Virginia would have played her little comedy, and all might be said to
end well. But Virginia's heart refused to be satisfied with so tame a
last chapter, a finish to her romance so conventional as to be
distastefully obvious, almost if not quite a failure.

She had begun to drink a sweet and stimulating draught--she who had
been brought up on milk and water--and she was reluctant to put down
the cup, still half full of sparkling nectar.

"Once more!" If only that once could be magnified into many times. If
she could have her chance--her "fling," like the lucky girls who were
not Royal!

So she was thinking in the carriage by her mother's side, and the
Grand Duchess had to speak twice, before her daughter knew their
silence had been broken.

"I forgot to tell you something, Virginia."

"Ye-es, Mother?"

"Your great success has made me absent-minded, child. You looked like
a shining white lily among all those handsome, overblown Rhaetian
women."

"Thank you, dear. Was that what you forgot to say?"

"Oh no! It was this. The Baroness von Lyndal has been most kind. She
urges us to give up our rooms at the hotel, on the first of next week,
and join her house party at Schloss Lyndalberg. It's only a few miles
out of town. What do you think of the plan?"

"Leave--Kronburg?"

"She's asked a number of friends--to meet the Emperor."

"Oh! He didn't speak of it--when we danced."

"But she has mentioned it to him since, no doubt,--before giving me
the invitation. Intimate friend of his as she is, she wouldn't dare
ask people to meet him, if he hadn't first sanctioned the suggestion.
Still, she can afford to be more or less informal. The Baroness was
dancing with the Emperor, I remember now, just before she came to me.
They were talking together quite earnestly. I can recall the
expression of his face."

"Was it pleased, or--"

"I was wondering what she could have said to make him look so happy.
Perhaps--"

"What answer did you give Baroness von Lyndal?"

"I told her--I thought you wouldn't mind--I told her we would go."

CHAPTER IX

IRON HEART AT HOME

Schloss Lyndalberg towers high on a promontory, overlooking a lake,
seven or eight miles to the south of the Rhaetian capital. The castle
is comparatively modern, with pointed turrets and fretted minarets,
and, being built of white, Carrara marble, throws a reflection snowy
as a submerged swan, into the clear green water of the Moemmelsee. All
the s