r presence in
his house would prove distasteful to him in many ways, he, at the same
time, consoled himself with the hope that she would prove a companion
to his wife, and that he could thus absent himself from home more
frequently, and for longer periods, than he had before done; for he
felt it not a little irksome to be obliged to spend so much of his time
with his wife. The leave-taking was short, but hearty. Bruno was
permitted to kiss his mother-in-law's cheek. After he got into the
carriage, he rubbed his lips till they were almost sore, in order to
wipe the rouge off of them.

It was already evening when they drove off, and they passed the night
at the first posting-house. Bruno lay down on the bed to rest himself
"for a little while," but he did not awake until late the following
morning.

CHAPTER X.

The queen, overcome with grief, lay sleeping in her apartment.

The court ladies were gathered together on the terrace under the
weeping ash, and did not care to leave one another. It seemed as if a
fear of ghosts oppressed them all. It was but a few days since Irma
had been in their midst. She had been sitting in the chair without a
back--she never leaned against anything. The seat she had occupied
remained empty, and if the paths were not freshly raked every morning,
her footprint would still be there. And now she had vanished from the
world. Her light had been extinguished, and in so terrible a manner.
Who could tell how long her ghost might haunt the palace and what
mischief it might do. The world, at last, knew what had been going on.

The ladies were busily engaged at their embroidery. At other times,
they would take turns in reading aloud; but to-day their book--it
was a French novel, of course--remained untouched. They were intensely
interested in the story, but no one ventured to propose that the
reading should be gone on with, nor did sustained conversation
seem possible. Now and then a voice was heard: "Dear Clotilde,"
"Dearest Hannah, can you lend me some violet, or some pale green?"
"Oh, I tremble so, that I cannot thread my needle; have you a
needle-threader?"

It was, fortunately, at hand. They were, none of them, willing to
appear so little moved as to be able to thread a needle.

They deplored Irma's fate, and it did them good to be able to show how
kind and merciful they were. They felt happy in being able to accord
their pious forgiveness to the unh