"Yes, your highness, she asked me about my granddaughter, particularly."
"What's the trouble with Stadinger now?" asked Hartmut, who came out at this moment, also attired for the day's sport, and who had caught the last few words.
"Oh, he's been making a first class fool of himself, that's all," explained the exasperated prince. The oldest servant of a princely house could not allow such an insult to pass.
"I beg your highness's pardon. I have not been making a fool of myself at all."
"Perhaps you believe it is I who have been doing it?"
Stadinger looked his young master well over and then replied, discreetly:
"I do not know, your highness—but it might be so."
"You're an old bear," cried the prince sharply.
"The whole forest knows that, your highness."
"Come on, Hartmut, there's nothing to be gained from this old ghost of the woods," said Egon half angry, half laughing. "First you place me in all sorts of embarrassments, and then you defend yourself by giving me a lecture."