after her.

"I believe I stepped on his toe that time," said Carmichael to himself.

Then he looked round for Gretchen. She was still at the side of the
policeman. She had watched the scene between the two men, but was quite
unconscious that it had been set for her benefit. She came back.
Carmichael stepped confidently to her side and raised his hat.

"Did you get your geese together without mishap?" he asked.

The instinct of the child always remains with the woman. Gretchen
smiled. This young man would be different, she knew.

"They were only frightened. But his highness"--eagerly--"was he very
angry?"

"Angry? Not the least. He was amused. But he was nearly knocked off his
horse. If you lived in America now, you might reap a goodly profit from
that goose."

"America? How?"

"You could put him in a museum and exhibit him as an intimate friend of
the grand duke of Ehrenstein."

But Gretchen did not laugh. It was a serious thing to talk lightly of so
grand a person as the duke. Still, the magic word America, where the
gold came from, flamed her curiosity.