We are quickly in the train, and stand at the windows, waving our hands vigorously as it moves off. The fields fade away into the distance, the blue cornflowers on the edge of the railway banks nod farewell, a solitary stork can be seen wending his way homewards on wide-sweeping wings. The darkness falls and blots it out. When the dawn comes we are nearing Potsdam once more, and on the whole rather glad to be back again, for, as the Princess says, “Cadinen’s very nice, but ‘there’s no place like home,’ is there?”
CHAPTER XIII
ROMINTEN
ROMINTEN, the Emperor’s favourite shooting domain, lies far away in East Prussia, on the very frontier of the Russian Empire. For the first few years of my life in Germany it existed merely as a name.
Every autumn towards the end of November came to the New Palace great loads of antlers labelled “Rominter Heide,” magnificent outspreading trophies of His Majesty’s gun.
Then one day the Princess announced, to the consternation of her governesses, aghast at the possibility of further interruptions to her education, that “Papa” was building a new wing to the Jagdhaus, so that “Mamma” and she herself might join him there.
“Won’t it be lovely?” she said with sparkling eyes, and danced about the room in a manner expressive of the deepest delight.
“When you are grown up and done with lessons, Princess,” suggested the Ober-Gouvernante.
“Not a bit when I am grown up, but now this very autumn. Papa says so; the house is getting on splendidly. It will all be ready by September.”
If “Papa” said a thing would happen, it naturally did, let who might disapprove; so that a few weeks later the Princess in her brand-new hunting-dress, accompanied by a blackboard, a desk, a large chest of school-books, a tutor and myself, went off in the highest spirits to join Their Majesties’ special train at Berlin.
The Emperor and Empress were already in the train when their daughter arrived, and there was a very large suite with them, including Prince Philip Eulenburg, who a year or two later fell into disgrace, and from being the most trusted, most sought-after of all the Emperor’s friends, was banished entirely from Court and seen no more.