"Yes, that is true, but what will you have? There are many things in this incomprehensible world which are poisonous, and which, for that reason, are the more alluring. This is peculiarly so with women. He does well who avoids them; they bewilder our reason and make our hearts sick, but we do not flee from them. We pursue them, and the poison which they infuse in our veins is sweet; we quaff it rapturously, though death is in the cup." "In this, however, your majesty is wiser than all other men: you alone have the power to turn away from or withstand them." "Who knows? perhaps that is sheer cowardice," said the king; he turned away confused, and beat with his fingers upon the window- glass. "I called the Rhine wine poison, because of its strength. I think now that it alone deserves to be called wine--it is the only wine which has bloom." Frederick was again silent, and beat a march upon the window. The general looked at him anxiously and thoughtfully; suddenly his countenance cleared, and a half-suppressed smile played upon his lips. "I will allow myself to add a conclusive word to those of my king, that is, a moral to his fable. Your majesty says Rhine wine is the only wine which deserves the name, because it alone has bloom. So I will call that society only society which is graced and adorned by women. Women are the bloom of society. Do you not agree with me, sire?" "If I agree to that proposition, it amounts to a request that you will invite women to our fete this evening--will it not?" said the king, still thrumming on the window. "And with what rapture would I fulfil your wish, but I fear it would be difficult to induce the ladies to come to the house of a young bachelor as I am!" "Ah, bah! I have determined during the next winter to give these little suppers very often. I will have a private table, and women shall be present." "Yes, but your majesty is married." "They would come if I were a bachelor. The Countess Carnas, Frau von Brandt, the Kleist, and the Morien, are too witty and too intellectual to be restrained by narrow-minded prejudice." "Does your majesty wish that I should invite these ladies?" said the general; "they will come, without doubt, if your majesty commands it. Shall I invite them?" The king hesitated a moment to reply. "Perhaps they would not come willingly," said he; "you are unmarried, and they might be afraid of their husbands' anger." "I must, then, invite ladies who are not married," said Rothenberg, whose face was now radiant with delight; "but I do not know one unmarried lady of the higher circles who carries her freedom from prejudice so far as to dare attend a bachelor's supper." "Must we always confine our invitations to the higher circles?" said the king, beating his parade march still more violently upon the window. Rothenberg watched him with the eye of a sportsman, who sees the wild deer brought to bay. "If your majesty will condescend to set etiquette aside, I will make a proposition."