Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1912 — The Grand Babylon Hotel [ARTICLE]

The Grand Babylon Hotel

(Copyright The Frank A Munsey Go.) (Chapter V—Continued.) Nella talked through a telephone and rang several bells and behaved generally in a manner calculated to prove to princes and whomever it might concern that she was a young woman of business instincts and training. Then she stepped down from her chair of office, emerged from the bureau, and, preceded by two menials, led Prince Aribert to the Louis XV chamber in which her father and Felix Babylon had had their long conversation on the previous evening. “What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked her companion as she poured out for him a second cup of tea. The prince looked at her a moment as he took the proffered cup, and being a young man of sane, healthy instincts, he could think of nothing for the moment except her loveliness. Nella was indeed beautiful that afternoon. The beauty of even the most beautiful woman ebbs and flows from hour to hour. Nella’s, this afternoon, vfas at the flood. Vivacious, alert, imperious and yet ineffably sweet, she seemed to radiate the very joy and exuberance of life. “I have forgotten,” he said. “You have forgotten! That is surely very wrong of you. Yoq gave me to understand that it was something terribly important. But, of course, I knew it couldn’t be, because no man, and especially no prince, ever discussed anything really important with a woman.” “Recollect, Miss Racksole, that this afternoon, here, I am not the prince.” “You are Count Steenbock, is that it?” He started. “For you only,” he said, unconsciously lowering his voice. “Miss Racksole, I particularly wish that no one here should ever know that I was in Paris last spring.” “An affair of state?” she smiled. “An affair of state,” he replied soberly. “Even Dimmock doesn’t know. It was strange that We should be fellowguests at that quiet and out of the way hotel—strange but delightful. I shall never forget that rainy afternoon we spent together at the Trocadero. Let us talk about that.” “About the rain or the museum?” “I shall never forget that afternoon,” he said. “Nor I,” she murmered, corresponding to his mood. ’ ----- “Yon, too, enjoyed it?” he said eagerly. “The sculptures were so magnificent,” she replied hastily, glancing at the ceiling. “At! So they were! Tell me, Miss Racksole, how did you discover my Identity?” “I must not say,” she answered. “That is my seeret. Do not seek to penetrate it. Who knows what horrors you might not discover if. yoj probed too far?” She laughed, but she laughed alone. The prince remained pensive, as it were brooding. “I never hoped to see you again,” he said. “Why not?” < “One never sees those whom one wishes to see.” “As for me, I was perfectly convinced that we should meet again. “Why?” “Because I always get what I want.” “Then you wanted to see me again ” “Sertainly. You interested me extremely. I have never met another man who could talk so weii about sculpture as the Count Steenbock.” “Do you really always get what you want, Miss Racksole?” “Of course.” “That is because your father is so rich, I suppose.” “Oh, no, it isn’t!” she said. It’s simply because I always do get what I want. It’s got nothing to do with my father.” “But Mr. Racksole is extremely wealthy?” “Wealthy isn’t the word, count. There is no word. It’s positively awful the amount of dollars poor papa makes. And the worst of it is he can’t help It” * “He told me once that when a man had made ten millions no power on earth could stop those ten millions from gr-wing into twenty. And so it continues. I spend what I can, but I can’t come near coping with it, and, of course, papa is no use whatever at spending.'’ “And you have no mother?” “Who tatd you I had no mother?" she asked quiekly. “I—er—inquired about you,” he said with equal candor and humility. "In spite of the fact that you pever hoped to see me agaipT’ Tesy In spite of that" . "How funny I” she stiff, and lapsed

into a meditative silence. "Yours must be a wonderful existence,” said the prince. “I,envy you.” “You envy me—what? My father’s wealth?” “No," he said; “your freedoap and “I have no responsibilities,” she remarked. “Pardon me,” he said. “You have, and the time is coming when you will feel them/* . “I’m only a girl,” she murmered with sudden simplicity. “As for you, count, surely you have sufficient responsibilities of your own?” “I?” he said sadly. “I have no-re-sponsibilities. I am a nobody, a serene highness who has to pretend to be very important, always taking - Immense care never to do anything that a serene highness ought not to do. Bah!” “But if your nephew, Prince Eugen, were to die, would you not come to the throne, and would yon not then have many responsibilities?” “Eugen die?” said Prince Aribert in a curious tone. “Impossible! He is the perfection of health. In three months he will be married. No, I shall never be anything but a serene highness, the most despicable of God’s creatures.” “But what about that state secret which you mentioned? Is not that a responsibility?” “Ah! ” he said. “That is over. That belongs to the past It was an accident in my dull career. I shall never be Count Steenbock again.” “Who knows?” she said. “By the way, is not Prince Eugen coming here today? Mr. Dimmock told us so.” “See,” answered the prince, standing up and bending over her, “I am going to confide in you. I don’t know why, but I am.” “Don’t betray state secrets,” she warned him, smiling into his face. But just then the door of the room was unceremoniously opened. “Go right in,” said a voice sharply. It was Theodore Racksole’s. Two men. entered bearing a prone form on a stretcher, and Racksole followed them. Nella sprang up. Racksole stared to see his daughter. “I didn’t know you were in here, Nella. “Here,” he said to the two men, “out again.” (To be continued