'Well, in England, at any rate, the fact is, their training is so
imperfect they daren't let themselves go. It's only when a man possesses
the lower secrets of his art perfectly that he can aim at the higher. But
the band is nearly through the overture. Just tell me before the curtain
goes up something about the play. I have only very vague ideas about it.
The scene is laid at Berlin?'

'Yes; in the Altes Schloss at Berlin. The story is based upon the legend
of the White Lady.'

'What? the warning phantom of the Hohenzollerns?'

Mrs. Stuart nodded. 'A Crown-Prince of Prussia is in love with the
beautiful Countess Hilda von Weissenstein. Reasons of State, however,
oblige him to throw her over and to take steps towards marriage with a
Princess of Würtemberg. They have just been betrothed when the Countess,
mad with jealousy, plays the part of the White Lady and appears to the
Princess, to try and terrify her out of the proposed marriage.'

'And the Countess is Miss Bretherton?'

'Yes. Of course the malicious people say that her get-up as the White
Lady is really the _raison d'etre_ of the piece. But hush! there is the
signal. Make up your mind to be bored by the Princess; she is one of the
worst sticks I ever saw!'

The first scene represented the ballroom at the Schloss, or rather the
royal anteroom, beyond which the vista of the ballroom opened. The
Prussian and Würtemberg royalties had not yet arrived, with the exception