"Her Majesty was fully dressed when Uncle's Jaeger handed in a dispatch from Queen Victoria, asking about Prince Joachim. She immediately sat down to write an answer, and as she leaned over the paper—for she is rather short-sighted—the whole coiffure came down in a heap. I never saw her cross before, but I tell you——" Bertha checked herself.
"Now about the jewellery," cried Barbara. "She has wagon-loads of them, has she not?"
"Of her own, no more than Mamma, I guess, for those you read so much about on festive occasions belong to the State, and the Baroness is responsible for their safety. Once, I was told, she left a valise containing several Crown jewels and some of Auntie's own in the Imperial saloon carriage when they were going to Stuttgart. Through the stupidity of a guard the valise got misplaced, and was discovered only a month later in an out-of-the-way railway station. That time Uncle Majesty himself lectured the Baroness, ordering her at the same time to use her own baronial fingers to sew the diamond buttons on Her Majesty's dresses. Furthermore, to make sure that the fastenings of ear-rings, brooches, bracelets and chains, etc., were intact."
Barbara wanted to know whether the Berlin Crown jewels were as fine as Queen Victoria's in the Tower of London.
"Not quite," said Bertha thoughtfully.
The child nodded. "I know, for when I asked Miss Sprague whether the Regent was as beautiful as the Koh-i-noor, she said: 'You might as well liken your shabby German South-West Africa to the Indian Empire, Miss Barbara.'"
"Don't let the War Lord hear that!" Frau Martha raised a warning finger.
"Now about the dresses! She wears a new one every day, doesn't she?"
"At least she never wears the same twice unaltered."
"What jolly shopping!" cried Barbara. "Does she go round herself? I would."