"Are there any more princesses--sisters of Furst Hugo?"
"Two more. They live in Munich. No, none of them are married.
Because," he added zealously, "there are no men as high-born as our
gracious ladies, so they cannot marry."
"No doubt that accounts for it," said Jean. "Six. These are 'the
channels into which the income will flow,' hey?" She gave him more
money, and marching into the station caught Lucy by the shoulder,
shaking her passionately. "Do you think any American girl could stand
that? How would YOU like to be caged up in that ridiculous tower to
cook and crochet and brew beer and watch the train go by for
recreation? The year round--the year round?"
Lucy rose quietly. "The train is coming now," she said. "Calm
yourself, Jean. YOU will not have to live in the tower."
Jean laughed. When they were seated in the car again, she looked
wistfully out at the heaps of ruins.
"It must have been a mighty fortress once," she said. "Those stones
were hewed before Charlemagne's time. And a great castle could easily
be built with them now," she added thoughtfully.
CHAPTER X
The travellers entered Munich at noon. The great generous city lay
tranquil and smiling in the frosty sunlight.
"I have secured apartments," said Miss Vance, "used hitherto by
royalties or American millionaires. My girl must be properly framed
when a prince comes a-wooing."
Lucy smiled. But her usual warm color faded as they drove through the
streets. Jean, however, was gay and eager.
"Ah, the dear splendid town!" she cried. "It always seems to give us a
royal welcome. Nothing is changed! There is the music in the Kellers,
and there go the same Bavarian officers with their swagger and saucy
blue eyes. They are the handsomest men in Europe! And here is the
Munchen-kindl laughing at us, and the same crowds are going to the
Pinakothek! What do you want more? Beer and splendor and fun and art!
What a home it will be for you, Lucy!"
Lucy's cold silence did not check Jean's affectionate zeal. She
anxiously searched among the stately old buildings, which they passed,
for the Wolfburgh palace. "It will not be in these commonplace
Haussmannized streets," she said. "It is in some old corner; it has a
vast, mysterious, feudal air, I fancy. You will hold a little court in
it, and sometimes let a poor American artist from Pond City in to hang
on the edge of the crowd and stare at the haute noblesse."
"Don't be absurd, Jean," said Miss Vance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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