“You would do better, a good deal, to spare my cinerarias,” her Dreaminess murmured, sauntering slowly on. Sun so bright, trees so green, it was a perfect day. Through the glittering fronds of the palms shone the lake like a floor of silver glass strewn with white sails. “It’s odd,” the King observed, giving the dog Teddywegs a sly prod with his cane, “how he follows Yousef.” “He seems to know!” the Queen replied. A remark that so annoyed the Prince that he curtly left the garden. VIII But this melancholy period of _crêpe_, a time of idle secrets, and unbosomings, was to prove fatal to the happiness of Mademoiselle de Nazianzi. She now heard she was not the first in the Prince’s life, and that most of the Queen’s maids, indeed, had had identical experiences with her own. She furthermore learned, amid ripples of laughter, of her lover’s relations with the Marquesa Pizzi-Parma and of his light dealings with the dancer April Flowers, a negress (to what depths??) at a time when he was enjoying the waxen favours of the wife of his Magnificence, the Master of the Horse. Chilled to the point of numbness, the mortified girl had scarcely winced, and when on repairing to her room a little later, she had found his Weariness wandering in the corridor on the chance of a surreptitious kiss, she had bolted past him without look, or word, and sharply closed her door. The Court had returned to colours when she opened it again, and such had been the trend of her meditations, that her initial steps were directed, with deliberate austerity, towards the basilica of the Palace. Except for the Countess Yvorra, with an _écharpe de décence_ drawn over her hair, there was no one in it. “I thank Thee God for this _escape_,” she murmured falling to her knees before the silver branches of a cross: “It is terrible; for I did so love him ......................... ............................................... ..................................................... and oh how could he ever with _a negress_? ....................................... ...................................................... Pho ..................................... ........... I fear this complete upset has considerably aged me............................ ....... But to Thee I cling........................................ ................................................................... ................................................ Preserve me at all times from the toils of the wicked, and forgive him, as _I_ hope to forgive him soon.” Then kindling several candles with a lingering hand, she shaped her course towards the Kennels, called Teddywegs to her and started, with an aching heart, for a walk.