wished to see celebrated as early as
possible. The empress, however, still wore heavy mourning, which she
would not lay aside before the day of the wedding; Helene was in grey;
the liveries were grey.

Many pedestrians, horsemen, carriages passed along the road and stopped
respectfully; the empress bowed to left and right; she received cheers
and salutations from the balconies of the villas. In this warm summer
weather a mellow welcome, a soft gaiety reigned all along the road; the
road, with its villas where the people sat in groups, emitted a
friendliness which affected the empress pleasantly and made her heart
swell in her breast with a gentle melancholy. Children ran about and
played in white summer suits; they stopped suddenly and, like well-bred
children, accustomed to seeing members of the imperial family pass
daily, they bowed low, the boys awkwardly, the girls with new-learnt
curtseys. Then they went on playing again.... And the empress smiled at
a large family, old and young people together, who sat on a terrace,
doubtless celebrating a birthday, and laughed and drank, with many
glasses and decanters before them, the children with their mouths full
of cake. So soon as they saw the outrider, they all stood up and waved,
some with their glasses still in their hands, and the empress, laying
aside her usual stiffness, bowed back with a winning smile.

And it was as though she were driving through a huge, luxurious village;
for a moment she forgot the light obsession that depressed her, forgot
why she was this day going to Valerie and allowed herself to be lulled
by her delight in the love that she divined all round her. It was the
love of the old Liparian patrician families--noble or not noble--for
their sovereigns. It was a caress which she never felt at Lipara. And
she remembered Othomar's letter, at the time of last year's inundations:

"Why are we not oftener at Altara?"

She could not for a moment desist from bowing. But she was now
approaching the town: the old houses shifted like the wings at a
theatre; the whole town shifted nearer, gay with flags, which threw an
air of youth over its old stonework. The streets were full: thousands of
visitors, native and foreign, were at Altara; there was not a room to be
had in the hotels. And the empress could scarcely speak a word to
Helene; she could do nothing but bow and bow, perpetually....

In the fore-court of the Old Palace, the infantry composing the guard