“Yes,” said the Princess, “all that was a pretty dream.  Gretchen was a fairy; and now she has gone from your life and mine—­forever.  My dear friend, it is a prosaic age we live in.  Sometimes we forget and dream; but dreams are unreal.  Perhaps a flash of it comes back in after days, that is all; and we remember that it was a dream, and nothing more.  It is true that God designs us, but the world molds us and fate puts on the finishing touches.”  She was smiling into my wonder-struck face.  “We all have duties to perform while passing.  Some of us are born with destinies mapped out by human hands; some of us are free to make life what we will.  I am of the first order, and you are of the second.  It is as impossible to join the one with the other as it is to make diamonds out of charcoal and water.  Between Gretchen and the Princess Hildegarde of Hohenphalia there is as much difference as there is between—­what simile shall I use?—­the possible and the impossible?”

“Gretchen—­” I began.

“Gretchen?” The Princess laughed amusedly.  “She is flown.  I beg you not to waste a thought on her memory.”

Things were going badly for me.  I did not understand the mood.  It brought to mind the woman poor Hillars had described to me in his rooms that night in London.  I saw that I was losing something, so I made what I thought a bold stroke.  I took from my pocket a withered rose.  I turned it from one hand to the other.

“It appears that when Gretchen gave me this it was as an emblem of her love.  Still, I gave her all my heart.”

“If that be the emblem of her love, Herr, throw it away; it is not worth the keeping.”

“And Gretchen sent me a letter once,” I went on.

“Ah, what indiscretion!”

“It began with ‘I love you,’ and ended with that sentence.  I have worn the writing away with my kisses.”

“How some men waste their energies!”

“Your Highness,” said I, putting the rose back into my pocket, “did Gretchen ever tell you how she fought a duel for me because her life was less to her than mine?”

The Princess Hildegarde’s smile stiffened and her eyes closed for the briefest instant.

“Ah, shall I ever forget that night!” said I.  “I held her to my heart and kissed her on the lips.  I was supremely happy.  Your Highness has never known what a thing of joy it is to kiss the one you love.  It is one of those things which are denied to people who have their destinies mapped out by human hands.”

The Princess opened her fan and hid her lips.

“And do you know,” I continued, “when Gretchen went away I had a wonderful dream?”

“A dream?  What was it?” The fan was waving to and fro.

“I dreamed that a Princess came in Gretchen’s place, and she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me of her own free will.”

“And what did she say, Herr?” Certainly the voice was growing more like Gretchen’s.