Dear L.,--It is not only the unexpected that arrives: the expected
arrives also.
The news we have been expecting these last years arrived yesterday.
Diplomacy has decided to divorce us.
We are to leave Berlin.
Johan ought to have left the service four years ago. According to the
_protocole_ in Denmark, a Minister must retire when he reaches the
_d'age limite_--the Ambassador retiring at the age of seventy.
The Prime Minister asked him to remain, and he did. But now it seems
that the powers that be have decided.
It is very sad, but true.
Countess Brockdorf came to make me a visit of condolence. She said
that her Majesty had begged her to express her regrets. In the course
of the visit she asked me when my book[4] would come out, and when I
told her that I thought in October she said, "I know that the Emperor
is counting on your giving him a copy." I promised that I would not
forget it.
[4] _In the Courts of Memory_, published in the autumn of
1912.
* * * * *
On the day fixed for Johan's audience to present his letters of recall
we were invited to luncheon at Neues Palais with their Majesties. At
Wildpark, the Emperor's private station, a few miles from Potsdam, we
were met by his carriage and drove through the beautiful park to the
palace. The carriage stopped at the principal entrance, where a broad
red carpet was stretched from the carriage-drive to the door. Johan
got out there. Then I was driven to the other side of the palace,
where I found another red carpet. This was the entrance which leads to
the Empress's suite of apartments.
Countess Keller (the lady of honor) was waiting for me and led me to
the Empress.
Her Majesty was most gracious; no one could have been more so. We
remained talking until a lackey announced that Johan's audience was
finished and that the Emperor was waiting in the dining-room for us.
The Kaiserin kindly took me by the arm, and we went together into the
adjoining _salon_, where we found the Emperor, the Princess Victoria
Augusta, Johan, William von Kidderling (Minister of Foreign Affairs),
who is always present at these official audiences, a chamberlain, an
adjutant--not more than ten people in all.
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."