I bowed and said in English, "I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Countess."

She replied in German, "So you have come to teach me to speak English as the English do."

"Which is, of course, the best way to speak it," I continued in English.

She was very fair—so fair in fact that her eyelashes and eyebrows were scarcely perceptible. Her eyes were light blue, not large enough for beauty, particularly as she lacked the darker lashes which would have enhanced them; the very lightness of these gave her a look of perpetual surprise which I found rather endearing. She had a long, somewhat aquiline nose and a very firm mouth. Her thick fair hair was worn in braids and she looked rather like a petulant schoolgirl. I was wondering what effect I had on her.

"I hope you will be a good pupil," I went on.

She laughed, for she understood my English very well. "I expect I shall be a bad one. I am often—am I not, Kratzkin?"

"The Countess is really very bright," said Fraulein Kratz.

The Countess laughed. "You spoilt it with the 'really,' didn't she Fraulein Ayres? That gives it all away."

"Well, Fraulein Ayres," put in Frau Strelitz, "you and Fraulein Kratz will make your arrangements about lessons. Shall I take you to your room, and later you can settle things between you."

"I shall take Fraulein Ayres to her room," announced the Countess.

"Your Highness ..."

"My Highness," mimicked the Countess, "will have it so. Come, Fraulein, we have to get to know each other, do we not, if we are to converse in your abominable language."

"You mean my beautiful language, of course, Countess," I said.

She laughed. "I am going to take her. Class is dismissed. Kratzkin and Frau Strelitz, you may leave us."

I was somewhat appalled by the imperious manner of my pupil, but I felt my spirits rising. I could see that we were going to have some interesting encounters.

"Have her bags sent up at once," ordered the Countess. "I want to see what she has brought." She laughed at me. "I come from Kollenitz where they are rough and ready in their manners. We are not as cultivated as they are here in Bruxenstein. Have you gathered that, Fraulein Ayres?"

"I am beginning to."

That made her laugh.

"Come on," she said. "I have to talk to you, don't I?"

"In English," I said, "and I see no reason why we should not begin right away."

"Well, I do. You are merely a governess. I am the Countess, the Grand Duchess Elect. So you had better take care."

"On the contrary, it is you who have to take care."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I am a lady of independent means. I do not need to stay here. I am doing it because the idea appeals to me. It is not a case of earning my living. I think I should make that clear from the start."

She stared at me. Then she began to laugh again.

The two women were still hovering in the doorway and she cried out, "You heard me tell you to go. Leave at once. I will look after the English governess."

I smiled apologetically at Frau Strelitz. "It is good that we should talk together," I said. "I shall refuse to speak to the Countess except in English, as I have decided that that is a rule of paramount importance."

The young girl was too surprised to argue with me and I felt I had won the first round. I had also won the admiration of poor harassed Kratzkin and the approval of Frau Strelitz. But it was the Countess with whom I had to deal.

"This is your room," she said, flinging open a door. "I am at the end of this corridor. I have finer apartments, of course, but this is not bad for a governess."

"I daresay I shall find it adequate."

"Far better than you are accustomed to, no doubt," she said.

"In fact no. I was brought up in a large manor house which I think on the whole was every bit as luxurious as your schloss."

"And you really are doing all this ... for fun?"

"You could call it that."

"You are not very old, are you?"

"I am experienced in the ways of the world."

"Are you? I wish I were. I'm not nearly as experienced as I should like to be."

"It comes with the years."

"How old are you?"

"I shall be eighteen in April."

"I am fifteen. There is not much difference."

"Actually there is a great deal. The next four years will be some of the most important of your life."

"Why?"

"Because one grows out of girlhood into womanhood."

"I shall be married next year."

"So I gathered."

"People talk about us a lot, don't they?"

"They know certain facts."

"I wish you wouldn't keep talking in English."

"It is what I am here for."

"It restricts the conversation. I want to know so much about you and I can't always understand as I want to if you will speak in English."

"It will be an incentive for you to master the language."

"You talk just like a governess. I have had quite a number but they never stay very long. I'm a difficult person. I've never had one like you."

"It will be a change for you."

"I don't suppose you'll stay long."

"Only while you need me, of course."

"I daresay you'll leave before that. I am not easy, you know."

"I have gathered that."

"Poor Kratzkin is terrified of me. Frau Strelitz is a bit, too."

"I don't think you should look so smug about that."

"Why not?"

"The fact that you make things uncomfortable for them should not make you glow with satisfaction. It is easy, is it not, to score over those who cannot reply?"

"Why don't they reply then?"

"Because they are employed here."

"Shall I score over you?"

"Most definitely not."

"Why not?"

"Because I am not dependent on pleasing you. If you don't like me you can tell me to get out, and if I don't like you I can go with equal ease."

She looked at me in astonishment.  Then  she  smiled slowly.  "What's your name?"

"Fraulein Ayres."

"I mean your first name."

"Anne."

"I shall call you that."

"What is yours?"

"You know. Everybody knows. I'm the Countess Freya of Kollenitz."

"Freya. That's one of the goddesses."

"The goddess of beauty," she said complacently. "Did you know that when Thor lost his hammer the giant, Thrym, would only give it back if Freya came to the land of the giants as his bride?"

"I did. And Thor dressed as Freya and went to the land of the giants and got his hammer back. Those legends used to be told to me by my governess. She went often to the Black Forest for her holidays. She had a German mother."

"So you had a governess too. Was she nice? Did you like her?"

"She was very nice and I liked her."

"You were a good girl, I expect."

"Not always. But we were always well-mannered."

"Who were we?"

"My sister and I." I felt myself flush a little and she was quick to notice.

"Where is your sister now?"

"She died."

"That makes you sad, doesn't it?"

"Very sad."

"Tell me about your governess."

I told her all I could remember of Miss Elton and her family.

She was very interested but I noticed that her mind flitted from one thing to another very quickly. She had seen my bags. "Are you going to unpack?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"I'll watch you."

And she did, as I took my clothes out and hung them up. She made comments on them as I did so. "That's ugly. That's not so bad."

I said: "I see what you mean about Kollenitz manners!" which sent her into peals of laughter. There was a book lying on the top of my case and she seized it. She read slowly with a strong German accent, "The Poems of Robert Browning."

I said: "I can see that we shall have to work hard on your accent."

The book opened naturally at a certain page and there was a reason for it, for I had often turned to that particular poem.

"Pippa's Song," she read out slowly.

" 'The year's at the spring And day's at the morn—'

"Oh, I can't read this. Poetry's very difficult."

I took the book from her and read the poem aloud. There was a slight tremor in my voice when I reached the last lines.

" 'God's in his Heaven-

All's right with the world.'"

I shut the book. She was looking at me intently. Then I smiled slowly and she returned the smile.

I thought: It's going to be all right. I'm going to like my little Countess.

The next few days were crowded with new impressions. To the surprise of the servants, the Countess and I got on remarkably well. I think this may have been due to a certain aloofness I was able to display, which was the result of my independence and the fact that I could, at any moment, leave if I wished without any financial considerations— which affected my manner and hers. I interested her as she interested me. She liked to be with me and wanted to neglect her other studies for the sake, as she rather unctuously said, of 'improving my English.' It was not difficult for me because there were no lessons to prepare. She had been grounded in the language and it was only conversation that she needed, so we were able to talk on various subjects, and when she made a mistake I would point it out to her.

Sometimes I would say to her, "Shouldn't you be with Fraulein Kratz?"

She would grimace. "Oh, I want to get on with my English. That is the most important. Who cares about mathematics—silly stuff anyway. Who cares about history? What does it matter what kings and queens did years ago? I can't change that, can I? I really do feel that I need to get on with my English."

I replied to that, "You forget that I must have my free times. You are encroaching on them."

I think it was rare for her to consider anyone but herself, but she did become thoughtful and went back to the schoolroom rather subdued.

I was flattered. When I visited Daisy I heard that Hans had been told by the comptroller of the household that they were amazed by my success with the Countess. It was very gratifying.

So we were together a great deal and I think, in a way, becoming friends. Life in the royal household was not exactly what I had expected. We were very much segregated and although two weeks had passed since my arrival, I had never once had a glimpse of the Grand Duke. The turret in which we had our apartments was quite separate from the royal apartments, and although there was much arriving and departing of emissaries and such like, this affected us not at all. It was like living in the wing of a country house-part of the main residence and yet completely cut off from it.

Freya and I walked in the grounds of the schloss; we rode together; she was a good horsewoman but I could compare favourably with her.

Once she said with a grudging admiration, "You can do everything."

She was always soberly dressed when she rode out and we always had to take two grooms with us, which irked her. I remarked that they were very discreet and kept their distance. "They had better," she said, her eyes flashing.

We rode through the forest together and she told me stories which had been passed down through the ages. She showed me an old ruined schloss where some baroness was said to have walled up her husband's mistress. "She said she wanted a new room added, and when the workmen were making it, she brought this beautiful girl to them and made them wall her in. They say you can still hear the girl's screams on certain nights."

She showed me the Klingen Rock with the ravine far below. "They used to take people out there and invite them to throw themselves over—to avoid a worse fate."

"You have some very pleasant customs in Bruxenstein."

"All people have them," retorted Freya. "They don't talk about them, though, and this was long ago."

"Klingen Schloss once belonged to a robber baron who used to waylay travellers, capture them and hold them to ransom. He used to chop off their fingers one by one and send them to their relatives, and with each finger the ransom was increased, and if the ransom wasn't paid they would be thrown from the rock ... to get rid of them."

"It's horrible."

"The gods are nicer," admitted Freya, and her eyes glowed when she talked of Thor. "He was strong ... the god of thunder." He was her favourite among the gods. "He had red hair and a red beard. He was the strongest of them all and very gentle, but when he was angry sparks flew out of his eyes."