“What do you consider the best means?”

“The admiration and favor of women!  You must gain the love of powerful and influential women.  Oh, you are terrified, and your brow is clouded! perhaps, unhappily, you are already in love?”

“No!” said Frederick von Trenck, violently.  “I have never been in love.  I dare say more than that:  I have never kissed the lips of a woman.”

Pollnitz gazed at him with an expression of indescribable amazement.  “How!” said he; “you are nineteen, and assert that you have never embraced a woman?” He gave a mocking and cynical laugh.

“Ordinary women have always excited my disgust,” said the young officer, simply; “and until this day I have never seen a woman who resembled my ideal.”

“So, then, the woman with whom you will now become enamored will receive your first tender vows?”

“Yes, even so.”

“And you wear the uniform of the life-guard—­you are a lieutenant!” cried Pollnitz with tragical pathos, and extending his arms toward heaven.  “But how?—­what did you say?—­that until to-day you had seen no woman who approached your ideal?”

“I said that.”

“And to-day—?”

“Well, it seems to me, we have both seen an angel to-day!—­an angel, whom you have wronged, in giving her the common name of fairy.”

“Aha! the Princess Amelia,” said Pollnitz.  “You will love this young maiden, my friend.”

“Then, indeed, shall I be most unhappy!  She is a royal princess, and my love must ever be unrequited.”

“Who told you that? who told you that this little Amelia was only a princess?  I tell you she is a young girl with a heart of fire.  Try to awake her—­she only sleeps!  A happy event has already greeted you.  The princess has fixed your enraptured gaze upon her lovely form, by throwing or rather shooting roses at you.  Perhaps the god of Love has hidden his arrow in a rose.  You thought Amelia had only pelted your cheek with roses, but the arrow has entered your soul.  Try your luck, young man; gain the love of the king’s favorite sister, and you will be all-powerful.”

The young officer looked at him with confused and misty eyes.

“You do not dare to suggest,” murmured he, “that—­”

“I dare to say,” cried Pollnitz, interrupting him, “that you are in favor with the brother; why may you not also gain the sister’s good graces?  I say further, that I will assist you, and I will ever be at your side, as a loving friend and a sagacious counsellor.”

“Do you know, baron, that your wild words open a future to my view before which my brain and heart are reeling?  How shall I dare to love a princess, and seek her love in return?”

“As to the first point, I think you have already dared.  As to the second, I think your rare beauty and wondrous accomplishments might justify such pretensions.”

“You know I never can become the husband of a princess.”