"Yesterday, I was at court again, and to-day I thank heaven that I managed to bear it, and that the headache which was caused by its tiresomeness is only a moderate one. This undoubtedly proceeds from the fact that I sat at supper next to the embassador for ----, who has been in India, and who described to me, in great detail and for the third time, the burning of a widow that he had once been present at. (They say that he always tells the gentlemen a similar story about a tiger-hunt.) For this reason it happened that I could think a great deal about you, and when I can do that I am always happy. My darling, have you yet learned to put a good face on a bad matter? To howl with the wolves? To do homage to 'his serene highness your sovereign prince,' without letting your own sovereignty come out too plainly? I am afraid that, inasmuch as they don't dance the bolero here at the court balls, and as the whole _tempo_ of our life is an _andante maestoso_, you will soon grow impatient with all this again, and give umbrage to some of the best and best-intentioned people in the world. No one can understand your feeling better than I do; only to think that your poor sweetheart, whom you have always teased about her good breeding and her respect for conventional forms, is looked upon by the society of this city as a very emancipated individual, or, at all events, is notorious for being a _tête forte_! The reason of this is, that I generally am quite dumb in the midst of all tiresome talk and whispered gossip; but if the conversation happens to turn upon anything deeper, upon affairs of real human interest and not merely upon court events, then I express my true opinion, without troubling myself to care whether it falls in with the court tone or not. And the good people look on this as very pronounced, and not at all good form for a young lady.