.

"I see you are vastly disconcerted to hear that I have had an audience with his Majesty, and have left him under circ.u.mstances that augur ill for you; and well you may be," I added meaningly. "You dare to meddle in my matters at a time when you will need all your wits to save your own from shipwreck. But I have had enough of you, and of this folly. I now demand in the name of the Emperor to see the Countess Minna von Gramberg, and if you attempt to stop me," I said sternly to the Baroness Gratz, "the consequences may be far more grave than you think."

Her anger and dislike of me gave her plenty of courage, however, and she still set me at defiance, abusing me for an impostor and a cheat; and when I declared that if they did not take my message to Minna I would myself go straight to her rooms, she planted herself in front of the door and dared me to attempt to leave it for that purpose, and vowed she would call the servants if I would not go away.

The situation began to verge upon the ridiculous, despite the fact that it was in a measure embarra.s.sing. I could not for the moment see what to do, and was debating this in my thoughts when a sudden turn was given to matters by the entrance of Minna herself, the door being opened from without.

"Ah, Minna!" I cried, hastening to her.