e cost of
my mother's life. These domestic histories! how far more vital to the
welfare of nations than the flaming pages of war and politics! As I grew
up I became my father's constant companion; we were always out of doors.
By and by he sent me to America to school; for he still loved his
country and was not that fault-finding scold, the expatriate. And I may
as well add that your defense of America pleased me as few things have
in these later years. I returned from America to enter a convent out of
Rome. From there I went to Milan and studied music under the masters. My
father believed in letting youth choose what it would. Music! What
should I have done without it in the dark hours?

One fatal day the old prince and my father put their heads together and
determined that this great friendship of theirs should be perpetuated;
the young prince should marry the young signorina. When will parents
learn not to meddle with the destinies of their children? So they
proceeded to make the alliance an absolute certainty. They drew up the
strangest of wills. Both men were in full control of their properties;
there was no entailed estate such as one finds in England. They could do
as they pleased; and this was before Italy had passed the law requiring
that no art treasures should be sold or transported. Fortunately for me,
my mother's property was considerable.

The impossible clauses in the joint will read that if we two young
people declined the bargain the bulk of the estates should revert to the
crown; again, if we married and separated and were not reunited inside
of five years, the fortunes should become the crown's; if, having
separated from my husband, either for just or unjust reasons, I should
secretly or publicly occupy any villa or palace mentioned in the will,
it would be a tacit admission that I accepted my husband. Was there ever
such an insane tangle kindly meant? We must marry, we must be happy;
that our minds and hearts were totally different did not matter at all.
Do you understand why I went from city to city, living haphazard?
Sometimes I was very poor, for my income from my mother's estate was
paid quarterly, and I did not inherit my father's business ability.
During the recent days in Venice I had to offer my jewels because I
dared not write my attorneys for an advance, for I did not wish them to
know where I was.

Time went on. How young I was in those days! What dreams I dreamed! The
old prince died su