ll, intrepid gaze.

"Most gracious father," he said, with quiet, passionless voice, "very
little can be said about the petty court of Doornward. Our aunt, the
Electress of the Palatinate, reflects with sorrow upon the past; the three
Princesses, her daughters, and their three little brothers, reflect with
hope upon the future, and of the present therefore but little is to be
told."

"They must be very beautiful, those Princesses of the Palatinate, are
they not?" asked the Elector.

"I believe they are," replied the Prince composedly.

"He only believes so!" cried his father. "Just see how they have slandered
him, for they would have had us believe that he knew exactly, and was
quite peculiarly edified by the beauty of the Princesses of the
Palatinate."

"And why should he not have been, your highness?" asked the Electress,
smiling. "The Princesses of the Palatinate are our own cousins, and it
seems very natural, surely, that he should have a cordial, cousinly regard
for them."

"Maybe, Electress!" cried George William, "but it were to be wished that
it had stopped there! I should like, therefore, to hear something about
the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine. Is she, indeed, so very fair as report
represents her to be?"

"Yes," replied the Prince, with husky voice--"yes, she is very fair. Only
question Leuchtmar on the subject; he can confirm what I say."

"I prefer to question yourself," said the Elector, with inexorable
cruelty, "and to learn something more concerning your fair cousin from
your own lips. We have been informed that the Princess Ludovicka
Hollandine is a very lively, merry young lady, and that she is by no means
disinclined to become our daughter-in-law."

"But, my husband," pleaded the Electress in an undertone, "you would not
speak of such confidential matters in the presence of our court, and--"

"Ah, Electress!" interrupted George William, "these confidential matters
have been bruited abroad everywhere; the talk has been, not merely here at
Berlin, but throughout the land, yea, even so far as the imperial court at
Vienna, that our son meant to surprise us on his return from the
Netherlands by presenting to us the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine as his
wife, without applying to us beforehand for our consent. I therefore
desire that the Electoral Prince answer me openly and candidly, that we
may all know once and forever how the matter stands, and what we have to
expect. The good, gossiping city