tory and Geography are no
earthly good here, and I know more Arithmetic as it is than I shall ever
want now I'm a Princess. Princess Flachspinnenlos promised to show me
how to work a spinning-wheel some day, but she's not very good at it
herself, and anyhow, I'm sure it will be frightfully boring. Still, I'd
rather give up the Gnomes than lose _you_, Miss Heritage, dearest!"

She spoke with feeling, for it meant abandoning a cherished scheme of
hers for inciting them to steal up during dinner and pinch the pages'
legs.

Daphne was sorry for the poor little tomboy Princess, of whom she had
grown to be really fond. There was little she could do for her, however,
beyond being with her as often as she could; and the Queen had shown a
tendency of late to discourage even this.

Edna looked forward with interest to the Count's next visit; his
performances with the dragon had impressed her greatly in his favour,
and she had begun to think that he might have the makings of a Superman
in him after all. It might be time to begin his education, and she
prepared herself for the task by running through her lecture notes on
Nietzsche once more.

When he called he was shown by her command to the chamber which served
as her boudoir, where, rather to the scandal of some of the Court
ladies, she received him in private.

He looked taller than ever as he sat doubled up on a low seat. "I came
to thank you, Princess," he began, "for persuading your exalted parents
to spare my poor dear Tuetzi. Of course I don't want to break the law,
but he is chained up, and besides, he is such a good dragon that I'm
sure nobody _could_ object to my keeping him."

"Why are you so anxious not to break the law?"

"Because it's wrong to break laws."

"And do you never do anything wrong?"

"Never. My tutors taught me that people who do wrong are always punished
for it. I shouldn't like to be punished at all."

"Still, you must have _wanted_ to do bad things now and then."

"Now and then I have," he confessed. "Especially lately. But I never
_do_ them. You see, bad people are never really liked."

"Do you know, Count, what the great German philosopher Nietzsche would
call such goodness as yours? He would say it was 'slave-morality.' You
only do what other people tell you is right because you're afraid of
what they would think of you if you didn't. You have courage enough to
master Tuetzi, but you daren't defy what Nietzsche so finely terms 'the
Gr