that you want. Do you know the couplet:--

_Man bedarf der Leitung
Und der maennlichen Begleitung?_

A truly excellent couplet."

Anna smiled. "That is the German idea of female bliss--always to be led
round by the nose by some husband."

"Not _some_ husband, my dear--one's own husband. You may call it leading
by the nose if you like. I can only say that I enjoyed being led by
mine, and have missed it grievously ever since."

"But you had found the right man."

"It is not very difficult to find the right man."

"Yes it is--very difficult indeed."

"I think not," said the princess. "He is never far off. Sometimes, even,
he is next door." And she gazed over Anna's head at the ceiling with
elaborate unconsciousness.

"And besides," said Anna, "why does a woman everlastingly want to be led
and propped? Why can't she go about the business of life on her own
feet? Why must she always lean on someone?"

"You said just now it is because it is hot."

"The fact is," said Anna, "that I am not clever enough to see my way
through puzzles. And that depresses me."

"I well know that you must be puzzled."

"Yes, it is puzzling, isn't it? I can talk to you about it, for of
course you see it all. It seems so absurd that the only result of my
trying to make people happy is to make everyone, including myself,
wretched. That is waste, isn't it. Waste, I mean, of happiness. For I,
at least, was happy before."

"And, my dear, you will be happy again."

Anna knit her brows in painful thought. "If by being wretched I had
managed to make the others happy it wouldn't have been so bad. At least
it wouldn't have been so completely silly. The only thing I can think of
is that I must have hit upon the wrong people."

"_I Gott bewahre!_" cried the princess with energy. "They are all alike.
Send these away, you get them back in a different shape. Faces and names
would be different, never the women. They would all be Treumanns and
Elmreichs, and not a single one worth anything in the whole heap."

"Well, I shall not desert them--Else and Emilie, I mean. They need help,
both of them. And after all, it is simple selfishness for ever wanting
to be happy oneself. I have begun to see that the chief thing in life is
not to be as happy as one can, but to be very brave."

The princess sighed. "Poor Axel," she said.

Anna started, and blushed violently. "Pray what has my being brave to do
with Herr von Lohm?" she inquired sever