beloved! He will know it, he will understand
why his Anna has chosen this particular day, and he will thank me
with one of those proud and glowing glances which always made my heart
tremulous with overpowering happiness. Oh, my Lynar, what a blessed
moment will be that when I see you again!"

A slight knock at the door interrupted the imaginings of the princess.
It was Julia von Mengden, who came to announce the old Count Ostermann.

"And is it for him that you disturb my delightful solitude?" asked the
princess, somewhat reproachfully. "Is this Count Ostermann, is
this whole miserable realm of so much importance to me as the sweet
contemplation of a letter from my friend? When I am reading his letter
it seems to me that my beloved himself is at my side, and therefore you
must clearly see that I cannot receive Count Ostermann, as Lynar is with
me!"

"Put your letter and your lover in your bosom," said Julia, with a
laugh; "he will be very happy there, and then you can receive the
old count without betraying your lover's presence! The count has so
pressingly begged for an audience that I finally promised to intercede
with you for him."

"Ah, this eternal business!" angrily exclaimed the princess. "They will
never let me have any peace; they harass me the whole day. Even now,
when it is time to be making my toilet for the ball--even now I must be
tormented with affairs of state."

"Shall I, then, send away Count Ostermann?" sulkily asked Julia.

"That I may, consequently, for the whole evening see you with a
dissatisfied face? No, let him come; but forget not that I submit to
this annoyance only to please you."

With a grateful smile, Julia kissed the regent's hand, and then hastened
to bear to Count Ostermann the favorable answer.

In a few minutes, Count Ostermann, painfully supporting himself upon two
crutches, entered the regent's cabinet.

Anna Leopoldowna received him, sitting in an armchair, and listlessly
rummaging in a band-box filled with various articles of dress and
embroidery, which had just been brought to her.

"Well," said she, raising her eyes for a moment to glance at Ostermann,
"you come at a very inconvenient hour, Herr Minister Count Ostermann.
You see that I am already occupied with my toilet, and am endeavoring to
find a suitable head-dress. Will you aid me in the choice, sir count?"

Ostermann had until now, painfully and with many suppressed groans,
sustained himself upon his feet; a