did not condescend to hunt the slipper: but when they were tired of hide-and-seek in the way we have described, they seated themselves in a semi-circle upon the grass, in a very picturesque part of the garden, where flowers, of the most varied and beautiful hues, at once delighted the eyes, and gave a delicious fragrance to the air.
Mademoiselle Valeria, one of the new comers, voluntarily offered to play the dull part of the seeker. A young lady went round the circle holding up the drapery of her shawl, in order that Mademoiselle Valeria, who held her hand before her eyes, promising at the same time not to cheat, might not see to whom she gave the handkerchief.
As soon as she had given it, she cried aloud, “It is done;” at this cry, Mademoiselle Valeria began the round; the pocket-handkerchief which she pursued with ardour, circulated rapidly from hand to hand, and was concealed by the players in the folds of their dress. It is necessary for the seeker to guess exactly who the person is who holds it, and to seize her in the act. Poor Valeria found it very difficult to do this, for at the moment that she thought herself sure of finding the handkerchief, the one who held it slily slipped it to another, and it arrived in the twinkling of an eye, at the very extremity of the circle.
After a long and vain search, Valeria succeeded at last in seizing the handkerchief in
the hand of Adela, who being now obliged to become a seeker in her turn, retired to a fountain, and turning her back to her companions, waited till it was time to begin the search. She did not wait long, the signal was speedily given, and, more lucky than Valeria, she was only a few minutes before she succeeded in discovering and seizing the handkerchief. A third and a fourth speedily took her place in turn. At last, Ernestina suffered the handkerchief to be found in her possession. This was a real triumph to all the rest, because Ernestina was supposed to understand the game better than any of them, and she was, besides, very active, so that it was extremely difficult to catch her; in fact, she would have escaped then, if a mischievous neighbour had not purposely been too long in receiving the handkerchief which she passed to her.
They cried bravo on all sides, and mischievously determining to tease Ernestina, they formed a little plot against her, while she was standing on one side, waiting for the game to begin. The hour approached for leaving off play, and they quickly agreed to finish with a little cheating trick. The pocket-handkerchief for which Ernestina was to seek, was placed at a great distance under a tuft of flowers, and they made believe to pass it from hand to hand. Ernestina was completely duped by this stratagem; her young friends’ hands moved with so much rapidity that she never perceived they passed
nothing; for, to render the illusion more complete, they every now and then shewed her the corner of a gown, the end of a shawl, or sometimes another handkerchief. Ernestina eagerly caught hold of what she saw; but she was soon made sensible of her error, by long and loud bursts of laughter. However, she took these disappointments very gaily, and passed rapidly on, first to the right, and then to the left, till she became fatigued and out of breath. The mirth of her young friends grew more noisy; their suppressed laughter and whisperings, and perhaps also some inadvertence on the part of the youngest players, warned her at last, that they were making game of her. “I am certain,” cried she, “that the handkerchief is at a distance from this spot, and that you only make believe to pass it, and that is not the game.” They were obliged then to confess the trick they had played her. Ernestina was half inclined to be angry; but she had been often told that ill-humour alters the prettiest features; and perhaps this idea had some share in making her quickly get the better of hers; for she immediately resumed her gaiety, and returned to the castle, saying that she should one day take her revenge. Her comrades defied her to realize her threats; when she promised them that they would be caught sooner than they expected. Perhaps, after all, she was herself the first who was caught; for at her age we are easily deceived, because the credulity, natural to youth, lays us open to imposition.
Madame D’Hernilly, to whom Ernestina related her adventure, laughed very heartily at it, and said it was not the first time people sought to discover mysteries, where there were none. She gave, as an example of this, the following singular anecdote of the celebrated Catherine II., Empress of Russia. This sovereign was one day surrounded by some of the gravest of her courtiers, and becoming tired of their pedantic dissertations, she said, “Permit me, gentlemen, to interrupt for a moment the important discussion in which you are engaged, in order to consult you about a charade which I have read in the last Mercure de France, and which I cannot solve. It is this; ‘my first is a cavity, my second is a cavity, my whole is a cavity.’”
Our statesmen, with all the suppleness of true courtiers, turned their conversation immediately from politics to the charade. Nothing could be more easy than to find hollow objects, which might be supposed to form one of its three parts; but they tried in vain to discover any term which could be applied to the whole. The Empress made a pretence to slip out of the room, leaving her counsellors profoundly occupied with their endeavours to solve the charade, which they were heartily vexed at being unable to do at last. The next day, however, they discovered that the Empress had merely been amusing herself at their expense, for they found that there was no such charade in the latest Mercure de France, which had arrived at St. Petersburgh.
This was not the only time that Catherine sought, by jokes of this kind, to divert the ennui attendant upon a throne; and to lighten the painful yoke of etiquette. We might relate more than one trick of this sort which she has played, not merely upon different persons, but very often upon the inhabitants of a whole city. On more than one occasion, the people of the capital have tormented themselves during whole days to discover the solutions of problems and enigmas, which in reality had no meaning.