writing, by the post, in which his bold wooing
was graciously entertained, and an appointment was made for the same
night in the pavilion of the Princess's villa.

The happiness of the enamored young officer knew no bounds; he kissed the
letter a hundred times, thanked the Princess when he met her in the
afternoon where the band was playing by his animated looks, which she
either did not or could not understand, and at night was standing an hour
before the appointed time behind the wall at the bottom of the garden.

When the church clock struck eleven he climbed over it and jumped on to
the ground on the other side, and looked about him carefully; then he
went up to the small, white-washed summer-house, where the Princess had
promised to meet him, on tiptoe. He found the door ajar, went in, and
at the same moment he felt two soft arms thrown round him. "Is it
you, Princess?" he asked, in a whisper, for the pavilion was in
total darkness, as the venetian blinds were drawn. "Yes, Count, it is
I." ... "How cruel." ... "I love you, but I am obliged to conceal my
passion under the mask of coldness because of my social position."

As she said this, the enamored woman, who was trembling on his breast
with excitement, drew him on to a couch that occupied one side of the
pavilion, and began to kiss him ardently. The lovers spent two blissful
hours in delightful conversation and intoxicating pleasures; then she
bade him farewell, and told him to remain where he was until she had gone
back to the house. He obeyed her, but could not resist looking at her
through the venetian blinds, and he saw her tall, slim figure as she went
along the gravel path with an undulating walk. She wore a white boumous,
which he recognized as having seen in the pump-room; her soft, black hair
fell down over her shoulders, and before she disappeared into the villa
she stood for a moment and looked back, but he could not see her face,
as she wore a thick veil.

When Count F. met the Princess the next morning in company with other
ladies, when the band was playing, she showed an amount of unconstraint
which confused him, and while she was joking in the most unembarrassed
manner, he turned crimson and stammered out such a lot of nonsense that
the ladies noticed it, and made him the target for their wit. None of
them was bolder or more confident in their attacks on him than the
Princess, so that at last he looked upon the woman who concealed so much
passi