poke feelingly of her "Sasha" to mother,
lauding him as the best of sons and the most promising of sovereigns,
but the oft-divorced Majesty was less communicative when mother asked
how many millions she would pass over to Alexander on his marriage day.
That settled "Sasha's" ambitions as far as my hand was concerned. Marry
a Balkan King and the _nee_ Keshko holding the purse-strings! Not for my
father's daughter! I didn't want to marry into a Russian Colonel's
family, anyhow. I believe Queen Natalie's father was a colonel, or was
he only a lieutenant-colonel?

These marriage negotiations aside, Anna and myself had a mighty good
time in Vienna (I forgot to say that Emperor Francis Joseph agreed with
me that Danilo and Alexander were quite impossible and that henceforth
Balkan marriages should be taboo).

"I have ordered a dozen young officers to report for tonight's dancing,"
said my Imperial uncle one evening. "Select from among them your tennis
partners, girls." Baron Cambroy of the Guards was my choice, and a
mighty handsome fellow he is. He seemed pleased when I commanded him to
tennis duty every afternoon during our stay. He is tall and spare in
appearance and I might have fallen in love with him sooner, but for his
dark skin. I am an Italian and, by way of contrast, prefer blondes to
any other sort of man.

Anna, myself and our ladies bicycled to the tennis court every
afternoon, and on our way back to the castle were escorted by the Baron
and the other officers.

Trust a girl with a dress reaching an inch below her knees to find out
scandals! On the second day after our meeting with the Baron, Anna told
me that he was the lover of Draga Maschin, lady-in-waiting to Queen
Natalie of Servia.[4]

Draga was in attendance upon Queen Natalie when she called on us, a
beautiful girl, somewhat too full-bosomed for an unmarried one, like my
great-aunt, Catharine, who became the wife of that upstart, Jerome
Napoleon. At home we have her picture, and mother, who was rather skinny
as a girl, never failed to point out that it was painted before Queen
Catharine's marriage, despite her voluptuous bust.

If my Baron was really Draga's beloved, that would more than half
explain mother's puzzle.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: The same who afterwards became the Queen of King Alexander
of Servia and eventually the cause of his death and of the extinction of
the Obrenovitsch dynasty. Alexander and Draga were both slaughtered in
th