t_ charming man, of course, he
could not--er--have been called precisely _estimable_, while Prince
Henri certainly is, and an exceedingly good match even for you--in
present circumstances."

"Call him a match, if you like, Mother. He's undoubtedly a stick. But
no, he's _not_ a match for me. There's only one on earth." And
Virginia's eyes were lifted to the sky as if, instead of existing on
earth, the person in her thoughts were placed as high as the sun that
shone above her.

"I should have preferred an Englishman--for you," said the Grand
Duchess, "if only there were one of suitable rank, free to--"

"I'm not thinking of an Englishman," murmured her daughter.

"If only you _would_ think of poor Henri!"

"Never of him. You know I said I would be d--"

"Don't repeat it! Oh, when you look at me in that way, how like you
are to your grandmother's portrait at home--the one in white, painted
just before her marriage. One might have known you would be
extraordinary. That sort of thing invariably skips over a generation."

The Grand Duchess laid down the theory as a law; and whether or no she
were right, it was at least sure that she had inherited nothing of the
first Virginia's daring originality. Some of her radiant mother's
beauty, perhaps, watered down to gentle prettiness, for the Hereditary
Grand Duchess of Baumenburg-Drippe at fifty-one was still a
daintily-attractive woman, a middle-aged Dresden china lady, with a
perfect complexion, preserved by an almost perfect temper; surprised
eyebrows, kindly dimples, and a conventional upper lip.

She was not by birth "Hereditary." Her lord and (very much) her master
had been that, and had selected her to help him reign over the
Hereditary Grand Duchy of Baumenburg-Drippe, not only because her
father was an English Duke with Royal Stuart blood in his veins,
but because her Virginian mother had brought much gold to the
Northmoreland exchequer. Afterwards, he had freely spent such portion
of that gold as had come to his coffers, in trying to keep his little
estates intact; but now it was all gone, and long ago he had died of
grief and bitter disappointment; the Hereditary Grand Duchy of
Baumenburg-Drippe was ruled by a cousinly understudy of the German
Emperor William the Second; the one son of the marriage had been
adopted, as heir to his crown, by the childless King of Hungaria; the
handsome and lamentably extravagant old Duke of Northmoreland was
dead; his title and v