voice so cold and repellent that his eyes closed, involuntarily,
as if an unexpected horror had come before them. "You must not
tell me that you came to see me.

"But I did come to see you and not Her Royal Highness the
Princess Yetive of Graustark stark. How was I to know?" he
cried impulsively.

"But you are no longer ignorant," she said, looking from the
window.

"I thought you said you were a mere woman!"

"I am--and that is the trouble!" she said, slowly turning her
eyes back to him. Then she abruptly sank to the window seat near
his head. "That is the trouble, I say. A woman is a woman,
although she be a princess. Don't you understand why you must
not say such things to me?"

"Because you are a princess," he said, bitterly.

"No; because I am a woman. As a woman I want to hear them, as, a
princess I cannot. Now, have I made you understand? Have I been
bold enough?" Her face was burning.

"You--you don't mean that you--" he half whispered, drawing
himself toward her, his face glowing.

"Ach! What have I said?"