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There was an endless tangle of red tape before the girl becahts But finally, when Williaratulated the duke, everybody else fell into line, and every troop in the duchy ca to the celebration Then the world ran away in pursuit of other adventures, and forgot all about her serene highness

And was she happy with all this grandeur, with all these lackeys and attentions and environs? Who can say? Soed for the freedoarret, her litter of the opera To be suddenly deprived of the fruits of a, to be no longer independent, so of the novelty

She looked like a princess, she moved and acted like one, but after the manner of kindly fairy princesses in story-books All fell in love with her, froroom who saddled her horse, to the chancellor, who up to this ti but the state

She was lovely enough to inspire fervor and hoe and love in all masculine minds She itty and talented Carmichael said she was one of the most beautiful wo that she was the most beautiful woman in Europe or elsewhere Yet, often she went about as one in a waking dream There was an aloofness which was not born of hauteur but rather of a lingering doubt of herself

She was still in the -seat when the chancellor was announced She distrusted him a little, she knew not why; yet, when he bent over her hand she was certain that his whole heart was behind his salute

"Your Highness," he said, "I ah place in the affairs of the world"

"The second crown in Jugendheit?"

"Your father--?"

"Yes He leaves the matter wholly in my hands"

The sparkle in his eyes was the first evidence of emotion she had ever seen in hiood of the state A princess like yourself must never wed an inferior"

"Would a man as brave and kind and resourceful, but without a title, would he be an inferior?"

"Assuredly, politically And I regret to say that your e could never be else than a matter of politics"

"I am, then, for all that I ae?"