they are so fond
of being occupied too; they are quite an example for any young person."
When, after a stay of three weeks, the time came for the young men
and their father to return to Germany, the moment of parting was a
melancholy one. "It was our last HAPPY HAPPY breakfast, with this dear
Uncle and those DEAREST beloved cousins, whom I DO love so VERY VERY
dearly; MUCH MORE DEARLY than any other cousins in the WORLD. Dearly as
I love Ferdinand, and also good Augustus, I love Ernest and Albert MORE
than them, oh yes, MUCH MORE... They have both learnt a good deal, and
are very clever, naturally clever, particularly Albert, who is the most
reflecting of the two, and they like very much talking about serious
and instructive things and yet are so VERY VERY merry and gay and happy,
like young people ought to be; Albert always used to have some fun and
some clever witty answer at breakfast and everywhere; he used to play
and fondle Dash so funnily too... Dearest Albert was playing on the
piano when I came down. At 11 dear Uncle, my DEAREST BELOVED cousins,
and Charles, left us, accompanied by Count Kolowrat. I embraced both my
dearest cousins most warmly, as also my dear Uncle. I cried bitterly,
very bitterly." The Princes shared her ecstasies and her italics
between them; but it is clear enough where her secret preference
lay. "Particularly Albert!" She was just seventeen; and deep was the
impression left upon that budding organism by the young man's charm
and goodness and accomplishments, and his large blue eyes and beautiful
nose, and his sweet mouth and fine teeth.

IV

King William could not away with his sister-in-law, and the Duchess
fully returned his antipathy. Without considerable tact and considerable
forbearance their relative positions were well calculated to cause
ill-feeling; and there was very little tact in the composition of the
Duchess, and no forbearance at all in that of his Majesty. A bursting,
bubbling old gentleman, with quarterdeck gestures, round rolling eyes,
and a head like a pineapple, his sudden elevation to the throne after
fifty-six years of utter insignificance had almost sent him crazy. His
natural exuberance completely got the best of him; he rushed about doing
preposterous things in an extraordinary manner, spreading amusement
and terror in every direction, and talking all the time. His tongue
was decidedly Hanoverian, with its repetitions, its catchwords--"That's
quite another thing!