Aryenis looked out over her horse’s ears. Then, rather reflectively: “A fairy prince or a fairy princess might give something bigger. Yes; if they were the right ones with the right marks, something much bigger, because it would mean not only life, but lots and lots more.” “I wish I were a fairy prince, then. I should like to give such a gift as you speak of.” “Perhaps you will be some day--when you meet the princess--or--when you _know_ she is the princess.” “When I’ve seen the mark on her shoulder, for instance?” Aryenis reflected again. “Perhaps. If she had one. But then you might have difficulty in seeing it; she mightn’t like to show it. You said yourself that women didn’t like having marks. And all fairy princesses are women.” “And are all women fairy princesses?” “They ought to be sometime to some man who knows how to be a fairy prince.” “Don’t you think every man could play that part to the right sort of princess?” “Yes, I do. Only not if he had gone bad, which is a man’s way of growing up. Only the kind that don’t grow up can be fairy princes.” “Have we grown up, then, Wrexham and Forsyth and I?” Aryenis did not reflect this time. She said straight off without any previous consideration: “No. You have none of you grown up, not even Forsyth, though I think he likes to pretend that he has. As for you, Harilek, you will never grow up, however long you live.” “How can you tell whether men have grown up--Shahzadi?” “I like it when you call me Shahzadi; it sounds nice. How do I tell when men are grown up? Oh, in lots of ways. Whether they like toys is one thing.” “What do you call ‘toys’?” “Oh, horses, armour, bows and arrows, games, and things like that.” “And what other things?” Aryenis reflected again, contemplating the distant hills and the snow. “How they speak to women sometimes. Most of all, how they treat a woman and how they look at her.” “And how do _you_ think they ought to treat women?” “Well, like you all treated me when I first came to you. I wasn’t exactly got up for a party.” She blushed a little. “And you all treated me just as if I had been wearing my most ordinary frocks, and then you turned out of your tent and lived in the cold wind outside, and gave me your best clothes--rather ragged ones they were. “And after that you spoke to me always as if I were a princess, and got up when I came to meals, and generally danced attendance on me hand and foot, and your men did just what you do, and servants can’t change quickly. They do what they have been accustomed to see their masters doing for a long time. “So I was sure none of you had grown up. I knew that when you were untying me behind the rock while Payindah was shooting. I was very frightened, but a woman has to think awfully quickly sometimes, and I knew before even you’d got my arms free that _you_ hadn’t grown up, anyway.” “You must judge very quickly, Shahzadi. How do you do it?”