What I read caused me to hold my breath. The signature to the letters
was "Enid von Leutenberg."
Those letters of hers had, it was plain, been seized in the post on
their way to London. The Countess either had a traitor in her household
or secret watch was being kept by the Secret Service upon her
correspondence.
All three of those letters I read--letters which opened my eyes and
broadened my mind. Then, taking up my bundle of reports, I crept away
from the room, carefully re-latching the door. I intended that his
Highness should return, discover the letters left there inadvertently,
and put them away ere my arrival, in which case he would never suspect
that I had any knowledge of their contents.
With the papers in my hand I passed along the many carpeted corridors to
the south wing of the Palace, where I found Tresternitz, Marshal of the
Prince's Court, in his room.
The Crown-Prince imitated his father's sharp punctuality, therefore I
knew that he would be there at seven or soon afterwards.
Tresternitz was always full of scandal concerning those who lived in the
higher circles of Berlin, and it was to one of these stories of Court
scandal concerning one of the ladies-in-waiting which I listened while I
smoked one of his excellent Russian cigarettes.
Then, glancing at the clock, I rose suddenly and left him, returning
again to the private room.
I found his Highness there, and as I entered I noticed that he had
hidden those remarkable letters which he had in secret shown to Count
Zeppelin.
A fortnight went past. The Kaiser, with his mad love of constant travel,
had been rushing up and down the Empire--to Krupp's at Essen, to the
trials of a newly-invented howitzer, thence to an inspection at Kassel,
and afterwards to unveil monuments at Cologne and at Erfurt. The
Crown-Prince and Princess had accompanied him, the Kaiserin being
indisposed, and I, of course, had been included in "Willie's" suite.
The week had been a strenuous one of train-travel, luncheons, tiring
dinners, receptions, dancing, and general junketings, and I was glad
enough to get back to my bachelor rooms--those rooms in the
Krausenstrasse that you knew so well before the bursting of the
war-cloud. To dance attendance upon an Imperial Crown-Prince, as well as
upon an autocratic Emperor, becomes after a time a wearisome business,
however gay and cosmopolitan a man may be.
I had only been at home a few hours when a telephone message summoned me
at five o'clock to the Crown-Prince's Palace.
His Imperial Highness, who had, I knew, been lunching with the Emperor
at the Koenigliches Schloss across the bridge, seemed unusually serious
and thoughtful. Perhaps the Emperor had again shown his anger at his
peccadilloes, as he did so frequently.
"Count," he said, after a few seconds of silence, during which I noted
that upon his table lay a private letter from the German Ambassador in
London. "You will recall my conversation regarding the Countess von
Leutenberg--eh?"
"Perfectly," was my reply.
"I told you that I should require you to introduce me," he said. "Well,
I want you to do so this evening. She has taken a box at the Koenigliche
Opera to-night, where they are to play _Falstaff_. I shall be there, and
you will be with me. Then you will introduce me to your pretty friend.
Understand?" And he grinned.
That night, in accordance with my instructions, I sat in the Emperor's
box with the Crown-Prince, Tresternitz, and two personal-adjutants, and,
recognizing the Countess von Leutenberg in a box opposite, accompanied
by an elderly lady, I took the Crown-Prince round, and there presented
her to him, greatly to her surprise and undisguised delight.
The Prince and the Countess chatted together, while I sat with her
elderly companion. Then, when we had withdrawn, my Imperial Master
exclaimed:
"Ah! my dear Heltzendorff. Why, she is one of the prettiest women in all
Berlin! Surely it is unfortunate--most unfortunate."
What was unfortunate? I was further puzzled by that last sentence, yet I
dare not ask any explanation, and we went back to our own box.
After our return to the Palace the Crown-Prince, who was standing in one
of the corridors talking with the slim, fair-haired Baroness von Wedel,
one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting, left her and beckoned me into an
adjoining room.
"I wish you, Heltzendorff, to call upon the Countess von Leutenberg at
nine o'clock to-morrow evening. She will expect you."
I looked at his Highness, much puzzled. How did he know that the pretty
Countess would expect me?
But he gave me no time to reply, merely turning upon his heel, and
striding down the corridor to the private apartments.
Punctually at nine o'clock that wintry evening I called at the
Lennestrasse, but Josef, the elderly manservant, informed me that his
mistress was engaged, adding that His Imperial Highness the Crown-Prince
had paid a surprise call.
"The Crown-Prince here!" I gasped, astounded.
"Yes, Count. And, further, my mistress is in high glee, for my master
returned this morning quite unexpectedly from London. He has been out at
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs all the evening, and I expect him home
at any moment. The Crown-Prince ordered me to ask you to await him
here."
Count von Leutenberg in Berlin! What did it mean? He was absurdly
jealous, I recollected. He might return at any moment and find the
Crown-Prince alone in the Countess's drawing-room. If so, the situation
might certainly be a most unpleasant one.
Hardly had the thought crossed my mind when I heard the Count enter, his
spurs clinking and his sabre rattling as he strode up the stairs.