Shake hands this instant, you young bantams!" And the Prince sat back in his chair and looked grimly at us.

I went a step forward.

But Von Reuss held aloof.
"Provost Marshal!" cried the Prince, in a voice which made every one in the room jump and all the glasses ring on the table--"bring a guard!" The Provost Marshal advanced, bowed, and was departing, when Von Reuss came forward and held his hand out, at first sulkily, but afterwards readily enough.
Then we shook hands solemnly and stiffly, of course loving each other not one whit better.
"Ah," said the Prince, "I thought you would! For if you had not, your uncle, Duke Casimir, might have been a Duke without either an heir to his Dukedom or a successor to his Hereditary Justicer." "Now sit down, lads, sit down and agree!" he said, after a pause.

"The ladies come not to table to-night.

So now begin and tell me all the affair of the Earthhouses.