" she beckoned, as he did not seem to perceive her.

He reached her after some difficulty, bowed, paid his compliments to the
little marchionesses. They stood with stiff little faces, frightened,
round eyes and tight-closed mouths; and the lines of their girlish
figures displayed the shyness of novices. With an awkward grace, they
kept arranging their heavy court-trains over their arms. They just
smiled at Dutri's words; then they looked stiff again, compared the
other ladies' dresses with their own.

"Dutri," whispered the duchess, "how is the prince?"

"Just the same," the equerry whispered in reply. "Terribly
melancholy...."

"Dutri," she murmured, sinking her voice still lower, "would there be no
chance for me to see him?"

Dutri started in dismay:

"How do you mean, Alexa? When?"

"Presently, after the drawing-room...."

"But that is impossible, Alexa! The prince sees no one but their
majesties and the princess; he talks to nobody, not even to his
chamberlains, not even to us...."

"Dutri," she insisted, with her hand on his arm, "do your best. Help me.
Ask for an interview for me. If you help me ... I will help you too...."

He looked at her expectantly.

"What do you think of Helene?" she asked.

"I think Eleonore prettier," he smiled.

"Well, come to us oftener, to my special days; we never see anything of
you. I will prepare the duke...."

She dangled the rich match before his eyes: he blinked them, as he
continued to look at her and smile.

"But then you must help me!" she continued, with a gentle threat.

"I will do my best, Alexa, but I can promise nothing," he just had time
to reply. "Wait for me after the drawing-room, in one of the other
rooms," he whispered, accompanying her for a few steps.

All this time the titles were being cried, ceremoniously, slowly; the
ladies moved on, dropped their trains, blossomed out.

"Her excellency the Duchess of Yemena, Countess of Vaza; their
excellencies the Marchionesses of Yemena...."

The duchess moved on, the girls followed her, crimson, with beating
hearts. They passed through a long gallery, dropping their trains; at
the door of the presence-room, before they entered, stood flunkeys who
spread out the heavy court-mantles.

"Her excellency the Duchess of ..."

The titles rang out for the second time, this time through the
presence-chamber and with a sound of greater reverence, because they
echoed in the listening ears of welcoming majest