ather
that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
everything what the English doctor bids," said the princess in a
sinister tone. "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the
Baroness Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_."

The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.

"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness," she
said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.

The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them. Is
it not, Mees Lambart?"

"I shall be charmed to try, Highness," said Miss Lambart readily.

"Do nod indervere! I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped the
baroness.

The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
glowing with the joy of victory. At the door she paused to say:

"And I want them soon--at once."

Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
night air, she went firmly out into the garden. The next morning at
breakfast she again demanded children to play with.

Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
to come to play with the princess. She only stipulated that they
should be high and well-born.

"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
Twins--Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl. They're high and well-born
enough. But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
girl. They're independent young people. Besides, I'm not at all sure
that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess. It would
hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
such--er--er ardent spirits. You might have her developing a spirit of
freedom; and you wouldn't like that."

"_Mein Gott_, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction.

"Then there's Wiggins--Rupert Carrington. He's younger and quieter but
active enough. He'd soon teach her to run about."

"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness.

"Well-born? He's a _Carrington_," said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
of the higher mathematician.

The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily. When the princess, who