Part 40

"How can they refuse?" I asked.

She explained that the idea of wearing the sleeves was disagreeable to them; therefore the court had passed over the point and made a compromise: the Queen received them at the summer palace, Drottningholm, en toilette de ville. In this way the difficulty had been temporarily overcome, but now it seemed they wished me to draw the chestnuts out of the fire.

"What am I to do?" I asked. "The only thing I can see is to leave Stockholm, my home, and my family, and come back in the summer when I can wear a bonnet."

I meant this as a tremendous satire, but she took it quite seriously and said, "That would be wiser."

I smiled and, handing her the letter I had in my hand, I said, "In this letter from the grande maîtresse she said you were to present me."

"Of course I am to present you, but I refuse to wear the sleeves."

"If such is the case," I said, "what would you advise me to do?"

She answered: "I would advise you to avoid wearing the sleeves. You will make a precedent which all the Corps Diplomatique will resent."

"Why should the ladies object to the sleeves?" I ventured to ask. "Are they so unbecoming?"

"It is not that they are unbecoming, but the Ministers' wives dislike being dictated to. They say that they represent their sovereigns, and object to be told what they shall wear and what they shall not wear."

I remarked that at the Court of St. James's no lady ever dreamt of objecting to wear the three plumes and the long tulle veil prescribed by that court, and I could not see any difference so long as it was their Majesties' wish.

To this she replied, "I think you will regret it if you offend the whole Corps Diplomatique."

On this I took my leave and drove straight to the grande maîtresse. My back was up, and even if the Corps Diplomatique's back was up, too, I was determined to do nothing to displease the Court of Sweden. I explained the situation to the Baroness Axerhjelm, who already knew it, of course, better than I did. I could see it was a sore point.

When I asked her to explain to me about the sleeves she offered to send for them that I might see them, and to lend me her sleeves that I might copy them.

When I looked at the offending sleeves I did not think they were so appalling--only two white satin puffs held in with straps of narrow black velvet ribbon. On a black corsage they could not be so dreadful, especially as the fashion now is sleeves puffed to exaggeration. How silly!

We received visit after visit and many letters from the now irate Corps--so many that we were quite bewildered. J. looked through the archives of the Legation to see if he could find anything bearing on this subject, but in vain. The mighty question does not seem to have troubled my predecessors. They seem to have worn the sleeves and gone on living.

J. remembered that the wife of his former Minister, on the occasion of the marriage of the Crown Prince, wore them. I decided to write to the Queen of Denmark to ask her advice, telling her of the threatened antagonism against me.

This is her letter in reply:

I advise you, dear Lillie, to do as their Majesties desire. The Crown Princess always wears the sleeves when in Stockholm, and I think it would be more polite and less awkward if you wore them also.

Therefore I had them made. Thursday came: my dress was ready and the obnoxious sleeves in their places, I quite admired them, and would not have minded wearing them every day. Still, I could not but think how a whole ballroom of ladies with them on must have appeared in Queen Christina's time.

Although it was the duty of the Baroness to accompany me, I was not surprised when I received a long letter explaining how a severe headache had suddenly swooped down on her and would deprive her of that pleasure.

That was her way of getting over this impasse.

The situation was awkward. This refusal at the eleventh hour was very annoying. I was not expected alone, but alone I should have to go. There was no alternative, and the absence of the doyenne must explain itself as best it could.

I arrived in solitary grandeur, and was conducted in state to the salon, where the grande maîtresse--with the sleeves, of course!--was ready to receive me. She did not seem in the least surprised at seeing me alone; possibly the doyenne had written her own account of the headache. I could see that she applauded the stand I had taken, so I felt that if I had lost favor with my colleagues I had gained it at court.

We went together to the salon, where we found the Queen. She rose and gave me her hand, and I bowed low over it. She was dressed all in black, with the white satin sleeves conspicuous under a long lace veil which hung from her head. She is very fine-looking, tall, and imposing, with a quiet and serious manner. She looks the personification of goodness.

I gave her the letter the Queen of Denmark had sent her. Then she talked of her brother (Duke of Nassau), and said he had written about me and my singing, when we were both guests at Château Furstenberg. The Queen added, "My brother is not musical" (indeed he was not), "but he said no singing had ever pleased him like yours." I bowed and tried not to look incredulous. "The King," she said, "is looking forward with great pleasure to seeing you again. He remembers a certain song you sang. Was it not 'Beware,' or something like that?"

I did not think it unlikely. I had sung it often enough, goodness knows.

I replied I did sing a song called that.