The reply came without delay. The princess sent for me.
That is called a “court order,” but it came in the guise of a charming letter, which said that the princess would be very glad to see me if I was not incommoded by the hour which she set.
When I arrived at the palace I was taken up a great staircase and then introduced to a little salon, which was like every other little salon in every other palace. I thought how disagreeable it must be to live in an atmosphere that has been created by a hundred other people before your time, and in which nothing really belongs to you. I was engaged in thinking this when an official opened the door and asked me to follow him.
What a change!
In a most delightfully arranged room I saw a young woman, tall, slender, and extremely pretty. The surroundings, the furniture, the style, all were so personal to the young woman that the palace dropped out.
I actually forgot where I was, and I fancied myself in the presence of a legendary princess in a fairy-tale-chamber.
Accordingly the first words I uttered, as I took the hand which the pretty princess extended toward me, were:
“Oh, how exquisite this is! It is not at all like a royal palace—any more than you seem like a princess receiving a stranger!”
She began to smile and after we were seated she said:
“Do you think that a princess should always be cold and ceremonious when she receives a stranger? Well, so far as I am concerned, you are not a stranger at all. After having seen you in your beautiful dances it seems to me that I am well acquainted, and I am very glad indeed that you have come to see me.”