if you
can. Next to the chancellorship is the embassy to Vienna, and an embassy
to Paris is to be created. Madame is a superior woman. Who knows?" with
a smile that caused the other to pale.

"You are mad to dream of that."

"As you say, I come of a noble house," carelessly.

"You are mad."

"No, count," the soldier replied. "I have what Balzac calls a thirst for
a full life in a short space."

"I would give a deal to read what is going on in that head of yours."

"Doubtless. But what is to become of our friends the Marshal and
Mollendorf? What will be left for them? Perhaps there will be a chamber
of war, a chamber of the navy. As a naval minister the Marshal would
be nicely placed. There would be no expense of building ships or paying
sailors, which would speak well for the economy of the new government.
The Marshal is old; we shall send him to Servia. At least the office
will pay both his vanity and purse to an extent equal to that of his
present office. By the way, nothing has yet been heard from Prince
Frederick. Ah, these young men, these plump peasant girls!"

Both laughed.

"Till this evening, then;" and the Colonel went from the room.

The minister of finance applied a match to the tapers. He held the
burning match aloft and contemplated the door through which the soldier
had gone. The sting of the incipient flame aroused him.

"What," he mused aloud, as he arranged the papers on his desk, "is his
third game?"

"It appears to me," said a voice from the wall behind, "that the same
question arises in both our minds."

The minister wheeled his chair, his mouth and brows puckered in dismay.
From a secret panel in the wall there stepped forth a tall, thin,
sour-visaged old man of military presence. He calmly sat down in the
chair which Beauvais had vacated.

"I had forgotten all about you, Marshal!" exclaimed the count, smiling
uneasily.

"A statement which I am most ready to believe," replied old Marshal
Kampf, with a glance which caused the minister yet more uneasiness.
"What impressed me among other things was, `But what is to become of our
friends the Marshal and Mollendorf?' I am Marshal; I am about to risk
all for nothing. Why should I not remain Marshal for the remainder of
my days? It is a pleasant thing to go to Vienna once the year and to
witness the maneuvers, with an honorary position on the emperor's staff.
To be Marshal here is to hold a sinecure, yet it has its compensations.
The un