"Sofie," she at once began, in German, "I have had a letter from Sigismundingen...."
The Duchess of Wendeholm had sat down:
"Anything to do with Valérie?" she asked, in alarm.
"Yes," the queen said, with a reflective glance. "Poor child!..."
"But what is it, Mamma?"
"There, read for yourself...."
The queen handed the letter to her daughter-in-law, who read it hurriedly. The letter was from the Archduchess Eudoxie, Valérie's mother, written with a feverish, excited hand, and said, in phrases which tried to seem indifferent but which betrayed a great satisfaction, that Prince Leopold of Lohe-Obkowitz was at Nice with Estelle Desvaux, the well-known actress, that he was proposing to resign his titular rights in favour of his younger brother and that he would then marry his mistress. The letter requested the queen or the crown-princess to tell this to Valérie, in the hope that it would not prove too great a shock to her. Further, the letter ended with violent attacks upon Prince Leopold, who had caused such a scandal, but at the same time with manifest expressions of delight that now perhaps Valérie would no longer dream of becoming the lady of a domain measuring six yards square! The archduke added a postscript to say that this was not a vague report but a certainty and that Prince Leopold himself had told it to their own relations at Nice, who had written to Sigismundingen.
"Has Valérie ever spoken to you about Prince Lohe?" asked the queen.
"Only once in a way, mamma," replied the Duchess of Wendeholm, handing back the letter. "But we all know well enough that this news will be a great blow to her. Is she not in the least prepared for it?"
"Probably not: you see, we had none of us heard or read anything about it! Shall I tell her? Poor child!..."