.. I wonder what the game is.... Come to think about it, the
titled performer of the Metropole looks like a twin sister of Marie
Amelia, Countess of [Cszecheny] Chechany, a perfect composite of
Juno and Venus and Hebe all rolled into one.... These enigmatical
personages crowded everything else out of my mind as I walked into
Colonel Z---- S----'s office....
"... Without any preliminaries he said, 'Come with me!'... We entered
a cab and a few minutes later I entered the Wilhelmstrasse and was in
the presence of that tall, iron-gray, wiry gentleman with eyes like a
searchlight and the manners of a Chesterfield. 'Thank you, Colonel,'
he said. The Colonel sprang to attention, bowed, saluted and backed
away. We were ALONE!... 'In ten minutes,' he said, 'you will be
conducted to another room. When you arrive advance to the middle, make
a right wheel and stand at attention facing the portiere.
Maintain perfect silence, answer all question,--make NO
inquiries--understand?'... I was taken downstairs, along a wide
corridor to a solid-oak door guarded by two sentries and an attendant
in the Royal livery. The door was opened by an officer of the Erste
Garde; I entered a large room, advanced to the center and faced the
divided portieres of an adjoining chamber! There sat the man whose
nod shook the earth!... Behind a heavy, old-fashioned desk, in a
dim light, apparently absorbed in writing, sat a deeply tanned,
lean-faced, blue-gray-eyed counterpart of Frederick the Great,--the
very embodiment of Majesty!.
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