mustaches and biting their lips and asking one another who I am. There
are as many as five challenges waiting for me the moment I depart from
your side."

There was mischief in her eye.

"Then you shall stay with me, find me an ice and waltz once with me,
for if anything happened to you I should always have myself to blame."

I waltzed with her, and the perfume of her hair got into my head, and I
grew dizzy. When the dance came to an end, I went into the smoking
room. Suddenly it went through my brain that the world had changed in
an incredibly short time. I tried to smoke, and for the first time in
my life, tobacco was tasteless, I was falling in love with a Princess.
I confess that it did not horrify me; on the contrary, I grew thrilled
and excited. There was a spice here which hitherto had been denied me.
The cost was unspelled. I fell as far as I could fall. The
uncertainty of the affair was in itself an enchantment.

Well, the next day I strolled up the Avenue of Legations and saw her on
horseback. She was accompanied by an elderly man with a face like an
eagle's. There were various decorations on his breast. As the
Princess saw me, she bent her head. She remembered me. That was all
that was necessary for my transportation. Later, I was informed that
her escort was Prince Ernst of Wortumborg, who was destined to become
her lord and master. I did not care who he was; I knew that I hated
him.

For a week I lingered on. I met her time and again; alone on
horseback, at the various embassies and at the opera. At these