He looked straight at me, and replied firmly, "No."
I confess that my astonishment began to give place to a slight feeling of apprehension. I knew perfectly well that it was not childish pique at my not accepting the post he had found for me, that influenced a man of his profound judgment.
"You must have very good reasons, sir," I said, my voice trembling a little, "to give me so categorical an answer."
"I certainly have," he replied.
"Would you mind telling me what it was you looked up in that book?"
"My dear boy, don't start thinking that that year book of Reigning Houses contains any details of a kind to justify the apprehension I feel at your going to Lautenburg. I have verified a name, confirmed certain recollections—that's all.
"It is true that I have certain private information about the House of Lautenburg-Detmold of which Count de Marçais himself might know nothing, even assuming that he were a more gifted diplomatist than he is reported to be. Besides, he has not been very long at Lautenburg, and never knew the late Grand Duke Rudolph."
"Who was the Grand Duke Rudolph?"
"Haven't you ever heard of him? He was the elder brother of the present Grand Duke. He died a few years ago, two, if I remember rightly."
"So it was his death which gave the succession to the Grand Duke Frederick Augustus?"