The Kaiser remained for the next few minutes plunged in profound thought. At last he raised his eyes to Von Bernerstauf’s.
“In that case I will receive the Count. Go and bring him here immediately.”
CHAPTER XVIII
THE STATE BALL
The Castle of Seidlingen was illuminated. Every window flashed with light, and all the roofs and turrets were picked out in brilliant lines of fire. Through the conservatories and gardens, and along the winding waterways, stretched the rows of many-coloured lamps; the trees were hung with Chinese lanterns of the quaintest pattern, and out in the lake a large floating platform was moored, from which every now and then a sheaf of golden rockets ascended to the sky. At the far end of the grounds, where the mountain began to rise abruptly from the artificial level of the garden, an immense arch of fire shone out against the dark background of the forest, and displayed in burning letters a motto of welcome to the Kaiser.
Within the Castle the dazzling display reached its height. A magnificent ball-room of dimensions large enough to afford space for a thousand persons was lavishly decorated with trophies of flags and weapons, mingled with flowers, and lit up by a double row of white wax candles running round the walls. On the floor, shining with its perfect polish, moved a gorgeous crowd of all the highest personages in Maximilian’s kingdom, together with many illustrious visitors from other parts of Germany, who had attended to do honour to the head of the Empire.
A rope of vermilion velvet marked off the area reserved for royal personages, and within this area the ball had been opened by a State quadrille, in which the Kaiser was obliged by etiquette to take for his partner the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, while Maximilian led out the consort of the Hereditary Margrave of Anspach. The Princess Hermengarde fell to a Prince of the House of Prussia, a brother of the Kaiser’s, and the Margrave completed the Imperial set with a Princess of another reigning family.
As soon as these illustrious personages had gone through their dance, the velvet rope was removed, and the other guests were at liberty to take part in the waltz which succeeded. Maximilian seized the first opportunity to relinquish the Margravine to another partner and wandered down the room in search of Dorothea.
He found her with some difficulty, shyly ensconced in a corner at the lower end of the ball-room, and at once requested her to join him in the waltz.
Covered with confusion at being thus singled out before a crowd of spectators, the young girl drew back, murmuring—
“Please do not ask me. Think of what the people will say if we are seen together! And besides, I am not fit to dance in such a company. I have never danced before in my life, except amongst children and servants.”