I was alone with the queen of my dreams. I had known that this moment would come, but never imagined that it would find us in this leafy tunnel, which I had passed many a time in my walks, without suspecting its existence. For a few seconds she gazed at me in silence. My embarrassment was absolutely indescribable. It was only later, much later, that I learned how well it had served my cause. So nervous a visitor could hardly be an enemy. At length she spoke, and her voice was soft, so soft that I did not recognize it. "I am grateful, Monsieur Vignerte, for your communication. You were right in thinking that any relic of the late Grand Duke Rudolph could not be a matter of indifference to me. Will you tell me," she added, "how this paper came into your possession?" I told her the whole story of my discovery. There must have been a wealth of emotion and candour in my words, for I felt she was touched. "Monsieur," she said, and her words were gentleness itself, "if, as I hope, we are to know each other better, you will, I feel sure, cease to bear me any ill-will for what may have seemed unmannerly in my behaviour towards you. No, don't protest. That behaviour was deliberate, monsieur. Indifference in a woman is always feigned. You must believe that, to understand me, certain factors are required which are far from being in your possession." Where was the pretty speech I had promised myself in reply to these words, long foreseen? "Are you always working, Monsieur Vignerte?" asked Aurora, with a smile tinged with delicate irony. "Madam!" I murmured, overcome. "Oh! I have no intention of taking you from your exalted pupil, but I cannot help remembering that when the Grand Duke brought you here, it was with a kindly idea of lending you to me occasionally. I have only myself to blame for not taking advantage of his forethought before." My doubts as to whether she was serious or not nailed me, dumb, to the spot. "Do you play bridge?" she asked. "Yes--a little," I stammered, blessing Kessel and old Colonel von Wendel, to whom I owed this latest accomplishment. "We--that is, Fräulein von Graffenfried, Lieutenant von Hagen and I--play bridge every evening. You shall make a fourth. You will do us a much greater service than you imagine," she added, smiling. "I need hardly add that you must come when you like." "I understand, too," she continued, "that you have some most interesting French books. I do a certain amount of reading, and should be very glad to become acquainted with them, providing I'm not robbing that good Frau von Wendel." I blushed atrociously. "Very well, then," she said, noticing nothing. "You will come when you like, Monsieur Vignerte; but if you will let me give you further proof of my gratitude by making a request, may I say that I shall be happy to see you in my boudoir this evening, about half-past nine." I bowed and was about to withdraw when she beckoned me back.