f Spring, of
blossom and lilac. Maria threw open the windows, and the sound of the
gardeners raking the paths of La Favorite gardens came in with the lilac
scent. It was a good world, a very young world! Alas! the Graevenitz felt
old and broken, ill from her night of agony. Maria told her that the
Prussian King had left Ludwigsburg. Very early the cavalcade had started,
and Serenissimus had ridden away with his guest.

'At what hour does his Highness return?' her Excellency queried.

'Not for several days; they say his Highness stays at Heilbronn to-night,
and rides to the frontier with the King to-morrow, then goes
boar-sticking in the Maulbronn forest, and will not return for four or
five days,' the maid answered. The Landhofmeisterin sighed; in happier
days the Duke had bidden her adieu tenderly, if he were forced to leave
her for an hour, and now---- But it was absurd; of course he could not
always worship her like a young lover, but he would never desert her.

'Who is in the antehall this morning, Maria?' she asked.

'No one, your Excellency.'

So the parasites were dropping away from the threatened tree.

* * * * *

All that day and the next, no one disturbed the solitude of La Favorite,
even Baron Schuetz held aloof. On the third morning the Landhofmeisterin
sent for him, but the answer came back that the Finance Minister had left
Ludwigsburg for a few days' rest. The Landhofmeisterin reflected grimly
that Baron Schuetz had never needed repose before.

Eight days passed ere Eberhard Ludwig returned. The Landhofmeisterin's
fears had grown dim, habit had resumed sway. She worked at the affairs of
State each morning, and save that the business was transacted at La
Favorite instead of at the palace, and that Baron Schuetz was replaced by
an underling clerk, everything seemed to have lost that touch of the
unusual which is part of the menace of coming disaster. True, the
courtiers were scarcely assiduous in the visiting of the
Landhofmeisterin, but they dared not absent themselves entirely, for they
were uncertain as to her fate, and they feared both her revenge and her
reputed witchcraft. So they repaired perfunctorily to La Favorite, and
though her Excellency refused to receive visitors, still she was informed
of the courtiers' visits. Thus the old life seemed to be unaltered, and
the Landhofmeisterin forgot her anxiety in a measure, yet a deep
melancholy remained over her.