decision.... When our Syrian guests have left ... I ... I am going on
a journey...."

"Where to, highness?"

"To ... to different European courts...."

She asked nothing more; her smile died away; then she smiled again, like
an automaton. She asked nothing more, because she well knew what it
meant when a crown-prince went on a journey to different European
courts. That meant a bridal progress. And she merely said, in a voice
that could not but sound plaintively:

"So soon?..."

So soon!... Was her imperial romance to last so short a time? She had
indeed known that this might be the end of it, for she knew him to be
too pure to retain her by the side of a young consort. Also she had
pictured an end like this after a year, two years perhaps, she
withdrawing herself, and she had pictured to herself that she would do
so without any feeling of spite against her young future empress. But
now! So soon! Barely a few weeks! So short a time as that no romance of
her life had ever lasted! She felt an aching melancholy; a mist hazed
over her eyes; and the lights of the ballroom shimmered before her as if
through water. She constantly forgot to smile, but, so soon as she
remembered, she smiled again:

"So soon?..."

"It must be...."

Yes, it must be, it could not be otherwise. For her, this was the end of
her life. She felt no despair because of this ending; only a smarting
sorrow. It was the end. After this imperial romance there would be no
other. Oh no, never more! She would sacrifice her youth to it; she would
launch her stepdaughters into society. She would be grateful that she
had lived and would now grow old. But old: she was still so young, she
still felt herself so young! She now first perceived how she loved her
crown-prince. And she would have liked to be elsewhere, far from the
brilliant ball, to embrace him once more alone, for the last time....
Oh, this sorrow because everything must end, as though nothing were more
than a fleeting perfume!...

"I am trusting you, duchess," he now said. "I hope you will say nothing
about this journey. You understand, it is all still a secret; no choice
has been made yet ... it has been discussed with no one except their
majesties and Myxila. I can trust you, can't I?"

She smilingly nodded yes.

"But I wanted to tell you at once," he continued.

She smiled again. At this moment a strange storm seemed to burst ...
behind the palace, under the palace, where? Right throug