"And he is already in the anteroom, and waits for an immediate
audience?"

"Yes, your majesty."

"Well, then, I will receive him," said the emperor, rising. "Conduct
the ambassador to the small audience-room.--Well?" asked the
emperor, wonderingly, when the chamberlain did not withdraw. "You do
not go? Do you wish to tell me any thing else?"

"I do, your majesty. A courier has just arrived from Paris with
pressing dispatches from Count Metternich to your majesty."

"Ah, that changes the matter!" exclaimed the emperor. "Tell the
ambassador that I can not receive him now, but that he is to come
back in an hour, at eleven precisely, when I shall be ready to
receive him. Tell the courier to come to me at once."

The chamberlain slipped noiselessly out of the door, and the emperor
turned again to the empress:

"Empress," he said, "do me the honor of permitting me to offer you
my arm, and conduct you back to your rooms. You see I am a poor,
tormented man, who is so overwhelmed with business that he cannot
even chat an hour with his wife without being disturbed. Pity me a
little, and prove it to me by permitting me henceforth to rest in
your presence from the cares of business, and not talk politics."

"The wish of my lord and emperor shall be fulfilled," said the