"I was summoned very hastily, or I would have paid my respects to your Highness--"
"Indeed," said the Grand Duke, "your departure is of a deplorable suddenness--"
"--and yet," pursued the Grand Duke, "travel is beneficial to young men."
"Nay, I would not for the world intrude upon your secrets, Comte--"
"--For young men will be young men, I know."
"--There is, your Highness, to be a sale of meadow land--"
"Which you will find, I trust, untilled."
"--And my counsellor at law, your Highness, is imperative--"
"At times," agreed the Grand Duke, "the most subtle of counsellors is unreasonable. I trust, though, that she is handsome?"
"Ah, your Highness--!" cried de Châteauroux.
"And you have my blessing upon your culture of those meadow lands. Go in peace."
The Grand Duke was smiling on his wife's kinsman with extreme benevolence when the Baroness von Altenburg appeared in travelling costume and carrying a portmanteau.
"Heydey!" said the Grand Duke; "it seems, that the legal representative of our good Baroness, also, is imperative."
"Your Highness!" cried the Baroness, and she, too, dropped her burden.
"Every one," said the Grand Duke, "appears to question my identity." And meantime de Châteauroux turned from the one to the other in bewilderment.
"This," said the Grand Duke, after a pause, "is painful. This is unworthy of you, de Châteauroux."
The Baroness applied her handkerchief to her eyes, and plaintively said, "You do not understand, your Highness--"
"I am afraid," said the Grand Duke, "that I understand only too clearly."
"--and I confess I was here to meet Monsieur de Châteauroux--"
"Precisely," observed the Grand Duke, "to compare portmanteaux; and you had selected the interior of yonder carriage, no doubt, as an appropriate locality."
"His Highness already knowing," the Grand Duke interpolated.
"I can assure you--" de Châteauroux began.
"Nay, I will take the lady's word for it," said the Grand Duke--"though it grieves me."
"We knew you--would never give your consent," murmured the Baroness, "and without your consent I can not marry--"
"Undoubtedly," said the Grand Duke, "I would never have given my consent to such fiddle-faddle."
But de Châteauroux passed one hand over his brow. "This," he said, "is some horrible mistake--"