soon be home again. I can count the days on my
fingers."

Mademoiselle Kramer now told Walpurga that a chamber[2] had been
prepared for the crown prince.

"He has rooms enough already," said Walpurga.

Mademoiselle Kramer was again obliged to undertake the difficult task
of explaining the court custom, in such matters, to Walpurga, who made
her go over the various names again and again. She would always begin
thus:

"The crown prince will have an ayah--"

"Ayah? what sort of a word's that? what does that mean?"

"It means the prince's waiting-maid. And when his royal highness
becomes four years old, he will have a new set of officers; and so on,
as he grows older, only the new set will always be of higher rank than
those who precede them."

"Yes, I can easily understand it," thought Walpurga; "new people and
new palaces, constant change; how lucky that your eyes and your limbs
are fast to you; if it wasn't for that, they'd be getting you new ones
every year or two."

Walpurga felt reassured when she learned that Frau von Gerloff, a lady
of noble birth and, hitherto, first waiting-woman to the queen, had
been appointed as ayah to the prince. Walpurga had known her for a long
while and said to her:

"If any one had asked me who should take charge of the prince, you'd
have been my first choice. This is only another proof of the queen's
wisdom and her kind heart. She gives up her dearest friend for the sake
of her son."

Walpurga deemed it necessary to give Frau von Gerloff various
directions as to the management of the prince. The good lady listened
to her patiently. When Walpurga next saw the queen, she felt it
necessary to express her satisfaction with the arrangements which had
been made.

"You'd have done very well," said she to Madame Leoni, the queen's
second waiting-maid; "but our good queen can't afford to part with both
hands at once."

Madame Leoni smiled her thanks, although she really felt mortified and
thought that she had been slighted because of her being a commoner. But
the first law of court life is: "Take offense at nothing."

The slumbering infant-prince had no idea of the jealous feelings which
already played about his cradle.

By degrees, Walpurga got her effects ready, and, when packing up
certain articles, she would say: "No one would dream that heart's blood
is clinging to you."

Doctor Gunther had given orders that Walpurga should often leave the
prince for a while, in order