ut if you were to guess from now till to-morrow, you would
never hit upon the real reason that made me stay."

"Well, then, I had better not try, and you had better tell me at once."

"Strange as it may seem to you, it was neither the gratification of
being treated en femme du monde nor the money that made me stay; it was
the desire to see what I had been told was the handsomest man in Europe.
I did see him, and for once in a way rumour had not exaggerated the
reality. I had scarcely given my final consent to Schneider, when the
yacht carrying the imperial and royal families came alongside the
island, and the illustrious passengers landed, amidst an avalanche of
flowers thrown from the other vessels. Schneider presented me to the
King, who was also good-looking, and the latter presented me to the
Czar.

"Immediately afterwards the recital began. At the risk of taxing your
credulity still further, I may tell you that I, Rachel, who never knew
what 'stage-fright' meant, felt nervous. That man to me looked like a
very god. Fortunately for my reputation, the shadows of night were
gathering fast; in another twenty minutes it would be quite dark, and I
felt almost rejoiced that my audience could scarcely distinguish my
features. On the other hand, Raphael, who only knew the part of
Hippolyte by heart, and who was obliged to read the others, declared
that he could not see a line, and candles had to be brought in. It was a
glorious evening, but there was a breeze nevertheless, and as fast as
the candles were lighted, they were extinguished by the wind. To put
ordinary lamps on the lawn at our feet was not to be thought of for a
moment; luckily one of the functionaries remembered that there were some
candelabra with globes inside, and by means of these a kind of 'float'
was improvised. Still the scene was a curious one. Raphael close to me
on the edge of the lawn, with one of these candelabra in his left hand.
Behind, to the left and right of us, a serried crowd of generals, court
dignitaries in magnificent uniforms. In front, and separated by the
whole width of a gravel walk, the whole group of sovereigns and their
relations, and behind them the walls of the mansion, against which the
tea-table had been set, and around which stood the ladies-in-waiting of
the Queen of Prussia and the Empress of Russia. A deep silence around,
only broken by the soft soughing of the wind in the trees, and the
splashing of a couple of fountains