"Why not, Greta?" asked Anna in surprise.
"Why, I thought it would be a very grand room, with furniture of gold."
Tante Elsie laughed. "Oh, Greta, you forget that the King and Queen of Denmark are people of simple tastes. This is a beautiful room, and it shows that the Queen likes lovely things. But it also shows that she does not spend money just to make a grand display."
"Perhaps the young lady would like to see the ballroom," said the guide. "I think she will find that it is all that she imagined and really fit for a queen."
He led them through several drawing-rooms and then into the ballroom. It was a large, square room, with windows clear up to the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were light blue, so that it seemed as if the room were open to the sky.
"This is what I always thought a royal palace would be like," said Greta in deep contentment.
"The ceiling of this room is eighty-one feet high," explained the guide. "It forms the tower in the middle of the palace."
Greta didn't want to leave this lovely room. She was fascinated by the pictures painted on the walls, the gorgeous hangings at the windows, and the large groups of glass candlesticks that hung from the ceiling and sparkled like icicles as the sun shone on them.