Albert arrived; and the whole structure of her existence crumbled into nothingness like a house of cards.  He was beautiful—­she gasped—­she knew no more.  Then, in a flash, a thousand mysteries were revealed to her; the past, the present, rushed upon her with a new significance; the delusions of years were abolished, and an extraordinary, an irresistible certitude leapt into being in the light of those blue eyes, the smile of that lovely mouth.  The succeeding hours passed in a rapture.  She was able to observe a few more details—­the “exquisite nose,” the “delicate moustachios and slight but very slight whiskers,” the “beautiful figure, broad in the shoulders and a fine waist.”  She rode with him, danced with him, talked with him, and it was all perfection.  She had no shadow of a doubt.  He had come on a Thursday evening, and on the following Sunday morning she told Lord Melbourne that she had “a good deal changed her opinion as to marrying.”  Next morning, she told him that she had made up her mind to marry Albert.  The morning after that, she sent for her cousin.  She received him alone, and “after a few minutes I said to him that I thought he must be aware why I wished them to come here—­and that it would make me too happy if he would consent to what I wished (to marry me.)” Then “we embraced each other, and he was so kind, so affectionate.”  She said that she was quite unworthy of him, while he murmured that he would be very happy “Das Leben mit dir zu zubringen.”  They parted, and she felt “the happiest of human beings,” when Lord M. came in.  At first she beat about the bush, and talked of the weather, and indifferent subjects.  Somehow or other she felt a little nervous with her old friend.  At last, summoning up her courage, she said, “I have got well through this with Albert.”  “Oh! you have,” said Lord M.

CHAPTER IV.  MARRIAGE

I

It was decidedly a family match.  Prince Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel of Saxe-Coburg—­Gotha—­for such was his full title—­had been born just three months after his cousin Victoria, and the same midwife had assisted at the two births.  The children’s grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, had from the first looked forward to their marriage, as they grew up, the Duke, the Duchess of Kent, and King Leopold came equally to desire it.  The Prince, ever since the time when, as a child of three, his nurse had told him that some day “the little English May flower” would be his wife, had never thought of marrying anyone else.  When eventually Baron Stockmar himself signified his assent, the affair seemed as good as settled.