On the first page was her aunt's name.
"Erna Hedwig Anna Marie von Bergman, her journal."
On the next was the date, "Dec. 22, 1793."
"To-day," read Marianne, "we went to see the entrance of our Crown Princess into Berlin. While we walked to Unter den Linden, where my Ludwig—I am betrothed now to Ludwig—had obtained for us very fine seats, he entertained us with stories of this lovely princess, who came to-day to our prince. He said everybody loved her, and he told me so much of her beauty that I was all eagerness to see her enter.
"Ludwig said that even when she was a child she gained love everywhere. Once, at Darmstadt, the great poet, Schiller, was reading aloud from his 'Don Carlos,' and he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up, and saw the loveliest little girl, who seemed to understand every word of his poetry. It was the little Princess Louisa, and Schiller smiled on her. To be smiled upon by a genius seems to me to be better than to be Crown Princess."
Marianne's face glowed as she read this.
"She would have understood me, my Aunt Erma," she thought.
"Go on, please, go on," said Carl.
"I said this to Ludwig," read Marianne, "but he told me that to be a good house-wife was better than either."
"Exactly like him," she muttered, and then went straight on with the journal.