"Ilse, are you a witch? An order has been given to begin building the road immediately; the surveyor is already here to mark it out." At dinner Ilse took the letter out of her pocket with great delight, saying: "Read, you incredulous man, and see what our little Prince has been able to accomplish; after all we did him injustice. My poor gray excited his pity, and he wrote everything to his dear father." The next time that Ilse met the Hereditary Prince, she began, after the first greeting, in a low voice: "My home owes warm thanks to your Highness, who has had the kindness to exert yourself for our road." "Is it to be built?" asked the Prince, surprised. "Does not your Highness know it? Your intercession has induced his Grace, your father, to have it made." "My intercession would have had little effect," continued the Prince. "No, no," he added, earnestly disowning it. "I did not write to my father. It was altogether his own decision." Ilse remained silent: she could not understand what should prevent the son of a Prince from openly laying before his father a request on a matter of business, the fulfillment of which would be beneficial to many; that he should disown all participation in what he had evidently done, appeared to her a quite inappropriate display of modesty. The last letter from Court had confirmed the Chamberlain in his opinion that the intimacy of the Hereditary Prince in the Rector's house was not distasteful to his father. He reflected sometimes on the reasons for this interest in persons, who were so far removed from the sphere of princely notice. He could not understand it. At all events it was his duty not to keep the Prince away from their home, and likewise to make himself agreeable to the Rector and his wife. This he did willingly and honestly, and oftentimes went to the Professor's without the Prince; he asked him to recommend books to him, showed great deference for his judgment about men, and was guided by the Professor's advice in the choice of the Prince's teachers. The energetic dignity and proud frank character of the learned man attracted the courtier, and Werner became a valuable acquaintance to him. He was also sincerely attached to Ilse, and there were times when she too could discover something of the worth and depth of heart of the Chamberlain.