woman on this earth!'

'O, you have found out so much,' she cried.

'Yes, madam, I grow wiser with advancing years,' he returned.

'Years,' she repeated. 'Do you name the traitors? I do not believe
in years; the calendar is a delusion.'

'You must be right, madam,' replied the Prince. 'For six years that
we have been good friends, I have observed you to grow younger.'

'Flatterer!' cried she, and then with a change, 'But why should I
say so,' she added, 'when I protest I think the same? A week ago I
had a council with my father director, the glass; and the glass
replied, "Not yet!" I confess my face in this way once a month. O!
a very solemn moment. Do you know what I shall do when the mirror
answers, "Now"?'

'I cannot guess,' said he.

'No more can I,' returned the Countess. 'There is such a choice!
Suicide, gambling, a nunnery, a volume of memoirs, or politics - the
last, I am afraid.'

'It is a dull trade,' said Otto.

'Nay,' she replied, 'it is a trade I rather like. It is, after all,
first cousin to gossip, which no one can deny to be amusing. For
instance, if I were to tell you that the Princess and the Baron rode