"The high princely ladies could only honor me with a visit upon the occasion of a drive. I cannot invite them, as I am a bachelor."
"And why is Your Highness still a bachelor?" asked Stadinger in reproachful tones.
"Man, I believe you also have matrimonial plans for me as well as the world has," laughed Egon. "Spare your pains; I shall not marry."
"That is not right, Your Highness," persisted Stadinger, who gave his master his title at least once in every sentence because it was "respectable" so to do, while at the same time he took the liberty of lecturing him upon every occasion; "and it is also unchristianlike, for matrimony is a holy state, in which one feels well off. Your sainted father was married--and so was I."
"Oh, of course, you too. You are even grandfather of a most charming granddaughter, whom you have most cruelly sent off. When does she come back, anyhow?"
The steward thought best to lose the last question, but he remained obstinately at his subject.
"Your Highness, the Duchess and the Princess Sophie are of the same opinion. Your Highness should consider the subject seriously."
"Well, since you exhort so paternally, I will consider it. But, concerning the Princess Sophie, she intends to drive to Bucheneck, which is the meeting place of to-day's hunt; it may be possible she will notice you there and may speak to you."
"Very probable, Your Highness," confirmed the old man, complacently. "Her Highness always honors me by speaking to me, because she knows me as the oldest servant of the ducal house."
"Very well. If the Princess should ask casually after the snakes and animals which I have brought back from my travels, you say that they have already been sent to one of my other castles."