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 which he agrees. He said that if you would come to the court he would become your knight, and with your help and example undertake many reforms. As you see, he has assigned you a duty, important and honorable.”

The Count paused. He had expected his daughter to assent, but she, steadily gazing at him with her clear blue eyes, uttered not one sound. That silence and that rigid look the father did not like, and he continued more sternly: “That, of course, is not all—the most important part is this: Joseph II. is not happy in love, either family or matrimonial; very little sincere love has he yet enjoyed. His mother favors his younger brother Leopold, and Leopold and his sisters do not love Joseph because he is the oldest and the heir to the crown. His first wife, Isabel, to whom he was devoted with the fervor of first love, had no affection for him; she felt unhappy by his side. His sister, noticing how he grieved over her death, revealed the fact to him with good intentions, and thus wounded