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Show If The J I Princess ! I Elopes I By HAROLD McORATH I I Author of I I "The Mr on the Dos," I "Haarta and Maaka." Etc I (Capright, 1K, Dobbl-UerrllR'o.) CHAPTER I. 1 It Is rather (lllllcult In thcao days for I a man who taken such scant Intorost In foreign nffalrs trust u whilom I diplomat for Hint! to follow tho con- I tlnual geographical dlsturhances of I European surfaces. Thus, I can not It distinctly recall tho exact location of v tho Grand Duchy of Darschclt or of tho nolghborlnR principality of Dop- pelklnn. It meets my needs and pur- I poses, howovor, to say that Berlin nnd I Vienna woro easily accosBlblo, nnd H that n thrco hours' Journey would I bring you undor tho shadow of tho Carpathian rango, whoro, In my dlplo- matlc days. I used often to hunt tho Mt "bear that walks llko n man." Mm Ilarscholt was known among her sis- tor states as "tho meddler," tho u "makor of trouble," and tho duko as I "Old Grumpy" Drummbnr. To uso a mfl familiar Yankco oxprosslon, Bnrscholt f had a finger In every plo. Whenever thcro was a political broth making, whether In Italy, Qormany or Austria, llorsceit would snntch up ft lndlo and Mf start In. She took caro of hor own Hf affairs so easily thut sho had plonty of tlmo to concorn herself with tho nf-fairs nf-fairs of her neighbors. This Is not to advanco tho opinion that Barschclt M- was wholly modorn; far from It. Tho V fault of Uarscholt may bo traced back i to a certain historical pillar of salt, easily recalled by all tlioso who at-tended at-tended Sunday school. "Rubborlng" In a vulgar phraso, and I disdain to Ml, use When n woman looks around It Is Mf Invariably n portent of troublo; tho fl;- man forgets his Important cngago- M- mont, and runs, nmuck, knocking over people, principles and principalities. M'- It Aspasla had not observed Pericles M; that mcmorablo day; It thoro had not been an obllquo slant to Calypso's M' eyes as Ulysses passed hor way; If H' tho eager Dolllnh had not offered fa- f vorablo comment on Samson's ring- lots; In fact, If all tho women In his- tory nnd romanco had gono about their Jr affairs as they should havo done, what w uninteresting reading history would bo to-day I Now, this Is a story of a woman who looked around,' nnd of a man who did ml not kocp his appointment on tlmo; l , out of a grain of sand, n mountain. Of t courso thoro might liavo been other t causes, but with theso I'm not famll- Ht1 lQr' This Duchy of Ilarscholt Is worth j looking Into. Imaglno n country with Bf tolegraph nnd telophono and mcdloval customs, a country with electric lights, Hc,' railways, surface cars, hotel olovators H.t and ancient laws! Something of tho Jf; customs of tho duchy must bo told In f tho passing, though, for my part, I am H. vigorously against explanatory pas- flf sages In stories of action. Darschclt bristled with militarism; tho llttla i mar. always imitates tho big ono, but H: lacks tho big man's oxcusos. Mill- Itarlsm entered Into and overshadowed tho civic lawB. Thoro woro thrco things you might do without offenso: you might bathe, eat nnd sleep, only you must not sloop out loud. Tho citizen of Ilarscholt was hommcd In by a sot of laws which had their birth In tho dark dungeons of tho Inquisition. Thoy congealed tho blood of a man horn and bred In a commercial country. If you broko a law, you wero rolontlossly punished'; thoro was no mercy. In Amorlca wo mako laws and then hldo thorn In dull-looking dull-looking volumes which tho public liavo nelthor tho tlmo nor tho Inclination to road. In this duchy of initio It was different; you ran into a law on ovory corner, In ovory park, In every public building: llttlo oblong signs, onamolcd, which told you that you could not do somothlng or other "Forbidden 1 " Tho beauty of Gorman laws Is tlt whon you learn all tho things that you can not do, you begin to find out that tho things you can do aro not worth a hang In tho doing. As soon as a person learned to read he or sho began llfo by reading theso laws. If you could not read, so much tho worso for you; you had to pay a guldo who charged you almost as much as tho full cost of tho lino. Tho opposition political party In tho United States Is always howling militarism, mili-tarism, without tho slightest Idea of what militarism really Is. Ono sldo, ploaso, In Darscholt, when an officer comes along, or take tho consequences, If you carelessly bumped into him, you woro knocked down. If you objected, ob-jected, you wero arrested. If you struck back, ten to ono you received a beating with tho flat of a saber. Aud novor, novor mistake tho soldlor for tho police; that Is to say, novor ask au olflcor to direct you to any placo. This is regarded In tho lleht of an In- suit. Tho cub lieutenants do raoro to keep a passable sldowalk for tho pas-sago pas-sago of said cub lieutenants tlinn all tho magistrates put together. How they used to Bwaggcr up aud down tho Konlgsstrasse, around tho I'latz, In nnd out of the restaurants 1 I remember re-member doing somo side-stepping myself, my-self, and I was a dlplomnt, supposed to bo Immuno from tho rank discourtesies discourte-sies of tho military. Hut that was early In my career. In a year not so rcmoto as not to bo readily recalled, tho United States packed mo off to Ilarscholt becauso I had an undo who was a senator. Somo papers woro glvon mo, tho permission per-mission to hang out ft Bhlnglo reading "American Consul," and tho promise of my bonrd and keep. My amuso-ments amuso-ments wero to bo paid out of ray own pocket. Straightway I purchased thrco horses, found a capablo Japancso vnlet, nnd solcctcd n cozy house nenr tho barracks, which stood west of tho Volksgarten, on n protty lako. A beautiful beau-tiful road ran around this body of wa-tor, wa-tor, and It wnsn't long oro tho officers bogan to pass comments on tho riding of "that wild American." As I detest what Is known ns park riding, you may very well bcllovo that I circled tho lako at a clip which must liavo opened tho eyes of tho oasy-golng officers. 1 grow qulto chummy with a fow of them, and I may speak of occasions whon I did not stop off tho sldowalk ns thoy camo along. A man docs more toward gaining tho affection of foreigners for-eigners by giving a good dinner now nnd thon than by International law. I gained considerable fnmo by my llttlo dlnnors at Mutter's rathskcllor, under tho Continental hotel. Six months passed, during which I rodo, read, drovo and dined, tho actual labors of tho consulate holng cared for by a Gorman clerk who know moro about tho business than I did. Dy this you will obBorvo that dlplo- and General Mitcrrlsch, of tho cm pcror's body-guard, who was, I'm sure, good enough In his own oplnlon--foi nny woman. Kvery trnln brought t tho capital some suitor with a con sonnted, hyphenated namo and n pedl grco as long as a bore's Idea of a funny story. Hut tho princess did not caro for pedigrees that woro squint-eyed squint-eyed or bow-legged. Ono and alt of them sho cast aside as unworthy her consideration. Then, llko tho ancient worm, tho duko turned. Sho should marry Doppclklnn, who, having no wlfo to do tho honors In his castle, was wholly agreeable. Tho I'rlnco of Doppclklnn reigned over tho neighboring principality. II you stood In tho middle of It and were a basoball player, you could throw o stone across tho frontier In any direction. direc-tion. Dut tho vineyards wero among tho finest In Europe. The prlnco was a wldowor, nnd among his own people was affectionately styled "dor Hot-naslg," Hot-naslg," which, I believe, designates an Illuminated proboscis. When ho wasn't fishing for rainbow trout ho was sloop Ing In his cellars. Ho was often missing miss-ing at tho monthly revlows, but nobody no-body over worried; they know whore to find him. And besides, ho might Just as well sleep in his cellars as In his carriage, for ho never rodo a horse If ho could got out of doing so. Ho was really good-natured and easy-going, so long ns no ono crossed him bc-voroly; bc-voroly; and you could tell him a Joke onco nnd depend upon his understanding understand-ing it immediately, which Is moro than I can say for tho duko. Years and years ago tho prlnco had had a son; but at tho tendor ago of throo tho boy had run away from tho castlo confines, and no ono over henrd of him again. Tho enemies of tho prlnco whldpcrcd among themselves that tho boy had run away to escape compulsory military service, but tho boy's ago precluded this accusation. The Princess Hltdegarde. macy has degenerated Into the gontlo art of exciting Jaded palatos and of scribbling ono's namo across passports; pass-ports; I know of no bottor doflnltlon. I forgot what tho largess of my offlco was. Presently thoro woro torrlblo do-lugs. do-lugs. Tho old reigning grand duko desired de-sired pcaco of mind; nnd moving determinedly de-terminedly toward this end, ho declared de-clared In public that his nlcco, the young and tondor Princess Hlldcgardo, should wed tho Prlnco of Doppclklnn, whoso vineyards gavo him a flno Income In-come This was finality; tho avuncular avuncu-lar guardian had waited long onough for his willful word to mako up hor mind as to tho selection of a sultablo husband; now ho dotormlned to tnko a hand In tho matter. And you. ahull Beo how well ho managed It. It Is scarcely necessary for mo to stato that her highness had her own Ideas of what a husband should be llko, gathorcd, no doubt, from execrable execra-ble translations from "Oulda" and tho gontlo Miss Uraddon, A girl of 20 usually has a formidable regard for romanco, and tho princess was fully up to tho manner of her kind. If sho could not marry romantically, sho refused re-fused to marry at all. 1 can readily approclato hor unclo's perturbation. I do not know how many princelings sho thrust Into utter darkness. dark-ness. Sho would novor marry a man who woro glasses; this ono was too tall, that ono too short; and whon ono happened along who was without vis-Ibla vis-Ibla earmarks or signs of bolng shopworn shop-worn her rofusnl was based upon Just "llecauso!" a weapon as Invlnclblo as tho fabled spear of Parsifal. Sho had spumed tho addresses of Prlnco Mlschlor, laughed at those of tho Count of (tho short dash ' Indicates tho presonco of a hyphen) Tho prlnco ndvortlsed, nftor tho fash-Ion fash-Ion of thoso times, sont out detectives and notified' his various brothers; but his troublo wont for nothing. Not tho slightest traco of tho boy could bo found.' So ho was mourned for a season, sea-son, regretted and then forgotten; tho prlnco adopted tho grapo arbor. I saw tho prlnco onco. I do not blamo tho Princess Hlldegardo for hor rebellion. Tho prlnco was not only old; ho was fat and ugly, with llttlo, olophant-llko eyes that woro always voln-shot, rostlcss and full of mlschluf. Ho might liavo mado a good fathor, but I havo nothing to provo this. Thoso bottles of sparkling Mosollo which ho failed to aisposo of to tho American trndo ho gavo to his brother In Ilarscholt or drank himself. Ho was 08 years old. A nophow, three tlmos removed, was watting for tho day wnon ho should wabble' around In tho prince's Bhoos. Ho was a lieutenant In tho duke's body-guard, a. qulck-tomporod, hoady chap. Well, ho novor wabbled around. In his unclo's shoos, for ho novor got tho chanco, I hadn't boon In Darschclt a wook bofora I hoard a great deal about tho princess. Sho was a famous liorso-womnn. liorso-womnn. This mado mo oxtromcly anxious anx-ious to moot hor. Yot for nearly six months I novor ovon got bo much as a gllmpso of her. Halt of tho six months Bho was traveling through Austria, and tho othor halt sho kept out of my way, not Intentionally; sho know nothing of my oxlstonco; simply, fato moved us about blindly. At court sho was Invariably In-variably Indisposed, and at tho first court ball sho retired boforo I arrived. I got up at all times, galloped ovor all roads, but novor did I sea hor. Sho rodo atono, too, part of tho tlmo, (TO BE CONTINUED.) |