"This is mine," said the King. "And this is mine," said the princess, in French, for they constantly spoke French together. "We must plant the trees side by side," declared the King, "so that they may always remind us of these never-to-be-forgotten days." No sooner said than done. In accordance with the old English tradition, the two of them, each laying hold of a spade, dug up the earth and heaped it around the shrubs with shouts of laughter that rang clear through the silent wood. Then, when the King, who, in spite of his strength of arm, is a poor gardener, perceived that the princess had finished her task first: "There is no doubt about it," he said, "I am very awkward! I must put in a month or two with the Engineers!" On returning to the villa, he gave the princess her first present: a heart set in brilliants. It was certainly a day of symbols. On the following day, things took a more definite turn. The King came to fetch the princesses in the morning to take them to San Sebastian, where they met Queen Maria Christina. Nobody knew what happened in the course of the interview and the subsequent private luncheon at the Miramar Palace. But it was, beyond a doubt, a decisive day. At Fuentarabia, the first Spanish town through which they passed on their way to San Sebastian in the morning, the King said to the princess: "You are now on Spanish soil." "Oh," she said, "I am so glad!" "It will soon be for good." And they smiled to each other. The frantic cheering that greeted her entry at San Sebastian, the hail of flowers that fell at her feet when she passed through the streets, the motherly kiss with which she was received at the door of Queen Maria Christina's drawing-room must have given Princess Ena to understand that all Spain had confirmed its sovereign's choice and applauded his good taste. Twenty-four hours after this visit, the Queen Mother, in her turn, went to Biarritz and took tea at the Villa Mouriscot. The King had gone on before her. Intense happiness was reflected on every face. When the Queen, who had very graciously sent for me to thank me for the care which I was taking of her son, stepped into her carriage, she said to the princess, with a smile: "We shall soon see you in Madrid." Then, taking a white rose from the bouquet with which the Mayor of Biarritz had presented her, she gave it to the princess, who pressed it to her lips before pinning it to her bodice. That same evening, the King, beaming all over his face, cried to me from a distance, the moment he saw me: "It's all right, Paoli; the official demand has been granted. You see before you the happiest of men!"