been taken," he said, fervently.

"And a romance spoiled," she laughed.

"So you are a princess,--a real princess," he went on, as if he
had not heard her. "I knew it. Something told me you were not
an ordinary woman."

"Oh, but I am a very ordinary woman," she remonstrated. "You do
not know how easy it is to be a princess and a mere woman at the
same time. I have a heart, a head. I breathe and eat and drink
and sleep and love. Is it not that way with other women?"

"You breathe and eat and drink and sleep and love in a different
world, though, your Highness."

"Ach! my little maid, Therese, sleeps as soundly, eats as
heartily and loves as warmly as I, so a fig for your argument."

"You may breathe the same air, but would you love the same man
that your maid might love?"

"Is a man the only excuse for love? she asked. "If so, then I
must say that I breathe and eat and drink and sleep--and that is
all."

"Pardon me, but some day you will find that love is a man, and"
--here he laughed--"you will neither breathe, nor eat, nor sleep
except with him in your heart. Even a princess is mot proof
against a man."