She went hastily to the speckled mirror beneath the antlers and surveyed herself anxiously. Her own travelling suit of dark green tweed, with its white silk shirt, was as carelessly perfect as his own, and the little green turban, with its shaded, drooping feather, extremely becoming. No color set off her fairness like green, but she turned away with a sigh. It was not the eyes of the past three days that looked back at her. And then she remembered that he had not seen her since the renaissance. The moment was not without its excitements. Their meeting was excessively formal. "Frau Graefin." "Excellenz." She lifted her hand. He raised it to his lips. And then he drew back and looked at her with penetrating but smiling eyes. "I had heard, of course," he said gallantly, "but I hardly was prepared. May I say, Frau Graefin, that you look younger than when I had the pleasure of meeting you first?" "I assure you that I feel many years younger," she replied lightly. "May I add that I am delighted to see that you are in the best of health? Your rest in Switzerland has done you good, although it would have been better for Austria had it been shorter. Shall we sit down?" Two tall dignified bodies adjusted themselves to chairs both slippery and bumpy. He had closed the door behind him. "Now that the amenities are over, Excellenz," she said with the briskness she had picked up from her American friends, "let us come to the point. I infer you did not take a day's journey and put up with this abominable hotel to tell me that you are forming a Federation of Austria and the South German States. You were sometimes kind enough to ask my help in the past, but I have no influence in Washington." "No, dear Graefin. I do not need your assistance in Washington. But I do need it in Austria, and that is why I am here." "But it is--was--my intention to return to Austria almost immediately. Surely Judge Trent must have told you." "Yes, dear Graefin, he told me, but he also told me other things. I shall not waste the little time at our disposal in diplomacy. He told me that you have the intention to marry a young American." There was the faintest accent on the _young_. Mary was annoyed to feel herself flushing, but she answered coldly, "It is quite true that I intend to marry Mr. Clavering." "And I have come here to ask you to renounce that intention and to marry me instead." "You!" Mary almost rose from her chair. "What on earth do you mean?" "My dear Marie." He renounced formalities abruptly. "I think you will be able to recall that whether I wrapped my meaning in diplomatic phrases or conveyed it by the blunter method, it was always sufficiently clear to the trained understanding. I have never known a more trained or acute understanding than yours. I wish you to marry me, and I beg you to listen to my reasons."