The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 Part 23

Dear ----,--We went yesterday to bid good-by to their Majesties, who are at Monza, and for J. to present his letters of _rappel_.

We arrived in time for luncheon; there were no other guests.

After luncheon we sat out under the trees by the side of the pretty lake; there was an awning put there, and we stayed all the afternoon in the shade of the large trees which bordered the lake. The King was very gay; he wanted every one to row out in the small boats that were there; then he and the Prince took another boat and tried to collide. The King pretended that he could not row, and made such hopeless attempts that all those in the other boats were splashed with water.

On taking leave of her Majesty, which was done with a great deal of weeping on my part, she handed me a beautiful sapphire-and-diamond brooch and a very large photograph signed by her dear hand _en souvenir_. The King gave Johan his photograph and the decoration of _la couronne d'Italie_. The day pa.s.sed only too quickly. I cannot tell you how miserable I was to take leave of their Majesties, who had always been so kind and gracious to me.

But what use is it to mourn my fate. Nothing can change the fact that we are bidding good-by to Italy.

STOCKHOLM, 1890-1897

STOCKHOLM, _October, 1890_.

Dear L.,--We arrived here (our new post) at an early hour in the morning. We found the secretary and carriages waiting for us, and drove to the hotel, where we stayed until our apartment was quite ready. Our furniture from Rome has already arrived, so all we have to do now is, like coffee, to settle.

We have taken the same house that has been the Danish Legation for the last forty years, and where Johan used to live when he was secretary here twenty years ago.

The apartment is very large. It has twenty-four rooms, ten windows on Drottning Gatan, and thirteen on the side-street. The ballroom has five windows (three on one street and two on another); a large _salon_, two smaller _salons_, a library, and a s.p.a.cious dining-room; and it has (quite rare in Stockholm) a _porte-cochere_. The Chancellery is in the courtyard, having its separate entrance and staircase.

The evening before we left Copenhagen we had the honor of dining with the King and Queen of Denmark, at Amalienborg. It was a family dinner, J. and I being the only guests. After dinner the Queen talked a long time with me and handed me the letter she had written to the Queen of Sweden.

"I told her," she said, "that I was very fond of you, and I knew that she would be equally so. And how the Duke of Na.s.sau [her brother]

admired you and your singing."

"If your Majesty hadn't said it, I never would have believed that the Duke liked my singing. I was under the impression that he would have liked me better without the singing."

"Yes," the Queen said, "I confess that he is not musical, and does not like _all_ music, but he really did like to hear you sing. He told me so."

"Of course he knows," I answered, "but he is the last person from whom I expected to receive a compliment."

As their Majesties retired, the Queen held out her hand, and when I stooped to kiss it she kissed me affectionately on both cheeks. The King, on shaking hands with me, said, "_G.o.d Reise_" which is Danish for _bon voyage_.

The first days in a new post are always very busy ones. My first visit was to _the doyenne_ of the _Corps Diplomatique_, Baroness Ph. She gave me a list of visits to be made, and a quant.i.ty of her own cards with _pour presenter_ with mine.

Yesterday J. was received by the King, and presented his _lettres de creance_.

Although J. had been Secretary of Legation, and had been groomsman at the marriage in Stockholm of the Crown Prince of Denmark to Princess Louise (niece of King Oscar), and was very well known to the King, all the regular formalities had to be gone through with. J. made his traditional official speech to the King, both standing; and the King solemnly answered with an elaborate a.s.surance that the relations between Sweden and Denmark had always been of the best and that they would remain so.

When the ceremonious utterances were ended, the King put his arm on J.'s shoulder and said: "Now let us sit down and have a good talk together of old times." The King "thee-and-thoued" Johan, and said, "_Her, du. Naar kommer din husfru?_" which in English means, "Listen thou. When is thy wife coming?" It is so strange that the Swedish language has no word for _you_. One must either address people by their t.i.tle, which is sometimes very awkward, or else say _thou_.

I was dreadfully puzzled when I first came here. Right opposite my window was a sign, "_Dam Bad Rum!_" I said: "How queer! People generally cry up their wares, not down. Who ever heard of a seller saying that his rum was as bad as that?" I found out afterward that the sign was merely to let people know that a ladies' bath-room was to be found there.

The next excitement was my audience with the Queen, and thereby hangs, if not a tale, a teapot with a tempest in it. I must tell you all about it. I hope you will appreciate the tremendously complicated position in which I was placed.

It seems that in the time of Queen Christina of Sweden, one hundred and fifty years ago, the ladies of her court wore black silk or satin dresses and sleeves of a certain pattern. The court has seen no reason to make any change of dress since that time. To-day it wears the same style of dress and the same _sleeves_--the cause of the tempest!

In answer to my request for an audience I received a letter from the _grande maitresse_, saying that the Queen would receive me on Thursday next; the _doyenne_ of the _Corps Diplomatique_ would present me. Then followed instructions: my dress was to be a black satin ball-dress, a train of four meters, lined with black silk, _decollete_, white _glace_ gloves, _et les manches de cour_. I had no idea what _les manches de cour_ were, and, naturally, I went to the _doyenne_ to find out.

If I had announced that I intended to throw a bomb under the King's nose the effect could not have been more startling than when I said those fatal words, "_Les manches de cour_."

_Madame la doyenne_ was so overcome that for a moment speech left her.

She proceeded to tell me that in order to keep on the right side of the colleagues it would be advisable _not_ to wear the sleeves.

"Why not?" I asked, perplexed. "My husband says it is only on this one occasion that a foreign minister's wife is required to wear the sleeves."

She acknowledged that this was true, but the diplomatic ladies had refused to wear them, and it was as much as peace and happiness were worth to displease the colleagues.

"How can they refuse?" I asked.

She explained that the idea of wearing the sleeves was disagreeable to them; therefore the court had pa.s.sed 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 maitresse_ 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 maitresse_.

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 fas.h.i.+on 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.