261
XXII.--UT PUTO, VESTIS FIO 275
XXIII.--A PARADOX OF SENSIBILITY 290
XXIV.--WHAT A QUESTION! 304
XXV.--A SMACK OF REPETITION 318
XXVI.--THE SECRET OF THE COUNTESS 334
XXVII.--OF GRAZES ON THE KNEE 349
XXVIII.--AS BEDERHOF ARRANGED 363

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
"I'm not a king for my own pleasure" _Frontispiece_
Hammerfeldt came to me and kissed my hand 43
The firelight played on the hand that held the screen 102
"My ransom," said I. "The price of my freedom" 148
"On my honour, a pure accident," said Varvilliers 215
"Why, what brings you here?" I cried 262
"My dear friend, have you forgotten me?" 293
"I'll try--I'll try to make you happy" 342

THE KING'S MIRROR.

CHAPTER I.

A PIOUS HYPERBOLE.

Before my coronation there was no event in childhood that impressed
itself on my memory with marked or singular distinction. My father's
death, the result of a chill contracted during a hunting excursion,
meant no more to me than a week of rooms gloomy and games forbidden; the
decease of King Augustin, my uncle, appeared at the first instant of
even less importance. I recollect the news coming. The King, having been
always in frail health, had never married; seeing clearly but not far,
he was a sad man: the fate that struck down his brother increased his
natural melancholy; he became almost a recluse, withdrew himself from
the capital to a retired residence, and henceforward was little more
than a name in which Prince von Hammerfeldt conducted the business of
the country. Now and then my mother visited him; once she brought back
to me a letter from him, little of which I understood then, although I
have since read often the touching words of his message. When he died,
there was the same gloom as when my father left us; but it seemed to me
that I was treated a little differently; the servants stared at me, my
mother would look long at me with a half-admiring, half-amused
expression, and Victoria let me have all her toys. In Baroness von
Krakenstein (or Krak, as we called her) alone, there was no difference;
yet the explanation came