im, therefore, to your kindness and friendship, Wilhelmina, and
beg you to evince for him a part of that affection you owe to me, and
which causes my happiness."

There was something so noble, so open, and knightly in the prince's
manner, that Count Kalkreuth, deeply touched, thought in his heart for
a moment that he would not deceive this noble friend with treachery and
faithlessness.

The prince's words had a different effect upon the princess. Instead
of being touched by his great confidence in her, she was insulted. It
indicated great arrogance and self-conceit to be so sure of her love as
to see no danger, but to bring his friend to her and commend him to her
kindness. It humiliated her for the prince to speak with such confidence
of her affection as of a thing impossible to lose. She determined,
therefore, to punish him. With a bright smile, she held out her hand
to the count, and said to him a few kind words of welcome. How she had
trembled at the thought of this meeting--how she had blushed at the
thought of standing beside the count with the conviction that not one of
her words was forgotten--that the confession of love she had made to
the departing soldier belonged now to the returned nobleman! But her
husband's confidence had shorn the meeting of all its terror, and made
the road she had to travel easy.

The count bowed deeply before her and pressed her hand to his lips. She
returned the pressure of his hand, and, as he raised his head and fixed
an almost imploring glance upon her, he encountered her eyes beaming
with unutterable love.

The court assembly stood in groups, looking with cold, inquisitive
eyes at the piquant scene the prince in the innocence of his heart had
prepared for them--which was to them an inimitable jest, an excellent
amusement. They all knew--what the prince did not for a moment
suspect--that Count Kalkreuth adored the princess. They now desired to
see if this love was returned by the princess, or suffered by her as a
coquette.

None had gazed at this scene with such breathless sympathy, such cruel
joy, as Madame du Trouffle. Being one of the usual circle at Rheinsberg,
she had been invited by the princess to the present fete, and it seemed
to her very amusing to receive her own husband, not at their home, but
at the castle of her former lover. Major du Trouffle was on the prince's
staff, and had accompanied him to Rheinsberg.

Louise had not as yet found time to greet her husba