"Give me your hand!" she commanded.
The secretary gave it awkwardly, and the Princess plumped rather sharply to the ground.
"What! Do they not teach you how to help ladies to alight in Plassenburg?" queried the Princess. "You accompany the new ambassador, do you not?"
"You are the first I ever helped in my life," said Johann simply. "Mostly——"
"What! I am the first? You jest. It is not possible. There are many ladies in Plassenburg, and I doubt not they have noted and distinguished a handsome youth like you."
The secretary shook his head.
"Not so," he said, smiling; "I have never been so remarked by any lady in Plassenburg in my life."
The Courtlander, standing stiff at the salute, turned his head the least fraction of an inch towards Paul Strelitz the Bor-Russian.
"He sticks to it. Lord! I wish that I could lie like that! I would make my fortune in a trice," he muttered. "'As for me, I only kiss ladies!' Did you hear him, Paul?"
"I hear him. He lies like an archbishop—a divine liar," muttered the Bor-Russian under his breath.