He made a vow that when
children came he would make them things of scorn. In her great
trouble, the Princess came to my inn, where the Princess Hildegarde was
born. The Prince refused to believe that the child was his. My
mistress finally sickened and died--broken-hearted. The Prince died in
a gambling den. The King became the guardian of the lonely child. He
knows but little, or he would not ask Her Highness--" He stopped.
"He would not ask her what?"
"To wed the man who caused all this trouble."
"What! Prince Ernst?"
"Yes. I prayed to God, Herr, that your friend's bullet would carry
death. But it was not to be."
"I am going back to London," said I. "When I have settled up my
affairs there I shall return."
"And then?"
"Perhaps I shall complete what my friend began."
I climbed into the ramshackle conveyance and was driven away. Once I
looked back. The innkeeper could be seen on the porch, then he became
lost to view behind the trees. Far away to my left the stones in the
little cemetery on the hillside shone with brilliant whiteness.
CHAPTER XVI
There were intervals during the three months which followed when I
believed that I was walking in a dream, and waking would find me
grubbing at my desk in New York.
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