motor car, yet not the same that had so lately departed.
In this were seated a young man and an elderly lady, both waving to
hold back the train; and to his vast amazement he recognized in the man
Darius Maddison, junior, in the lady the Countess of Grillyer.

The car stopped, the occupants alighted, and the Countess, supported on
the strong arm of Ri, scuttled down the platform.

"Bonker, take her in mit you!" groaned the Baron, and his head vanished
from the Count's sight.

Even this ordeal was not too much for Bunker's fidelity.

"Madam, there is room here!" he announced politely, as they swept past;
but with set faces they panted toward the doomed von Blitzenberg.

All of the tragedy that the Count, with strained neck, could see or
overhear, was a vision of the Countess being pushed by the guard and her
escort into that first-class compartment whence so lately the Baron's
crimson visage had protruded, and the voice of Ri stridently declaring--

"Guess you'll recognize your momma this time, Baron!"

A whistle from the guard, another from the engine, and they were off,
clattering southward in the first of the morning sunshine.

Inadequately attired, damp, hungry, and divorced from tobacco as the
Count was, he yet could say to himself with the sincerest honesty,

"I wouldn't change carriages with the Baron von Blitzenberg--not even
for a pair of dry socks and a cigar! Alas, poor Rudolph! May this teach
all young men a lesson in sobriety of conduct!"

For which moral reflection the historian feels it incumbent upon him,
as a philosopher and serious psychologist, to express his conscientious
admiration.

EPILOGUE

IT was an evening in early August, luminous and warm; the scene, a
certain club now emptied of all but a sprinkling of its members; the
festival, dinner; and the persons of the play, that gentleman lately
known as Count Bunker and his friend the Baron von Blitzenberg. The
Count was habited in tweeds; the Baron in evening dress.

"It vas good of you to come up to town jost to see me," said the Baron.

"I'd have crossed Europe, Baron!"

The Baron smiled faintly. Evidently he was scarcely in his most florid
humor.

"I vish I could have asked you to my club, Bonker."

"Are you dissatisfied with mine?"

"Oh, no, no! But---- vell, ze fact is, it vould be reported by some one
if I took you to ze Regents. Bonker, she does have me watched!"

"The Baroness?"

"Her mozzer."

"The deuce, Baro