e last of the gaily decked suite which
happened to be empty. The tower-room was used generally only as a
resting place and a point of observation, from which a very good view of
the forest heights could be obtained, but to-day it was richly carpeted
and the walls were hung with heavy tapestries, while choice plants were
scattered about in artistic groupings and designs, so that the little
room was as shaded and picturesque as could be desired, and a rest to
both eye and brain, after the glitter and noise and light of the larger
ones. The ambassador had judged aright in thinking he would have an
uninterrupted moment with his wife, for whom he now drew forward a low
chair.

"I must call your attention to the fact, Adelheid," he began in a low,
condemnatory tone, "that you were guilty of great imprudence, just now.
Your speech to the princess--"

"Was in self-defence," the young wife broke in. "You understood, as well
as I, the object of the whole conversation."

"That's as it may be. You have, on your first entrance into society,
made an enemy who will make both you and me feel her animosity very
keenly as time goes on."

"You!" Adelheid looked at him in surprise. "Will you, the ambassador of
a great nation, have anything to fear from a malicious woman, who
happens to be related to the ducal house?"

"My child, you do not comprehend," responded her husband, coolly. "An
evil-tongued woman can be more dangerous than any political opponent,
and Princess Sophie is famed in this respect; even the duchess herself
fears her slanderous tongue."

"In that the duchess and I differ--I do not fear her."

"My dear Adelheid," said the ambassador with a superior smile, "that
proud movement of the head does you great credit. But at Court, you must
learn to do as others do. One cannot give royalty a lesson before too
many witnesses, and that is what you did when you spoke of your father's
declination of a title of nobility. It was not necessary for you to be
so explicit concerning your father's origin."

"Should I have falsified?"

"No, but it was a well known fact--"

"Of which I am proud, as was my father before me."

"You are no longer Adelheid Stahlberg, but the Baroness Wallmoden"--the
baron's voice had assumed a sudden sharpness. "And you, yourself, will
be forced to admit that when a woman has married into a family of the
old nobility, it is hardly fitting for her to sneer at the nobles."

The young wife's lips were