armies, and many more in the
Austrian service. Perhaps we will send your Stair to wear the white
uniform. It would become him rarely. And which of the two do you like
the best?"

The last question was unexpected, but it was not a habit of Patsy's to
be embarrassed--at least, not for long.

"Oh," she said crisply, "these are only two--there are others, and so
far I have felt no desire to make any choice. I foresee that if the
malady takes me, I am more likely to run away with the man than he with
me. Uncle Ju says that is the way with our family. I am really more like
my mother's people than the Ferrises--so at least every one says."

"Did not your father run away with an earl's daughter from the door of
some ball-room?" the Princess asked.

"It was the Edinburgh Assembly rooms, but Uncle Ju says that it was my
mother who ran away with him!"

"That," said the Princess, in a low tone, "I can very well believe. So
you have yet to fall in love! Well, my advice to you is, do not put it
off too long, young lady. And when once you have made up your mind,
stick to your man though he were a baker's apprentice!"

"You talk just like Uncle Ju, Princess," said Patsy, smiling, "only that
he wants me to see as much of the world as I can before--taking your
advice."

"What does your Uncle say?" the Princess Elsa asked gently, not looking
at the girl but beyond her out into the hazily bright garden.

"Well, if you know him, you will remember that it is difficult to
separate what he really means from what he only _says_, because he means
to tease. But at any rate he warns me not to run off with the first
tight-girthed youth with a curly head who tells me he loves me. As if I
were likely to! Why, I can hardly remember the time when somebody was
not making love to me, and I do not see that it has made very much
difference."

"No," mused the Princess, a smile of quiet amusement in her blue eyes,
"but you are not at the world's end yet, and now we must go to town and
get something wherewithal to fit you out."

"Uncle Ju has given me such a lot of money, Princess," said Patsy,
jumping up, "shall I go and bring it? There is enough to pay for ever so
many dresses. If I were to live to be a thousand I don't think I could
spend all that!"

"Your Uncle Julian is a wonderful man," said the Princess Elsa, "he has
a purse as long and as ready as his sword. And what he gave you was no
more than a little pin-money, just to keep in your