“It has given me great pleasure to receive your loyal address, and I thank you sincerely for the terms in which you welcome me to Sandringham, and for the kind expressions which you have used towards the Prince and Princess of Wales. After the anxious time I spent here seventeen years ago, when, by the blessing of God, my dear son was spared to me and to the nation, it is indeed a pleasure to find myself here again, among cheerful homes and cheerful faces, and to see the kind feeling which exists between a good landlord and a good tenant; and I trust that this mutual attachment and esteem may long continue to make you happy and prosperous, and to strengthen, if possible, the affection of the Prince and Princess of Wales for the tenants of Sandringham.” Although Great Britain was not officially represented at the Paris Centennial Exhibition of this year, the King once more showed his friendship with France by going over with his Consort in semi-_incognito_. Their Majesties carefully inspected the whole Exhibition, paying special attention to the British section, and finished by ascending the Eiffel Tower. [Illustration: THE DUCHESS OF FIFE, PRINCESS VICTORIA, AND PRINCESS CHARLES OF DENMARK _From a Photograph by Lafayette_] Princess Louise’s engagement was made public in the spring, and though it aroused almost as much surprise as satisfaction among the general public, yet those who were really in a position to know regarded it as the most natural thing in the world. Lord Fife had for years been admitted to the close intimacy of the King’s family circle. His was the only bachelor’s house at which Queen Alexandra had ever been entertained, he had long been a frequent and welcome guest at Sandringham, and when he took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords, the King had paid him the rare honour of appearing as one of his introducers. Although rumours of the betrothal of the King’s eldest daughter to various foreign Princes had for some time been rife, His Majesty had made no secret of the special importance which he attached to her marriage, for at that time it appeared by no means impossible that the Princess herself or her children might one day sit on the British throne. In these circumstances a foreign marriage of the particular kind which then seemed intrinsically probable would have been frankly unpopular with the British people, who would have pictured themselves as being perhaps one day reduced to bringing back their Queen, now wholly Germanised, from some obscure Grand Duchy. King Edward on this occasion showed once more his intuitive sympathy with the feelings of his future subjects, for the news of the Royal engagement was received with an absolutely unforced outburst of popular enthusiasm, the more so when it became known that it was entirely a love match.