He did not mind at all being dressed up as a Sambo, and favored particularly a yellow wig.  He has very yellowish skin, almond eyes, and beautiful white teeth.  He came to see us straight from the castle, where he had been to see the King.  He was very enthusiastic about his Majesty (who is not?).  He told us how the King had taken the grand cordon of the Seraphim Order off his own shoulders and hung it on his.  The King being a giant, and Prince Chira about the size of a boy of ten, you can imagine how the cordon fitted him.  Chira said, “I reached up to about the King’s waist, and when the King put the cordon on me it trailed on the ground, and I kept tripping over it when I left the room.  It is most awkward,” he added, laughing, “and I must wear it to-night at the big dinner at court which the King gives me.”

“Leave it with me, and I will have a tuck made in it and send it to you before dinner.”  This he did.  We measured off how much of a tuck should be made, and sent it to him in time.  He came the next day to thank me and bid us good-by.  He said, “I looked splendid last night in my cordon.”

In June and July it is never really dark in these latitudes.  The sun shines till eleven o’clock, the birds sing and bustle about during the so-called night, and the cocks begin to crow at absurd hours.  They must be perplexed as to what they are doing all these months.  The early bird has to be very early to get off with the worm.

BAYREUTH, August, 1893.

Dear L.,—­At last my dream of dreams has become a reality—­under what enchanting conditions!  Mrs. L., my beloved friend, invited me to stay three weeks with her in the apartment which she has taken, 28 Opernstrasse, which was the habitation of Wagner’s special doctor.  Mrs. L.’s other guests were her sister, her niece, and Mr. and Mrs. Brimmer from Boston.  Johan promised to join us later.  Mrs. L, had her own cook and servants, and we lived like princes of the blood.  A walk about the streets in the morning, then a sumptuous lunch, and then a little siesta to fit us for the rest (or rather fatigue) of the day.

At a little before four the carriages were at the door and we drove up the hill to the Shrine, passing the foot-sore and weary pilgrims toiling on their way.  The servant took our hats and coats, for no one must wear a hat in the audience, and no one needed a coat in this awful heat.

[Illustration:  THE RIKSDAG OF SWEDEN From a photograph showing the opening of the Riksdag at Stockholm, January, 1897.  The De Hegermann-Lindencrones were doyen and doyenne of the diplomatic corps; he stands in the gallery on the left, fourth from end.]