Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/72

 the rest of the ladies see her and imitate her precious qualities. Your daughter is a jewel whose value you refuse to acknowledge.”

“Your majesty is forgetting what the illustrious Empress would say to such a teacher of the court ladies.”

The Emperor laughed.

“That, of course, I do not know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders; “but let us hope that the Empress will be more patient with her than you think. But if she should be strict with her, I will be near—I will become the young lady’s knight and bravely take her part, that for once healthful breezes may blow at the court and spread from there over the rest of Europe. It will be a natural thing if I become her ally, for I share the same lot with her. My mother and I agree about as well as you and the Countess. The Empress continually complains about me, misjudges me, disapproves of my ambition, and reprimands me for my world-conquering plans about as often as you do your daughter for her independent ways.”