, "just two evening moons older than when I
saw you last."

"What have evening moons got to do with it?"

"They are your most becoming time."

She took the compliment with a sigh and a smile; then with an air of
resignation sat down.

"Who is she?" she asked abruptly.

"I haven't a ghost of a notion. We haven't been properly introduced, she
hasn't encouraged me, I haven't said a word, and I'm not to go near her
any more."

This for a start. The Countess Hilda became deeply interested, and very
much alarmed. "Then it isn't a princess?" she cried in consternation,
"she isn't royalty?"

"Oh, no," said Max, "far from it. She is what you call a sister of
mercy, and 'sister'--horrible word--is the only thing I am allowed to
call her; she is a sealed casket without a handle."

"Oh, Max," cried his Countess, "don't do it, don't do it; it's
wickedness! _I_ didn't matter; but this--oh, Max, you don't know what a
grief and disappointment you'll be to me if you----"

"Dearly beloved friend," interrupted Max, "do give me credit for a
morality not very greatly inferior to your own. After all I am your
pupil."

"But you can't _marry_ her?" cried the Countess.

"Saving your presence, I mean to," asseverated Max.

"You! Where will the Crown go?"

"Charlotte will have three inches taken out of its rim and will fit it
far better than I should--that is if anybody is so foolish as to object
to my marrying where I please."

"Then in Heaven's name," cried the Countess, "why in all these years
haven't you married me?"

Max smiled; they were back into easy relations once more. This was the
lady with whom he had never spent a dull day.

"I did not wish to give you the pain of refusing me," said he. "Had I
asked you you would have said that I was far too young to know my mind,
and that you yourself were too old."

"Yes, I should," she admitted, "but you should have left me to say it."
Then she returned to her original bewilderment. "But, my dear boy, if
she is a sister of mercy she has taken vows."

"Oh, no, we don't do that in Jingalo. No Jingalese Church-woman may
throw away her whole life on so problematical a benefit as a religious
vow of celibacy. She may lease herself to Heaven for a given number of
years, but freeholds are not allowed."

"And you call that a Church!" cried the Countess.

"Well," said the Prince, "I think that in this case she has got hold of
a scientific point worth keeping. Seven years ago I was