"You have put in on account of the bad weather, I suppose?" said he.

"Yes, prince, and if your highness will allow me I will spend the whole
day in your delicious villa." (It is far from being delicious.)

"As you please. The princess as well as myself likes it better than our
place at Monaco, so we live here by preference."

"I should be grateful if your highness would present me to the princess."

Without mentioning my name he ordered a page in waiting to present me to
the princess.

The page opened the door of a handsome room and said, "The Princess," and
left me. She was singing at the piano, but as soon as she saw me she rose
and came to meet me. I was obliged to introduce myself, a most unpleasant
thing, and no doubt the princess felt the position, for she pretended not
to notice it, and addressed me with the utmost kindness and politeness,
and in a way that shewed that she was learned in the maxims of good
society. I immediately became very much at my ease, and proceeded in a
lordly manner to entertain her with pleasant talk, though I said nothing
about my two lady friends.

The princess was handsome, clever, and good-natured. Her mother, who knew
that a man like the prince would never make her daughter happy, opposed
the marriage, but the young marchioness was infatuated, and the mother
had to give in when the girl said,--

"O Monaco O monaca." (Either Monaco or a convent.)