Thanks to the singular affection, however, with which I had inspired Irene, the princess found it difficult to carry out her project.
Whether I appeared on deck or in the saloon, the child took me by the hand, and led me to Madame de Fersen, saying:
"Come, I like to see you with my mother."
At first I could hardly refrain from smiling at Madame de Fersen's vexation at being thus forced into a tête-à-tête which she desired to avoid.
But I feared that this vexation of which I was the involuntary cause might make her take a dislike to me, and I tried to repulse Irene's advances. When she insisted, I refused brusquely two or three times.
The poor child said not a word, two great tears trickled down her cheeks, and she went silently and sat down at a distance from me and her mother.
The latter tried to approach her, to console her, but Irene gently repulsed her caresses.
That evening she ate nothing, and her nurse, who passed the night at her bedside, said that she had hardly slept, and had had several fits of silent weeping.
M. de Fersen, who was not aware of the cause of his daughter's trifling ailment, made light of it and attributed it to the child's excessive nervous susceptibility.
But Madame de Fersen gave me a look of irritation.