king
dazzlingly beautiful; she was wearing the same green velvet cloak,
trimmed with ermine, that he had had in his hands a short time before,
but almost immediately she let it fall from her shoulders, and showed a
bust which was worthy of the Goddess of Love. She spoke with her husband
with much animation, and smiled with her usual cold smile, though she did
not give her adorer even a passing look, but, in spite of this, he felt
the happiest of mortals.

In Vienna, however, the Count was not as fortunate as he had been at
Karlsbad, where he had first met her, for his beautiful mistress only
came to see him once a week; often she only stopped a short time with
him, and once nearly six weeks passed without her favoring him at all,
and she did not even make any excuse for remaining away. Just then,
however, Leonie's husband accidentally made the young officer's
acquaintance at the Jockey Club, took a fancy to him, and asked him
to go and see him at his house.

When he called and found the Princess alone his heart felt as if it would
burst with pleasure, and seizing her hand, he pressed it ardently to his
lips. "What are you doing, Count?" she said, drawing back. "You are
behaving very strangely." "We are alone," the young officer whispered,
"so why this mask of innocence? Your cruelty is driving me mad, for it is
six weeks since you came to see me last." "I certainly think you are out
of your mind," the Princess replied, with every sign of the highest
indignation, and hastily left the drawing-room. Nothing else remained for
the Count but to do the same thing, but his mind was in a perfect whirl,
and he was quite incapable of explaining to himself the Princess's
enigmatical behavior. He dined at an hotel with some friends, and when he
got home he found a note in which the Princess begged him to pardon her,
and promised to justify her conduct, for which purpose she would see him
at eight o'clock that evening.

Scarcely, however, had he read her note, when two of his brother-officers
came to see him, and asked him, with well-simulated anxiety, whether he
were ill. When he said that he was perfectly well, one of them continued,
laughing: "Then please explain the occurrence that is in everybody's
mouth to-day, in which you play such a comical part."--"I, a comical
part?" the Count shouted.--"Well, is it not very comical when you call on
a lady like Princess Leonie, whom you do not know, to upbraid her for her
cruelty, and m