"
"What put that into your head? You are not going to back down, after
all, are you?"
"Decidedly not. Something strikes me that I shall miss fire."
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Pembroke. "I have been thinking it over, and I've
come to the conclusion that it would not be a bad plan to rid this
world of a man like your Prince. It'll all come out right in the end.
You will wed the Princess Hildegarde just as sure as--as I will not wed
her sister." He spoke the last words rapidly, as though afraid of them.
"I shall never marry the Princess Hildegarde," said I. "She has gone."
"Gone? Where?"
"It matters not where. Suffice it is that she has gone. Pembroke, you
and I were very unfortunate fellows. What earthly use have Princesses
for you and me? The little knowledge of court we have was gotten out
of cheap books and newspaper articles. To talk with Kings and
Princesses it requires an innate etiquette which commoners cannot
learn. We are not to the manner born. These Princesses are but
candles; and now that we have singed our mothy wings, and are crippled
so that we may not fly again, let us beware.
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