Seraphina. The toilet was over; and the Princess, tastefully arrayed, sat face to face with a tall mirro

hey were her most attractive feature, yet they continually bore eloquent false witness to her thoughts; for while she herself, in the depths of her immature, unsoftened heart, was given altogether to manlike ambition and the desire of power, the eyes were by turns bold, inviting, fiery, melting, and artful, like the eyes of a rapacious siren. And artful, in a sense, she was. Chafing that she was not a man, an

f the man, and the dull bilious eye, set perhaps a higher value on his evident desire to please. His face was marked by capacity, temper, and a kind of

to take my leave. I must not keep my sovereign in

nnot be put of

we might imitate the serpent; but for the ultimatum, there is no choice but to be bold like lions. H

ht him?’ she cried.

exaggerate the peril. Think, madam, how far we have prospered, and against what odds

plied, ‘is still the

Baron. ‘There are rights of nature; power to the powerful is the law. If he shall t

u are ungallant, Baron,

ry, I shall have called you by ma

till the Prince, MONSIEUR LE FLATTEUR,’ she said.

de the heart of Seraphina swell. Looking on her huge slave, she drank the intoxicating joys of power. Meanwhile he continued, with that sort of massive archness that so ill beca

the Princess. ‘Suppose we have jud

ned along the frontier; in five hours the vanguard of five thousand bayonets shall be hammering on the gates of Brandenau; an

aid. ‘Is that what you call glo

t work, if I did not know the fertility of your mind, I own I should tremble for the consequence. But it is in this field that men must recognise their inability. All the great negotiators, when they have not been women, have had women at their elbows. Madame de Pompadour was ill served; she had not found her Gondremark; but wha

distaste to her own resolutions; for she continued to oppose her counsellor, looking upon him out of half-closed eyes and with the shadow of a sneer upon her lips. ‘W

hem well. I would put a good name upon a virtue; you will

leave, like children! Our grannie in Berlin, our uncle in Vienna, the whole family,

these whispered conferences are forgotten and disowned. The danger is very real’ — he raged inwardly at having to blow the very coal he had been quenching — ‘none the less real in that it is not precisely military, but for that reason the easier to be faced. Had w

e abominable people — suppose they should instantly rebel? What a figure we should make in th

ses are adorned with pillage, each tastes his little share of military glory, and behold us once again a happy family! “Ay,” they will say, in each other’s long ears, “the Princess knew what she was about; she was in the right of it

aphina, somewhat tartly, ‘you often attr

ck; the next, he had perfectly recovered. ‘Do I?’ he said. ‘It is

mproved her spirits. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘all this is little to the purpose. We are keeping Frederic without, and I am still ignorant of our l

her at work. Send him off to his theatricals! But in all gentleness,’ he added

the man who can fight, must never shrink from an en

itiful to the poor young man; affect an interest in his hunting; be weary of politics; find in his societ

nswered Seraphina. ‘The cou

t deceive me; I know every wig in Grunewald; I have the sovereign’s eye. What are these papers about? O, I see. O, certainly. Surely, surely. I wager none of you remarked that wig. By all means. I know nothing about that. Dear me, are there as many as al

witty, Herr von Gondremark,’ she said, ‘and have perhaps forgotten where you are. But these rehea

these petty stabs become unbearable. But Gondremark was a man of iron; he showed nothing; he did not even, like the common trickster, retreat b

e about to rise. Temper, scorn, disgust, all the more acrid

him in. Zz — fight, dogs!’ Consequent on these reflections, he bent a stiff knee and chivalrously kissed the Princes

e said,

e door, she touched a bell, and gave the