Bettina thought this very funny and they all laughed and would have made a great noise had not Marianne put the tiny key in the brass lock of the red book.
"Come, now, be quiet," she said, "and I will begin the journal of our Aunt Erna."
CHAPTER XIV
PRINCESS LOUISA
"First," said Marianne with an air of great importance, "I will tell you about the family of our Queen."
All the children looked up with eagerness.
"Her name," continued Marianne, "is Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia. Her father is the Duke Carl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Her mother, who died when she was six years old, was a Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt."
Here Marianne paused.
"It is important, children, that you should know these things of our Queen," she informed them, looking very wise and grown up. "Her name, the mother's, I mean, was Frederika Caroline Louisa. Now our Queen—I learned this to tell you—was born in the old castle of Hanover, March 10, 1776. Her father was the governor there for his brother-in-law, who is king of—where, Ilse?"