ul princes we
may be married? For, as a matter of course, we shall not be asked
whether we like the match or not, and we shall not be as well off as the
daughters of common citizens, who, as my maid told me, marry only those
whom they love. We princesses must marry men whom we have never seen,
with whom we exchange the first word only after our marriage, and whom
perhaps we may not like at all."

"No matter, our marriage makes us free," exclaimed Maria Louisa,
impatiently. "We are then at least our own mistresses, and need submit
no longer to the restraints imposed on us. The example of our third
mother, the Empress Ludovica, shows it. She has taken the liberty to pay
no attention to etiquette, and holds a reception at her rooms every
night from eight to ten o'clock, when she does not admit the ladies and
gentlemen of the court, but invited persons, among whom there are
frequently those who do not even belong to the aristocracy."

"She does not invite us to the evening parties," exclaimed Leopoldine,
sneeringly. "Maybe we are too aristocratic for her. But you are right,
Louisa--as soon as we are married, we shall also have the right to
change rules of etiquette and live as we please."

"Do you know the first thing I am going to do after my marriage?" asked
Maria Louisa, quickly. "I shall buy all the books that I have now, and
peruse the cut-out and illegible passages. I am sure they are the most
interesting and beautiful in the books, and I believe they all treat of
love. Ah, Leopoldine, I should like to read for once a work containing a
very romantic love-story, and over which one might dream. But, good
Heaven! what makes the children shout so merrily? Come, let us see what
they are doing."

"Come, let us play with them," exclaimed Leopoldine.

The princesses stepped arm in arm from the bay-window and hastened to
the table. The little archduchesses and their brothers, it seemed, were
engaged in a highly-interesting game, which their governesses were
witnessing with smiling attention. They were standing about the large
round table, on which a small army of wax figures in green and blue
uniforms had been placed in neatly-arranged rows. At the head of this
army stood a somewhat larger figure of the most revolting appearance. It
was a little fellow with hunched shoulders, a rotund stomach and an
unnaturally large head. The face was of a black-and-green color, and had
eyes of a ferocious expression, and a tremendous mo