tward fairness, covering a mass of inner
corruption.

'Is this the only answer you have, Osiander?' she asked roughly.

'Yes, your Excellency, and if it were to be my last word on earth.'

The Graevenitz looked at him fixedly for a moment; after all, she rather
admired his intrepidity.

'Your audience is at an end,' she said haughtily, and bowed slightly as
though she were really some rightful sovereign dismissing a froward
courtier.

The Prelate returned her salute equally slightly, and turning away with a
sigh, he left her presence.

In later years the estimable man was wont to aver he had never been so
near to insulting a woman, yet he would add:

'But she was great in her very wickedness! Surely she must have been one
of the angels fallen from Heaven and apprenticed in Hell! for of a truth
she was in evil as compared with ordinary sinners, what in holiness is a
saint compared with ordinary good people. A wonderful woman, alas!'

Ah, Osiander, did she leave some clinging fragrance, some spark of her
subtle charm, to tingle for ever through your pure, simple soul?

* * * * *

In 1716 the Erbprinz Friedrich Ludwig had espoused Henriette Marie of
Brandenburg-Schwedt, a pretty and most correct Princess who possessed,
among other graceful talents, a perfect genius for tasteful dressing. The
marriage festivities had not taken place at Stuttgart, in order to avoid
the obvious complications of the meeting of the bridegroom's parents. The
Erbprinz hardly knew his father, for Eberhard Ludwig had permitted him to
remain chiefly with the Duchess in Stuttgart. At least the unfortunate
Johanna Elizabetha was granted the happiness of watching over her gentle,
sickly son. The boy had led a dull life enough in deserted Stuttgart, and
his natural aptitude for music and study had thus found free scope.
Immediately after his marriage, however, he was commanded to reside at
Ludwigsburg, where a fine suite of apartments was prepared for him and
his bride.

Friedrich Ludwig protested that he desired to remain in Stuttgart, but
the Landhofmeisterin willed it otherwise, and Serenissimus enforced her
will.

Henriette Marie played her part in this difficult position with dignity
and well-bred tact. She was perfectly correct in her demeanour towards
the Landhofmeisterin, yet she kept her at a distance and gently rebutted
the mistress's friendly advances, and refused to notice her subsequent
sneers.