ss discovered it. To be sure, my chivalrous little lover declared
that he had never had any intention of making me his wife, but merely
his mistress. In spite of this precocious discrimination, however, it
was thought better to break off the childish intimacy once for all; so
I again became a duchess in anticipation, and even my father was no
longer permitted to enter the castle.

"I remember, after this time, that is when I was grown up, but one
occasion when I again saw the park and even the interior of the castle.
Some cousin or nephew of my kind father came to visit us, for whom,
during the few days of his stay every effort was made to place our
usual homely mode of living in the most endurable light. As we could
give him no special entertainment at home, we were obliged to make
excursions abroad, and it fortunately happened that the princess and
her children had gone to some springs. So under the care of the butler,
we visited all the rooms, into which hitherto I had only peeped. My
father was delighted to be able to mount his hobby, and constantly
related how this, that, and the other had been handsomer, richer, or
more tasteful in Paris. I could only gaze in silent astonishment, and
yet it seemed to me as if all this were a matter of course, and I, if
only permitted to do so, could use these costly articles as carelessly
as if born in such a sphere. On the following day, the cousin stammered
out a confused proposal of marriage, and, to make his worthy person
more agreeable to me, described the charms of his own home--he had an
oil cloth manufactory in a tolerably large city. I should like now to
recall the expression with which I gave him a positive refusal. It was
certainly one of which no full blooded duchess would have had cause to
be ashamed.

"No! if I could not have my faithless porcelain prince, I would never
take the first plain workman I met. When the cousin departed, my mother
looked at me with sincere sorrow. 'Poor thing,' said she. 'You're not
to blame, because others' (she meant my father) 'have turned your head.
But tell me, for what are you really waiting'--I answered that I was
waiting for nothing and for no one, and only desired to be permitted to
live as I was doing:--this was only half true. You may well suppose
that I was waiting for no lover, for I have frankly told you that up to
this time I have been unable to discover any talent for sentiment in my
nature. But to continue to live as I was