The _salle_, large and spacious,--tessellated floor, frescoed ceiling, walls hung with mirrors and pictures, exquisite bronzes and statues alternating with palms, ferns and flowering plants,--had at its extreme end a flower-trimmed stage, the lowered curtain of which suggested a dramatic performance. Rows of handsomely-cushioned arm chairs were in front of the stage, and just beyond them stood the Crown Princess, surrounded by her royal cousins, children of her father’s brothers. Among her guests were Lady Rose, daughter of Lord Westmoreland, English Ambassador, some other youthful members of the Diplomatic Corps and about forty or fifty maids and youths, children of personal attendants of the Princess. The Crown Princess, then entering her teens, received us without hesitation or timidity, and we marveled at her self-possession and familiarity with court etiquette; though modest and gentle, there was a notable absence of self-assertion. Dressed in a blue challis trimmed with swan’s down, her only ornament was a gold chain around her bare neck from which hung a medallion miniature of her grandmother, said to be her father’s Christmas present. Fair, with blue eyes, light brown hair worn simply plaited down her back, she was a perfect type of happy, innocent girlhood, her plump, rounded proportions bespeaking health and strength, her bright, expressive face beaming with hope and content. The girls were dressed in bright woolens, bare necks and arms without ornaments; the youths wore the uniforms of the regiments in which they were enrolled as cadets. The Crown Prince, who stood near his sister and gracefully assisted her, wore the uniform of the Royal Guards, in which he already held a command. Tall, slender, rather good looking, he impressed us as being dignified and refined, though grave and reserved. There was some stir when the King and Queen, followed by the Prince and Princess, entered unannounced. The Crown Princess, stepping forward, greeted them cordially, then taking first the Queen’s, then her mother’s, then the King’s, hands, kissed them respectively. She then took her father’s, but folding her in his arms he kissed her tenderly on the brow. Everybody smiled--a touch of nature makes the whole world akin.