en had driven on, a large she-bear or
elder sister would come out of the wood and devour it. But everybody
would hear about the domestic inquiries and the gift, and would say what
a really nice lady the Queen was. That is always the great surprise of
the common people when they meet royalty.

But what pleased the inhabitants of Bad-as-Bad most of all was when the
Queen came out and sat upon her balcony in the cool of the evening and
knitted,--doing it, as someone who watched her through opera-glasses was
able to affirm, in the German manner. It was even asserted that she
could turn a heel and narrow at the toes without either looking or
interrupting the flow of her conversation; and we who have had the
cobbling habits of a king of Montenegro held up to us for admiration,
must we not think that this also was a most queenly act and an example
to all haus-fraus?

Princess Charlotte (the reason for whose being with her parents on this
occasion was beginning to leak out) was more elusive in her habits and
was seldom on view. She never took the waters, nor sat in the balcony to
listen to the band; but kept unheard-of hours--early in the morning,
late in the evening--slipping out by back ways and going off on long day
expeditions with only one of her ladies. One day she even got lost and
spent the night at a hill-chalet. On a lake she had been seen rowing:
some said that far out from shore she had actually bathed, but that was
not possible; probably she had only fallen in.

The Queen kept what count of her she could, and now and then would
counsel moderation, or would try to impose it by getting some of the
more elderly gentlemen-in-waiting to join her expeditions. They came
home limping and exhausted; in her pursuit of health and vigor Charlotte
was ruthless.

"They shouldn't come," she said. "If they do, and find it too much for
them, they can sit down at the boundaries and wait for us."

And so she went her own way quite happily, till suddenly there came an
upheaval and all semblance of moderation was thrown aside. The cause of
this upset was the calculated indiscretion of a Berlin newspaper which
had caught Charlotte's eye. There set forth was the story of her ascent
of the Rathhaus spire, there also the local custom with its meaning
carefully explained, there pointed inquiry as to its particular
application if certain rumors were true; and then followed the
circumstantial evidence.

The Princess flamed into her mot