ie; "she is not
glad at all. On the contrary, she cried and lamented all last night,
thinking that I was asleep and knew nothing about it. But I heard
everything. I know that she would rather stay here, and that she finds it
charming here all of a sudden, although she used to think it so dull. But
Louise has entirely changed these last four days, and since _he_ has been
here she finds tiresome old Berlin a splendid place, and--"

"But, Hedwig," interrupted her sister, whose cheeks were suffused with a
crimson flush, "what are you talking about, and how can you chatter such
nonsense?"

"It is true, she talks nonsense," said the Electress severely; "yet I
should like to know what her words signify. Who is _he_ who has so
transformed tiresome Berlin in your sister's eyes?"

"Why, you do not know, mamma?" asked the mischievous child, smiling and
putting on a look of astonishment.

"You do not know who loves our Louise so ardently, so passionately? You do
not know the man for whose sake she would leave father and mother? You do
not know the only man whom the Princess Charlotte Louise loves?"

"_I_ do not know, but I command you to tell me!" said the Electress dryly.

"Well," said the Princess, smilingly surveying the group, "it is our dear,
only brother--it is Frederick William."

"You are a little blockhead!" exclaimed the Electress, shrugging her
shoulders and smiling.

"You are a dear little rogue," said Frederick William, tenderly embracing
his willful sister. She playfully broke away from him, dancing through the
hall, and challenging her brother to pursue and overtake her. Princess
Louise said not a word, but the blush upon her cheeks died away, and the
expression of horror and alarm vanished from her features.

Still Princess Hedwig Sophie kept up her frolic, and as often as the
Prince thought he had caught her she flew off again like a butterfly.
Finally, at the extreme end of the hall, he held her fast, and now,
laughingly and tenderly, she flung her arms about his neck, and whispered
softly: "Expect me this evening in your room at nine o'clock. I have
something important to tell you. Silence!"

Again she let him go, and continued to hop about, laughing merrily and
cheerfully as a child.

And in the evening, when the clock in the great corridor had just struck
the ninth hour, the Princess Hedwig Sophie slipped unperceived into the
room of her brother, who already held the door open for her and awaited
h