destal.

Her Highness's behaviour roughened as soon as the place was clear of
company. She spoke at my father impetuously, with manifest scorn and
reproach, struck her silver-mounted stick on the carriage panels, again
and again stamped her foot, lifting a most variable emphatic countenance.
Princess Ottilia tried to intercede. The margravine clenched her hands,
and, to one not understanding her speech, appeared literally to blow the
little lady off with the breath of her mouth. Her whole bearing consisted
of volleys of abuse, closed by magisterial interrogations. Temple
compared her Highness's language to the running out of Captain Welsh's
chaincable, and my father's replies to the hauling in: his sentences were
short, they sounded like manful protestations; I barely noticed them.
Temple's version of it went: 'And there was your father apologizing, and
the margravine rating him,' etc. My father, as it happened, was careful
not to open his lips wide on account of the plaster, or thick coating of
paint on his face. No one would have supposed that he was burning with
indignation; the fact being, that to give vent to it, he would have had
to exercise his muscular strength; he was plastered and painted from head
to foot. The fixture of his wig and hat, too, constrained his skin, so
that his looks were no index of his feelings. I longed gloomily for the
moment to come when he would present himself to me in his natural form.
He was not sensible of the touch of my hand, nor I of his. There we had
to stand until the voluble portion of the margravine's anger came to an
end. She shut her eyes and bowed curtly to our salute.

'You have seen the last of me, madam,' my father said to her whirling
carriage-wheels.

He tried to shake, and strained in his ponderous garments. Temple gazed
abashed. I knew not how to act. My father kept lifting his knees on the
spot as if practising a walk.

The tent was in its old place covering the bronze horse. A workman
stepped ahead of us, and we all went at a strange leisurely pace down the
hill through tall pinetrees to where a closed vehicle awaited us. Here
were also a couple of lackeys, who deposited my father on a bed of moss,
and with much effort pulled his huge boots off, leaving him in red silk
stockings. Temple and I snatched his gauntlets; Temple fell backward, but
we had no thought of laughter; people were seen approaching, and the
three of us jumped into the carriage. I had my father'