at is what he said afterwards: I don't know whether it was true."

"Beautiful!" exclaimed the Prince in ravished tone. He did not turn a
hair; it was merely as though he were listening to some fairy tale.

"But very likely it was!" persisted Charlotte, anxious for the worst to
be believed; and then she gave him a full account of the whole thing.

"And what for did you do it?" he inquired when she had finished.

"Because they had told me that you were coming, and I had promised not
to run away."

"I do not understand?"

"Well, I didn't know what you were like; and I didn't want you to think
I was a bit anxious to meet you.--That was all!"

"That was all, was it?" Enlightenment dawned on him; he beamed at her
benevolently.

"And I wanted to see," she continued, "whether you would be shocked: at
least, I wanted to give you the chance of being."

"Well, you have given it me, and I am not; I am delighted. The more
women can do that sort of thing the better--pull men's heads off, I
mean."

"Goodness me!" exclaimed Charlotte, "but I'm not going on doing it."

"Why not? A good thing done twice is better."

The simplicity of his approval left her without words.

"In that country where you and I are going to," went on the Prince,
imperturbably, "the women can fight just as well as the men. They are
trained to wrestle; and before they allow to marry they must have
wrestled off on to his back a man as old as themselves."

"But the men?" cried Charlotte, astonished. "How can they stand being
beaten by women?"

"Pooh, that is nonsense!" said Fritz; "men do not mind being beaten by
women unless it is that they despise them. In that country the woman
that has thrown most men is the one that they are most anxious to
marry."

"I have never thrown any one yet," said Charlotte reflectively.

"You!" Peaceful of look he eyed her wonderingly. "You have thrown
something much stronger than a man," he said--"you, a princess, that has
gone to prison!--and for that silly notion of yours that you could shock
me. Ha!"

"I did it for other reasons, too."

"Quite like; people may have a lot of reasons they can make up
afterwards for doing wise, brave, foolish things like that!"

"But I did think," insisted Charlotte, "that those Women Chartists were
right."

"I do not care whether they are right or wrong;--that is not my concern.
They may be just as foolish as you, or just as wise--what difference to
me? But when I go to thi