“Ah, well, her parents had put the thought into her mind, you see. Then, three days ago, she had a dreadful shock. Usk’s friend Nicholson had another attack of hæmorrhage, and died in the hotel. Ernestine thought him very much softened lately, and he used to like her to read to him. She was with him just before the end, and the Grand-Duchess asked her not to go and see Helene that day, lest she should inquire for him. She took an interest in him as an invalid, you see, and used to send him some of the flowers which were sent her. That afternoon the Grand-Duke came to our rooms in a terrible state of mind. The Grand-Duchess’s maid had let out to Helene that Nicholson was dead, and, somehow, it seemed to awaken the child to the fact that she wasn’t very far from dying herself. It did not disturb her to realise it, but the Grand-Duke complained that his wife and the other women looked at him as if he was a murderer. He begged Ernestine to go and see them, and even promised that anything she thought might be any good should be done. Of course Ernestine went, and you can imagine the state of things she found--the lady-in-waiting weeping in the _salon_, the maid sobbing in the passage, and the Grand-Duchess herself in Helene’s room in floods of tears. I suppose the poor girl thought she had no time to lose, for without giving her mother any opportunity of recovering from the first shock, she had asked for her jewels and other little things, and was saying who she would like to have them. She’s such a simple little soul that it didn’t occur to her she was doing anything hackneyed--it was just the most natural thing in the world to her. There were bracelets and so on for her sisters and cousins, and some trifle for me, and then she touched a ring which she always wears, which was given her at her confirmation, and said she would like Usk to have it. Her mother was so much astonished that she didn’t answer for a moment, and Helene said piteously, ‘You won’t mind then, will you, mamma? I shall never see him again, you know.’ Ernestine thought the Grand-Duchess had gone out of her mind, for she got up suddenly and seized her by the arm and took her out of the room. When the door was shut, she said, ‘That’s what the child wants! You will help me. We will take her to the mountains at once, and she shall marry your nephew instead of Ivan Petrovitch, and get well. Come, let us tell her about it.’ Ernestine begged her to wait and consult the Grand-Duke, but she absolutely refused. She went back into Helene’s room, and swept all the jewels into their box again. ‘Nonsense, Lenchen!’ she said. ‘You are not going to die. This place is too hot for you. We will go back to the mountains, to our own Lauterbach, just you and I, and your aunt will come and stay with us.’ Ernestine felt obliged to back her up by saying that as I could not leave Nice just at present, she would ask Usk to come and escort her to Lauterbach, and they would stay at the cottage close to the