"Oh, it's hardly worth while bothering that personage about such a sum," I interrupted. Halderschrodt, in those days, was a name that suggested no dealings in any sum less than a million. "My dear Etchingham," my aunt interrupted in a shocked tone, "it is quite worth his while to oblige us...." "I didn't know," I said. That afternoon we drove to Halderschrodt's private office, a sumptuous--that is the _mot juste_--suite of rooms on the first floor of the house next to the Duc de Mersch's _Sans Souci_. I sat on a plush-bottomed gilded chair, whilst my pseudo-sister transacted her business in an adjoining room--a room exactly corresponding with that within which de Mersch had lurked whilst the lady was warning me against him. A clerk came after awhile, carried me off into an enclosure, where my bill was discounted by another, and then reconducted me to my plush chair. I did not occupy it, as it happened. A meagre, very tall Alsatian was holding the door open for the exit of my sister. He said nothing at all, but stood slightly inclined as she passed him. I caught a glimpse of a red, long face, very tired eyes, and hair of almost startling whiteness--the white hair of a comparatively young man, without any lustre of any sort--a dead white, like that of snow. I remember that white hair with a feeling of horror, whilst I have almost forgotten the features of the great Baron de Halderschrodt. I had still some of the feeling of having been in contact with a personality of the most colossal significance as we went down the red carpet of the broad white marble stairs. With one foot on the lowest step, the figure of a perfectly clothed, perfectly groomed man was standing looking upward at our descent. I had thought so little of him that the sight of the Duc de Mersch's face hardly suggested any train of emotions. It lit up with an expression of pleasure. "You," he said. She stood looking down upon him from the altitude of two steps, looking with intolerable passivity. "So you use the common stairs," she said, "one had the idea that you communicated with these people through a private door." He laughed uneasily, looking askance at me. "Oh, I ..." he said. She moved a little to one side to pass him in her descent. "So things have arranged themselves--_là bas_," she said, referring, I supposed, to the elective grand duchy. "Oh, it was like a miracle," he answered, "and I owed a great deal--a great deal--to your hints...." "You must tell me all about it to-night," she said.