When I was sixteen years old I made the acquaintance of a young widow who had two sons, seven and nine years old respectively. The elder fell in love with me. In spite of everything they could do to take his mind off it he became worse and worse. He fell behind in his studies and he broke away completely from his mother’s control. Things came to such a point that it was necessary to give the child a change of scene. The widow accordingly left for England with her boy. After a little time she supposed that he had ceased to think of me. Nine years passed. In the meantime I had become a dancer and in London I happened upon the widow and her sons. Forgetting all about my little admirer’s former passion--he was now a big boy of eighteen--I engaged him as my secretary. Some days after he said to me quietly: “Do you remember, Miss Fuller, that when I was nine years old I told you that at eighteen I should ask you to be my wife?” “Yes, I remember it.” “Well, I am eighteen years old now and I have not changed my mind. Will you marry me?” Very lately my admirer has repeated his declaration that he will never marry. He is thirty years old to-day, and who knows, perhaps the man’s heart has remained the same as the heart of the boy of nine. XIV PRINCESS MARIE It was the evening of my first appearance at Bucharest. Some one came to tell me that the Prince and Princess Royal were in the royal box. After the performance they sent an officer to tell me how greatly my dances had interested them. They promised to come again and, as they wanted their children to see me, they asked if I would not give a matinee. I was in the act of putting on my clothes. It was impossible for me to receive the officer, who accordingly gave the message from their Royal Highnesses to my maid. Next day I wrote to Princess Marie to thank her, and proposed to give a performance at the palace, if that seemed to her desirable. The reply came without delay. The princess sent for me. That is called a “court order,” but it came in the guise of a charming letter, which said that the princess would be very glad to see me if I was not incommoded by the hour which she set. When I arrived at the palace I was taken up a great staircase and then introduced to a little salon, which was like every other little salon in every other palace. I thought how disagreeable it must be to live in an atmosphere that has been created by a hundred other people before your time, and in which nothing really belongs to you. I was engaged in thinking this when an official opened the door and asked me to follow him. What a change! In a most delightfully arranged room I saw a young woman, tall, slender, and extremely pretty. The surroundings, the furniture, the style, all were so personal to the young woman that the palace dropped out.