"'It's this,' said my father magisterially. 'King Albert of Würtemberg has no children. He is sixty-two, as you correctly observed, and a martyr to diabetes. The Grand Duke of Lautenburg is his heir.'
"'I don't care,' I replied. 'I'd rather marry Kunin, and, besides, I don't want to marry at all.'
"Papa began to lose his temper. He came out with the whole story. Rudolph of Lautenburg was madly in love with me. He had spoken to the Empress, his godmother, who had spoken to the Kaiser, who had spoken to the Czar, who had just spoken to him. Hints of this kind, flattering though they are, are virtually orders, and...
"'You consented, without waiting to ask me?' I broke in.
"'Not exactly,' he replied in some confusion, 'but, after all, what could I do but thank him and consent ...'
"'Consent to what!'
"'Consent to—oh, something which commits you to nothing. I agreed that the Grand Duke should be your companion at the meet the day after tomorrow.'
"'If that's all,' I said, 'you can rely on me to make this German sorry he ever came to Russia for an heiress.'
"'Promise me to be nice,' begged my father in alarm. 'You make me regret I have given you so much liberty. Remember it's a question of a royal crown. Neither more nor less.'
"A crown! To see his daughter a queen! That was all the old Kalmuck thought about.