"Yes, I!" He thrust out both his great arms miserably. "I'm a healthy-looking individual, am I not, to be running away from anything?"
"Especially after having been a soldier in the Spanish War. Why did you tell me that your name was Scharfenstein?"
"Heaven on earth, it is Scharfenstein! I'm simply taking my chance on another man's passports."
"I am unconvinced,"—ungraciously. She was, however, inordinately happy; at the sight of the picture of woe on his face all her trust in him returned. She believed every word he said, but she wanted to know everything.
"Very well; I see that I must tell you everything to get back into your good graces—Fräulein von Heideloff."
"If you ever were in my good graces!"
Graphically he recounted the adventure at Müller's. He was a capital story-teller, and he made a very good impression.
"If it hadn't been for the princess' eloping I should not have been here," he concluded, "for my friend would have had a waiter bring me that chair."
"The princess' eloping!"—aghast.
"Why, yes. It seems that she eloped to-night; so the report came from the palace."