I confess that my astonishment began to give place to a slight feeling of apprehension. I knew perfectly well that it was not childish pique at my not accepting the post he had found for me, that influenced a man of his profound judgment. 

 "You must have very good reasons, sir," I said, my voice trembling a little, "to give me so categorical an answer." 

 "I certainly have," he replied. 

 "Would you mind telling me what it was you looked up in that book?" 

 "My dear boy, don't start thinking that that year book of Reigning Houses contains any details of a kind to justify the apprehension I feel at your going to Lautenburg. I have verified a name, confirmed certain recollections—that's all. 

 "It is true that I have certain private information about the House of Lautenburg-Detmold of which Count de Marçais himself might know nothing, even assuming that he were a more gifted diplomatist than he is reported to be. Besides, he has not been very long at Lautenburg, and never knew the late Grand Duke Rudolph." 

 "Who was the Grand Duke Rudolph?" 

 "Haven't you ever heard of him? He was the elder brother of the present Grand Duke. He died a few years ago, two, if I remember rightly." 

 "So it was his death which gave the succession to the Grand Duke Frederick Augustus?" 

 "Not directly. The constitution of Lautenburg-Detmold is peculiar. The Salic Law does not apply, and the ducal crown, on the Grand Duke's death, passed to his wife, the Grand Duchess Aurora Anna Eleanor." 

 "So she has married her brother-in-law?" 

 "Quite so, and thus it happens that in the absence of children of the Grand Duke Rudolph, your future pupil, Duke Joachim, son of the Grand Duke Frederick and some German countess, is now the heir presumptive to the State of Lautenburg-Detmold. To alter the situation the marriage of his father with the Grand Duchess Aurora would have to be honoured with a bond, a thing which seems most improbable." 

 "I seem to remember something about it now," I said. "Wasn't there a German Grand Duke who died in Africa—the Congo—while engaged in geographical research two or three years ago?" 

 "Precisely," replied M. Thierry. "That was the 

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