elieves that she had something to do with my abduction." Then she
stopped. She was strangely making this peasant her confidante. What a
whim!

"Highness, that could not be."

"No, Gretchen; she had nothing to do with it." Her highness leveled her
gaze at the flowers, but her eyes saw only the garret or the barnlike
loneliness of the opera during rehearsals.

Gretchen did not move. She saw that her highness was dreaming; and
she herself had dreams.

"Do you like music?"

"Highness, I am always singing."

"La-la--la!" sang the princess capriciously.

"La-la--la!" sang Gretchen smiling. Her voice was not purer or sweeter;
it was merely stronger, having been accustomed to the open air.

"Brava!" cried the princess, dropping book and whip and folding the note
inside the book. "Who taught you to sing?"

"Nobody, highness."

"What do you do?"

"I am a goose-girl; in the fall and winter I work at odd times in the
Black Eagle."

"The Black Eagle? A tavern?"

"Yes, Highness."

"Tell me all about yourself."

This was easy for Gretchen; there was so little.

"Neither mother nor father. Our lives are something alike. A handsome
girl like you must have a sweetheart."

Gretchen blushed. "Yes, Highness. I am to be married soon. He is a
vintner. I would not trade him for your king, Highness," with a spice of
boldness.

Her highness did not take offense; rather she liked this frankness. In
truth, she liked any one who spoke to her on equal footing; it was a
taste of the old days when she herself could have chosen a vintner and
married him, with none to say her nay. Now she was only a pretty bird in
a gilded cage. She could fly, but whenever she did so she blundered
painfully against the bright wires. If there was any envy between these
two, it existed in the heart of the princess only. To be free like this,
to come and go at will, to love where the heart spoke! She surrendered
to another vagrant impulse.

"Gretchen, I do not think I shall marry the king of Jugendheit."

Gretchen grew red with pride. Her highness was telling her state
secrets!

"You love some one else, Highness?" How should a goose-girl know that
such a question was indelicate?

Her highness did not blush; the color in her cheeks receded. She
fondled the heart-shaped locket which she invariably wore round her
throat. That this peasant girl should thus boldly put a question she
herself had never dared to press!

"You must not ask questions