_Bayreuth,
July._
What a heavenly night we had in Venice out in that gondola when we
stuck on the sand-bar and didn’t care at all, we were so happy. It got
later and later and the moon went down and not until the tide rose in
the early morning did we float away. When we arrived at the hotel, oh,
but wasn’t Aunt angry? She didn’t believe one word we said! I don’t
think she believes our story even now! She suddenly declared tickets
had been bought for the Wagner operas and that we must start the next
day. I never heard of those tickets before! Evidently she still wants
me to marry the Prince and does not approve of my flirting with you.
Even so, I am going to be good to you, for you were good to me in
Venice. I feel pretty blue now that those happy days are gone, and I
wouldn’t part with a memory,--from the merry-go-round at the Lido to
the sand-bar!
But I shall never hear the end of that evening. And I know that’s why
Aunt hurried us all to Bayreuth. Checkers has been making up naughty
verses about the sand-bar, but I shan’t repeat them to you! I doze off
at night thinking about the gondola, the serenades, the moon, the
funny old boatman who was so sleepy,--it was all like a bit out of
fairyland, my fairyland. And now I have waked up and found myself in a
bustling little German town, my fairyland vanished, and my fairy
prince gone!
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