The Double Traitor | Page 5

Palace to be received by the Kaiser. At
seven o'clock this morning I had a message. I have just come from the
Palace. The Kaiser has given me to understand that your presence in
Berlin is unwelcome."
"Good God!" Norgate exclaimed.
"Can you offer me any explanation?"

For a moment Norgate was speechless. Then he recovered himself. He
forgot altogether his habits of restraint. There was an angry note in his
tone.
"It's that miserable young cub of a Prince Karl!" he exclaimed. "Last
night I was dining, sir, with the Baroness von Haase at the Café de
Berlin."
"Alone?"
"Alone," Norgate admitted. "It was not for me to invite a chaperon if
the lady did not choose to bring one, was it, sir? As we were finishing
dinner, the Prince came in. He made a scene at our table and ordered
me to leave."
"And you?" the Ambassador asked.
"I simply treated him as I would any other young ass who forgot
himself," Norgate replied indignantly. "I naturally refused to go, and
the Baroness left the place with me."
"And you did not expect to hear of this again?"
"I honestly didn't. I should have thought, for his own sake, that the
young man would have kept his mouth shut. He was hopelessly in the
wrong, and he behaved like a common young bounder."
The Ambassador shook his head slowly.
"Mr. Norgate," he said, "I am very sorry for you, but you are under a
misapprehension shared by many young men. You believe that there is
a universal standard of manners and deportment, and a universal series
of customs for all nations. You have our English standard of manners
in your mind, manners which range from a ploughboy to a king, and
you seem to take it for granted that these are also subscribed to in other
countries. In my position I do not wish to say too much, but let me tell
you that in Germany they are not. If a prince here chooses to behave
like a ploughboy, he is right where the ploughboy would be wrong."

There was a moment's silence. Norgate was looking a little dazed.
"Then you mean to defend--" he began.
"Certainly not," the Ambassador interrupted. "I am not speaking to you
as one of ourselves. I am speaking as the representative of England in
Berlin. You are supposed to be studying diplomacy. You have been
guilty of a colossal blunder. You have shown yourself absolutely
ignorant of the ideals and customs of the country in which you are. It is
perfectly correct for young Prince Karl to behave, as you put it, like a
bounder. The people expect it of him. He conforms entirely to the
standard accepted by the military aristocracy of Berlin. It is you who
have been in the wrong--diplomatically."
"Then you mean, sir," Norgate protested, "that I should have taken it
sitting down?"
"Most assuredly you should," the Ambassador replied, "unless you
were willing to pay the price. Your only fault--your personal fault, I
mean--that I can see is that it was a little indiscreet of you to dine alone
with a young woman for whom the Prince is known to have a foolish
passion. Diplomatically, however, you have committed every fault
possible, I am very sorry, but I think that you had better report in
Downing Street as soon as possible. The train leaves, I think, at three
o'clock."
Norgate for a moment was unable to speak or move. He was struggling
with a sort of blind fury.
"This is the end of me, then," he muttered at last. "I am to be disgraced
because I have come to a city of boors."
"You are reprimanded and in a sense, no doubt, punished," the
Ambassador explained calmly, "because you have come to--shall I
accept your term?--a city of boors and fail to adapt yourself. The true
diplomatist adapts himself wherever he may be. My personal
sympathies remain with you. I will do what I can in my report."

Norgate had recovered himself.
"I thank you very much, sir," he said. "I shall catch the three o'clock
train."
The Ambassador held out his hand. The interview had finished. He
permitted himself to speak differently.
"I am very sorry indeed, Norgate, that this has happened," he declared.
"We all have our trials to bear in this city, and you have run up against
one of them rather before your time. I wish you good luck, whatever
may happen."
Norgate clasped his Chief's hand and left the apartment. Then he made
his way to his rooms, gave his orders and sent a messenger to secure
his seat in the train. Last of all he went to the telephone. He rang up the
number which had become already familiar to him, almost with
reluctance.