The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)
History
The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912
Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)
Courts and courtiers; Europe -- Social life and customs
The Kaiser, on seeing me, kissed my hand, and was, as usual, most kind
and altogether delightful. I sat at his left, the young Princess being
at his right. I tried to say how grieved we were at the idea of
leaving Berlin, where we had spent ten happy years. He was gracious
enough to say that both he and the Empress were very sorry to lose us.
He said many appreciative things about what I had written in
_Harper's_, and asked many questions showing that he had really read
them. He seemed interested to hear about the Emperor Napoleon and the
life at Compiègne. He said that he met Empress Eugénie for the first
time when in Norway, three years ago. He had made a visit to her on
her yacht, and she had "honored" him by taking tea with him on the
_Hohenzollern_. He said, "How beautiful she must have been when she
was young!"
"I saw her," I replied, "last spring at her villa at Cape Martin. She
is _still_ beautiful, though she is eighty years old."
"Eighty years!" cried the Kaiser, "and still a _charmeuse_! That is
unique."
All through luncheon I was thinking that this was the last time I
should be talking to the interesting and wonderful _charmeur_ who was
sitting next to me. The Kaiser has a way of fixing those discerning
gray eyes of his on you when he talks, and you have the feeling that
he is sifting and weighing you in his mind--and when he smiles his
face lights up with humor and interest. You feel as if a life-buoy
were keeping you afloat. He has that wonderful gift of making people
appear at their best. I gave him my book after luncheon. It looks very
fitting in its red morocco binding. He appeared greatly delighted with
it and begged me to write my name on the first page, which, of course,
I was happy to do.
The Empress exclaimed: "'Do give me one, too! Once the Emperor has it,
I shall never get it."
The Kaiser's last words to us were, "Promise not to forget Berlin!"
Forget Berlin--never!
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life,
1875-1912, by Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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