to a certain region in the mountains, where Höchst die Selbe has a grand, a most high, ducal aunt, the said region being noted for its salubrious air, its baths, the quality and extent of its vineyards. In company, therefore, of a few indispensable court officials—the Lord Chamberlain (as a responsible person for her Highness’s movements), the most gracious a certain aged and high born Gräfin (our chief Court lady, once the Highness’s own gouvernante), the second Court doctor, the third officier de bouche, and mine own humble self——”

Here she paused, and, with a sudden assumption of dolefulness that was certainly comic, proceeded in quite another voice:

“I am a person of no consequence at Court,[48] Monsieur de la Faridondaine. I am merely tolerated because of her Highness’s goodness, and also because, you must know, that I have a reputation of being a source of amusement to her Serenity. You may already have noticed that it is fairly well founded that I am talkative and entertaining, as a lady-in-waiting should be, and this is the reason why I have attained a position to which my birth does not entitle me.”

A little frown came across the Princess’s smooth brow at these words. She shot a look of deprecation at her attendant, but the latter went on, resuming her former manner, in a bubbling of merriment:

“Facts are facts, you see—I am even hardly born. My mother happened to be liked by the mother of her Serene Highness—an angel—and when I was orphaned she took me closer to her. So we grew up together, her Highness and I, and so I come to be in so grand a place as a Court. There, Monsieur, you have in a word the history of Mademoiselle Marie Ottilie. I have no wish that she should ever seem to have appeared under false colours.&rdqu