The Adventure of Princess Sylvia

								

THE  ADVENTURE OF PRINCESS SYLVIA
BOOKS BY
C. N. AND A. M. WILLIAMSON
THE LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR
THE PRINCESS PASSES
MY FRIEND THE CHAUFFEUR
LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER
ROSEMARY IN SEARCH OF A FATHER
THE CAR OF DESTINY
THE CHAPERON
THE PRINCESS VIRGINIA
SET IN SILVER
ETC., ETC.
THE ADVENTURE OF PRINCESS SYLVIA
By
MRS. C. N. WILLIAMSON
New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1909
AUTHORIZED EDITION
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
TO
MY AMERICAN PRINCESS
MRS. CLARENCE POSTLEY
CONTENTS

I. THE ADVENTURE BEGINS 3
II. THE INADVERTENCE OF FRAU JOHANN 24
III. THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE BARE KNEES 34
IV. MAX VERSUS MAXIMILIAN 66
V. NOT DOWN IN THE PROGRAMME 81
VI. THE HONOURS OF THE DAY 98
VII. TEN MINUTES GRACE 107
VIII. THE BEAR IN His DEN 131
IX. A WHITE NIGHT 152
X. "THE EMPEROR WILL UNDERSTAND" 186
XI. THE LAST OF THE MAGIC CITRONS 202
XII. BETWEEN MAN AND MAN 221
XIII. NEWS BY TELEPHONE 248
XIV. THE CHANCELLOR'S LUCK 256
XV. THE OLDNESS OF THE CHANCELLOR 284
XVI. THE OPENING OF A DOOR 297
XVII. THE THIRD COURSE 302

THE  ADVENTURE OF PRINCESS SYLVIA
The Adventure of Princess Sylvia

CHAPTER I
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS


"Who is Sylvia? What is she,

   That all our swains commend her?"
"I'm dashed if I do!" said the Princess.
"My dear--if anyone should hear you!" groaned the Grand Duchess.
"He is a most estimable young man, I am sure, and a very suitable
match."
"Call him a match, if you like; he's certainly a stick. Anyway,
he's not a match for me. There's only one existing." And the
Princess's eyes were lifted to the heavens, as if the being at
whom she hinted were placed high as the sun that shone above her.
The Grand Duchess was not herself "Hereditary." Her dear lord and
master had been that, which was perhaps the reason why such
stateliness as she had was almost all acquired. She dropped it
sometimes, when alone with her unmarried, unmanageable young daughter;
and to-day (in the sweet, old-fashioned garden of the house at
Richmond, lent by Queen Victoria) was one of these occasions. The
Grand Duchess pouted, and looked like a plump, sulky, elderly child,
as she inquired what the Princess Sylvia expected in the way of a
matrimonial prize.
"What do I expect?" echoed the young lady. "I expect an emperor.
In fact, the Emperor." For a few moments the Grand Duchess of
Eltzburg-Neuwald remained dumb. Then she inadequately murmured,
"Dear me!" Yet her demeanour did not suggest a stricken mind. She
merely looked surprised, with an added expression that might signify
a slow mental readjustment.
"It is really not entirely impossible," she commented at last. "But--
the Emperor of Rhaetia is a very great man."
"He is the only man," returned the Princess calmly. "He always has
been. He is, and ever will be. He is the Napoleon of his generation,
without Napoleon's meanness or brutality. Although he's not an