But later he intended to write a letter, unsigned, to his serene highness.
Carmichael, scowling, undertook to answer his mail, but not with any remarkable brilliancy or coherency.
And in this condition of mind Grumbach found him; Grumbach, accompanied by the old clock-mender from across the way, and a Gipsy Carmichael had never seen before.
"What's up, Hans ?" "Tell your clerk to leave us," said Grumbach, his face as barren of expression as a rock.
"Something serious, eh ?" Carmichael dismissed the clerk, telling him to return after the noon hour.

"Now, then," he said, "what is the trouble ?" "I have already spoken to you about it," Grumbach returned.

"The matter has gone badly.

But I am here to ask a favor, a great favor, one that will need all your diplomacy to gain for me." "Ah" "For myself I ask nothing.

A horrible blunder has been made.