I shut down the smile which followed my first glance at him. It was too bad of his Excellency to try and deceive me. I had seen the "old comrade" before, however; and I was not likely to forget him. It was Duke Ladislas himself.
They both played up to the arranged parts, and of course I did my best to help them.
"Come in, old friend," said his Excellency, genially. "This is the chess prodigy. My old friend General von Walther, Miss Gilmore."
"His Excellency always flatters me, General, because on one occasion I was lucky enough to beat him."
"I am delighted to meet you, Miss von Dreschler," said the "general," so occupied in giving me a sharp look that he did not notice he had used the wrong name. "You are a great favourite of my old friend."
I made an appropriate reply, and for some minutes we chatted about chess, and the weather, and what I thought of Pesth, and so on—anything except what he must have come to speak about; whatever that was.
Then I challenged him laughingly to a game; but I suppose he was in reality no player at all, for he got out of the challenge by saying he would rather look on.
So we went on with our game again and had made some half a dozen moves, when a servant came to say that Count Somassy, the Minister of Justice, wished to speak with his Excellency. He pretended intense regret for the interruption to our game, begged us both to excuse him for a few minutes, and then the "old comrade" and I were left alone. I knew of course that this had all been arranged; and that we were now to come to the real business of the meeting.
"You are staying some time in Pesth?" he opened.
"I scarcely know. You see I am a foreigner now, and an American citizen is never long away from the States without a heart ache."