"Yes; they fairly shake the walls with their declamation in the ball-room," said Henriette, wearily leaning back in the arm-chair the councillor had placed for her. "As we passed, we heard ’Pallas Athene,’ ’the roses of Cashmere,’ and ’learned professor,’ in admirable confusion——"
"Ugh!" Flora exclaimed, putting her fingers in her earn, "it is really too bad to force such an amateur production upon me, when I have performed myself in so many of our court fêtes. And there one must sit and not move a muscle of one’s face, when the ridiculousness of the thing is half killing one with inward laughter——"
The Frau President imposed silence upon her by an emphatic gesture, for the amateur performers, who had taken a cup of chocolate in the dining-room before the rehearsal, made their appearance now in search of the hats and parasols they had left behind them.
Flora slipped into the adjoining boudoir.
With an affectation of great delight, the maid of honour, Fräulein von Giese, hastened up to Kitty and welcomed her among them once more. Then, holding out her hand to the councillor, she exclaimed, "So glad to see you, my dear Herr von Römer. Now we can thank you in person for the delightful way in which you have seconded our efforts to make our fête this evening charming. Everything is superb, like the work of enchantment." She rapturously kissed her finger-tips. "Only in Villa Baumgarten can one enjoy such ’Arabian Nights’ Entertainments:’ every one agrees to that. Apropos, have you heard the terrible news about Major Bredow? He is totally ruined, and many others are trembling in terror. Good heavens! what times these are in which we live! Shock follows shock with such rapidity——"
"But Major Bredow has been speculating so insanely," the Frau President said, indifferently, adjusting herself comfortably among the cushions of her arm-chair. "How could any one act so entirely without sense or reason?"
"It is his wife’s fault. She spent too much: three thousand a year on her dresses alone."
"Oh, my dear, she might easily have done that of her husband had shown more sense in his investments; but he mixed himself up with projects that carried swindling on the face of them." She shrugged her shoulders. "In such matters one should always take the best advice, as I have done; eh, Moritz? we need have no fears."