at--alas! alas! that such perfect beauty--!"

"What is that you are muttering about, nursey dear? You must not let
me see one sad look to-day, for am I not this day sixteen--bright,
merry sixteen!"

"Yes, my dear lady, sixteen to-day--sixteen to-day;" and the little
dame, recovered from her momentary sadness, gave her lady a
mysterious, quizzical look, as she once more repeated, "sixteen
to-day!"

"Well, dear nurse, what would you have me do, or what shall I leave
off from doing, now that I have grown so exceedingly old?" asked
Isoleth, smiling that precious smile of hers--ten thousand dimples
danced around it--ten thousand loves nestled in each dimple.

"Sixteen to-day!" replied the queer little old body, with what she
meant for a very significant look. "Your guardian, the noble Baron of
Arnhiem, comes this day--"

"As he does every year to see me, dear nurse, staying several weeks,
sometimes months, with me."

"He comes not alone this year, my sweet lady," added the little woman,
looking still more significantly.

"I suppose we shall have my dear prim old maiden aunt of Hansfeldt,
with her snuff and lap-dogs, or is it my dear, sweet, beautiful
cousins Blumine and Alida? Tell me, nursey, if they are coming. You
shake your head. I guess, then, my proud uncle and aunt of Allwrath,
and my aristocratic cousins, their haughty sons and daughters?"

"None of them, sweet lady--that is, just yet."

"My beautiful, loving-cousin, Alice of Bernstorf, who has been living
these six years alone and lonely in her castle with only her younger
son and daughters. Is she or any of hers coming here again? And when
will my cousins of Bernstorf return from those hideous wars? I have
not seen them for so many years I should not know them."

"Now, dear lady, you are approaching nearer the fire, as the children
say in the play."

"You dear, queer little old nurse, don't look so mystical and
mystified, my circle of acquaintance, by reason of my father's will,
is not so very extensive but that the roll might soon be gone through
with. Come, unfold thy important, mysterious budget--who is it?"

"Who should it be, dear lady, but your noble cousin, Ferdinand, Prince
of Bernstorf! My lady, there is a clause in your father's will, that
you were not to know until your sixteenth birth-day, revealing a
compact between your noble father and your Cousin Ferdinand, the
reigning Duke of Bernstorf, that gave you as bride to your cousin,
Prince