"I did not venture to invite you," he said, "and indeed I have been too busy with business matters of late to be able to think much of Dresden. You must forgive——"
"I am here solely upon Henriette's account, and as her nurse," Kitty hastily interrupted him, without the least air of offence at Flora's unsisterly reception.
"You are kind and good, my child," the Frau President said, with a smile of relief; every fear was banished from her mind by the entire ease of this meeting. "But where shall we put you? Your former room is occupied by Flora's trousseau, and——"
"Therefore you must permit me to remain in my own home, where I have just established myself," Kitty courteously and modestly finished the sentence.
"I am afraid there is no help for it," the old lady replied, in the best of humours. "This afternoon our house will be full to overflowing, and everything is in the greatest bustle and confusion,—our breakfast-table is in the only peaceful spot. From early dawn they have been hammering and rehearsing——"
"Yes; they fairly shake the walls with their declamation in the ball-room," said Henriette, wearily leaning back in the arm-chair the councillor had placed for her. "As we passed, we heard 'Pallas Athene,' 'the roses of Cashmere,' and 'learned professor,' in admirable confusion——"
"Ugh!" Flora exclaimed, putting her fingers in her earn, "it is really too bad to force such an amateur production upon me, when I have performed myself in so many of our court fêtes. And there one must sit and not move a muscle of one's face, when the ridiculousness of the thing is half killing one with inward laughter——"
The Frau President imposed silence upon her by an emphatic gesture, for the amateur performers, who had taken a cup of chocolate in the dining-room before the rehearsal, made their appearance now in search of the hats and parasols they had left behind them.
Flora slipped into the adjoining boudoir.
With an affectation of great delight, the maid of honour, Fräulein von Giese, hastened up to Kitty and welcomed her among them once more. Then, holding out her hand to the councillor, she exclaimed, "So glad to see you, my dear Herr von Römer. Now we can thank you in person for the delightful way in which you have seconded our efforts to make our fête this evening charming. Everything is superb, like the work of enchantment." She rapturously kissed her finger-tips. "Only in Villa Baumgarten can one enjoy such 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments:' every one agrees to that. Apropos, have you heard the terrible news about Major Bredow? He is totally ruined, and many others are trembling in terror. Good heavens! what times these are in which we live! Shock follows shock with such rapidity——"