perhaps Valerie would no longer
dream of becoming the lady of a domain measuring six yards square! The
archduke added a postscript to say that this was not a vague report but
a certainty and that Prince Leopold himself had told it to their own
relations at Nice, who had written to Sigismundingen.

"Has Valerie ever spoken to you about Prince Lohe?" asked the queen.

"Only once in a way, mamma," replied the Duchess of Wendeholm, handing
back the letter. "But we all know well enough that this news will be a
great blow to her. Is she not in the least prepared for it?"

"Probably not: you see, we had none of us heard or read anything about
it! Shall I tell her? Poor child!..."

"Shall I do so, mamma? As I told you, Valerie _has_ spoken to me...."

"Very well, you do it...."

The duchess reflected, looked at the clock:

"It is so late now: I'll tell her after dinner; we are none of us
dressed yet.... What do you think?"

"Very well then, after dinner...."

The crown-princess went out: it was time to hurry and dress. At seven
o'clock a loud, long bell sounded. They assembled in the hall; the
dining-room looked out with its large bow-windows upon the pine-forest.
It was a long table: King Siegfried, a hale old sovereign with a full,
grey beard; Queen Olga; the Crown-prince Gunther, tall, fair,
two-and-thirty; Princess Sofie and her children; Othomar, sitting
between his aunt and Valerie; Herman and Wanda; Olaf and Christofel; the
two dowagers with Countess von Altenburg; equerries, ladies-in-waiting,
chamberlains, Princess Elizabeth's governess, the little princes'
tutors....

The conversation was cheerful and unconstrained. The ladies wore simple
evening-frocks; the king was in dress-clothes, the younger princes and
equerries in dinner-jackets. The young princesses wore light summer
dresses of white serge or pink _mousseline-de-laine_; they had stuck a
flower or two from the conservatory into their waist-bands.

Valerie talked merrily; Herman once more teased her about her
cloud-sketches, but Othomar said that he admired them very much. Queen
Olga and Princess Sofie exchanged a glance and were quieter than the
others. The king also looked very thoughtfully at the young people.
After dinner the family dispersed; the crown-prince and Herman went for
a row on the sea, with the younger princes and the children, in two
boats. Wanda and Valerie, their arms wound around each other's waists,
strolled up and down along th