Perdez then
presented his staff, and the doors were thrown open and I received the
officers of the Army and Navy on duty at the Capital. It was all over in
an hour, and I was alone in my office with Bernheim.
I walked over to a window and stood there, in wondering reflection.
Less than three months ago, I was simply a Major in the American Army,
with small hope of ever getting beyond a Colonel's eagles. The "Star"
was so utterly unlikely that I never even considered the possibility. It
was only a rainbow or a mirage; and I was not given to chasing either.
And, to-day, I looked down on the crowded Alta Avenue of Dornlitz--then,
up at the portrait of my Sovereign--then, down at my uniform, with a
Marshal's Insignia on the sleeve and the Princess Royal's note in the
pocket.
What mirage could have pictured such realities! What rainbow could have
appeared more dazzlingly evanescent!
Then I saw a Victoria approaching. And in it was the Spencer
woman--brilliantly beautiful--haughtily indifferent. The passers-by
stared at her; men stopped and gazed after; even women threw glances over
their shoulders. And small wonder--for, the Devil knows, she was good to
look upon.
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