The Grand Duke looked dispassionately on their retreating figures;
inquiringly on the Baroness; reprovingly on the moon, as though he rather
suspected it of having treated him with injustice.
"Ma foi," said his Highness, at length, "I have never known such a passion
for sunrises. Shortly we shall have them announced as 'Patronized by the
Nobility.'"
The Baroness said only, with an ellipsis, "Her own cousin, too!" [Footnote:
By courtesy rather than legally; Mademoiselle Berlin was, however,
undoubtedly the Elector of Badenburg's sister, though on the wrong side of
the blanket; and to her (second) son by Louis Quinze his French Majesty
accorded the title of Comte de Châteauroux.]
"Victoria," observed the Grand Duke, "has always had the highest regard for
her family; but in this she is going too far--"
"Yes," said the Baroness; "as far as Vienna."
"--and I shall tell her that there are limits, Pardieu," the Grand Duke
emphatically repeated, "that there are limits."
"Whereupon, if I am not mistaken, she will reply that there
are--baronesses."
"I shall then appeal to her better nature--"
"You will find it," said the Baroness, "strangely hard of hearing."
"--and afterward I shall have de Châteauroux arrested."
"On what grounds, your Highness?"
"In fact," admitted the Grand Duke, "we do not want a scandal"
"It is no longer," the Baroness considered, "altogether a question of what
we want."
"And, morbleu! there will be a horrible scandal--"
"The public gazettes will thrive on it."
"--and trouble with her father, if not international complications--"
"The armies of Noumaria and Badenburg have for years had nothing to do."
"--and later a divorce."
"The lawyers will call you blessed. In any event," the Baroness
conscientiously added, "your lawyers will. I am afraid that hers--"
"Will scarcely be so courteous?" the Grand Duke queried.
"It is not altogether impossible," the Baroness admitted, "that in
preparation of their briefs, they may light upon some other adjective."
"And, in short," his Highness summed it up, "there will be the deuce to
pay."
"Oh, no! the piper," said the Baroness,--"after long years of dancing. That
is what moralists will be saying, I suspect."
And this seemed so highly probable that the plump little Grand Duke
frowned, and lapsed into a most un-ducal sullenness.
"Your Highness," murmured the Baroness, "I cannot express my feelings as to
this shocking revelation--"
"Madame," said the Grand Duke, "no more can I. At least, not in the
presence of a lady."
"--But I have a plan--"
"I," said the Grand Duke, "have an infinity of plans; but de Châteauroux
has a carriage, and a superfluity of Bourbon blood; and Victoria has the
obstinacy of a mule."
"--And my plan," said the Baroness, "is a good one."
"It needs to be," said the Grand Duke.
But thereupon the Baroness von Altenburg unfolded to his Highness her
scheme for preserving coherency in the reigning family of Noumaria, and the
Grand Duke of that principality heard and marvelled.
"Amalia," he said, when she had ended, "you should be prime-minister--"
"Ah, your Highness," said the lady, "you flatter me, for none of my sex has
ever been sufficiently unmanly to make a good politician."
"--though, indeed," the Grand Duke reflected, "what would a mere
prime-minister do with lips like yours?"
"He would set you an excellent example by admiring them from a distance. Do
you agree, then, to my plan?"
"Why, ma foi, yes!" said the Grand Duke, and he sighed. "In the gardens at
dawn."
"At dawn," said the Baroness, "in the gardens."