play he always wants to be
the leader. Besides, he insists upon being called Monseigneur. I don't
mind calling him Monseigneur, but I won't let him be leader. One day I
invented a game, and I said to him: 'No, Monseigneur, you are not
going to be the leader. I will be leader, for I invented the game, and
Chabannes will be my lieutenant. You and the Count de Paris will be
soldiers.' Paris was willing, but Wurtemberg walked away. He is an
ambitious fellow."

Of these young mothers of the Chateau, apart from the Duchess d'Orleans,
Mme. de Joinville is the only one who does not spoil her children.
At the Tuileries, everybody, even the King himself, calls her little
daughter "Chiquette." The Prince of Joinville calls his wife "Chicarde"
since the pierrots' ball, hence "Chiquette." At this pierrots' ball
the King exclaimed: "How Chicarde is amusing herself!" The Prince de
Joinville danced all the risquee dances. Mme. de Montpensier and Mme.
Liaderes were the only ones who were not decolletees. "It is not in good
taste," said the Queen. "But it is pretty," observed the King.

III. THE PRINCES. 1847.

At the Tuileries the Prince de Joinville passes his time doing all
sorts of wild things. One day he turned on all the taps and flooded the
apartments. Another day he cut all the bell ropes. A sign that he is
bored and does not know what to do with himself.

And what bores these poor princes most is to receive and talk to people
ceremoniously. This is almost a daily obligation. They call it--for
princes have their slang--"performing the function." The Duke de
Montpensier is the only one who performs it gracefully. One day the
Duchess d'Orleans asked him the reason. He replied: "It amuses me."

He is twenty years old, he is beginning.

When the marriage of M. de Montpensier with the Infanta was published,
the King of the Belgians was sulky with the Tuileries. He is an Orleans,
but he is a Coburg. It was as though his left hand had smitten his right
cheek.

The wedding over, while the young couple were making their way from
Madrid to Paris, King Leopold arrived at Saint Cloud, where King Louis
Philippe was staying. The King of the Belgians wore an air of coldness
and severity. Louis Philippe, after dinner, took him aside into a recess
of the Queen's drawing-room, and they conversed for fully an hour.
Leopold's face preserved its thoughtful and *English* expression.
However at the conclusion of the conversation, Lou