“Goodness me,” said his Highness nervously, “why doesn’t the Konrektor come?”
“Good gracious! what good is the Konrektor? He’s no more able to——”
“He must be able to, he must! Here, get these buckles off from my shoes; metal is a good conductor. Is all in order in my cabinet?”
“Yes,” growled Rand, looking at the floor while trying to take the buckles off, “we’ve put up all the mummery, and the carpenter says it looks for all the world like a birdcage.”
“Gracious goodness! Did you hear that? Did you hear it, I say? It’s here already! Where can the Konrektor be? I am going into my cabinet. Send for the Konrektor. Don’t go so fast! Don’t go so fast! The lightning will catch. Oh, goodness me!” he said quite tremulously; “and here I am calling so loud!”
The lackey met the Konrektor on the market-place, the door was opened, just a trifle, according to the Duke’s orders, so that there should be no draught, and the Konrektor crowded in with his fox-tail and the rest of it. He now entered his Highness’s cabinet, and the sight he saw put him at first quite out of countenance. For a moment he stood bewildered in the door, and stared into the cabinet open-mouthed, then all at once he broke into a perfect roar of laughter.
“What the devil have we here? Begging your Grace’s pardon! But what in the name of goodness can this mean?”
“HE BROKE INTO A PERFECT ROAR OF LAUGHTER.”
And Rand laughed too, and said, “Ay, you may well say so!”