The Lonely Way-Intermezzo-Countess Mizzie Part 101

We are better off in that respect. And we shall hardly live to see the town overtake us.

PHILIP (_affably_)

But why not, Countess?

MIZZIE

A hundred years ago these grounds were still used for hunting. The place adjoins the Tiergarten, you know. Look over that wall there, Philip. And our villa was a hunting lodge once, belonging to the Empress Maria Theresa. The stone figure over there goes back to that period.

PHILIP

And how old is our place, papa?

PRINCE (_smiling_)

Our place, sonny, dates back to the seventeenth century. Didn't I show you the room in which Emperor Leopold spent a night?

PHILIP

Emperor Leopold, 1648 to 1705.

MIZZIE (_laughs_)

PHILIP

Oh, that's an echo of the examinations. When I get old enough.... (_He interrupts himself_) I beg your pardon! What I meant to say was simply--all that stuff will be out of my head in a year. And, of course, when I learned those dates, I didn't know Emperor Leopold had been such a good friend of my own people.

MIZZIE

You seem to think your discovery enormously funny, Philip?

PHILIP

Discovery, you say.... Well, frankly speaking, it could hardly be called that. (_He looks at the Prince_)

PRINCE

Go on, go on!

PHILIP

Well, you see, Countess, I have always had the feeling that I was no Philip Radeiner by birth.

MIZZIE

Radeiner? (_To the Prince_) Oh, that was the name...?

PRINCE

Yes.

PHILIP

And, of course, it was very pleasant to find my suspicions confirmed--but I have really known it all the time. I can put two and two together. And some of the other boys had also figured out--that I.... Really, Countess, that story about Prince Ravenstein coming to Krems merely to see how the son of his late friend was getting along--don't you think it smacked a little too much of story book ...

Home and Family Library, and that sort of thing? All the clever ones felt pretty sure that I was of n.o.ble blood, and as I was one of the cleverest....

MIZZIE

So it seems.... And what are your plans for the future, Philip?

PHILIP

Next October I shall begin my year as volunteer with the Sixth Dragoons, which is the regiment in which we Ravensteins always serve.

And what's going to happen after that--whether I stay in the army or become an archbishop--in due time, of course....

MIZZIE

That would probably be the best thing. The Ravensteins have always been strong in the faith.

PHILIP

Yes, it's mentioned in the Universal History even. They were Catholic at first; then they turned Protestant in the Thirty Years War; and finally they became Catholic again--but they always remained strong in their faith. It was only the faith that changed.

PRINCE

Philip, Philip!

MIZZIE

That's the spirit of the time, Prince Egon.

PRINCE

And an inheritance from his mother.

MIZZIE

You have been working hard, your father tells me, and have pa.s.sed your examinations with honors.

PHILIP

Well, that wasn't difficult, Countess. I seem to get hold of things quickly. That's probably another result of the common blood in me. And I had time to spare for things not in the school curriculum--such as horseback riding and ...

MIZZIE

And what?

PHILIP