This afternoon the King came to take tea with us.  I had not seen him since the death of the Queen.  It was a great pleasure to have him in my house.  He and I sat in the large salon, while Johan, the King’s adjutant, and a German gentleman attached to the King during his stay here remained in the next room.  The King only talked about the Queen.  I, who loved her so much, was all tears.  His Majesty once in a while would put his hand on mine and say, “You loved her.”  We had our tea alone.  He told me that the Queen’s room in Amalienborg remains just as she had left it.  My photograph was on the mantelpiece in her boudoir, and the cushion that I had embroidered for her was still on her chaise-longue.  Nothing there was to be disturbed.

As the King left I pointed to the portrait of himself he had given me, which was hanging on the wall.  I said: 

“I prize this, your Majesty, more than anything I own, because you gave it to me yourself.”

“I was better-looking then than I am now.  Is that not true?”

“Your Majesty is always handsome in my eyes,” I answered.

“Dear madame, you make me vain.”  And he took my hand, and the kind King kissed it like a preux chevalier of the old school.

As I followed him to the door he said, “Do not come any farther; you will take cold.  I will bid you good-by here.”  He is about eighty-five years old, and as youthful in his movements as a young man.

J. said, “I am sorry we have no lift.”

[Illustration: 
QUEEN LOUISE OF DENMARK
From a photograph taken in 1878.  She was the wife of King Christian
IX., and the mother of Queen Alexandra of England, Empress Dagmar of
Russia, King George of Greece, and various royalties.]

“I do not need a lift; I can still run down the stairs.”  Which he did in a surprising manner.

The King left that evening; and as he begged me not to come to the station, J. went without me.

February, 1903.

As Johan is accredited to the Court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, we were invited to a great court ball which was to be given.  We arrived at Schwerin at twelve o’clock, and found the marechal de la cour, the court servants and carriages at the station awaiting us.  We were not installed in the castle, but at the Grand Duchess Marie’s palace in the town itself.  The marechal who met us informed us that we were expected to luncheon at one o’clock.  We just had time to change our dresses and drive to the castle.  The lady of honor and the marechal de la cour received us in the hall on the ground floor, and the elevator took us up to the salon where the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess were awaiting us.

The Grand Duchess is very charming and very handsome.  She is the daughter of the Duchess of Cumberland, granddaughter of King Christian.  We had luncheon in one corner of the vaulted hall—­a luncheon of twenty people.  I sat on the right of the Grand Duke, who was most amiable.  After luncheon the Grand Duchess took me into her boudoir and showed me all her souvenirs—­photographs of Bernstorff, a screen painted by the Queen of Denmark, and aquarelles of Gmunden, her home.  She has all the charm of her dear mother and her beloved grandmother.