She followed the busy routine of dinners and balls,
receptions and afternoon teas, her childish enthusiasm never lagging.
She could play at golf and she seemed to know horseback riding the first
time she tried it, and after the first two weeks she drove her own
motor-car.
The letters that went back to Morovenia were fairly dripping with
superlatives and happy adjectives. She was delighted with Washington;
she was in excellent health; the members of the Legation were very
thoughtful in their attentions; the autumn weather was all that could be
desired; her apartments at the hotel were charming. In fact, her whole
life was rose-colored, but never a word of real news for her anxious
father and sister--nothing about gaining a pound a day. The
Governor-General hoped from the encouraging tone of the letters that she
was quietly housed, out in the borders of some primeval forest,
gradually enlarging into the fullness of perfect womanhood.
About three months after her departure, in order to reassure himself
regarding the progress in her case, he wrote a letter to the minister at
Washington. He told the minister that his child was disposed to be
unruly and that Popova had become careless and somewhat indefinite in
his reports--and would he, the minister, please write and let an anxious
parent know the actual weight of Princess Kalora?
The minister resented this manner of request.
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