"I am quite sure of it. But I am equally sure that the Countess is incapable of refusing a request from you." "And my father? There's the next stumbling-block. You know his temper. Will he consent?" "He has consented. If you ride, you ride. Those were his words...." "You have made sure of him beforehand, then? I'm really beginning to admire your circumspection. You have assumed the rôle of a Field Marshal, although you are not really a soldier, only a make-believe one, as you told us long ago. But there's yet one more obstacle, and that is decisive. It's going to rain." "No, that's a very weak one. The sun is shining...." "It's going to rain. The air is much too soft. I made sure of it when we were in the Spa-Gardens before breakfast. Come and look at the barometer if you don't believe me. It's hanging in the hall...." They went out into the tapestry hall, where a big weather-glass hung near the marble fireplace. The Countess went with them. Klaus Heinrich said: "It's gone up." "Your Highness is pleased to deceive yourself," answered Miss Spoelmann. "The refraction misleads you." "That's beyond me." "The refraction misleads you." "I don't know what that is, Miss Spoelmann. It's the same as with the Adirondacks. I've not had much schooling, that's a necessary result of my kind of existence. You must make allowances for me." "Oh, I humbly beg pardon. I ought to have remembered that one must use ordinary words when talking to your Highness. You are standing crooked to the hand and that makes it look to you as if it had risen. If you would bring yourself to stand straight in front of the glass, you would see that the black has not risen above the gold hand, but has actually dropped a little below it." "I really believe you are right," said Klaus Heinrich sadly. "The atmospheric pressure there is higher than I thought!" "It is lower than you thought." "But how about the falling quicksilver?" "The quicksilver falls at low pressure, not at high, Royal Highness." "Now I'm absolutely lost." "I think, Prince, that you're exaggerating your ignorance by way of a joke, so as to hide what its extent really is. But as the atmospheric pressure is so high that the quicksilver drops, thus showing an absolute disregard for the laws of nature, let's go for a ride, Countess--shall we? I cannot assume the responsibility of sending the Prince back home again now that he has once come. He can wait in there till we're ready...."