gues ensued: the
aunts spoke German and screamed, to make themselves heard, something
about the calmness of the sea into the poor old ears of the countess,
who poured out the coffee and nodded that she understood. The younger
princes talked English for the most part; Herman sometimes spoke a word
or two of Liparian to Othomar; and the children, who had gone to play on
a lower terrace, chattered noisily in Gothlandic and French
indifferently.

The footmen had brought out afternoon tea and placed it before Princess
Sofie, when a lady-in-waiting appeared. She bowed to the young
crown-princess and said, in Gothlandic:

"Her majesty requests your royal highness to come to her in the small
drawing-room."

"Mamma has sent for me," said Princess Sofie, in English, rising from
her chair. "Wanda, will you pour out the tea? Children, will you go
upstairs and get dressed? Wanda, tell them again, will you?"

The crown-princess went through the hall, a great, round, dome-shaped
apartment, full of stags' antlers, elks' heads, hunting-trophies, and
then up a staircase. In the queen's anteroom the footman opened the door
for her. Queen Olga was sitting alone; she was some years older than her
sister, the Empress of Liparia, taller and more heavily built; her
features, however, had much in common with Elizabeth's, but were more
filled out.

"Sofie," she at once began, in German, "I have had a letter from
Sigismundingen...."

The Duchess of Wendeholm had sat down:

"Anything to do with Valerie?" she asked, in alarm.

"Yes," the queen said, with a reflective glance. "Poor child!..."

"But what is it, Mamma?"

"There, read for yourself...."

The queen handed the letter to her daughter-in-law, who read it
hurriedly. The letter was from the Archduchess Eudoxie, Valerie's
mother, written with a feverish, excited hand, and said, in phrases
which tried to seem indifferent but which betrayed a great satisfaction,
that Prince Leopold of Lohe-Obkowitz was at Nice with Estelle Desvaux,
the well-known actress, that he was proposing to resign his titular
rights in favour of his younger brother and that he would then marry his
mistress. The letter requested the queen or the crown-princess to tell
this to Valerie, in the hope that it would not prove too great a shock
to her. Further, the letter ended with violent attacks upon Prince
Leopold, who had caused such a scandal, but at the same time with
manifest expressions of delight that now