s moment."

"Mr. Sidney Wilton was speaking to me very much the other day about your
royal mother, sir, Queen Agrippina. She must have been fascinating."

"I like fascinating women," said the prince, "but they are rare."

"Perhaps it is better it should be so," said Lady Roehampton, "for they
are apt--are they not?--to disturb the world."

"I confess I like to be bewitched," said the prince, "and I do not care
how much the world is disturbed."

"But is not the world very well as it is?" said Lady Roehampton. "Why
should we not be happy and enjoy it?"

"I do enjoy it," replied Prince Florestan, "especially at Montfort
Castle; I suppose there is something in the air that agrees with one.
But enjoyment of the present is consistent with objects for the future."

"Ah! now you are thinking of your great affairs--of your kingdom. My
woman's brain is not equal to that."

"I think your brain is quite equal to kingdoms," said the prince, with
a serious expression, and speaking in even a lower voice, "but I was not
thinking of my kingdom. I leave that to fate; I believe it is destined
to be mine, and therefore occasions me thought but not anxiety. I was
thinking of something else than kingdoms, and of which unhappily I am
not so certain--of which I am most uncertain--of which I fear I have no
chance--and yet which is dearer to me than even my crown."

"What can that be?" said Lady Roehampton, with unaffected wonderment.

"'Tis a secret of chivalry," said Prince Florestan, "and I must never
disclose it."

"It is a wonderful scene," said Adriana Neuchatel to Endymion, who had
been for some time conversing with her. "I had no idea that I should
be so much amused by anything in society. But then, it is so unlike
anything one has ever seen."

Mrs. Neuchatel had not accompanied her husband and her daughter to the
Montfort Tournament. Mr. Neuchatel required a long holiday, and after
the tournament he was to take Adriana to Scotland. Mrs. Neuchatel shut
herself up at Hainault, which it seemed she had never enjoyed before.
She could hardly believe it was the same place, freed from its daily
invasions by the House of Commons and the Stock Exchange. She had never
lived so long without seeing an ambassador or a cabinet minister, and it
as quite a relief. She wandered in the gardens, and drove her pony-chair
in forest glades. She missed Adriana very much, and for a few days
always expected her to enter the room when the door opene