“Good morning, ladies! Is her Majesty disengaged at present?”
“Her Majesty will see you, Count, I do not doubt,” and Anna Mirkovics rose to inquire the Queen’s pleasure.
“You are early, Count,” said the other lady, who was Paula von Hilfenstein no longer, having married the eldest son of Prince Mirkovics some seven years before. Her sister-in-law, in spite of the large fortune she inherited from her mother, was still single, but more, people said, by reason of her whole-hearted devotion to the Queen than from any lack of suitors.
“Yes, Princess, I am early; but there are many things to settle.”
“So I should imagine, since the Queen has been seeing people all morning. You are arranging the details of next week’s festivities, I suppose? I hope you are allotting plenty of room to us ladies? I have ordered the most exquisite gowns imaginable from Paris, and it would be heart-rending to have them crushed.”
“Your wishes are law, Princess, and I will give orders, if you like, that twice as much space shall be allotted to you as to any of the other ladies, so that your gowns may be properly displayed. That is the real secret of your anxiety, is it not?”
“Her Majesty will receive you, Count,” said Anna Mirkovics, returning and interrupting her colleague’s laughing disclaimer, and Cyril passed on into Ernestine’s presence. She was sitting in a low chair, looking white and tired, for the Court had only returned from Molzau the day before, and there were endless details to be arranged for the celebration the following week of her son’s attainment of his majority, but the soft flush which never failed to appear at Cyril’s approach crept slowly up her cheek as he kissed her hand.
“I know you would not have asked for an interview unless there was something important to tell me,” she said.
“You are right in supposing my errand to be of importance, but I have nothing to tell—merely a suggestion to make. I want to speak to you about your boy’s marriage.”
Ernestine sat upright, and looked at him in dismay. “Michael’s marriage!” she cried. “But he is only a boy. We need not think of that for five or six years yet—certainly not for four.”