I did not speak to him again, and he strode along at my heels with an air of preoccupation. We reached the inn in silence.
"What do you know about her Serene Highness the Princess Hildegarde?" I asked abruptly.
"What does Herr wish to know?" shifting his eyes from my gaze.
"All you can tell me."
"I was formerly in her father's service. My wife——" He hesitated, and the expression on his face was a sour one.
"Go on."
"Ah, but it is unpleasant, Herr. You see, my wife and I were not on the best of terms. She was handsome . . . a cousin of the late Prince. . . . She left me more than twenty years ago. I have never seen her since, and I trust that she is dead. She was her late Highness's hair-dresser."
"And the Princess Hildegarde?"
"She is a woman for whom I would gladly lay down my life."
"Yes, yes!" I said impatiently. "Who made her the woman she is? Who taught her to shoot and fence?"