"'You're in love with some one else!' he said in a hoarse voice.
"'You forget yourself, and please don't be foolish,' I replied gently. 'I will condescend to tell you that I love no one, unless, perhaps—for the word "love" is a jack-of all-trades—my native land, hunting, flowers, to be left alone and two or three other things, which really should not arouse a jealousy only to be regretted in a man of intelligence. Are you satisfied?'
"He smiled wanly.
"'This,' I went on, 'is our little private compact. The chanceries will no doubt attend to the public formalities—and everything else. I attach no importance to them. Nor do you, I hope. I need not say that you will always find in me a consort worthy of yourself, equal to any situation that may arise, and capable, if God so wills it, of bearing worthily that famous crown of Würtemberg. Here's my hand on it.'
"He took it and kissed it fervently. A great joy had banished the trouble in his eyes. I had never expected him to accept his fate so quietly. Then I suddenly grasped his reasoning: 'I shall be so good, so tender and thoughtful to her that she must be won over in the end, though I cannot now tell how far off that end may be.'
"There was so much unaffected pathos in the poor man's delusions that I couldn't help being rather touched. We parted the best friends in the world.
"As I went back to my room I heard a terrible uproar in the Great Court. It was Taras-Bulba, who had got bored with his stall, kicked open the stable-door, knocked down an ostler and two sentries, and was neighing fiercely to me from below. It was a much more difficult matter to get him quiet than to deal with the Grand Duke Rudolph.
* * * * * *
"After I became the Grand Duchess of Lautenburg-Detmold in the autumn of 1909, my first concern was to set about the improvements required to make this place reasonably comfortable. The gardens had been allowed to run riot, and as for the palace, it was crammed with horrors that even a negro chief would not have tolerated.
"I soon revolutionized all that. Melusine, who came in the summer of 1910, would tell you that I spent my time then very much as I do now, except that when I felt particularly low-spirited I used to escape to Russia to relieve my feelings.