"_Monseigneur_," said this gentleman to my cousin d'Orleans, "permit me to employ my regiment as a guard for my wife, and I swear to you that nobody shall go near her but Your Highness." Of course, it's very lovely of them, but rather emphasizes the poor opinion I have of the nobility. Your nobleman and noblewoman adopt all tones, all airs, all masks, all allures, frank and false, flattering and brutal, choleric or mild, virtuous or bawdy--anything as long as it makes for their profit. Some months ago I met at the Dresden court the Dowager Countess Julie Feodorowna of Pappenheim, who told everybody she could persuade to listen that her eldest son, Max Albrecht, had to resign the succession, because he married beneath him, an American heiress, Miss Wheeler of Philadelphia. "Then you despise money?" I queried with a malicious thought just entering my head. "Not exactly, Your Imperial Highness," she said, "but our house laws----" "Those funny house laws," I smiled, "you don't say they forbid a Pappenheim to accept half a dozen millions from his wife, when, in days gone by, the Counts of Pappenheim's chief income was the tax on harlotry in Franconia and Swabia." The Countess nearly dropped. "Don't be alarmed," I said. "See the pompous looking man in the corner yonder? It's Count Henneberg. His forbears held the fiefship of the Wuerzburg city brothel for many hundred years. That's where the family fortune came from." * * * * * LOSCHWITZ, _May 17, 1901_. I am an ingrate. I bit the hand that fed me. Noble iniquity that yields such delicious crumbs of love as Henry and I stole in moments of ecstasy in park and parlor, in pavilion and veranda, on our drives and rides, be blessed a hundred times. Ah, the harvest of little tendernesses, the sweet words I caught on the wing--recompense for the weeks of abstinence I suffered! Occasionally only, very occasionally, I feel like questioning Henry as to the lie he was guilty of. I quizzed his sister time and again about his relations with women. She always gives me a knowing laugh; I wonder whether she means to be impertinent, or is simply a silly goose. I won't ask him. If he is innocent, as I sincerely hope, he will be offended. If he is not, he will be ashamed of himself and will avoid me in future. It's "innocent," you lose, and "guilty," you don't win. And I love him. I want him, whether he lies to me or not. CHAPTER L TO LIVE UNDER KING'S AND PRINCE GEORGE'S EYE Abruptly ordered to the royal summer residence--The Vitzthums and Henry take flight--Enmeshed by Prince George's intrigues--Those waiting for a crown have no friends--What I will do when Queen--No wonder Kings of old married only relatives--Interesting facts about relative marriages furnished by scientist. LOSCHWITZ, _May 18, 1901_.