IN WHICH I SALUTE THE STATUE OF GOD AND A PSYCHIC
EXPERT EXPLORES MY BRAIN AND FINDS NOTHING
~1~
The Chemical Staff called for me at my laboratory to conduct me to the
presence of the Emperor. At the elevator we were met by an electric
vehicle manned fore and aft by pompous guards. Through the wide, high
streets we rolled noiselessly past the decorated facades of the spacious
apartments that housed the seventeen thousand members of the House of
Hohenzollern.
At times the ample streets broadened into still more roomy avenues where
potted trees alternated with the frescoed columns, and beyond which were
luxurious gardens and vast statuary halls. On the Level of Free Women
the life was one of crowded revelry, of the bauble and delights of
carnival, but on the Royal Level there was an atmosphere of luxurious
leisure, with vast spaces given over to the privacy of aristocratic
idleness.
An occasional vehicle rolled swiftly past us on the glassy smoothness of
the pavement; more rarely lonely couples strolled among the potted trees
or sat in dreamy indolence beside the fountains. There was no crowding,
no mass of humanity, no narrow halls, no congested apartments. All
structure here was on a scale of magnificent size and distances, while
by comparison the men and women appeared dwarfed, but withal distinctive
in their costumes and regal in their leisurely idleness.
After some kilometres of travel we came to His Majesty's palace, which
stood detached from all other enclosed structures and was surrounded on
all sides by ever-necessary columns that seemed like a forest of tree
trunks spaced and distanced in geometrical design.
As we approached the massive doorway of the palace, our party paused,
and stood stiffly erect. Before us were two colossal statues of
glistening white crystal. My fellow scientists faced one of the figures,
which I recognized as that of William II, and I, a little tardily,
saluted with them. And now we turned sharply on our heels and saluted
the second figure of these twin German heroes. For German it was
unmistakably in every feature, save for the one oddity that the Teutonic
face wore a flowing beard not unlike that of Michael Angelo's Moses. As
we moved forward my eye swept in the lettering on the pedestal, _"Unser
Alte Deutche Gott,"_ and I was aware that I had acknowledged my
allegience to the supreme war lord--I had saluted the Statue of God.
Entering the palace we were conducted through a long hall-way hung with
floral tapestries. We passed through several great metal doors guarded
by stalwart leaden-faced men and came at last into the imperial audience
room, where His Majesty, Eitel I, satellited by his ministers, sat stiff
and upright at the head of the council table.
Though he had seemed a small man when I had seen him in the dazzling
beam of the reflected sunlight, I now perceived that he was of more than
average stature. He wore no crown and no helmet, but only a crop of
stiff iron grey hair brushed boldly upright. His face was stern, his
nose beak-like, and his small eyes grey and piercing. Over the high back
of his chair was thrown his cape, and he was clad in a jacket of white
cellulose velvet buttoned to the throat with large platinum buttons.
Formally presented by one of the secretaries we made our stiff bows and
were seated at the table facing His Majesty across the unlittered
surface of black glass.
The Emperor nodded to the Chief of the Chemical Staff who arose and read
the report of my solution of the protium problem. He ended by advising
that the process should immediately replace the one then in use in the
extraction of the ore in the industrial works and that I was recommended
for promotion to the place to be vacated by the retiring member of the
Chemical Staff and should be given full charge of the protium industry.
Emperor Eitel listened with solemn nods of approval. When the reading
was finished he arose and proclaimed the retirement with honour, and
because of his advanced age, of Herr von Uhl. The old chemist now
stepped forward and the Emperor removed from von Uhl's breast the
insignia of active Staff service and replaced it with the insignia of
honourable retirement.
In my turn I also stood before His Majesty, who when he had pinned upon
my breast the Staff insignia said: "I hereby commission you as Member of
the Chemical Staff and Director of the Protium Works. Against the
fortune, to be accredited to you and your descendants, you are
authorized to draw from the Imperial Bank a million marks a year. That
you shall more graciously befit this fortune I confer upon you the title
of 'von' and the social privilege of the Royal Level."
When the formal ceremonies were ended I again arose and addressed the
Emperor. "Your Majesty," I said, as I looked unflinchingly at his iron
visage, "I beg leave to make a personal petition."
"State it," commanded the Emperor.
"I wish to ask that you restore to the Royal Level a girl who is now in
the Level of the Free Women, and known there as Marguerite 78 K 4, but
who was born on the Royal Level as a daughter of Princess Fedora of
the House of Hohenzollern."
A hush of consternation fell upon those about the table.
"Your petition," said the Emperor, "cannot be granted."
"Then," I said, speaking with studied emphasis, "I cannot proceed with
the work of extracting protium."
An angry cloud gathered on the face of Eitel I. "Herr von Armstadt," he
said, "the title and awards which have just been conferred upon you are
irrevocable. But if you decline to perform the duties of your office
those duties can be performed by others."
"But others cannot perform them," I replied. "The demonstration I
conducted was genuine, but the formulas I have given were not genuine.
The true formulas for my method of extracting protium are locked within
my brain and I will reveal them only when the petition I ask has
been granted."
At these words the Emperor pounded on the table with a heavy fist. "What
does this mean?" he demanded of the Chemical Staff.
"It is a lie," shouted the Chief of the Staff. "We have the formulas and
they are correct, for we saw the demonstration conducted with the
ingredients stated in the formulas which Armstadt gave us."
"Very well," I cried; "go try your formulas; go repeat the
demonstration, if you can."
The Emperor, glaring his rage, punched savagely at a signal button on
the arm of his chair.
Two palace guards answered the summons. "Arrest this man," shouted His
Majesty, "and keep him in close confinement; permit him to see no one."
Without further ado I was led off by the guards, while the Emperor
shouted imprecations at the Chemical Staff.
~2~
The place to which I was conducted was a suite of rooms in a remote
corner of the Royal Palace. There was a large bedroom and bath, and a
luxurious study or lounging room. Here I found a case of books, which
proved to be novels bearing the imprint of the Royal Level.
Despite the comfortable surroundings, it was evident that I was securely
imprisoned, for the door was of metal, the ventilating gratings were
long narrow slits, and the walls were of heavy concrete--and there being
no windows, no bars were needed. Any living apartment in the city would
have served equally well the jailor's purpose; for it were only
necessary to turn a key from without to make of it a cell in this
gigantic prison of Berlin.
The regular appearance of my meals by mechanical carrier was the only
way I had to reckon the passing of time, for it had chanced that I had
forgotten my watch when dressing for the audience with His Majesty. I
wrestled with unmeasured time by perusing the novels which gave me
fragmentary pictures of the social life on the Royal Level.
As I turned over the situation in my mind I reassured myself that the
secrecy of my formulas was impregnable. The discovery of the process had
been rendered possible by knowledge I had brought with me from the outer
world. The reagents that I had used were synthetic substances, the very
existence of which was unknown to the Germans. I had previously prepared
these compounds and had used and completely destroyed them in making the
demonstration, while I had taken pains to remove all traces of their
preparation. Hence I had little to fear of the Chemical Staff
duplicating my work, though doubtless they were making desperate efforts
to do so, and my imprisonment was very evidently for the purpose of
permitting them to make that effort.
On that score I felt that I had played my cards well, but there were
other thoughts that troubled me, chief of which was a fear that some
investigation might be set on foot in regard to Marguerite and that her
guardianship of the library of forbidden books might be discovered. With
this worry to torment me, the hours dragged slowly enough.
I had been some five days in this solitary confinement when the door
opened and a man entered. He wore the uniform of a physician and
introduced himself as Dr. Boehm, explaining that he had been sent by His
Majesty to look after my health. The idea rather amused me; at least, I
thought, the Emperor had decided that the secrets of my brain were well
worth preservation, and I reasoned that this was evidence that the
Chemical Staff had made an effort to duplicate my work and had reported
their failure to do so.
The doctor made what seemed to me a rather perfunctory physical
examination, which included a very minute inspection of my eyes. Then he
put me through a series of psychological test queries. When he had
finished he sighed deeply and said: "I am sorry to find that you are
suffering from a disturbed balance of the altruistic and the egotistic
cortical impulses; it is doubtless due to the intensive demands made upon
the creative potential before you were completely recovered from the
sub-normal psychosis due to the gas attack in the potash mines."
This diagnosis impressed me as a palpable fraud, but I became genuinely
alarmed at the mention of the affair at the potash mines. I was somewhat
reassured at the thought that this reference was probably a part of the
record of Karl Armstadt, which was doubtless on file at the medical
headquarters, and had been looked up by Dr. Boehm who was in need of
making out a plausible case for some purpose--perhaps that of confining
me permanently on the grounds of insanity. Whatever might be the move on
foot it was clearly essential for me to keep myself cool and well
in hand.
The doctor, after eyeing me calmly for a few moments, said: "It will be
necessary for me to go out for a time and secure apparatus for a more
searching examination. Meanwhile be assured you will not be further
neglected. In fact, I shall arrange for the time to share your apartment
with you, as loneliness will aggravate your derangement."
In a few hours the doctor returned. He brought with him a
complicated-looking apparatus and was followed by two attendants
carrying a bed.
The doctor pushed the apparatus into the corner, and, after seeing his
bed installed in my sleeping chamber, dismissed the attendants and sat
down and began to entertain me with accounts of various cases of mental
derangement that had come under his care. So far as I could determine
his object, if he had any other than killing time, it was to impress me
with the importance of submitting graciously to his care.
Tiring of these stories of the doctor's professional successes with meek
and trusting patients, I took the management of the conversation into my
own hands.
"Since you are a psychic expert, Dr. Boehm, perhaps you can explain to
me the mental processes that cause a man to prize a large bank credit
when there is positively no legal way in which he can expend
the credit."
The doctor looked at me quizzically. "How do you mean," he asked, "that
there is no legal way in which he can expend the credit?"
"Well, take my own case. The Emperor has bestowed upon me a credit of a
million marks a year. But I risked losing it by demanding that a young
woman of the Free Level be restored to the Royal Level where she
was born."
"Of this I am aware," replied the psychic physician. "That is why His
Majesty became alarmed lest your mental equilibrium be disturbed. It
seems to indicate an atavistic reversion to a condition of romantic
altruism, but as your pedigree is normal, I deem it merely a temporary
loss of balance."
"But why," I asked, "do you consider it abnormal at all? Is there
evidence of any great degree of unselfishness in a man desiring the
bestowal of happiness upon a particular woman in preference to bank
credit which he cannot expend? What should I do with a million marks a
year when I have been unable to expend the ten thousand a year I
have had?"
"Ah," exclaimed the doctor, the light of a brilliant discovery breaking
over his countenance. "Perhaps this in a measure explains your case. You
have evidently been so absorbed in your work that you have not
sufficiently developed your appetite for personal enjoyment."
"Perhaps I have not. But just how should I expend more funds; food,
clothing, living quarters are all provided me, there is nothing but a few
tawdry amusements that one can buy, nor is there any one to give the money
to--even if a man had children they cannot inherit his wealth. Just what
is money for, anyway?"
The doctor nodded his head and smiled in satisfaction. "You ask
interesting questions," he said. "I shall try to answer them. Money or
bank credit is merely a symbol of wealth. In ancient times wealth was
represented by the private ownership of physical property, which was the
basis of capitalistic or competitive society. Racial progress was then
achieved by the mating of the men of superior brain with the most
beautiful women. Women do not appreciate the mental power of man in its
direct expression, or even its social use; they can only comprehend that
power when it is translated into wealth. After the destruction of
private property women refused to accept as mates the men of
intellectual power, but preferred instead men of physical strength and
personal beauty.
"At first this was considered to be a proof of the superiority of the
proletariat. For, with all men economically equal, the beautiful women
turned from the anemic intellectual and the sons of aristocracy, to the
strong arms of labour. Believing themselves to be the source of all
wealth, and by that right vested with sole political power, and now
finding themselves preferred by the beautiful women, the labourer would
soon have eliminated all other classes from human society. Had unbridled
socialism with its free mating continued, we should have become merely a
horde of handsome savages.
"Such would have been the destiny of our race had not William III
foreseen the outcome and restored war, the blessings of which had been
all but lost to the world. The progress of peace depended upon the
competition of capitalism, but in peace progress is incidental. In war
it is essential. Because war requires invention, it saved the
intellectual classes, and because war requires authority it made
possible the restoration of our Royal House. Labour, the tyrant of
peace, became again the slave of war, and under the plea of patriotic
necessity eugenics was established, which again restored the beautiful
women to the superior men. And thus by Imperial Socialism the race was
preserved from deterioriation."
"But surely," I said, "eugenics has more than remedied this defect of
socialism, for the selection of men of superior mentality is much more
rigid than it could have been under the capricious matings of
capitalistic society. Why then this need of wealth?"
"Eugenics," replied Boehm, "breeds superior children, but eugenic mating
is a cold scientific thing which fails to fan the flame of man's
ambition to do creative work. That is why we have the Level of Free
Women and have not bred the virility out of the intellectual group. That
is also the reason we have retained the Free Level on a competitive
commercial basis, and have given the intellectual man the bank credit, a
symbol of wealth, that he may use it, as men have always used wealth,
for the purpose of increasing his importance in the eyes of woman. This
function of wealth is psychically necessary to the creative impulse, for
the power of sexual conquest and the stimulus to creative thought are
but different expressions of the same instinct. Wealth, or its symbol,
is a medium of translating the one into the other. For example, take
your discovery; it is important to you and to the state. Your fellow
scientists appreciate it, His Majesty appreciates it, but women cannot
appreciate it. But give it a money value and women appreciate it
immediately. They know that the unlimited bank credit will give you the
power to keep as many women on your list as you choose, and this means
that you can select freely those you wish. So the most attractive women
will compete for your preferment. We bow before the Emperor, we salute
the Statue of God, but we make out our checks to buy baubles for women,
and it is that which keeps the wheels of progress turning."
"So," I said, "this is your philosophy of wealth. I see, and yet I do
not see. The legal limit a man may contribute to a woman is but
twenty-four hundred marks a year, what then does he want with
a million?"
"But there is no legal limit," replied the Doctor, "to the number of
women a man may have on his list. His relation to them may be the most
casual, but the pursuit is stimulating to the creative imagination. But
you forget, Herr von Armstadt, that with the compensation that was to be
yours goes also the social privilege of the Royal Level. Evidently you
have been so absorbed in your research that you had no time to think of
the magnificent rewards for which you were working."
"Then perhaps you will explain them to me."
"With pleasure," said Dr. Boehm; "your social privilege on the Royal
Level includes the right to marry and that means that you should have
children for whom inheritance is permitted. How else did you suppose the
ever-increasing numbers of the House of Hohenzollern should have
maintained their wealth?"
"The question has never occurred to me," I answered, "but if it had, I
should have supposed that their expenses were provided by appropriations
from the state treasury."
Dr. Boehm chuckled. "Then they should all be dependents on the state
like cripples and imbeciles. It would be a rather poor way to derive the
pride of aristocracy. That can only come from inherited wealth: the
principle is old, very old. The nobleman must never needs work to live.
Then, if he wishes to give service to the state, he may give it without
pay, and thus feel his nobility. You cannot aspire to full social
equality with the Royal House both because you lack divinity of blood
and because you receive your wealth for that which you have yourself
given to the state. But because of your wealth you will find a wife of
the Royal House, and she will bear you children who, receiving the
divine blood of the Hohenzollerns from the mother and inherited wealth
from the father, will thus be twice ennobled. To have such children is a
rare privilege; not even Herr von Uhl with his thousands of descendants
can feel such a pride of paternity.
"It is well, Herr von Armstadt, that you talked to me of these matters.
Should you be restored to your full mental powers and be permitted to
assume the rights of your new station, it would be most unfortunate if
you should seem unappreciative of these ennobling privileges."
"Then, if I may, I shall ask you some further questions. It seems that
the inherited incomes of the Royal Level are from time to time
reinforced by marriage from without. Does that not dilute the
Royal blood?"
"That question," replied Dr. Boehm, "more properly should be addressed
to a eugenist, but I shall try to give you the answer. The blood of the
House of Hohenzollern is of a very high order for it is the blood of
divinity in human veins. Yet since there is no eugenic control, no
selection, the quality of that blood would deteriorate from inbreeding,
were there no fresh infusion. Then where better could such blood come
than from the men of genius? No man is given the full social privilege
of the Royal Level except he who has made some great contribution to the
state. This at once marks him as a genius and gives his wealth a
noble origin."
"But how is it," I asked, "that this addition of men from without does
not disturb the balance of the sexes?"
"It does disturb it somewhat," replied the doctor, "but not seriously,
for genius is rare. There are only a few hundred men in each generation
who are received into Royal Society. Of course that means some of the
young men of the Royal Level cannot marry. But some men decline marriage
of their own free will; if they are not possessed of much wealth they
prefer to go unmarried rather than to accept an unattractive woman as a
wife when they may have their choice of mistresses from the most
beautiful virgins intended for the Free Level. There is always an
abundance of marriageable women on the Royal Level and with your wealth
you will have your choice. Your credit, in fact, will be the largest
that has been granted for over a decade."
"All that is very splendid," I answered. "I was not well informed on
these matters. But why should His Majesty have been so incensed at my
simple request for the restoration of the rights of the daughter of the
Princess Fedora?"
"Your request was unusual; pardon if I may say, impudent; it seems to
imply a lack of appreciation on your part of the honours freely
conferred upon you--but I daresay His Majesty did not realize your
ignorance of these things. You are very young and you have risen to your
high station very quickly from an obscure position."
"And do you think," I asked, "that if you made these facts clear to him,
he would relent and grant my request?"
Dr. Boehm looked at me with a penetrating gaze. "It is not my function,"
he said, "to intercede for you. I have only been commissioned to examine
carefully the state of your mentality."
I smiled complacently at the psychic expert. "Now, doctor," I said, "you
do not mean to tell me that you really think there is anything wrong
with my mentality?"
A look of craftiness flashed from Boehm's eyes. "I have given you my
diagnosis," he said, "but it may not be final. I have already
communicated my first report to His Majesty and he has ordered me to
remain with you for some days. If I should alter that opinion too
quickly it would discredit me and gain you nothing. You had best be
patient, and submit gracefully to further examination and treatment."
"And do you know," I asked, "what the chemical staff is doing about my
formulas?"
"That is none of my affair," declared Boehm, emphatically.
There was a vigour in his declaration and a haste with which he began to
talk of other matters that gave me a hint that the doctor knew more of
the doings of the chemical staff than he cared to admit, but I thought
it wise not to press the point.
~3~
The second day of Boehm's stay with me, he unmantled his apparatus and
asked me to submit to a further examination. I had not the least
conception of the purpose of this apparatus and with some misgivings I
lay down on a couch while the psychic expert placed above my eyes a
glass plate, on which, when he had turned on the current, there
proceeded a slow rhythmic series of pale lights and shadows. At the
doctor's command I fixed my gaze upon the lights, while he, in a
monotonous voice, urged me to relax my mind and dismiss all
active thought.
How long I stood for this infernal proceeding I do not know. But I
recall a realization that I had lost grip on my thoughts and seemed to
be floating off into a misty nowhere of unconsciousness. I struggled
frantically to regain control of myself; and, for what seemed an
eternity, I fought with a horrible nightmare unable to move a muscle or
even close my eyelids to shut out that sickening sequence of creeping
shadows. Then I saw the doctor's hand reaching slowly toward my face. It
seemed to sway in its stealthy movement like the head of a serpent
charming a bird, but in my helpless horror I could not ward it off.
At last the snaky fingers touched my eyelids as if to close them, and
that touch, light though it was, served to snap the taut film of my
helpless brain and I gave a blood-curdling yell and jumped up, knocking
over the devilish apparatus and nearly upsetting the doctor.
"Calm yourself," said Boehm, as he attempted to push me again toward the
couch. "There is nothing wrong, and you must surrender to the psychic
equilibrator so that I can proceed with the examination."
"Examination be damned," I shouted fiercely; "you were trying to
hypnotize me with that infernal machine."
Boehm did not reply but calmly proceeded to pick up the apparatus and
restore it to its place in the corner, while I paced angrily about the
room. He then seated himself and addressed me as I stood against the
wall glaring at him. "You are labouring under hallucinations," he said.
"I fear your case is even worse than I thought. But calm yourself. I
shall attempt no further examination today."
I resumed a seat but refused to look at him. He did not talk further of
my supposed mental state, but proceeded to entertain me with gossip of
the Royal Level, and later discussed the novels in the bookcase.
It was difficult to keep up an open war with so charming a
conversationalist, but I was thoroughly on my guard. I could now readily
see through the whole fraud of my imputed mental derangement. I knew my
mind was sound as a schoolboy's, and that this pretence of examination
and treatment was only a blind. Evidently the Chemical Staff had failed
to work the formulas I had given them and this psychic manipulator had
been sent in here to filch the true formulas from my brain with his
devilish art. I knew nothing of what progress the Germans might have
made with hypnotism, but unless they had gone further than had the outer
world, now that I was on my guard, I believed myself to be safe.
But there was yet one danger. I might be trapped in my sleep by an
induced somnambulistic conversation. Happily I was fairly well posted on
such things and believed that I could guard against that also. But the
fear of the thing made me so nervous that I did not sleep all of the
following night.
The doctor, evidently a keen observer, must have detected that fact from
the sound of my breathing, for the lights were turned out and we slept
in the pitchy blackness that only a windowless room can create.
"You did not sleep well," he remarked, as we breakfasted.
But I made light of his solicitous concern, and we passed another day in
casual conversation.
As the sleeping period drew again near, the doctor said, "I will leave
you tonight, for I fear my presence disturbs you because you
misinterpret my purpose in observing you."
As the doctor departed, I noted that the mechanism of the hinges and the
lock of the door were so perfect that they gave forth no sound. I was
very drowsy and soon retired, but before I went to sleep I practised
snapping off and on the light from the switch at the side of my bed.
Then I repeated over and over to myself--"I will awake at the first
sound of a voice."
This thought ingrained in my subconscious mind proved my salvation. I
must have been sleeping some hours. I was dreaming of Marguerite. I saw
her standing in an open meadow flooded with sunlight; and heard her
voice as if from afar. I walked towards her and as the words grew more
distinct I knew the voice was not Marguerite's. Then I awoke.
I did not stir but lay listening. The voice was speaking monotonously
and the words I heard were the words of the protium formulas, the false
ones I had given the Chemical Staff.
"But these formulas are not correct," purred the voice, "of course, they
are not correct. I gave them to the Staff, but they will never know the
real ones--Yes, the real ones--What are the real ones? Have I
forgotten--? No, I shall never forget. I can repeat them now." Then the
voice began again on one of the fake formulas. But when it reached the
point where the true formula was different, it paused; evidently the
Chemical Staff had found out where the difficulty lay. And so the voice
had paused, hoping my sleeping mind would catch up the thread and supply
the missing words. But instead my arm shot quickly to the switch. The
solicitous Doctor Boehm, flooded with a blaze of light, glared
blinkingly as I leaped from the bed.
"Oh, I was asleep all right," I said, "but I awoke the instant I heard
you speak, just as I had assured myself that I would do before I fell
asleep. Now what else have you in your bag of tricks?"
"I only came--" began the doctor.
"Yes, you only came," I shouted, "and you knew nothing about the work of
the Chemical Staff on my formulas. Now see here, doctor, you had your
try and you have failed. Your diagnosis of my mental condition is just
as much a fraud as the formulas on which the Chemical Staff have been
wasting their time--only it is not so clever. I fooled them and you have
not fooled me. Waste no more time, but go back and report to His Majesty
that your little tricks have failed."
"I shall do that," said Boehm. "I feared you from the start; your mind
is really an extraordinary one. But where," he said, "did you learn how
to guard yourself so well against my methods? They are very secret. My
art is not known even to physicians."
"It is known to me," I said, "so run along and get your report ready."
The doctor shook my hand with an air of profound respect and took his
leave. This time I balanced a chair overhanging the edge of a table so
that the opening of the door would push it off, and I lay down and
slept soundly.
~4~
I was left alone in my prison until late the next day. Then came a guard
who conducted me before His Majesty. None of the Chemical Staff was
present. In fact there was no one with the Emperor but a single
secretary.
His Majesty smiled cordially. "It was fitting, Herr von Armstadt, for me
to order your confinement for your demand was audacious; not that what
you asked was a matter of importance, but you should have made the
request in writing and privately and not before the Chemical Staff. For
that breach of etiquette I had to humiliate you that Royal dignity might
be preserved. As for the fact that you kept the formulas secret, none
need know that but the Chemical Staff and they will have nothing further
to say since you made fools of them." His Majesty laughed.
"As for the request you made, I have decided to grant it. Nor do I blame
you for making it. The Princess Marguerite is a very beautiful girl. She
is waiting now nearby. I should have sent for her sooner, but it was
necessary to make an investigation regarding her birth. The unfortunate
Princess Fedora never confessed the father. But I have arranged that, as
you shall see."
The Emperor now pressed his signal button and a door opened and
Marguerite was ushered into the room. I started in fear as I saw that
she was accompanied by Dr. Zimmern. What calamity of discovery and
punishment, I wondered, had my daring move brought to the secret rebel
against the rule of the Hohenzollern?
Marguerite stepped swiftly toward me and gave me her hand. The look in
her eyes I interpreted as a warning that I was not to recognize Zimmern.
So I appeared the stranger while the secretary introduced us.
"Dr. Zimmern," said His Majesty, "was physician to Princess Fedora at
the time of the birth of the Princess Marguerite. She confessed to him
the father of her child. It was the Count Rudolph who died unmarried
some years ago. There will be no questions raised. Our society will
welcome his daughter, for both the Count Rudolph and the Princess Fedora
were very popular."
During this speech, Dr. Zimmern sat rigid and stared into space. Then
the secretary produced a document and read a confession to be signed by
Zimmern, testifying to these statements of Marguerite's birth.
Zimmern, his features still unmoved, signed the paper and handed it
again to the secretary.
His Majesty arose and held out his hand to Marguerite. "I welcome you,"
he said, "to the House of Hohenzollern. We shall do our best to atone
for what you have suffered. And to you, Herr von Armstadt, I extend my
thanks for bringing us so beautiful a woman. It is my hope that you will
win her as a wife, for she will grace well the fortune that your great
genius brings to us. But because you have loved her under unfortunate
circumstances I must forbid your marriage for a period of two years.
During that time you will both be free to make acquaintances in Royal
Society. Nothing less than this would be fair to either of you, or to
other women that may seek your fortune or to other men who may seek the
beauty of your princess."