Upon my arrival at the seat of the dukedom I was met
by a quiet landau of the Grand Ducal stables. Two flunkies in the
Grand Duke's livery took my luggage, escorted me to the carriage and I
was driven up to the old castle. The landau took me to a side
entrance and I was promptly shown into an austere and unpretentious
chamber. Scarcely had I entered when a quiet, elderly,
benevolent-looking gentleman dressed in a shooting jacket appeared in
another doorway, evidently much perturbed. I at once recognized him
as the old Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerein. He appraised me for
fully a minute; then as if to himself he said:
"You're only a boy, but I suppose they know," shaking his great gray
head. "Strange times. Strange times." Then suddenly realizing his
inhospitality, he urged me to be seated. "Take a seat, take a seat."
Unlike the gentlemen of the Wilhelmstrasse, he did not plunge
immediately into the subject at hand. He began a chat with me about
purely personal affairs. Finally the conversation drifting around to
the cause of my visit, he said:
"Can you fulfill this mission?"
I told him I could not say until I had learned what it was. I
requested that he give me the privilege of refusal should I find
myself unable to negotiate it successfully. He agreed that it was
fair and when he looked at me again he seemed to suggest that he did
not believe me so young after all.
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