“ And I smiled at the Tzar of all the Bulgars and offered Thusis a bon-bon.
She looked at Ferdinand, at Tino, at the queen: suddenly she threw back her head, and that lovely, childlike, silvery laughter rippled through the Teutonic din.
There was no scorn in her laughter, only the delicious, irresistible gaiety of a young girl face to face with the excruciating. And there is nothing on earth more innocently insolent. ”

“ At the very idea of anybody objecting to the destructive wishes of a Prussian officer, General Count von Dungheim glared at me.
"Why not give a baby-party?" inquired Smith, blandly.
"A—a baby-party!" repeated Baron Bummelzug vacantly, in English; "what perhaps iss it a baby-party?"
Thusis, serving me, bent over and whispered in my ear: "Not the sort of baby-parties they gave in Belgium; there are no babies." And she moved serenely to serve the queen, her beautiful face placid and inscrutable.
The Princess Pudelstoff began to clap her pudgy hands excitedly:
"A baby-party! A baby-party! ”

“ I think the royal circus was stupefied by the beauty of these two young girls. A rather frightful silence reigned for a moment; then the Countess Manntrapp clapped her jeweled hands and sang out in her clear, soprano voice: "Brava! Bravissima! They are beautiful, our little waitresses!"
Eddin Bey removed his red fez and, swinging it by the tassel, gave three hochs.
Then, instantly, the cheers broke out everywhere: I gave Thusis my arm; Smith offered his to Clelia; and we seated them amid shouts and the waving of napkins, the queen's eyes glittering like twin daggers all the while. ”

“ Clelia looked at Smith: "Do you know what my sister means?"
"Yes."
"Will you stop us even there?"
"I must."
Thusis, white with passion, confronted him:
"It is not you who are bound in honor to check and thwart us," she said unsteadily, "but your duped block-head of a master who exasperates me! Does he know from whom I take my orders?"
"Yes."
"I take them from the greatest, wisest, most fearless, most generous patriot in the world. I take my orders from Monsieur Venizelos!"
I started, but Smith said coolly: "Is that what you suppose, Thusis?"
"Suppose? What do you mean?" she demanded haughtily. ”

“ And now on this warm, quiet, flyful afternoon, and still considerably upset over my morning on the trout stream with Thusis, I found myself at my table, abandoning myself to an orgy of self-expression in verse.
Having slammed the door I now returned to my poem; and first I carefully re-read as much of it as I had accomplished:
To THUSIS
I
Slender girl with eyes of gray—
Charming mystery called Thusis—
Teach me all your lore, I pray!—
How your loveliness seduces—
How each dimple has its uses
Leading men like me astray! ”

“ I discovered Smith sitting on the rim of the fountain all alone in the dusk.
"Good heavens!" I blurted out, "was any man ever so completely entangled in the web of intrigue as I am? Plot, counterplot, camouflage, mystery—I'm in the very middle of the whole mess!
"I don't know who anybody is or what they're up to! Who is Thusis? Who is Clelia? Who is Josephine Vannis? Raoul? The Countess Manntrapp? And who are you, for that matter? I don't know! I don't pretend to guess."
"What's the trouble?" he asked, amused.
"Trouble! I don't know. There's all kinds of trouble lying around. ”

“ I said soberly.
"Yes, the King of Italy. We were expected to return to Rome and defer to him all questions concerning our future.... And we ran away."
"Why, Thusis?"
"Because we happen to have minds of our own, Michael."
"And you immediately employed them by concocting a plot to kidnap some kings!" I said. "Oh, Thusis, you are the limit!"
"I know I am," she said naïvely. "A mind that does not range to its extremest limits is a rather dull one, isn't it?"
"It is," I admitted, laughing and crushing her hands between my own. "You are delightfully right, Thusis; you are always deliciously right. ”

“ O'Ryan; the chances are that you'll get hurt."
A perfectly inexplicable but agreeable tingling sensation began to invade me, amounting almost to exhilaration. Was it the Irish in me, subtly stirred, by the chance of a riot? Was it a possible opportunity to heave a brick, impartially and with Milesian enthusiasm?
"Thusis," said I, "there is only one question I must ask you to answer."
"I know what it is."
"What?"
"You are going to remind me that, to-day, the whole world is divided into two parts; that the greatest war of all times is being waged between the forces of light and of darkness. ”

“ Toward the dinner hour excitement in the house became intense as the royal circus fussed and pinned and basted and struggled with its impromptu costumes.
Bells jangled to summon Thusis and Clelia; the Princess Pudelstoff was too fat to braid her own hair; the Countess Manntrapp required basting into her boy's breeches; the Queen, desiring to go as the infant Germania, had pasted tin-foil all over her high Austrian corset, but still it didn't resemble armor, nor did the oval boiler-lid furnished by Josephine Vannis particularly resemble a shield. ”

“ In the presence of these tourists remember always that I am your servant and a Swiss peasant. Never by word or glance permit them to believe otherwise. Do you promise?"
"Yes."
She smiled, laid both her hands frankly in mine.
"I'm going to tell you something," she said. "Your guests below are the ex-king Constantine of Greece, his wife, the ex-queen; Ferdinand, King of Bulgaria—or Tzar of all the Bulgars—as he loves to call himself;—and their several assorted shadows."
My eyes were widening at every word.
"Thusis," I said, "what nonsense are you talking?" ”

“ Clelia laid one hand lightly on my arm, and her smile became wistful and troubled:
"You do care for my sister, don't you?"
"I am deeply in love with her."
"I was afraid so."
"Afraid?"
"Oh, I don't know how Thusis is going to behave,—how she is going to take it!" said Clelia in frank anxiety. "Never before has she cared for any man; and I don't know what she's going to do about you—indeed I don't, Mr. O'Ryan!" ”

“ What he said again annoyed me,—the more so because, since her ablutions, the girl did somehow or other remind me even more than before of that lovely, beguiling creature in my photograph. And why on earth there should be any resemblance at all between that laughing young aristocrat in her jewels and silken negligée and my slatternly maid-of-all-work—why the one should even remotely suggest to us the other—was to me inexplicable and unpleasant.
"Smith," I said, "you are a sentimental and romantic young man. You shyly fall in love several times a day when material is plenty. ”

“ He shrugged.
"What a strange, fat, vulgar, good-natured woman," said I. "And what a grotesque company! Can you beat it?—Bulgar and Bolsheviki, King, Queen, Countess, Baron, Admiral, all jumbled up in this little rest-house where I am trying to live in peace and privacy. And now comes an act of God called an avalanche!—and we're all trapped together—you and I, Thusis and Clelia, and this beastly Bulgarian with his beak of a bird of prey; and that vulgar Greek King and his vixen of a wife,—Oh, Lord!" ”

“ And if she's an actress I don't care, because I'm so deeply in love with her that I don't know whether I'm afoot or on horseback. And when an O'Ryan feels that way the world is his or he continues on to Heaven."
"Does it really mean Life or Death to you already, Michael?" he asked gravely.
"Life or death, sink or swim, survive or perish,—as some Yankee orator said once. Nothing matters now except Thusis. That's my only reason for living. Yesterday I wanted wealth, to-day my estate can go to the deuce. ”

“ She elevated her delicate nose, very slightly. "What, then, do you term it, Don Michael?"
"Sympathy."
"Oh la! Sympathy? Oh, I know that kind. It is born out of the idleness of speculation and developed with an admixture of sentimental curiosity always latent in men."
She laughed: "It's nothing but emotion, Monsieur. Men call it budding friendship. But men really care for no women."
"Why do you say that?"
"It's true. Men seek friendship among men. Men like few or no women, but almost any female. That is the real truth. Why dodge it?"
"How old are you, Thusis?" ”

“ Because, once, I gave my heart to you...."
"You were only Thusis, then," I said, steadying my voice and senses with an effort.
"Am I less, now, in your eyes?" She lifted her head and looked at me.
"You are the Duchess of Naxos."
She smiled faintly: "What was it you once said to me about revolutions?—about the necessity for purity of motive and absolute unselfishness for those who revolted against tyranny?"
I was silent.
"Michael?"
"Yes."
"How can I incite my people to revolt unless my motives are entirely free from selfish interest?" ”

“ You know Thusis and I differ in some things. Thusis has her own ideas—about—the world in general. And I'm afraid her ideas are rather old fashioned, and that they are going to make her unhappy."
"Can't you tell me what her ideas are?" I asked.
"No. She may tell you if she chooses. But it isn't likely that she will. Anyway they are not my ideas. My opinion is that the way to be happy is to accept the world as it is, not as it was or should be."
"You are quite wonderful, Clelia." ”

“ Suddenly Thusis turned fiercely on her sister with a gesture that left her outflung arm rigid.
"Do you wish to find the irresponsible political level of those two Bolsheviki in there?" she said with breathless passion. "Are you really the iconoclast you say you are? I did not believe it! I can't. The world moves only through decent procedure, or it disintegrates. Where is your reason, your logic, your pride?"
"Pride?" Clelia smiled and looked at Smith: "In him, I think.... Since he has become my master."
"He is not our master!" retorted Thusis. ”

“ You almost resemble one of the old time cloak-and-sword lovers of that dear Romance which died so long ago on the printed page as well as in human hearts."
"It is not dead in my breast, Thusis."
"It is dead in every breast. Only its frail ghost haunts our hearts at moments."
"When I offered you my heart, Thusis, did you suppose it empty save for a trace of selfish passion?"
"Men are men.... I do not understand their hearts."
"Take mine; tear it apart, look into it,—even if I die of it. Will you?"
Her laugh became less genuine and there was no gaiety in it. ”

“ There won't be nothing to eat in Rooshia so long as you act ugly to Germany——"
"Princess!" interrupted the queen of Greece, sharply.
"That's right," said Tino in a loud, good humored voice; "one doesn't discuss politics while dining. No! One pays strict attention to what one eats and drinks; eh, Sophy?"
The queen ignored him, and he slyly batted one eye at the pretty Countess Manntrapp, his neighbor, and tossed off a brimming goblet of deep red claret.
"Aha!" he said, smacking his lips, "that beats even the wine of Naxos. Did you ever drink Naxos wine, Countess?" ”

“ If there were any privacy at all to be had it seemed that I must seek it in the woods. And thither I fled under an umbrella, a book under one arm, a fishing rod under the other, and my pockets full of smoking material.
For I preferred to sit on the wet moss in the rain, and read and smoke and fish under my ancient green gamp—even if the seat of my trousers did become soaking wet—rather than listen to the gobbling gabble of those Teutons and witness their bad manners and their unpleasant personal habits. ”

“ You always are the most satisfactory of men! And you should see Clelia! She's like me only her ribbons and sash are primrose. She is really charming."
"Thusis," said I, "you and Clelia shall sit at table and Smith and I are going to turn waiters! No!" as she exclaimed in protest, "let's be logical in our grotesqueries! This little world of ours here in Schwindlewald is already absurd enough with you and Clelia waiting on table. ”

“ THE MYSTERIOUS MR. SMITH
The distinguished company at the chalet had already gathered on the veranda apparently to contemplate the flaming sunset when, separating from Thusis in the woods behind the barn, I sauntered into view with rod and creel.
Instantly I became a target for Teutonic eyes of the several sorts peculiar to the hunnish race,—cold disapproving eyes, narrow bad-tempered eyes, squinting eyes, gimlet eyes, pale pig-eyes,—all intent on my approach.
"Hello!" cried King Constantine in his loud, bluff way, "have you had any luck, O'Ryan?" ”

“ Thusis laughed and considered me out of her dark-fringed eyes.
"We are Venetians—very far back. In those remote days, I believe, my family had many servants. That, perhaps, is why my sister and I make such good ones—if I may venture to say so. You see we know by inheritance what a good servant ought to be."
The subtle charm of this young girl began to trouble me; her soft, white symmetry, the indolent and youthful grace of her, and the disturbing resemblance between her and my photograph all were making me vaguely uneasy. ”

“ And I thought I had never gazed upon anything more subtly disturbing than the Hohenzollern visage of the ex-queen. Indeed she seemed to lack only the celebrated imperial mustaches to duplicate the sullen physiognomy of her brother, the Kaiser. That family countenance of a balky horse was unmistakable; so were the coarse features of Constantine, with his face of a typical non-commissioned officer. But of all faces I had ever gazed on the fat, cunning visage of the Bulgarian Bourbon, Ferdinand, was the most false. A long thin nose split its fatness ”

“ Then Clelia took a step toward Smith, and I saw her face had become deadly pale.
"No," she said, "I don't hate you. On the contrary I am beginning to like you. Because it takes a real man to tell the woman he loves that he means to ruin her."
"Clelia, you and Thusis are ruined only if I hold my hand."
"We are done for unless you hold your hand!" she said. She stepped nearer.
"Mr. Smith?" she said sweetly, "you think you are on your honor. You are not. He who has sent you here to thwart us is deceiving you." ”

“ And they all started upstairs, King Ferdinand shuffling in the rear with the peculiarly ponderous waddle which characterizes the progress of an elephant's hind quarters.
King Constantine halted on the stairs to turn and call back to me in his noisy, unceremonious, jovial way:
"Wait a bit, O'Ryan! I forgot to say that we're expecting some friends of ours. So fix 'em up in good shape when they——"
"Go on, Tino!" interrupted the queen impatiently. "Don't you even know enough to keep on going when you start? And God knows," she added in her disagreeable voice, "it's hard enough to start you." ”

“ We offer to stake our lives cheerfully; it frightens him. We escape his well meant authority and supervision and make our way into Switzerland to do him and Italy a service in spite of his timorous fears and objections. He has us followed by—who are you anyway, Mr. Smith?"
"I happen to be," he said pleasantly, "an officer in a certain branch of the Italian Army."
"Military Intelligence!" exclaimed Clelia. "And we were warned by Monsieur Venizelos!"
Thusis flung out her arms in a passionate gesture: "We offer the King of Italy two royal scoundrels! And he refuses. ”

“ O'Ryan. And you live—down to it."
"Will you explain," said I, amazed and angry, "what you mean to infer?"
"I don't infer. I am direct and implicit. You behave as might be expected. Quality demands certain things of itself. Of you, Mr. O'Ryan, nothing is demanded. And nothing involving quality is expected.... And I have been a great fool," she added quietly. And walked out the way she entered, leaving me perplexed and thoroughly enraged.
And I would not have it left in any such way; and sprang up and overtook Thusis as she entered the empty living-room. ”