Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-15
worth II. A policeman shook me r

RaACo ObtOs
81 think I'll not tell you, If you don't
mind"
Fortune smiled on Milky that day.
Had, indeed, been smiling daily for
some three weeks. Singulariy enough,
the Princess Hedwig, who had been
placed OF a pony at the early age of
two, and who had been wont to boast
that she could ride any horse in her
grandfather's stables, was taking rid
ing lessons. From twelve to one
which was, also singularly, the time
Prince Ferdinand William Otto and
Milky rode in the ring-the Princess
Hedwig rode also. Rode divinely.
Rode saucily. Rode, when Nikky-was
ahead, tender1y.
To tell the truth, Prince Ferdinand
William Otto rather hoped, this norm
ing. that Hedwig would not be there.
There was a difference in Milky when
gE dwig was around. When she was
.ot there he would do all sorts of
things, like Jumping on his horse while
1t was going. and riding backward In
the saddle, and so on. He had once
even tried jumping on his horse as 1t
galloped past him, and missed, and
had been awfully ashamed about 1t.
But when Hedwig was there, there
was no skylarking. They rode around,
and the riding master put up jumps
and they took them. And finally He'd
wig would get tired, and ask Milky
please to be amusing while she rested.
And he would not be amusing at all.
The crown prince felt that she
really saw Milky at his best.
The riding school had been built for
officers of the army, but was now used
by the court only. Here the king had
ridden as a lad with young Mettlich,
his close friend even then. The favor
lite mare of his later years, now old
and almost blind, still had a stall In
the adjacent royal stables. One of the
kings last excursions abroad had been
to visit her.
Overhead, UP a great runway, were
the state chariots, gilt coaches o. in
conceivable weight, travelling carriages
of the post-chaise periods, sleighs in
WHICH, 1OuE uOIScS ulONt dDltuol, llSll
panels painted by the great artists of
the time; and one plain little vehicle,
very shabby, in which the royal chill
dren of long ago had fled from a Kar-
MAN invasion.
In one corner, black and gold and
forbidding, was the imposing hearse in
which the dead sovereigns of the
try were taken to their long sleep in
the vaults under the cathedral. Good,
bad, and Indifferent, one after the
other. as their hour came, they had
taken their last journey in the old
catafalque, and had joined their for
bears. Many they had been: men of
iron, men of blood. men of flesh, men
of water. And now they lay in stone
crypts, and of all the line only two
remained.
One and all, the royal vehicles were
shrouded in sheets, except on n day
of each month when the sheets were
on that morning the great hearse was
uncovered. and two men were working,
one at the upholstery, which he was
brushing. The other was carefully oil
ing the wood of the body. Save for
them, the wide and dusky loft was
empty.
The archduchess was having tea.
Her boudoir was a crowded little
room. The archduchess liked it be-
cause 1t was warm. The palace rooms
were mostly large and chilly. She had
a fire there on the wsrmest days in
spring, and liked to put the Goals on,
herself. She had them wrapped in
pieces of paper so she would not soil
her hands.
This afternoon she was not alone.
Lounging at a window was the lady
who was waiting at the time, the
Countess Loschek. Just now she was
getting rather a wigging, but she was
remarkably calm.
1.-THE last three times" the arch
duchess said, stirring her tea, I"you
have had a sore throat. In my opinion,
you smoke too many cigarettes"
The Countess Loschek was thirty,
and very handsome, in an insolent
way. She was supposed to be the best
dressed woman at the court, and to
rule Annunciata with an iron hand,
although it was known that they
quarreled q great deal over small
things, especially owe the coal fire.
Some said that the real thing that
held them together was resentment
that the little crown prince stood be-
tween the Princess Hedwig and the
throne. Annunciata was not young,
but she vas younger than her dead
brother Hubert.
The countess yawned.
"Where is Hedwig?" demanded the
archduchess.
"Her royal highness is in the nurs-
cry, probably"
"Why probably"