'God give you joy, my child. There, there--I am a foolish old woman--you
make me weep.--Lord God! but hearts are the great intriguers, not
brains!'

Wilhelmine turned to her and, bending, kissed the old courtesan on the
brow.

'Madame,' she said, 'Madame, be my friend; I shall need one in the days
to come.'

Madame de Ruth drew the girl down beside her on the bench, her face had
grown suddenly old and infinitely sad. 'Yes,' she answered, 'I will be
your friend. Do you know that I had a little girl twenty years ago? She
would have been just your age now, had she lived, and perhaps I should
have been a different woman. Well, well--no sentiment, my dear; it is so
unsuitable, isn't it? but I will be your friend.'

She kissed the young woman, and, rising hastily, took her way towards the
house.

* * * * *

The days dragged slowly on in Stuttgart for Wilhelmine, and there came no
message from his Highness, who had gone to Urach, they told her, to hunt.
Though the court remained nominally in Stuttgart while her Highness
Johanna Elizabetha resided at the castle, most of the courtiers had
retired to the country and Stuttgart was more than usually dull.
Stafforth had accompanied the Duke to Urach, so Wilhelmine remained alone
with Madame de Stafforth. The heat was terrible in the town, which lay
encircled by the vine-clad hills, as in a great caldron. The Stuttgarters
told her that such heat was unusual at that time of year, but there was
little consolation for her in that.

To some natures dullness becomes an insupportable suffering. Loneliness,
all you will, they can bear, for they draw occupation and joy from the
depth of their own souls; but that dreariness, which has been called
dullness, is an almost tangible presence at moments, and seems to blight
the beauty of all things. This Wilhelmine felt in those stifling days at
Stuttgart. Madame de Stafforth's moth-like personality wearied her.
Madame de Ruth, who had returned to Rottenburg, wrote constantly
imploring her friend to visit her; yet something seemed to hold the girl,
some mysterious sentiment, that if she left Stuttgart she would turn her
back on her life.

Once or twice Wilhelmine accompanied Madame de Stafforth to the castle.
The Duchess received her with amiable indifference, and the young woman
stood silently by while the two dull women discussed their habitual
uninteresting topics.

It was perfectly unreasonable, but sh