She decked her beautiful head with a little white cap, which she wore only on Sundays and at the opera, and braided and beribboned her hair.

It never occurred to her that there was anything unusual in the incident.

It was only when she came out into the Koenig Strasse that the puzzle of it came to her forcibly.

Who was this old woman who thought nothing of writing a letter to her serene highness?
And who were her nocturnal visitors?
Gretchen had no patience with puzzles, so she let her mind revel in the thought that she was to see and speak to the princess whom she admired and revered.

What luck! How smoothly the world was beginning to run! Being of a discerning mind, she idled about the Platz till after nine, for it had been told to her that the great sleep rather late in the morning.