River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-06-20
CHAPTER XV-continued.

his interests will be looked after, not
only here, but by you and yours. We
have a certain element here that is
troublesome
And Karl, with HedWig in his mind,
had promised.
Ellis interests shall be mine, SIR
he had said.
He had bent over the bed then, and
raised the thin hand to his lips. The
interview was oyer. In the anterOOm
the kings master of the horse, the
chamberlain, and few other gentle
men stood waiting talking together in
low tones. But the chancellor, who
had gone in with Karl and then re-
tired, stood by a window, with his
arms folded over his chest, and waited.
He put resolutely out Of his mind the
face of the dying man on his pillows,
and thought only of this thing which
-Mettlich--had brought about
There was no yielding in his face or
in his heart, no doubt Of his course.
He saw, instead Of the lovers lettering
in the place, a new and greater king
dom, anarchy held down by an IRON
shod heel, peace and the fruits there
of, until out of very prosperity the
people grew fat and content.
He saw boy king, carefully taught,
growing into his responsibilities until,
big with the vision of the country's
welfare, he should finally ascend the
throne. He saw the river filed with
ships. carrying merchandise over the
world and returning with the wealth
of the world. Great buildings, too,
lifted their heads on his horizon,
dream city, with order for disorder,
and citizens instead of inhabitants.
When at last he stirred and sighed,
it was because his old friend, in his
bed in the next room, would see moth
ing of all this. and that he himself
could not hope for more than the be-
ginning, before his time came also.
The first large dinner for months
was given that night at the palace, to
do King Karl all possible honor. The
gold service which had been presented
to the king by the car Of Russia was
used. The anticipatory gloom of the
brought from vaults were worn for the
first time in months. Uniforms of
various sorts, but all gorgeous, touched
tine shoulders, and came away, bear
ing white, poWdery traces of the meet
ing. The greenhouses at the summer
palace had been sacked for flowers and
plants. The corridor from the great
salon to the dining hall, always a
dreary passage, had suddenly become
a fairy path of early spring bloom.
Even Annunciata, hung now with
ropes of pearls, her hair dressed high
for a tiara of diamonds, her canoes
exchanged for pearls, looked royal.
Proving conclusiyely that clutter, as to
dress, is entirely a matter of value.
Miss Braithwaite, who had begun
recently to think palace the dreariest
place in the world, and the most COM
mOnplace, found the preparations
rather exciting. Being British she
dearly loved the aristOcracy, and
shrugged her shoulders at any family
which took up less than page in the
peerage. She resented deeply the in
trusiOn of the commoner into British
politics, and considered Lloyd George
an upstart and an interloper.
That evening she took the crown
prince to see the preparations for the
festivities. The flowers appealed to
him, and he asked for and secured
rose, which he held carefully. But the
magnifcence of the table only family
fV1V \; I10 0y.I
that Milky would not be present, he
lost interest entirely. ''Will they
wheel my grandfather in in a chair?"
he inquired.
He is too ill.," Miss Braithwaite
said.
He'll be rather lonely, when they're
all at the party: You don't suppose I
could go and sit with him, do you?"
1T viii be long after your bed
time"
Bedtime being the one rule which was
never under and circumstances broken,
he did not persist. To have insisted
might have meant five marks off in
Miss Braithwaite's book, and his rec
ord was very good that week. To-
gether the elderly English woman and
the boy went back to the school room.
The Countess Loschek, who had
dressed with a heavy heart, was easily
the most beautiful of the women that
night. A little court paid tribute to
her beauty, and bowed the deeper and
battered the more as she openly
scorned and f1outed them. She caught
once a flicker of admiration in Karrs
face, and although her head went
high, her heart beat stormily under
it.
Hedwig was like flower that re-
Quired the sun. Only her sun was
happiness. She was in soft white
chiffons, her hair and frock alike girl
ish and unpretentious. Her mother,
coming into her dressing room, had
eyed her with disfavor.
"You look like a schoolgirl" she
said, and had sent for rouge, and with
her own ROYAL hands auplied If He'd