My hero could say nothing to him except that--he did not believe a word of it. But after three minutes of private reflection he believed it all: for that was the reason, he saw, why the dear Clotilda had to come back from the seminary just at the arrival of the Princess,--that was the reason why Le Baut built around the Minister's son so many altars of incense and thank-offerings,--that was the reason why the old lady (in the Sixteenth Dog-Post-Day) serenaded, and so loudly, court-life,--in fact, as he further saw, two such outlawed, captive Court-Jews in Babylon must have the live Devil in them, until they are reinstated in the old holy city, and if they happen to have a handsome daughter, they will use her as the relay of their journey, and the Montgolfier of their balloon-ascension.... "O, only come, Clotilda!" he cried, glowingly;--"the court-pool will then be to me an Italian cellar, a flowery parterre. If thou art only once settled at the Minister's, then I shall have spirits enough and sparkle properly. What will my father say, when he sees us stand with two leading-strings, with one of which thou holdest the Princess, and I, with the other, the husband?" ... At this moment, Clotilda's recent objections to court-life fell like ice-flakes into his boiling blood; but he thought to himself: "Women, however, are a little mite more pleased with the court-residence of splendor than they themselves suspect or say, and far more than men are. Cannot he, too, bear, then, with a like soul-edifying position? She, as step-daughter of the Prince, is only half-miserable, compared with him,--and does she know, then, whether she may not some time be recalled from her _field-état_ to the court-garrison by an accident?" By this _accident_ he meant a marriage with Sebastian. Finally, he tranquillized himself with something which I also believe,--namely, that she had at that time, merely out of politeness, made a show of a certain coldness towards her new separation from her parents, and therefore towards the new place also; and then, too, pleasure at such a prospect might have been taken for warmth toward _somebody_ or other at court, e. g. toward her--_brother_, he thought to himself. And now yesterday's idea, upon which I have lost my wager, came forth again, having shot up astonishingly in _one_ night,--namely, that, if he could persuade the Prince to make the journey and the visit to the Chamberlain, and while they were still on the road, could plead with him for a good word to the Princess in behalf of Clotilda,--then was it, in the first place, impossible for the stepfather to refuse a prayer for the most beautiful stepdaughter,--and, secondly, impossible for the Princess, when her spouse should exercise the privilege of the first petition, not to draw all possible advantage from the first opportunity of laying him under obligations to her.