sands; they are famous on the Continent. It was bruited last Winter and
Spring that she would be here in the season for bathing; so I held it
likely we should meet. We have, you behold. In point of fact, we owe
the good margravine some show of hospitality. The princess has a passion
for tossing on the sea. To her a yacht is a thing dropped from the moon.
His Highness the prince her father could as soon present her with one as
with the moon itself. The illustrious Serenity's revenue is absorbed, my
boy, in the state he has to support. As for his daughter's dowry, the
young gentleman who anticipates getting one with her, I commend to the
practise of his whistling. It will be among the sums you may count, if
you are a moderate arithmetician, in groschen. The margravine's income I
should reckon to approach twenty thousand per annum, and she proves her
honourable sense that she holds it in trust for others by dispersing it
rapidly. I fear she loves cards. So, then, I shall go and hire the
yacht through Dettermain and Newson, furnish it with piano and swing-cot,
etc.; and if the ladies shrink from a cruise they can have an occasional
sail. Here are we at their service. I shall be seriously baffled by
fortune if I am not back to you at the end of a week. You will take your
early morning walk, I presume. On Sunday see that our chaplain, the
excellent Mr. Peterborough, officiates for the assembled Protestants of
all nations. It excites our English enthusiasm. In addition, son
Richie, it is peculiarly our duty. I, at least, hold the view that it is
a family duty. Think it over, Richie boy. Providence, you see, has sent
us the man. As for me, I feel as if I were in the dawn of one life with
all the mature experience of another. I am calm, I am perfectly
unexcited, and I tell you, old son, I believe--pick among the highest--
our destinies are about the most brilliant of any couple in Great
Britain.'

His absence relieved me in spite of my renewed pleasure in his talk; I