But what use is it to mourn my fate.  Nothing can change the fact that we are bidding good-by to Italy.

STOCKHOLM, 1890-1897

STOCKHOLM, October, 1890.

Dear L.,—­We arrived here (our new post) at an early hour in the morning.  We found the secretary and carriages waiting for us, and drove to the hotel, where we stayed until our apartment was quite ready.  Our furniture from Rome has already arrived, so all we have to do now is, like coffee, to settle.

We have taken the same house that has been the Danish Legation for the last forty years, and where Johan used to live when he was secretary here twenty years ago.

The apartment is very large.  It has twenty-four rooms, ten windows on Drottning Gatan, and thirteen on the side-street.  The ballroom has five windows (three on one street and two on another); a large salon, two smaller salons, a library, and a spacious dining-room; and it has (quite rare in Stockholm) a porte-cochere.  The Chancellery is in the courtyard, having its separate entrance and staircase.

The evening before we left Copenhagen we had the honor of dining with the King and Queen of Denmark, at Amalienborg.  It was a family dinner, J. and I being the only guests.  After dinner the Queen talked a long time with me and handed me the letter she had written to the Queen of Sweden.

“I told her,” she said, “that I was very fond of you, and I knew that she would be equally so.  And how the Duke of Nassau [her brother] admired you and your singing.”

“If your Majesty hadn’t said it, I never would have believed that the Duke liked my singing.  I was under the impression that he would have liked me better without the singing.”

“Yes,” the Queen said, “I confess that he is not musical, and does not like all music, but he really did like to hear you sing.  He told me so.”

“Of course he knows,” I answered, “but he is the last person from whom I expected to receive a compliment.”

As their Majesties retired, the Queen held out her hand, and when I stooped to kiss it she kissed me affectionately on both cheeks.  The King, on shaking hands with me, said, “God Reise” which is Danish for bon voyage.

The first days in a new post are always very busy ones.  My first visit was to the doyenne of the Corps Diplomatique, Baroness Ph.  She gave me a list of visits to be made, and a quantity of her own cards with pour presenter with mine.

Yesterday J. was received by the King, and presented his lettres de creance.

Although J. had been Secretary of Legation, and had been groomsman at the marriage in Stockholm of the Crown Prince of Denmark to Princess Louise (niece of King Oscar), and was very well known to the King, all the regular formalities had to be gone through with.  J. made his traditional official speech to the King, both standing; and the King solemnly answered with an elaborate assurance that the relations between Sweden and Denmark had always been of the best and that they would remain so.