To all his advances she had presented an absolutely unyielding front.

The foreign policy of England was not his province; it was hers and her Ministers'; his insinuations, his entreaties, his struggles--all were quite useless; and he must understand that this was so.

The rigidity of her position was the more striking owing to the respectfulness and the affection with which it was accompanied.

From start to finish the unmoved Queen remained the devoted niece.

Leopold himself must have envied such perfect correctitude; but what may be admirable in an elderly statesman is alarming in a maiden of nineteen.