Then she explained that she feared Bettina's grandfather might not return to Memel, that Professor von Stork had many to care for, and that she, the Queen, meant in the future to provide for Bettina.
"My dear people of Berlin," she told her, "have founded a home for orphans in my honour. The Luisenstift, they will call it. Now, dear Bettina, I am to name and support four of these children and I have selected you as one of them."
Poor Bettina! Her little heart sank. Must she leave the Stork's Nest, must she go among strangers?
The Queen understood.
"You cannot, dear child," she said like a mother, "always live with the good Professor. Go happily, dear child, to this Home. It will help the good Professor to have you cared for. You may visit them in your holidays, and, if you are a good girl and study well, one day you may come and live at Court and be a maid to Princess Charlotte, or my little Alexandrina. Would you not like that?" And the Queen smiled enchantingly.
Bettina's eyes glowed.
To be always near her Majesty! What happiness!
"But go now," said the Queen, "and tell the Herr Professor that I will talk this over with him before he moves his family to Königsberg, and after Christmas I shall send you to Berlin, to the Luisenstift. Until then, be happy!"
"My grandfather will come," thought Bettina; "the Queen is good, but we will go to Thuringia and I shall see Hans and the baby, my godmother and Willy."
And she believed this so firmly that she hardly worried over the Orphan Asylum.