very gracefully."

"I hope so; but I do not want to grow old at all. Can't I go with
you?"--eagerly.

"Impossible; etiquette demands your presence here to-night. If I am
late my rank and my errand will be my excuse. What jolly times we used
to have in that quaint old boarding-school in St. John's Wood! Do you
remember how we went to your noble father's country place one
Christmas? I went _incognita_. There was a children's party, and two
boys had a fisticuff over you. Nobody noticed me those days. I was
happy then." The princess frowned. It might have been the sign of
repression of tears. Betty, with her head against the other's bosom,
could not see. "I shall be lonely without you; for you can not stay on
here for ever. If you could, it would be different. I shall miss you.
Somehow you possess the faculty of calming me. I am so easily stirred
into a passion; my temper is so surface-wise. Some day, however, I
shall come to England and spend a whole month with you. Will not that
be fine?"

"How melancholy your voice is!" cried Betty, trying without avail to
remove her Highness' hands.

"No, no; I want to hold you just so. Perhaps I am sentimental
to-night. I have all the moods, agreeable and disagreeable. . . . Do
you love anybody?"

"Love anybody? What do you mean?"--rising in spite of the protesting
hands. "Do I look as if I were in love with anybody?"

They searched each other's eyes.

"Oh, you islanders! Nobody can fathom what is going on in your hearts.
You never make any mistakes; you always seem to know which paths to
pursue; you are always right, always, always. I'd like to see you
commit a folly, Betty; it's a wicked wish, I know, but I honestly wish
it. There is certainly more Spanish blood in my veins than German. I
am always making mistakes; I never know which path is the right one; I
am always wrong. Do you believe it possible for a woman of birth and
breeding to fall in love with a man whom she has known only three days?"

"Three days! Are you crazy, Hildegarde?"

"Call me Gretchen!"--imperiously.

"Gretchen, what has come over you?"

"I asked you a question."

"Well,"---a bit of color stealing into her cheeks,--"it is possible,
but very foolish. One ought to know something of a man's character,"
went on Betty, "before permitting sentiment to enter into one's
thoughts."

"That is my own opinion, wise little white owl." Her Highness took her
friend in her arms