The Princess bowed silently, closing her hand convulsively.
"As it is impossible to bring him and his wife into closer relations with the Court, I wish you would invite them to one of your little tea-parties."
"You must pardon me, my most worthy father, if I do not see how this can be. My evening parties have hitherto consisted only of my ladies and the principal members of the Court."
"Then you must alter that," said the Sovereign, coldly; "you are not prevented from introducing into it one or other of our officials, with their wives."
"Pardon me, my father; as this has never yet happened, every one would remark that the change has only been occasioned through the strangers. It would occasion much ill-natured remark if an accidental visit were to upset what has been the acknowledged rule up to the present day."
"The consideration of foolish gossip shall not prevent you," replied the Sovereign, angrily.
"My gracious father must take a favorable view of the considerations which hinder my doing anything of the kind. It would not become me, a woman, to dispense with the habits and customs which my lord and father has considered binding upon himself. You have deigned to permit the attendance of Mr. Werner at your small dinners, and I could, without giving any uncommon offence, receive him at my tea-table. His wife, on the other hand, has never been brought into relations with the Court through your own sanction. It would ill become the daughter to venture what the father himself has not done."
"This reason is a poor disguise for ill-nature," replied the Sovereign. "Nothing hinders you from leaving out the whole Court."
"I can have no evening society, however small, without inviting the ladies of the Court," replied the Princess, pertinaciously; "and I cannot ask them to take part in a mixed society."
"I will take care that Miss von Lossau shall appear," replied the Sovereign, in a bitter tone. "I insist upon your conforming to my wishes."