“La Confidente says that La Platen asks to see me to-morrow; I fear she wants an explanation. I expect to be terribly lectured about my ways, but I will answer her as she deserves. Max is ill: I wish he were ill enough to change his quarters. I am ill too, but my sickness comes from loving you, and only you can soothe my pain and cure me.” “[HANOVER,] _Tuesday, August_ 1. “I cannot be comforted because I see you no longer. I am sad, too, at not having had a word from you; there may be some coldness, and I love you so passionately that I wish myself dead if you love me not likewise. I had a note this morning from the Electress, and she says: ‘The Elector told me over again the same things I told you yesterday—that it would be absurd for you not to come to Herrenhausen through such unfounded scruples, and he will answer for any slander they may circulate; Max will not force himself on you in any way, and you have only to lock the door. So it rests with you to come whenever you like, when you have quite done making a fuss.’ She adds to that much love. I will turn and twist as much as I possibly can, so that the Elector will have gone before I get there. “I fear the letter I wrote to you yesterday has not the smallest amount of sense in it. I was in a pitiable state, for your abrupt departure shows that you are not pleased with me, and I was so ill I could hardly bear myself. La Platen is coming to see me; I will tell you our conversation before I go to bed. “_Eleven at night._ “I have had a three hours’ _tête-à-tête_ with La Platen. The most important part of the conversation is that she knows the Electress lectured me last year about you, and said that so far from the Electress speaking to the Elector in the way she wished me to believe, _c’est elle qui lui en a rompu la tête, et que jamais l’électeur ne lui a dit un mot_, and afterwards the Electress told several people that she had warned me to change my conduct with you, as it did you harm. La Platen then went on to entreat me to alter my ways [_changer de manière_], saying I lead such a retired life that everybody wonders at it. People were complaining that I neither look at nor speak to them; I could not imagine all they say, because it was not natural for a woman of my age to turn her back so decidedly on society, and they are seeking to find the cause of it all. I answered that if I had made any difference between one and another, if I had not treated everybody in the same way, people would have had a right to find fault; but as I favoured nobody, they have no cause to complain. She spoke several times about you; she is only too pleased with you. At last we parted as intimates; no friendship could have been confirmed by more promises than she made me.