anger at the queen's disregard of
etiquette.

"The queen's conduct deprives her favors of their value," said an
elderly court lady, who must have had at least a pound and a half of
false hair on her head.

"Nothing is so great a bore as mawkish sensibility," observed another
one of the ladies attached to the palace. She was corpulent, and
piously inclined withal. As if to cover her ill-natured remark with the
mantle of charity, she added:

"The queen isn't much more than a child, and really means well at
heart."

She had thus made herself safe with both parties--those who praised,
and those who abused the queen.

"You look as if you had slept but little," said an elderly lady,
addressing a very young and pale-looking one.

"You are right," sighed the latter, in reply. "I sat up to read the
last volume of ----" giving the name of a recent unequivocal French
novel--"and finished it at a single sitting. I shall return the book to
you to-day. It is very interesting."

"Please let me have it next," resounded from several quarters at once.

The pious lady, who had, indeed, read the novel in secret and was loth
to talk of such subjects, changed the conversation by introducing the
topic of Walpurga. As the latest piece of news, she acquainted them
with the report that the nurse could sing beautifully.

"Who sings beautifully?" inquired Countess Irma, joining the group.

"This will interest you, dear Wildenort. You will be able to learn many
new songs from Walpurga, and accompany them on the zither."

"I'll wait until we are in the country again. A peasant woman seems
strangely out of place in a palace. When does the court return to the
country?"

"Not for six weeks."

There was much talk about Walpurga. One lady maintained that Doctor
Gunther was a native of the Highlands, and that it was only through his
intriguing that a nurse had to be brought from the same region; that he
was constantly surrounding himself with allies, and was clever enough
to know that this person would exert a great influence upon the queen.
They also spoke of the doctor's love of intrigue, and of his affecting
to sympathize with the queen in all her extravagant fancies. Of one
thing they all felt assured: that it was impossible to retain the favor
of the court for so long a time, by fair means alone.

"The doctor isn't so very old," remarked a very thin lady. "He is only
a little over fifty. I think he must have dyed his hair white, in