tence. They themselves were spectres, though they know that they
were tangible, with bodies. What were they?

Dream-beings, with crowns; they lived and bowed and acted and smiled as
in a dream, because of their crowns. They did not exist: a vagueness did
indeed suggest in their dream-brains that something might exist, in
other laws of nature than those of their sphere, but in their sphere
they did not exist....

His hand was toying mechanically with some papers that lay near him, on
the mirror-bracket between two of the window-recesses; they were
illustrated periodicals, doubtless left there by some chamberlain. He
took one up, to while their sad silence, and opened it. The first thing
that he saw was their own portraits:

"Look," he said.

He showed them to her. They now turned over the pages together, saw the
portraits also of their parents, a drawing of the castle, a corner of
Sigismundingen Park. Then together they read the announcement of their
engagement. They were first each described separately: he, an
accomplished prince, doing a great deal of good, very popular in his own
country and cordially loved by the Emperor of Austria; she, every inch a
princess, born to be the empress of a great empire, with likewise her
special accomplishments. The eyes of all Europe were fixed upon them at
the moment. For their marriage would not only be an imperial alliance of
great political importance, but would also tie a knot of real harmony:
their marriage was a love-match. There had been attempts to make it seem
otherwise, but this was not correct. In Gothland, in the home circle at
Altseeborgen, the young couple had learnt to know each other well; their
love had sprung like an idyll from the sea and the Duke of Xara had once
even saved the archduchess' life, when she had ventured out too far, in
stormy weather, in a rowing-boat. Their love was like a novel with a
happy ending. The Emperor Oscar would rather have seen the Grand-duchess
Xenia crown-princess of Liparia and attached great value to an alliance
with Russia, but he had yielded before his son's love.... And the
article ended by saying that the wedding would take place in October in
the old palace at Altara.

They read it together, with their mournful faces, their wide, fixed
eyes, which still smarted with staring into each other's souls. Not a
single remark came from their lips after reading the article; they only
just smiled their two heartrending smiles; then