"At twelve exactly, your highness," answered Marie Antoinette, with a deep courtesy.
"The same hour. Then we must go together. I suppose that the empress intends to propose a husband for me, and a new tutor for you, Antoinette."
"Pray, why not a husband?" laughed Marie Antoinette.
"Because, you saucy child," replied her sister, "husbands are not dolls for little girls to play with."
Marie Antoinette tossed her pretty bead, saying, "Let me tell you, Caroline, that little girls are sometimes as wise as their elders, and I shall give you a proof of my superior wisdom, by not returning irony for irony. Perhaps it may be you who is to be married—perhaps it may be both of us. There are more crowns in Europe than one. But hark! there sounds the clock. The empress expects us."
She gave her hand to her sister, and the two princesses went laughing together to their mother's room.
The empress received them with an affectionate smile, and although her daughters were accustomed to stand in her presence, to-day she told them to sit on either side of her.
They were both beautiful, and their mother surveyed them with pride and pleasure.
"Come, dear children," said she, "we will banish etiquette for a while. To-day I am no empress, I am but a mother. But why do you both smile so significantly at one another? Are you guessing at what is to be the subject of our interview?"
"What can it be, your majesty," said Caroline gayly, "but the explanation of the riddle that has been puzzling all the brains in the palace for a month past?"