the road.

In the afternoon, the king and queen drove out together; he sat at her
side and held the reins. Their only attendants were the two grooms who
followed on horseback.

The king was quite amiable; the queen happy. He felt inwardly conscious
of having, in ever so slight a degree, swerved from the right path, and
this made him doubly affectionate. With a frank gaze, he looked into
the brightly beaming eyes of his beautiful wife.

Thus should it ever be. Thus, purely and frankly, shouldst thou ever be
able to look into those eyes.

CHAPTER XVII.

"Your Majesty," said Countess Brinkenstein, on the following morning
when they were sauntering in the park, "I owe you an explanation for
not having signed the letter to the queen's maid of honor."

"You did not?" replied the king.

The rigid yet refined features of the old lady showed no change at
these words, although she might have felt wounded at the intimation
that the absence of her signature had not been remarked. But, in all
things, she obeyed the highest law of the courtier; that is, to repress
all personal feeling and thus avoid all sensitiveness. Couching her
censure in terms of praise, in according with courtly fashion, she
calmly added:

"The idea of the invitation was quite original, but genius must ever
stand alone. Your Majesty has often honored me by addressing me as your
motherly friend and, as such, you will, I trust, permit me to remark
that it does not become either the gentlemen or the ladies to put their
names to an extraordinary jest of Your Majesty's. There should not be
the slightest cause for suspicion that this invitation was designedly
open and informal, because secretly intended and wished for."

The king looked at the old lady in surprise, but acted as if
unconscious of her having seen through his disguise.

"I must again tell you, my lady, that you ought to have gone to the
baths. You take such somber and serious views of everything; but when
one has been at the baths, as I have, everything looks gay and happy."

"Your Majesty, it is simply my duty to emphasize the rules that govern
Your Majesty's high position."

"Are you not overdoing it?"

"Your Majesty, etiquette, although invisible, is none the less
valuable. Treasures of artistic and great historical value are not
melted over to make new coins, but are carefully handed down from
century to century. The palace is the highest point i