was solemnly dedicated, in presence of all the high officials of the nation. It is not many years ago since her poems became widely known. The Queen herself would never have thought of publishing them, had not numberless copies passed into various hands. Then she thought that “if they are worth the tiresome labour of copying, so are they of being printed.” One of her most important volumes of poetry, if not the most important, of which a new edition has lately appeared, is called after the seat of her family, which has several times been mentioned in the course of this sketch, “Meine Ruh” (Mon Repos). It contains ballads and lyrical poems. Some of the deepest questions that can occupy the human mind have been treated by her in other volumes. Still in middle age, she carries forward her beneficent work, and we may hope in due time (far distant may the day be!) that the public may have the opportunity of reading the completed story of her life, which has been so well told in the volume from which we have derived all our information concerning her. The Baroness von Stachelberg is hardly guilty of any exaggeration when she says that “as woman, as Princess, as Queen, Carmen Sylva is one of the noblest and most remarkable of her sex.” [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [1] Bride means a betrothed one. German women cease to be brides when they marry. “SHE COULDN’T BOIL A POTATO;” OR, THE IGNORANT HOUSEKEEPER, AND HOW SHE ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE. BY DORA HOPE. Ella was, unfortunately for herself, very timid at nights; and even when at home had always been ready to imagine burglars and alarms of fire; and Kate had often laughed at her, and asked what she would do if, in her nightly searches round her bedroom, she should find a burglar under the bed, or hidden amongst the dresses secreted in her wardrobe. As she had always been thus ready to take alarm on the smallest provocation, it is not to be wondered at that the old gardener’s mysterious warning filled her with anxiety; the more so that, in spite of all her efforts to persuade him, he resolutely refused to say anything more, and she was left in a state of hopeless bewilderment as to what his strange hints could mean. The only thing she could do was to be specially watchful, and she determined that, in spite of her fears, she would sit up at night till the servants had gone to bed, and make sure that everything was properly secured. It was very evident that they did not like it, and they did their utmost to compel her to go to bed first, by sitting up till very late themselves. But Ella had a determination of character which caused her, when once she was sure it was her duty to do anything, to persist in carrying out her intention in spite of all obstacles, and the servants’ objection to her sitting up last at night made her only the more determined to do so.