That is his business!"
"Your grace is, above all things, regent, and should remember--"
"Nothing--I will remember nothing!" exclaimed Anna Leopoldowna,
interrupting her favorite. "I will not be annoyed, that is all."
"Well, thank God!" now cried Julia von Mengden, in her natural
tone--"thank God, that such is your determination, princess! you are,
then, in earnest, and I am to send these three amiable persons to the
devil, or, what is just the same, to your husband?"
"That is my meaning."
"And this is beautiful in you," continued Julia, cowering down before
her mistress. "These eternal, tiresome and intolerable state affairs
would make your face prematurely old and wrinkled, my dear princess. Ah,
there is nothing more tedious than governing. I am heartily sick of it!
At first I was amused when we two sat together and settled who should
be sent to prison and who should be pardoned; whom we should make counts
and princes, or degrade to the ranks as common soldiers. But all that
pleased only for a short time; now it is annoying, and why should we
take upon ourselves this trouble? Have we not the power to act and live
according to our own good pleasure? Bah! that is the least compensation
you should receive for allowing these horrid Russians the privilege of
calling you their regent and mistress!"
"But, my little chatterer, you forget the three envoys who are waiting
without," said Anna, with a smile.
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