attitude that I turned to Victoria with a start of surprise when she
said to me one day:

"She's very pretty; I daresay you'll fall in love with her."

She was pretty, if her last portrait spoke truth; she was a slim girl,
of very graceful figure, with small features and large blue eyes, which
were merry in the picture, but looked as if they could be sad also. I
had studied this attractive shape attentively; yet Victoria's suggestion
seemed preposterous, incongruous--I had nearly said improper. A moment
later it set me laughing.

"Perhaps I shall," I said with a chuckle.

"I don't see anything amusing in the idea," observed Victoria. "I think
you're being given a much better chance than I ever had."

The old grudge was working in her mind; by covert allusion she was
recalling the part I had taken in the arrangement of her future. Yet she
had contrived to be jealous of her husband; that old puzzle recurs.

"I suppose," I mused, "that I'm having a very good chance." I looked
inquiringly at my sister.

"If you use it properly. You can be very pleasant to women when you
like. She's sure to come ready to fall in love with you. She's such a
child."

"You mean that she'll have no standard of comparison?"

"She can't have had any experience at all."

"Not even a baron over at Waldenweiter?"

"What a fool I was!" reflected Victoria. "Mother was horrid, though,"
she added a moment later. She never allowed the perception of her own
folly to plead on behalf of Princess Heinrich. "I expect you'll go mad
about her," she resumed. "You see, any woman can manage you, Augustin.
Think of----"

"Thanks, dear, I remember them all," I interposed.

"The question is, how will mother treat her," pronounced Victoria.

It was not the question at all; that Victoria thought it was merely
illustrated the Princess's persistent dominance over her daughter's
imagination. I allow, however, that it was an interesting, although
subordinate speculation.

The Bartensteins' present visit was to be as private as possible. The
arrangement was that Elsa and I should be left to roam about the woods
together, to become well known to one another, and after about three
weeks to fall in love. The Duke was not to be of the party on this
occasion (wise Duke!) and, when I had made my proposal, mother and
daughter would return home to receive the father's blessing and to wait
while the business was settled. When all was finished, I should receive
my