"Oh, when one is a prince,"--laughing,--"it takes no time at all. I
love you. I knew it was going to be when you looked around in old
Bauer's smithy."
"Did I look around?"--innocently.
"You certainly did, for I looked around and saw you."
They paused. (There is no pastime quite like it.)
"But they say that I am wild like a young horse." (Love is always
finding some argument which he wishes to have knocked under.)
"Not to me,"--ardently. "You may ride a bicycle every day, if you
wish."
"I'd rather have an automobile,"--drolly.
"An airship, if money will buy it!"
"They say--my uncle says--that I am not capable of loving anything."
"What do I care what they say? Will you be my wife?"
"Give me a week to think it over."
"No."
(She liked that!)
"A day, then?"
"Not an hour!"
(She liked this still better!)
"Oh!"
"Not half an hour!"
"This is almost as bad as the duke; you are forcing me."
"If you do not answer yes or no at once, I'll go back to Barscheit and
trounce that fellow who struck me. I can do it now."
"Well--but only four days--"
"Hours! Think of riding together for ever!"--joyously taking a step
nearer.
"I dare not think of it. It is all so like a dream. . . . Oh!"
bursting into tears (what unaccountable beings women are!)--"if you do
not love me!"
"Don't I, though!"
Then he started around the table in pursuit of her, in all directions,
while, after the manner of her kind, she balked him, rosily, star-eyed.
They laughed; and when two young people laugh it is a sign that all
goes well with the world. He never would tell just how long it took
him to catch her, nor would he tell me what he did when he caught her.
Neither would I, had I been in his place!
"Here's!" said the prince.
"It's a great world," added the duke.
"For surprises," supplemented the prince. "Ho, Hans! A fresh candle!"
And the story goes that his serene Highness of Barscheit and his
Highness of Doppelkinn were found peacefully asleep in the cellars,
long after the sun had rolled over the blue Carpathians.