“That is true,” Nina answered.  “Your Majesty’s photographs do not do you justice.”

Beckoning to an adjutant, the Emperor said, “I want you to send to the shops and bring what photographs of me you can find.”

The man departed.  Although it was nine o’clock and most of the shops must have been shut, he did manage to bring some.  Then the Kaiser examined the photographs, with a little amusing remark on each.  “I do not think this is handsome enough—­I look so cross.  And this one looks conceited, which I don’t think I am.  Do you?”

“Not in the least,” Nina answered.

“In this one,” he remarked, “I look as if I had just ordered some one to be hanged.  And this one [taking up another] looks like a Parsifal de passage”—­referring to something I had once said.

“I did not say Parsifal, your Majesty.  I said Lohengrin.”

“All the same thing,” said he.

“Not at all,” I said.  “One was a knight, and the other was a fool.”

“Well,” he laughed, “I look like both.”

He did not like any of the photographs, and sent to the Hohenzollern for his own collection.  His servant came back almost directly (he must have had wings) and brought a quantity of portraits, which were much finer and larger than those from the shops.  He begged us to choose the one we liked best, and he wrote something amusing on it and signed his name.

BERLIN, January, 1906.

Dear ——­,—­The sad news of the death of our adored old King arrived this evening.  We were very surprised, as the last account we had heard of him seemed more hopeful.  Though he was so very old (eighty-six years), he had a wonderful constitution and always was so active.  I am glad that I saw him when he was here last year and had such a pleasant afternoon with him.

Johan was one of the pall-bearers at the King’s funeral at Roskilde.  I did not go on to Copenhagen.  There was a funeral service here at the Scandinavian chapel.  We are to have mourning for six months.

BERLIN, June 6, 1906.

Dear L.,—­If I were going to be married and had to go through all the ceremonies which attend the marriage of a German princess, I think I would remain an old maid.

I will tell you what the wedding of the Princess Cecilia of Mecklenburg was like.  As it was the first royal wedding that I had ever attended, my impressions are fresh, if not interesting.  I have seen royal silver and golden weddings, but never anything like this.

The day before yesterday, the hottest day of all the tropical days we have been having, the Princess arrived in Berlin.  The Emperor and the Empress met her at the station and drove her to Bellevue Castle, where there was a family lunch.  She had numerous deputations and visits of all sorts until five o’clock, when she made her public entrance into Berlin, passing through Brandenburger Tor.  All the streets where the Princess was to pass were decorated a l’outrance with flags and flowers.  Carpets were hung from the balconies.