"Papa, may I go with you and look?"
"No, Berengar, there's nothing to see. Go to sleep...."
Then he offered his arm to Elizabeth:
"Madam," he said, tranquilly.
She threw him an imploring glance. He continued to hold out his arm to her. Then she kissed the boy once more, soothed him to sleep:
"Wait a moment," she stammered to Oscar.
She went to the glass; the maid, with her clumsy fingers, fastened the jewelled spray to the edge of the low-cut bodice, spread out the square train.
"I'm ready," the empress said to Oscar, in a lifeless voice.
She took his arm; the emperor just pressed her hand; and they nodded once more to Berengar and went.
Arm-in-arm the imperial pair appeared for the second time at the ball. The empress was pale but smiling. She was magnificent, delicate with dainty majesty in the trailing white velvet, upon which, on the bodice and over the front of the skirt, flickered sprays of diamond ostrich-feathers, formed into fleurs-de-lys. An empress' crown of brilliants crowned her small, round head.