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Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley), 1865-1948

"Clementina"

"You ask me why I so readily opened my
window to you. It was because I took you for Koenigsmarck himself come
back as mysteriously as he disappeared. I did not think that if he came
back now his hair would be as white, his shoulders as bent, as mine.
Indeed, one cannot think of Koenigsmarck except as a youth. You had the
very look of him as you stood in the light upon the lawn. You have, if I
may say so, something of his gallant bearing and something of his
grace."
Wogan could have heard no words more distressing to him at this moment.
"Oh, stop, sir. I pray you stop!" he cried out violently, and noting the
instant he had spoken the surprise on Count Otto's face. "There, sir, I
give you at once by my discourtesy an example of how little I merit a
comparison with that courtly nobleman. Let me repair it by telling you,
since you are willing to hear, of my night's adventure." And as he ate
he told his story, omitting the precise object of his journey, the
nature of the letter which he had burned, and any name which might give
a clue to the secret of his enterprise.


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