raeulein. Not now, at all events," with a complimentary bow and
glance.

"Thank you. You're quite a courtier. And that reminds me of another
thing they say of him in my country. The story is, that he dislikes
the society of women. But perhaps it is that he doesn't understand
them."

"It is possible, lady. But I never heard that they were so difficult
of comprehension."

"Ah, that shows how little you chamois hunters have had time to learn.
Why, we can't even understand ourselves, or know what we're most
likely to do next. And yet--a very odd thing--we have no difficulty
in reading one another, and knowing all each other's weaknesses."

"That would seem to say that a man should get a woman to choose his
wife for him."

"I'm not so sure it would be wise. Yet your Emperor, we hear, will let
the Chancellor choose his."

"Ah! were you told this also in your country?"

"Yes. For the gossip is that she's an English Princess. Now, what's
the good of being a powerful Emperor, if he can't even pick out a wife
to please his own taste?"

"I know nothing about such high matters, gna' Fraeulein. But I fancied
that Royal folk took wives to please their people rather than
themselves. It's their duty to marry, you know. And if the lady be of
Royal blood, virtuous, of the right religion, not too sharp-tempered,
and pleasant to look at, why--those are the principal things to
consider, I should suppose."

"So should I _not_ suppose, if I were a man, and--Emperor. I should
want the pleasure of falling in love."

"Safer not, gna' Fraeulein. He might fall in love with the wrong
woman." And the chamois hunter looked with half shamed intentness
into his guest's sweet eyes.

She blushed under his gaze, and was so conscious of the hot color,
that she retorted at random. "I doubt if he _could_ fall in love. A
man who would let his Chancellor choose for him! He can have no warm
blood in his veins."

"There I think you wrong him, lady," the answer came quickly. "The
Emperor is--a man. But it may be he has found other interests in his
life more important than woman."

"Bringing down chamois, for instance. You would sympathize there."

"Chamois give good sport. They're hard to find. Harder still to hit
when you have found them."

"So are the best types of women. Those who, like the chamois (and the
plant I spoke of) live only in high places. Oh, for the sake of my
sex, I do hope that some day your Emperor will change his mind--tha