eady!' he cried authoritatively. 'She is the reigning
intellect there. I dreaded her very intellect would give us all the
trouble, and behold, it is our ally! The prince lives with an elbow out
of his income. But for me it would be other parts of his person as well,
I assure you, and the world would see such a princely tatterdemalion as
would astonish it. Money to him is important. He must carry on his mine.
He can carry on nothing without my help. By the way, we have to deal out
cheques?'

I assented.

In spite of myself, I caught the contagion of his exuberant happiness
and faith in his genius. The prince had applauded his energetic
management of the affairs of the mine two or three times in my hearing.
It struck me that he had really found his vocation, and would turn the
sneer on those who had called him volatile and reckless. This led me
to a luxurious sense of dependence on him, and I was willing to live on
dreaming and amused, though all around me seemed phantoms, especially
the French troupe, the flower of the Parisian stage: Regnault, Carigny,
Desbarolles, Mesdames Blanche Bignet and Dupertuy, and Mdlle. Jenny
Chassediane, the most spirituelle of Frenchwomen. 'They are a part of
our enginery, Richie,' my father said. They proved to be an irresistible
attraction to the margravine. She sent word to my father that she meant
to come on a particular day when, as she evidently knew, I should not
be present. Two or three hours later I had Prince Otto's cartel in my
hands. Jorian DeWitt, our guest at this season, told me subsequently,
and with the utmost seriousness, that I was largely indebted to Mdlle.
Jenny for a touching French song of a beau chevalier she sang before
Ottilia in my absence. Both he and my father believed in the efficacy of
this kind of enginery, but, as the case happened, the beau chevalier was
down low enough at the moment his highborn lady listened to the song.

It appeared that when Prince Otto met me after my interview with Prince
Ernest, he did his best to provoke a rencontre, and failing to
get anything but a nod from my stunned head, betook himself to my
University. A friendly young fellow there, Eckart vom Hof, offered to
fight him on my behalf, should I think proper to refuse. Eckart and two
or three others made a spirited stand against the aristocratic party
siding with Prince Otto, whose case was that I had played him a
dishonourable trick to laugh at him. I had, in truth, persuaded hi