CHAPTER XXXIV.
AN APPEAL "Have you spoken to the princess ?" asked Steinmetz, without taking the cigar from his lips.
They were driving home through the forest that surrounded Osterno as the sea surrounds an island.

They were alone in the sleigh.

That which they had been doing had required no servant.

Paul was driving, and consequently the three horses were going as hard as they could.

The snow flew past their faces like the foam over the gunwale of a boat that is thrashing into a ten-knot breeze.