"'Well!' said the Grand Duke, what was it?'
"Kessel was still silent.
"'Look here, Major,' Frederick went on, beginning to lose patience. 'You can't have discovered a plot up there, I presume. I must ask you to reassure my guests. What was the matter?'
"'Builders, your Highness,' murmured Kessel.
"'Builders! at this hour! Today of all days! That's too much of a good thing. What on earth are they doing? Come, Herr von Kessel, tell me, please!'
"'They are walling up the yellow corridor,' the officer managed to get out.
"There was a frigid silence. The yellow corridor was that which connected the apartments of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Lautenburg.
"Frederick-Augustus is a man of resource, ami. I realized it that evening and genuinely admired him when, tapping his forehead significantly, as much as to say, 'Of course! I'd forgotten,' he turned to a steward and said:
"'Just see that those good fellows are well looked after. They'll have to work all night.'
"I didn't mind. You see I was pleased with myself, for I felt there was something of admiration in the sly look he gave me, a look that seemed to say: