Thus prompted, the Prince had no option but to comply, though he did not throw much heartiness into his invitation. But Gertrude showed enough alacrity for both.
“I shall be delighted with the honour, Prince, if you do not mind waiting while I put on my habit.”
“Don’t be long, then,” was the boy’s response.
Gertrude, with a swift reverence to the Princess, darted away to get ready, and surprised and annoyed Von Stahlen, who had returned to the ante-room to wait for her, by sweeping past him with the bare announcement that she was going to ride with Prince Ernest.
The Count sat silent and motionless in his chair for fully twenty minutes after this snub, and then turned to the patiently expectant Von Hardenburg and launched this withering remark—
“I thought it was time for the Princess Hermengarde to engage a nurse for her baby.”
In the mean time, as soon as the door closed upon Gertrude, the Princess Hermengarde had called Ernest to her side, and lovingly laid her hand upon his forehead.
“When shall I live to see that curly head wearing a crown?” she murmured fondly.
The boy drew back and frowned.
“I do not want to be king,” he said in a decided voice. “Besides, I love Cousin Maximilian, and I do not want him to die. Don’t you love him?”