“Come at two o’clock, instead of one o’clock,” replied the count, and he intercepted the look which Ludovicka cast upon the large French clock upon the mantelpiece.  “Yes, we have just a half hour before the Prince makes his appearance, and I hope that will suffice to obtain your highness’s pardon for my boldness, and to establish a good understanding between myself and the most spirituelle, most genial, and most beautiful Princess of all the European courts.  Will your highness be kind enough to grant me a hearing?”

The Princess smiled imperceptibly.  “The question comes somewhat late,” she said.  “If you had asked it while you stood there on the windowsill, before you came into my room, then I should have replied:  ’No, be off!  No, you are a shameless person, who has dared to spy out my secrets, to bribe my servants, and to deceive me, while he approaches me in a way that he knew perfectly was not open to him.’  But you are here now; alas!  I have not the power to expel you, and to punish you before all the world as you deserve.”

“O Princess! as if your harsh and cruel words were not a punishment, which touches my heart more sensibly than the cut of a sword or thrust of a dagger!”

The Princess seemed not to have heard these words of the count, spoken with artistic effect, and continued:  “You are here now, and I will at least know what inspired you to run this unheard-of risk of forcing yourself upon my notice.  I am therefore ready to listen to you, on condition that you try to be short and not burden me too long with your presence.”

“Permit me to thank you, most condescending Princess,” cried the count, while he sank from the ottoman down upon his knees, and pressed his glowing lips upon the hem of the Princess’s robe.  “I thank you, and swear that I will not overstep the limit prescribed, and depart at two with the first stroke of the clock.”

“Rise, count, rise and speak,” said Ludovicka, in commanding tones, and with the full dignity of a Princess.

Count d’Entragues again resumed his seat upon the divan.  “Your highness commands now that I explain how I could have dared to come here?”

“I confess that I am very anxious to hear this explanation.”

“Well, then, your highness is young, very young indeed, hardly eighteen years old, but you possess, in addition to a soft and tender heart, an almost masculine intellect.  I apprehend from this that you interest yourself in politics.”

“There you are entirely mistaken, count.  I hate, I abhor politics, and when my mother proposes to talk politics with me I always run away.”

“That is bad, very bad, your highness; for I am forced to talk politics to you.  But I shall not be tedious, but limit myself to what is absolutely necessary.  I shall therefore begin, in order to give your highness a proof of my reverential, unlimited confidence, by telling you what no one here knows—­by telling you why I have been sent here and what my errand is.  Princess, I have been ostensibly sent here to the Stadtholder of Orange and as ambassador from the King of France to the Sovereign States.  In reality, I have been sent to two entirely different persons—­to the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg and to the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine.”