A servant appeared with a little tray of liqueurs, and in obedience to an impatient gesture from his master, left them upon the table.

Brott closed the door firmly.
"Prince," he said, resuming his seat, "I wished to speak with you concerning the Countess." Saxe Leinitzer nodded.
"All right," he said.

"I am listening!" "I understand," Brott continued, "that you are one of her oldest friends, and also one of the trustees of her estates.

I presume that you stand to her therefore to some extent in the position of an adviser ?" "It is perfectly true," the Prince admitted.
"I, too, am an old friend, as she has doubtless told you," Brott said.
"All my life she has been the one woman whom I have desired to call my wife.

That desire has never been so strong as at the present moment." The Prince removed his cigar from his mouth and looked grave.
"But, my dear Brott," he said, "have you considered the enormous gulf between your--views?
The Countess owns great hereditary estates, she comes from a family which is almost Royal, she herself is an aristocrat to the backbone.