XI
The Grand Duke of Barscheit was tall and angular and weather-beaten, and the whites of his eyes bespoke a constitution as sound and hard as his common sense. As Max entered he was standing at the side of Doppelkinn.
"There he is!" shouted the prince. "Do you know who he is?"
The duke took a rapid inventory. "Never set eyes upon him before." The duke then addressed her Highness. "Hildegarde, who is this fellow? No evasions; I want the truth. I have, in the main, found you truthful."
"I know nothing of him at all," said the princess curtly.
Max wondered where the chill in the room came from.
"He says that his name is Scharfenstein," continued the princess, "and he has proved himself to be a courteous gentleman."
Max found that the room wasn't so chill as it might have been.
"Yet you eloped with him, and were on the way to Dresden," suggested the duke pointedly.