“That is not true, mamma,” exclaimed Princess Hedwig Sophie; “she is not glad at all.  On the contrary, she cried and lamented all last night, thinking that I was asleep and knew nothing about it.  But I heard everything.  I know that she would rather stay here, and that she finds it charming here all of a sudden, although she used to think it so dull.  But Louise has entirely changed these last four days, and since he has been here she finds tiresome old Berlin a splendid place, and—­”

“But, Hedwig,” interrupted her sister, whose cheeks were suffused with a crimson flush, “what are you talking about, and how can you chatter such nonsense?”

“It is true, she talks nonsense,” said the Electress severely; “yet I should like to know what her words signify.  Who is he who has so transformed tiresome Berlin in your sister’s eyes?”

“Why, you do not know, mamma?” asked the mischievous child, smiling and putting on a look of astonishment.

“You do not know who loves our Louise so ardently, so passionately?  You do not know the man for whose sake she would leave father and mother?  You do not know the only man whom the Princess Charlotte Louise loves?”

“I do not know, but I command you to tell me!” said the Electress dryly.

“Well,” said the Princess, smilingly surveying the group, “it is our dear, only brother—­it is Frederick William.”

“You are a little blockhead!” exclaimed the Electress, shrugging her shoulders and smiling.

“You are a dear little rogue,” said Frederick William, tenderly embracing his willful sister.  She playfully broke away from him, dancing through the hall, and challenging her brother to pursue and overtake her.  Princess Louise said not a word, but the blush upon her cheeks died away, and the expression of horror and alarm vanished from her features.

Still Princess Hedwig Sophie kept up her frolic, and as often as the Prince thought he had caught her she flew off again like a butterfly.  Finally, at the extreme end of the hall, he held her fast, and now, laughingly and tenderly, she flung her arms about his neck, and whispered softly:  “Expect me this evening in your room at nine o’clock.  I have something important to tell you.  Silence!”

Again she let him go, and continued to hop about, laughing merrily and cheerfully as a child.

And in the evening, when the clock in the great corridor had just struck the ninth hour, the Princess Hedwig Sophie slipped unperceived into the room of her brother, who already held the door open for her and awaited her coming.

“Look, here you are, my princess of the fairies,” said he, smiling.  “What is there now on hand, and what playful scheme are you revolving in your mind to-day?”

But the countenance of the Princess exhibited no signs of playfulness.  It was pale, and her whole being seemed under the influence of violent excitement.