h, in
neighborly, frank, girlish fashion.

It was somewhat late, for Sophie Dorothea was rather an indolent little
princess. As she lay there dreaming, with her beautiful dark eyes wide
open, her mother, pale and agitated, entered the chamber. The Duchess of
Celle hurriedly informed her daughter that there had been a complete
change of plans. Early that morning, after travelling all night in her
haste, the Electress Sophie had arrived at the castle. It was the wish
of the reigning house, the electress said, that Sophie Dorothea should
marry her cousin, George Louis of Hanover, son of the Elector Ernest
Augustus and his wife, Sophie. The proposed marriage with the Prince of
Wolfenbuttel had therefore been hurriedly abandoned.

Now Sophie Dorothea knew her cousin George well. She hated and despised
him. Fastidious to a degree, she called her cousin a lout, and declared
amid a storm of tears and sobs that she would never marry him. Duke
George William was called in to persuade or command his daughter. He
came, bringing with him as a gift from the Duchess of Hanover a picture
of George Louis set in diamonds. Sophie Dorothea did not receive this
love token prettily. She threw it against the opposite wall with such
force that the miniature was hopelessly smashed, and the precious stones
were scattered on the floor.

But Sophie of Hanover gained her point, as she did always. The marriage
was consummated, and the immense fortune of Sophie Dorothea was tightly
secured to the reigning electoral house of Hanover. Sophie of Hanover
never made a pecuniary mistake. In the present instance the wily
electress figured so closely that little Sophie Dorothea was practically
left without a penny.

The pretty, lively young bride found the court life of Hanover, with its
interminable rules of etiquette, stupid and tiresome. Of her bridegroom
even his mother said:

"Sophie Dorothea will find her match in him. A more obstinate, pigheaded
boy than my son George never lived. If he has any brains at all they are
surrounded by such a thick crust that nobody has ever been able to
discover what is in them." He did not want to marry this girl, but was
tempted by her ten thousand pounds a year.

Two children, a boy and a girl, were born to George Louis and Sophie
Dorothea. The electress superintended the babies and interfered at every
turn to thwart her daughter-in-law's wishes concerning them. The prince
was harsh, cold, and sullen toward his