“Make an appointment—quickly, your Highness. I am here expressly to see you,” he said, noticing that Prince George was approaching to carry her off to the upper end of the room, where the members of the Imperial family were assembled.
“Very well. In the Stadtpark, against the Caroline Bridge, at eight to-morrow night. It will be dark then.”
“Be careful that you are not followed,” he whispered; and then he bowed deeply as she left him.
When her cousin came up he said,—
“You are very foolish, Claire! You know how greatly such a breach of etiquette annoys the Emperor. Why do you speak with such people?”
“Because I like to,” she answered defiantly. “If I have the misfortune to be born an Imperial Archduchess and am now Crown Princess, it need surely not preclude me from speaking to people who are my friends?”
“Oh, he is a friend, is he? Who is the fellow?” inquired the Prince, raising his eyebrows.
“Steinbach. He is in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
“You really possess some queer friends, Claire,” the young man said, smiling. “They will suspect you of being a Socialist if you go on in this way. You always shock them each time you come back to Vienna because of your extraordinary unconventionality.”
“Do I?” she laughed. “Well, I’m sure I don’t care. When I lived here before I married they were for ever being scandalised by my conduct in speaking to people. But why shouldn’t I? I learn so much them. We are all too narrow-minded; we very little of the world beyond the palace walls.”