among the mountains. She wanted amusement--he
provided it; she never let him quit her sight from that moment.

'And now,' he said, 'she has lost me!' He drew out of his pocket-book a
number of designs for the statue of Prince Albrecht, to which the
margravine's initials were appended, and shuffled them, and sighed, and
said:'Most complete arrangements! most complete! No body of men were ever
so well drilled as those fellows up at Bella Vista--could not have been!
And at the climax, in steps the darling boy for whom I laboured and
sweated, and down we topple incontinently! Nothing would have shaken me
but the apparition of my son! I was proof against everything but that! I
sat invincible for close upon an hour--call it an hour! Not a muscle of
me moved: I repeat, the heart in my bosom capered like an independent
organ; had it all its own way, leaving me mine, until Mr. Temple, take my
word for it, there is a guiding hand in some families; believe it, and be
serene in adversity. The change of life at a merry Court to life in a
London alley will exercise our faith. But the essential thing is that
Richie has been introduced here, and I intend him to play a part here.
The grandson and heir of one of the richest commoners in England--I am
not saying commoner as a term of reproach--possessed of a property that
turns itself over and doubles itself every ten years, may--mind you,
may--on such a solid foundation as that!--and as to birth, your Highness
has only to grant us a private interview.'

Temple was dazed by this mystifying address to him; nor could I
understand it.

'Why, papa, you always wished for me to go into Parliament,' said I.

'I do,' he replied, 'and I wish you to lead the London great world. Such
topics are for by-and-by. Adieu to them!' He kissed his wafting
finger-tips.

We fell upon our random talk again with a merry rattle.

I had to give him a specimen of my piano-playing and singing.

He shook his head. 'The cricketer and the scholar have been developed at
the expense of the musician; and music, Richie, music unlocks the chamber
of satinrose.'

Late at night we separated. Temple and I slept in companion-rooms. Deadly
drowsy, the dear little fellow sat on the edge of my bed chattering of
his wonder. My dreams led me wandering with a ship's diver under the sea,
where we walked in a light of pearls and exploded old wrecks. I was
assuring the glassy man that it was almost as clear beneath the waves as