was so confused and bewildered by this unexpected happiness, that I almost fainted. My heart beat wildly, and I found no strength to utter a single word in reply, that is, if my tears were not an answer.[24] But since that day the king has never spoken to me. The words, however, which he then uttered have always resounded in my ear like sweet music, and will lull me to sleep in the hour of death." "Oh," exclaimed the maid of honor, in astonishment and indignation, "how can it be possible to love in such a manner?" The queen, who had entirely forgotten that she was not speaking to herself, and that another listened to her plaintive wail, raised her head quickly, her blue eyes sparkling as if she had been but seventeen instead of seventy years old. "How could it be possible not to love in such a manner, when one loved Frederick the Great?" said she, proudly. "I had made this love my life, my religion, my hope of immortality. I gave to this love my whole soul, my every thought and feeling; and it gave me, in return, joyful resignation and the strength to endure. Without this, my great, my beautiful love, I would have perished in the solitude and desolation of my being; but from it my life derived its support, its enthusiasm, and its perpetual youth. Years have whitened my hair and wrinkled my countenance, but in the poor, miserable body, in the breast of this old woman, throbs the heart of a young girl; and it bears me on with its youthful love, through and beyond all time and trouble, to those heights where I will once more behold him, and where he will, perhaps, requite the love he here despised. Love never grows old; when the heart is filled with it, years vanish like fleeting dreams, and it encircles mortality with the halo of undying youth! Therefore it must not surprise you, Julie, that the old woman you see before you can speak of her love. It was the love of my youth, and still makes me young. And now go, my child, and leave me alone with my recollections, and the great dead! I have much to say to him that God only may hear! Go, my child, and if, at some future day, you should love and suffer, think of this hour!" She greeted the young lady with a gentle wave of the hand, and as the maid of honor left the room she saw the queen fall on her knees. Slowly, and with her head bowed down, Julie von Voss walked through the adjoining rooms to her own apartments. "I will never love like this, and consequently never suffer like this," said she to herself. "I cannot comprehend how one can lose and forget one's self so completely in another, particularly when this other person does not love as ardently--as ardently as I am loved by--" She stopped and blushed, and a slight tremor ran through her being. "I should like to know whether he loves me as passionately as this woman has loved her husband, whether--But," exclaimed she, interrupting her train of thought, "I had entirely forgotten that his valet is waiting to deliver a message."