“He will come,” she said, loudly and joyfully, after reading the few lines the letter contained. “What o’clock is it, Camilla?”
“Your highness, it is just ten o’clock.”
“And I am looking for visitors already at eleven o’clock. Quick, Madame Camilla, tell my maid to arrange every thing in the dressing-room. Please see to it yourself that I may find there an elegant, rich, and not too matronly, morning costume.”
“Will your highness put on the dress which Lord Paget received the other day for you from Loudon?” asked Madame Camilla. “Your highness has never yet worn it, and his lordship would doubtless rejoice at seeing your highness in this charming costume.”
“I do not expect Lord Paget,” said Marianne, with a stern glance; “besides, you ought to confine your advice to matters relating to my toilet. Do not forget it any more. Now bring me my chocolate, I will take it in bed. In the mean time cause an invigorating, perfumed bath to be prepared, and tell the cook that I wish him to serve up a sumptuous breakfast for two persons in the small dining-room in the course of an hour. Go.”
Madame Camilla withdrew to carry out the various orders her mistress had given her, but she did not do so joyfully and readily as usual, but with a grave face and careworn air.
“There is something going on,” she whispered, slowly gliding down the corridor. “Yes, there is something going on, and at length I shall have an opportunity for spying and reporting what I have discovered. Well, I get my pay from two men, from the French governor of Vienna and from Lord Paget. Would to God I could serve both of them to-day! As for Lord Paget, I have already some news for him, for Mr. von Gentz was with her last night, and remained for two hours; my mistress then wrote a letter to Major von Brandt, which I had to dispatch early in the morning. And this is exactly the point, concerning which I do not know whether it ought to be reported to my French customer or to the English lord. Well, I will consider the matter. I will watch every step of hers, for it is certain that something extraordinary is going on here, and I want to know what it is.”
And, after taking this resolution, Madame Camilla accelerated her steps to deliver the orders of the princess to the cook. An hour later, the lady’s maid had finished the toilet of the princess, who approached the large looking-glass in order to cast a last critical look on her appearance.
A charming smile of satisfaction overspread her fair face when she beheld her enchanting image in the glass, and she said, with a triumphant air, “Yes, it is true, this woman is beautiful enough even to court the favor of an emperor. Do you not think so, too, Madame Camilla?”
Madame Camilla had watched, with a very attentive and grave face, every word her mistress tittered, but now she hastened to smile.