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“Not but that he does it rather well, you know,” whispered the Grand Duke to the Baroness von Altenburg, “although the style is florid. Yet that last speech was quite in my earlier and more rococo manner.”

The Grand Duchess did not stir as de Ch�teauroux bent over her jewelled hand.

“Come! come now!” he said. “Let us not lose our only chance of happiness. ‘Come forth, O Galatea, and forget as thou comest, even as I already have forgot, the homeward way! Nay, choose with me to go a-shepherding–!'”

“Oh, but to think of dragging in Theocritus!” observed his Highness. “Can this be what they call seduction nowadays!”

“I cannot,” the Grand Duchess whispered, and her voice trembled. “You know that I cannot, dear.”

“You will go!” said de Ch�teauroux.

“My husband–“

“A man who leaves you for each new caprice, who flaunts his mistresses in the face of Europe.”

“My children–“

“Eh, mon Dieu! are they or aught else to stand in my way, now that I know you love me!”

“–it would be criminal–“

“Ah, yes, but then you love me!”

“–you act a dishonorable part, de Ch�teauroux,–“

“That does not matter. You love me!”

“I will never see you again,” said the Grand Duchess, firmly. “Go! I loathe you, I loathe you, monsieur, even more than I loathe myself for having stooped to listen to you.”

“You love me!” said de Ch�teauroux, and took her in his arms.

Then the Grand Duchess rested her head upon the shoulder of de Ch�teauroux, and breathed, “God help me!–yes!”

“Really,” said the Grand Duke, “I would never have thought it of Victoria. It seems incredible for any woman of taste to be thus lured astray by citations of the almanac and secondary Greek poets.”

“You will come, then?” the Count said.

And the Grand Duchess answered, quietly, “It shall be as you will.”

More lately, while the Grand Duke and the Baroness craned their necks, and de Ch�teauroux bent, very slowly, over her upturned lips, the Grand Duchess struggled from him, saying, “Hark, Philippe! for I heard some one–something stirring–“

“It was the wind, dear heart.”

“Hasten!–I am afraid!–Oh, it is madness to wait here!”

“At dawn, then,–in the gardens?”

“Yes,–ah, yes, yes! But come, mon ami.” And they disappeared in the direction of the palace.

III

The Grand Duke looked dispassionately on their retreating figures; inquiringly on the Baroness; reprovingly on the moon, as though he rather suspected it of having treated him with injustice.

“Ma foi,” said his Highness, at length, “I have never known such a passion for sunrises. Shortly we shall have them announced as ‘Patronized by the Nobility.'”

The Baroness said only, with an ellipsis, “Her own cousin, too!” [Footnote: By courtesy rather than legally; Mademoiselle Berlin was, however, undoubtedly the Elector of Badenburg’s sister, though on the wrong side of the blanket; and to her (second) son by Louis Quinze his French Majesty accorded the title of Comte de Ch�teauroux.]

“Victoria,” observed the Grand Duke, “has always had the highest regard for her family; but in this she is going too far–“

“Yes,” said the Baroness; “as far as Vienna.”

“–and I shall tell her that there are limits, Pardieu,” the Grand Duke emphatically repeated, “that there are limits.”

“Whereupon, if I am not mistaken, she will reply that there are–baronesses.”

“I shall then appeal to her better nature–“

“You will find it,” said the Baroness, “strangely hard of hearing.”

“–and afterward I shall have de Ch�teauroux arrested.”

“On what grounds, your Highness?”

“In fact,” admitted the Grand Duke, “we do not want a scandal”

“It is no longer,” the Baroness considered, “altogether a question of what we want.”

“And, morbleu! there will be a horrible scandal–“

“The public gazettes will thrive on it.”

“–and trouble with her father, if not international complications–“

“The armies of Noumaria and Badenburg have for years had nothing to do.”

“–and later a divorce.”

“The lawyers will call you blessed. In any event,” the Baroness conscientiously added, “your lawyers will. I am afraid that hers–“

“Will scarcely be so courteous?” the Grand Duke queried.

“It is not altogether impossible,” the Baroness admitted, “that in preparation of their briefs, they may light upon some other adjective.”