At eleven I received a telephone call from the Continental Hotel. It was a woman's voice, and my heart beat violently as I recognized it. I was requested to come at once to the hotel. I should find her in the ladies' salon. I walked the distance in ten minutes. She told me all that had happened.
"By this time it is all over the city. But it is all nonsense about her Highness' eloping with any one. She is too nobly born to commit such a folly. She has simply run away; and I very much fear that she will be caught. The duke is in a terrible temper. I could not remain in the palace, for the duke suspects that I know where she has gone. I have my passports. The British consul is away hunting. You were the only English-speaking person to whom I could come for aid."
"I am very glad."
"Will it be asking too much of you to aid me in leaving Barscheit to-night? There is a train at one o'clock for Dresden."
"Leave Barscheit?" My heart sank dismally.
"Oh,"—with a smile,—"the world is small and England is even smaller."
"I shall have to give up the consulate,"—gravely.
She laughed. "I shall be in England for something more than a year. Truthfully, I hunger for mine own people. You know what that hunger is."
"Yes. I shall go home as often as possible now. I always stop a few days in London."
"Then I shall expect to see you; perhaps during the holidays. I am determined to leave Barscheit before the duke changes his mind. Heavens, he may put me in prison!"