erandah has been watching the
young people inquisitively; she sees the fisherman touch his cap and
beckons to him:

"Who are that lady and gentleman?"

The fisherman points cheerily to Altseeborgen:

"From the castle."

"But who are they?" asks the lady, alarmed.

"Well, the gentleman is the Prince of Liparia and the young lady is an
Austrian princess," says the fisherman, as if it could not well be
anybody else.

The lady looks in dismay after the princely pair and then in despair at
her running children. The young couple are just turning back in their
walk; they are now laughing even more gaily than before and are
hastening a little towards the castle, as though they had delayed too
long. The lady, still pale, does not dare to offer excuses, but makes a
low bow; she receives a pleasant greeting in return.

2

The royal family of Gothland were in the habit of spending the whole
summer at Altseeborgen. The beach was particularly well-suited for
laying out a watering-place around the fishing-village, but King
Siegfried would never hear of this: the beach and the village were royal
domains; a few modest villas were all that he had granted permission to
build. Generally these were visited in the summer by two or three
middle-class families with their children. Altseeborgen should never
become a modern bathing-place, however excellent the fashionable world
might consider it as a means of summer display, lying as it did in the
immediate neighbourhood of the royal castle.

But the Gothlandic family made a point of guarding the freedom of their
summer lives. They lived there for four months, without
palace-etiquette, in the greatest simplicity. They formed a numerous
family; and there were always many visitors. The king attended to
state-affairs in homely fashion at the castle. His grandchildren would
run into his room while he was discussing important business with the
prime minister, who came down to Altseeborgen on certain days. He just
patted their flaxen curls and sent them away to play, with a caress.
Staying at the castle were the Crown-prince Gunther and the
Crown-princess Sofie, a German princess--Duke and Duchess of
Wendeholm--with their four children, a girl and three boys. Next to the
duke came Prince Herman; next to him Princess Wanda, twenty years of
age; next to her, the younger princes, Olaf and Christofel. In addition
there were always two old princesses, sisters of the king, widows of
German