PRINCE MAX MAKES LOVE TO ME
Wants me to consult him on all spiritual matters--Warns me against
the Kaiser, the heretic bishop--Princes as ill-mannered as
Russian-Jew up-starts.
DRESDEN, _November 15, 1894_.
Prince Max called on me the day of my arrival and promised me an
armchair in Paradise for "reforming" Leopold. "I understand that your
family life is ideal now," he added. "What bliss!"
"Oh, Louise," he continued, with the face of a donkey withdrawing his
nozzle from a syrup barrel, "whenever doubtful of the right way, of the
Lord's way, come to me."
It would have been un-politic to repulse the grotesque ape, and I said:
"I will. I will even give you the preference over the Kaiser, who asked
me the same thing--as _summus episcopus_, of course."
Max looked about the room. We were alone, yet he lowered his voice to a
faint whisper. "William is a heretic. Don't trust him in religious
matters," he breathed stealthily. And this devilish Max began to stroke
my hands and admire a bracelet I wore above the elbow.
The Kaiser wouldn't have gone much further under the circumstances.
Maybe he would have kissed my arm, though, from wrist to pit.
* * * * *
Tonight family tea in the Queen's _salon_. The King an icicle, but
polite as a French marquis. He gave me the three "_How art thou's_" in
the space of five minutes, asked after the babies and promised to come
and look them over.
Frederick Augustus, half insane with delight, pinched my arm and
squeezed my leg under the table. I felt like boxing his ears.
My father-in-law had to behave in the presence of the King and said a
few commonplaces to me.
Johann George and Isabella talked automobiles, not to let us forget they
are millionaires.
"How much did you pay for my blue car?" asked Isabella.
"Not much," replied Johann George; "sixty thousand francs, if I
recollect rightly."
"My allowance for a whole year." I smiled my sweetest, and the King
looked disapprovingly at the braggarts.
For ill manners recommend me to a Russian-Jew upstart or to a Royal
Highness.