ed
Annunciata's hand.

"So--this is what you are doing," observed Her Royal Highness to Hedwig.
"In this--this undignified manner you spend your time!"

"It is very innocent fun, mother."

For that matter, there was nothing very dignified in the scene that
followed. The Archduchess dismissed the governess and the Crown Prince,
quite as if he had been an ordinary child, and naughty at that. Miss
Braithwaite looked truculent. After all, the heir to the throne is the
heir to the throne and should have the privilege of his own study. But
Hedwig gave her an appealing glance, and she went out, closing the door
with what came dangerously near being a slam.

The Archduchess surveyed the two remaining culprits with a terrible
gaze. "Now," she said, "how long have these ridiculous performances been
going on?"

"Mother!" said Hedwig.

"Answer me."

"The question is absurd. There was no harm in what we were doing. It
amused Otto. He has few enough pleasures. Thanks to all of us, he is
very lonely."

"And since when have you assumed the responsibility for his upbringing?"

"I remember my own dreary childhood," said Hedwig stiffly.

The Archduchess turned on her furiously. "More and more," she said, "as
you grow up, Hedwig, you remind me of your unfortunate father. You have
the same lack of dignity, the same"--she glanced at Nikky--"the same
common tastes, the same habit of choosing strange society, of forgetting
your rank."

Hedwig was scarlet, but Nikky had gone pale. As for the Archduchesss,
her cameos were rising and falling stormily. With hands that shook;
Hedwig picked up her jacket and hat. Then she moved toward the door.

"Perhaps you are right, mother," she said, "but I hope I shall never
have the bad taste to speak ill of the dead." Then she went out.

The scene between the Archduchess and Nikky began in a storm and ended
in a sort of hopeless quiet. Miss Braithwaite had withdrawn to her
sitting-room, but even there she could hear the voice of Annunciata,
rasping and angry.

It was very clear to Nikky from the beginning that the Archduchess's
wrath was not for that afternoon alone. And in his guilty young mind
rose various memories, all infinitely dear, all infinitely, incredibly
reckless--other frolics around the tea-table, rides in the park, lessons
in the riding-school. Very soon he was confessing them all, in reply to
sharp questions. When the tablet of his sins was finally uncovered, the
Archduchess