th his airs and orders acts as if he
were the lord and master of Rodeck. But he's as handsome as a picture,
handsomer even than our prince, who, by the way has given orders that
Herr Rojanow is to be obeyed in all things just like himself."

"More than probable it's an adventurer with whom the prince is amusing
himself," murmured Schoenau, and aloud he said: "Well good-bye,
Stadinger, I must meet my brother-in-law now, and don't lose any sleep
over the sea-serpent. When his highness threatens you with it again,
tell him I will gladly keep it for him in our fish-pond, but I must see
it alive first."

He nodded laughingly to the old steward and stepped down to the entrance
gateway. Frau von Eschenhagen and her niece were already there, and a
minute after he joined them, the carriage turned into the broad, smooth
road and was driven rapidly up to the great entrance.

Regine was the first to greet the travelers. She pressed her brother's
hand so heartily that he was forced to draw it back. The head forester
was somewhat diffident; he had a certain feeling of shyness in the
presence of his diplomatic brother-in-law, whose sarcastic tongue he
secretly feared. But Toni did not allow "his excellency" her uncle, or
his wife, either, to ruffle her wonted composure.

The years had not treated Herbert von Wallmoden so gently as they had
his sister. He had aged perceptibly; his hair was grey now, and the
sarcastic lines around his mouth had deepened. But he was the same cold
aristocrat as ever, perhaps even a shade colder and more distant. With
the exalted position to which he had attained, the feeling of
superiority, which had ever been his chief characteristic, seemed to
strengthen.

The young wife by his side was always taken by strangers to be his
daughter. Unquestionably the ambassador's choice had proved his good
taste. Adelheid von Wallmoden was indeed lovely, but her beauty was of
that chill, statuesque type which awakens only cold admiration, and she
seemed to have been born to occupy the position in the world to which
her marriage had raised her. The young bride, not quite nineteen, and
only six months a wife, exhibited a coolness of behavior and as complete
a knowledge of all the forms and obligations of her social position, as
if she had been at the side of her elderly husband for half a lifetime.

Wallmoden was politeness and attentiveness itself to her. He offered her
his arm now, after the first greetings were o