Egon kissed the hand of his illustrious aunt, and murmured a few polite
words of greeting, but the amiable attention of her highness was
directed toward the beautiful woman who had just joined them.
"I was just saying to his excellency, that you found yourself at home
very readily in our little Court circle, my dear baroness. You are
entering our little society for the first time to-day, and have lived,
no doubt, in a very different atmosphere until now. Your name was--?"
"Stahlberg, your highness," was the quiet reply.
"Oh, yes, I remember it now. I have heard the name often enough. It was
well known, I believe--in mercantile circles."
"My dearest aunt, you must permit me to set you right in this matter,"
interrupted Prince Egon, not wishing to lose an opportunity to anger his
aunt. "The Stahlberg manufacturies have a worldwide reputation, and are
as celebrated across the ocean as here. I had an opportunity, when I was
in North Germany, to learn something about them, and can assure you that
these works, with their iron foundries and enormous factories, their
colony of officers and army of workmen, could absorb many a little
principality, whose rulers have no such unlimited power as had the
baroness' father."
The lady threw her princely nephew anything but a friendly glance; his
interference was to her mind most uncalled for.
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