"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."
"Your Highness--!" cried the Count.
"Again?" said the Grand Duke, pettishly.
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--"
"Oh, oh!" cried the latter.
"Precisely," observed the Grand Duke, "to compare portmanteaux; and you
had selected the interior of yonder carriage, no doubt, as an appropriate
locality."
"And I admit to your Highness--"
"His Highness already knowing," the Grand Duke interpolated.
"--that we were about to elope."
"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."
"And we love each other."
"Fiddle-de-dee!" said his Highness.
But de Châteauroux passed one hand over his brow. "This," he said, "is some
horrible mistake--"
"It is," assented the Grand Duke, "a mistake--and one of your making."
"--For I certainly did not expect the Baroness--"
"To make a clean breast of it so readily?" his Highness asked. "Ah, but she
is a lady of unusual candor."
"Indeed, your Highness--" began de Châteauroux.
"Nay, Philippe," the Baroness entreated, "confess to his Highness, as I
have done."
"Oh, but--!" said de Châteauroux.
"I must beseech you to be silent," said the Grand Duke; "you have already
brought scandal to our Court. Do not, I pray you, add profanity to the
catalogue of your offences. Why, I protest," he continued, "even the Grand
Duchess has heard of this imbroglio."
Indeed, the Grand Duchess, hurrying from a pleached walkway, was already
within a few feet of the trio, and appeared no little surprised to find in
this place her husband.
"I would not be surprised," said the Grand Duke, raising his eyes toward
heaven, "if by this time it were all over the palace."