A MAD HOUSE FOR LOUISE—PROBABLY
My confidential maid, Lucretia, is banished—The new King has got the incriminating letter, but Frederick Augustus says nothing—On the eve of judgment the King falls ill.
Dresden, October 21, 1902.
This morning, at six, Lucretia rushed into my room. She was in her night-gown. Her hair was loose. No color in her face.
And between sobs and curses she told me that she had orders to leave by ten sharp. "If you dare stay over the appointed time, you will be transported to the frontier on foot, between gendarmes."
"Von Baumann shall come."
I threw a loose wrapper over my night-gown and received him at once.
"My marriage contract provides that no one but I have the right of dismissal with respect to Countess Baranello," I said sharply.
"As long as the lady keeps within the law," replied Baumann with just a trace of insolence in his voice.