306 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [vI.

 

‘Rudolf was furious at the projected wedding.
He abused Sir Smith so that Christina had to inter-
pose to prevent words coming to blows. He used to
me-—to me—his father and the Red Baron whom
everyone feared, words which made me mad. Never
would he have done so had I treated him as a father
should have done. I should have remembered this
and been more gentle than I was. But I was beside
myself with rage. J struck the boy: had I had a
weapon in my hand at the moment, I tremble to
think what might have been the consequence. I
struck him—he rushed from my presence and left the
castle that night.

‘What was to be done? He did not return next
morning, nor next, nor the morning after. We looked
everywhere ; we asked everybody; no one knew or
had heard anything of the lad. We had not news-
papers in those days as there are now. To-day, if a
dog or a watch is lost, the world knows it soon by
means of advertisements printed everywhere, and the
chances are that more dogs and watches are brought
to you than you thought would have been lost by all
the country in the time, especially if you have offered
enough reward. But in the good old times in which
I lived you might lose your son or yourself (if that
were possible) and no one would hear of it out of
your own immediate neighbourhood except by the
merest chance. Sowe could hear no news of Rudolf,
and those who cared about him were very uncomfort-
able.

‘I confess that I did not quite like it myself, for I
felt I had not done all I might have done for the