"I would be thankful to my cranium," muttered the Prince, "if it would lead everyone to believe my words as easily as you do."
"As long as I live, it will be a pleasure as well as a souvenir to me," continued. Mrs. Rollmaus, with an ambulatory curtsy, "to have been brought by accident to this intimate intercourse with your Highness, the remembrance of which I will, if I may be allowed to say so, recall to myself by your Highness's picture, which I hope may be had in the shops. I shall place myself before it when I am in the singular number, as now my son Karl does with his grammar, and think of past hours."
Prince Victor gave Mrs. Rollmaus a look of friendly benevolence.
"I will never allow you to buy my portrait. I beg permission to send you a copy as a remembrance. It is, unfortunately, not so true as I could wish. The painter has made me too large, and I am not quite content with the costume: it looks like a clergyman's gown. Meanwhile I beg you kindly to imagine it without this superfluity. Has the Chief Inspector Rollmaus good horses? Does he raise them himself?
"Always, your Highness, he is famed for it among the neighbors."
The Prince turned with fresh interest towards the little lady.
"Perhaps one could transact some business with him. I am looking out for some strong saddle-horses. What kind of a man is he to deal with?" he asked, frankly.
"He is a very sharp tradesman," replied Mrs. Rollmaus, hesitatingly, and looking at the Prince with secret pity. "He is considered by his acquaintances as an expert in horses, and--and, if I may say so--is rather knowing."
The Prince pursed up his lips, bringing out a sound almost like a suppressed whistle.
"Then he is very unlike the highly honored lady, and I shall hardly be able to do business with him. Would it not give the Professor's wife pleasure to visit you for a few days in the village of toads?"