, was pursuing the
wrens, and Twonette, losing part of her serenity, actually caught a
bird. The sport was infectious, and soon fat old Castleman was puffing
like a tired porpoise, and sedate old Karl de Pitti was in the chase.
Frau Katherine grabbed desperately at a bird now and then, but she was
too stout to catch one and soon took her chair, laughing and out of
breath. Yolanda screamed with laughter, and after she had caught six or
seven birds and put them in the cage provided for them, she asked Max to
lift her in his arms that she might reach one resting on a beam near the
ceiling. Max gladly complied, and Yolanda, having caught the
bird, said:--

"Now, Sir Max, open your mouth."

"I have already swallowed one," said Max, laughing, "and I will swallow
none other so long as I live."

As Max lowered her to the floor her arm fell about his neck for an
instant, and the great strong boy trembled at the touch of this
weak girl.

Out to the garden we went again after supper, and when dusk began to
fall, Yolanda led Max to a rustic seat in the deep shadow of the vines.
I could not hear their words, but I learned afterward of the
conversation.

When I thought Yolanda was the princess, I was joyful because of the
marked favor that she showed Max. When I thought she was a burgher girl,
I felt like a fussy old hen with a flock of ducks if he were alone with
her. She seemed then a bewitching little ogress slowly devouring my
handsome Prince Max. That she was fair, entrancing, and lovable beyond
any woman I had ever known, only added to my anxiety. Would Max be
strong enough to hold out against her wooing? I don't like to apply the
word "wooing" to a young girl's conduct, but we all know that woman does
her part in the great system of human mating when the persons most
interested do the choosing; and it is right that she should. The modesty
that prevents a woman from showing her preference is the result of a
false philosophy, and flies in the face of nature. Her right to choose
is as good as man's.

If Yolanda's wooing was more pronounced than is usual with a modest
young girl, it must be remembered that her situation was different. She
knew that Max had been restrained from wooing her only because of the
impassable gulf that lay between them. Ardor in Max when marriage was
impossible would have been an insult to Yolanda. His reticence for
conscience' sake and for her sake was the most chivalric flattery he
could have p