nk he would have handled my charms as unceremoniously as
Frederick Augustus when in his cups. As it was I escaped but by the
length of an eye-lash.

State dinner at five. I never saw such an ill-behaved brute, yet he
intended to be most agreeable. We are very pious at this court, but on
occasions like this even an old woman like the Queen is obliged to
denude herself like a wet-nurse on duty.

His Majesty had the Queen on one side; me on the left. The King of
Saxony was opposite.

After we sat down the Shah examined Queen Carola from the point of her
chin to the edge of her desolate corsage and had the effrontery to
express disapproval in all but words. Then he turned to me. His gaze
became admiring. He was evidently delighted with his discoveries and,
true despot that he is, turned his back on the Queen, while paying
extravagant court to my charms.

The King, the whole vast assembly, the surrounding splendor were lost on
this mutton-eater of a barbarian. He saw only me, _m-e_, ME, and I'm
sure would have consigned all the rest to some unspeakable Oriental
death for five minutes' _tete-a-tete_ with Louise.

"You are neglecting Her Majesty," I whispered to him over and over
again. This seemed to enrage him, but at last he turned to the Queen,
expecting her to begin a conversation with him. Of course, Her Majesty
thought he would take the initiative, which led to mutual staring, the
Shah's eyes growing wickeder every second. Then he began to devote
himself to the food and, be sure, there was small pleasure in watching
him. He fed more like a dog than a human being and actually had the
effrontery to wipe his sauce-spattered hands in the lap of my state
robe.

Then, before his mouth was empty, he began talking again.

"Which of the princes is your husband?"

I singled out Frederick Augustus. "He isn't a beauty by any means," he
said, after examining him like a horse for sale.

The next second his eyes were wandering over my body; I felt as if I was
being disrobed.

"You will attend the opera?"

"I'll have the honor."

"I will send you a little present after dinner," he said. "If you wear
it tonight, I will regard that as a sign of hope." The beast affected a
sentimentality to which he must be a stranger.

I recalled that he was the monster who carpeted the steps of his throne
with the gouged-out eyes of ten thousand enemies of his regime when he
was crowned. On twenty-thousand human eyes he trod with naked