"You are a young man to risk a reputation already established,"
remarked the Crown-Prince, then added: "You are braver than I.
Ridicule is a barrier to all knowledge, and, though we know that, we
seekers after truth always bring up short at that barrier and
dismount, not daring to put our hobbies to the fence."
"One can but come a cropper," said I.
"And risk staking our hobbies? No, no, that would make us ridiculous;
and ridicule kills in Europe."
"It's somewhat deadly in America, too," I said, smiling.
"The more honor to you," said the Crown-Prince, gravely.
"Oh, I am not the only one," I answered, lightly. "There is my
confrère, Professor Hyssop, who studies apparitions and braves a
contempt and ridicule which none of us would dare challenge. We
Yankees are learning slowly. Some day we will find the lost key to the
future while Europe is sneering at those who are trying to pick the
lock."
When King Christian, of Finland, and the Crown-Prince of Monaco had
taken their hats and sticks and departed, I glanced across the room at
the young Countess, who was now working rapidly on a type-writer,
apparently quite oblivious of my presence.
I looked out of the window again, and my gaze wandered over the
exposition grounds. Gilt and scarlet and azure the palaces rose in
every direction, under a wilderness of fluttering flags. Towers,
minarets, turrets, golden spires cut the blue sky; in the west the
gaunt Eiffel Tower sprawled across the glittering Esplanade; behind it
rose the solid golden dome of the Emperor's tomb, gilded once more by
the Almighty's sun, to amuse the living rabble while the dead
slumbered in his imperial crypt, himself now but a relic for the
amusement of the people whom he had despised. O tempora! O mores! O
Napoleon!
Down under my window, in the asphalted court, the King of Finland was
entering his beautiful victoria. An adjutant, wearing a cocked hat and
brilliant uniform, mounted the box beside the green-and-gold coachman;
the two postilions straightened up in their saddles; the four horses
danced. Then, when the Crown-Prince of Monaco had taken a seat beside
the King, the carriage rolled away, and far down the quay I watched it
until the flutter of the green-and-white plumes in the adjutant's
cocked hat was all I could see of vanishing royalty.
I was still musing there by the window, listening to the click and
ringing of the type-writer, when I suddenly became aware that the
clicking had ceased, and, turning, I saw the young Countess standing
beside me.
"Thank you for your chivalrous impulse to help me," she said, frankly,
holding out her bare hand.