CHAPTER XLVIII.
The Steward of Rodeck stood in the study of Prince Adelsberg's palace, in the Residenz. He had been called there to receive various orders and plans before the departure of his young lord.
Egon, who already wore the uniform of his regiment, had given him verbal instructions, and now dismissed the old man.
"Keep the old forest nook in good order for me as heretofore," he concluded. "It is just possible that I may go to Rodeck for a few hours before I leave, but I hardly believe so, for the order to march may come any day. How do I please you in my uniform?"
He arose and drew himself up to his full height. The slender, youthful form looked well in the uniform of a lieutenant, and Stadinger measured him with admiring eyes.
"Real splendid!" he assured the Prince. "It is a pity that Your Highness is not a soldier by profession."
"Do you think so? Well, I am one now, body and soul. Service in the field will come rather hard to me, and I will have to get used to it first. But it does not hurt when one is under strict discipline."
"No, Your Highness, it will not hurt you at all," remarked Stadinger, with his terrible truthfulness. "When Your Highness travels about for years in the Orient with a great sea serpent and a whole herd of elephants, or when you run away from the most gracious Court at Ostend because you do not want to marry at all--nothing comes of that but only----"
"But only stupidity," completed the Prince, wisely. "Stadinger, I shall severely miss one thing in the campaign--your boundless tiresomeness. You want to give me a last curtain lecture--I see it in your face--but will spare you the trouble. Remember me rather to Lena when you get home. Is she back at Rodeck now?"
"Yes, Your Highness, now she is there," said the old man, with heavy emphasis.