. Mind you
don't say a word. I must have the skin to present to Franziska."

I stared at him; I had never known him guilty of a dishonest action.
But when you do get a decent young English fellow condescending to do
anything shabby, be sure it is a girl who is the cause. I said nothing,
of course; and in the evening a trap came for us, and we drove back to
Huferschingen.

Tita clapped her hands with delight; for Charlie was a favourite of
hers, and now he was returning like a hero, with a sprig of fir in his
cap to show that he had killed a buck.

"And here, Miss Franziska," he said, quite gaily, "here is a yellow fox
for you. I was told that you wanted the skin of one."

Franziska fairly blushed for pleasure; not that the skin of a fox was
very valuable for her, but that the compliment was so open and marked.
She came forward, in German fashion, and rather shyly shook hands with
him in token of her thanks.

When Tita was getting ready for dinner I told her about the yellow fox.
A married man must have no secrets.

"He is not capable of such a thing," she says, with a grand air.

"But he did it," I point out. "What is more, he glories in it. What did
he say when I remonstrated with him on the way home! '_Why_,' says he,
'_I will put an end to Krumm! I will abolish Krumm! I will extinguish
Krumm!_' Now, madame, who is responsible for this? Who had been praising
Franziska night and day as the sweetest, gentlest, cleverest girl in the
world, until this young man determines to have a flirtation with her and
astonish you?"

"A flirtation!" says Tita, faintly. "Oh no! Oh, I never meant that."

"Ask him just now, and he will tell you that women deserve no better.
They have no hearts; they are treacherous. They have beautiful eyes, but
no conscience. And so he means to take them as they are, and have his
measure of amusement."

"Oh, I am sure he never said anything so abominably wicked," cried Tita,
laying down the rose that Franziska had given her for her hair. "I know
he could not say such things. But if he is so wicked--if he has said
them--it is not too late to interfere. _I_ will see about it."

She drew herself up as if Jupiter had suddenly armed her with his
thunderbolts. If Charlie had seen her at this moment he would have
quailed. He might by chance have told the truth, and confessed that all
the wicked things he had been saying about woman's affection were only
a sort of rhetoric, and that he had no sort