"The other day?"
"Yes, a week or two ago. After the contretemps with the change of guard."
"Dear, dear, Prince, now you are beginning that too. That story seems to have reached from hut to palace. Had I known what a bother was going to come of it, I would rather have gone three times round the whole Schlossplatz. It even got into the newspapers, I'm told. And now of course the whole town thinks I am a regular fiend for temper and rudeness. But I am the most peaceful creature in the world, and only don't like being ordered about. Am I a fiend, Countess? I demand a truthful answer."
"No, you're an angel," said Countess Löwenjoul.
"H'm—angel, that's too much, that's too far the other way, Countess.…"
"No," said Klaus Heinrich, "no, not too far. I entirely believe the Countess.…"
"I'm much honoured. But how did your Highness hear about the adventure? Through the newspapers?"
"I was an eye-witness of it," said Klaus Heinrich.
"An eye-witness?"
"Yes. I happened to be standing at the window of the officers' mess, and saw the whole thing from beginning to end."
Miss Spoelmann blushed. There was no doubt about it, the pale skin of her face deepened in colour.
"Well, Prince," she said, "I assume that you had nothing better to do at the moment."
"Better?" he cried. "But it was a splendid sight. I give you my word that never in my life …"
Percival, who was lying with his forepaws crossed, by Miss Spoelmann, raised his head with a look of tense expectancy and beat the carpet with his tail. At the same moment the butler began to run, as fast as his ponderous frame would let him, down the steps to the lofty side-door
