Dick glanced from the Landgravine to her ladies, who looked neither as piquant as French women, nor as reserved as English women. If what an ungallant American traveller wrote at that time--that at the German courts beauty and butter alike were measured by the pound--were true, it was to be granted that the German ladies had fair skin, radiant complexion, and something of a classic cast of countenance. But Dick's gaze fastened upon one face, which had beauty without heaviness; a face that stood out from the others,--making them and all the world besides fade into nothingness, while Dick, in doubt whether he was not dreaming, forgot that any other woman had ever lived. It was the face of Catherine de St. Valier! She saw him, looked slightly startled, then took on the faintest flush, which passed immediately but left him with the happy assurance that he was recognized. Half-way across the room as he was, he bowed low. She slightly inclined her head, and hastened to the Landgravine, for whom she had brought a forgotten handkerchief. She then went swiftly out by the door at which all the ladies had entered. The company was already on the way to the dining-parlor, and Dick had to follow. It was the privilege of Lord George and his friends to dine at their highnesses' table, where only strangers and such officers as were not under the rank of colonel were allowed to sit, the lesser guests eating in an adjoining room, to which the doors were left open. But Dick took no thought of the honor done him, or of the table-talk, which was constrained and low-spoken, no voice being raised save when one of their highnesses addressed some person at a distance. Catherine was not present. Dick continued to wonder how in the world she had come to be an inmate of the palace of Cassel. As the dinner lasted two hours, he had time in which to repeat this question to himself many times. After dinner he absent-mindedly followed the company back to the room where it had first assembled. Here he stood in a trance for a quarter of an hour, and then, the Landgrave having left the apartment, the company broke up. "Let us hope we sha'n't be so bored at the masquerade to-night," said Lord George, on the way back to the hotel. "I shall thank God when I have put this stupid place far behind me." "Stupid!" echoed Dick. "I find it very interesting. I sha'n't think of leaving for some time." "Why, this morning you were glad we were going at once to Berlin!" "My dear Lord George, if you are determined to go at once to Berlin, I beg to resign my place as your secretary. I will do my best to find you another secretary here at Cassel." "Why, I suppose I can easily find one. But are you serious? One would suppose you had got some fat appointment in the court or the army, since this morning." "I wish I had, God knows,--or even a lean one,--but not in the army. I would not go to fight against my--against the Americans."