should be satisfied. All he asks is that you will be ready at the
time."

A gust of hail struck the window and made the room tremble. Clementina
laughed; her mother shivered.

"The Prince of Baden," said she, with a sigh. Clementina shrugged her
shoulders.

"A Prince," said Chateaudoux, persuasively, "with much territory to his
princeliness."

"A vain, fat, pudgy man," said Clementina.

"A sober, honest gentleman," said the mother.

"A sober butler to an honest gentleman," said Clementina.

"He has an air," said Chateaudoux.

"He has indeed," replied Clementina, "as though he handed himself upon a
plate to you, and said, 'Here is a miracle. Thank God for it!' Well, I
must take to my bed. I am very ill. I have a fever on me, and that's
truth."

She moved towards the door, but before she had reached it there came a
knocking on the street door below.

Clementina stopped; Chateaudoux looked out of the window.

"It is the Prince's carriage," said he.

"I will not see him," exclaimed Clementina.

"My child, you must," said her mother, "if only for the last time."

"Each time he comes it is for the last time, yet the next day sees him
still in Innspruck. My patience and my courtesy are both outworn.
Besides, to-day, now that I have heard this great news we have waited
for--how long? Oh, mother, oh, mother, I cannot! I shall betray myself."

The Princess's mother made an effort.

"Clementina, you must receive him. I will have it so. I am your mother.
I will be your mother," she said in a tremulous tone, as though the mere
utterance of the command frightened her by its audacity.

Clementina was softened on the instant. She ran across to her mother's
chair, and kneeling by it said with a laugh, "So you shall. I would not
barter mothers with any girl in Christendom. But you understand. I am
pledged in honour to my King. I will receive the Prince, but indeed I
would he had not come," and rising again she kissed her mother on the
forehead.

She received the Prince of Baden alone. He was a stout man of much
ceremony and took some while to elaborate a compliment upon Clementina's
altered looks. Before, he had always seen her armed and helmeted with
dignity; now she had much ado to keep her lips from twitching into a
smile, and the smile in her eyes she could not hide at all. The Prince
took the change to himself. His persistent wooing had not been after all
in vain. He was not, however, the man to make the leas