"Civilization will find us a bad bargain," said the Prince, "we shall not trade: that is to be our law. I have told them how dreadful civilization has become, and they are afraid of it; they will not touch it with a pair of tongs. Traders may come to us; they shall get nothing, and we shall get nothing from them. Only the King, with those that he has for his Council, shall choose what is to bring in from outside; and that will not be for trade at all. "Well, now you know! And it is to be Queen of that country, but never to wear any crown, that I ask if you are going to marry me?" "It would be rather a big adventure, would it not?" said Charlotte. "Of course! I thought that is what you like." "Yes, so it is. But what about papa? I don't know what he would say if he knew." "Do you always tell him what you do, beforehand, to see if he shall approve?" "I've not done lately," said Charlotte. And then she saw that a suitable moment for her own confession had arrived. She had very small hope of shocking him now; but she did her best. "Do you know that I have been in prison?" she said. "No. Who was it that put you there--your papa?" "I put myself." "Did you get the keys?" "I made them arrest me." "How?" "I took a policeman's helmet from him, and ran away with it. At least that is what he said afterwards: I don't know whether it was true." "Beautiful!" exclaimed the Prince in ravished tone. He did not turn a hair; it was merely as though he were listening to some fairy tale. "But very likely it was!" persisted Charlotte, anxious for the worst to be believed; and then she gave him a full account of the whole thing. "And what for did you do it?" he inquired when she had finished. "Because they had told me that you were coming, and I had promised not to run away." "I do not understand?" "Well, I didn't know what you were like; and I didn't want you to think I was a bit anxious to meet you.--That was all!" "That was all, was it?" Enlightenment dawned on him; he beamed at her benevolently. "And I wanted to see," she continued, "whether you would be shocked: at least, I wanted to give you the chance of being." "Well, you have given it me, and I am not; I am delighted. The more women can do that sort of thing the better--pull men's heads off, I mean." "Goodness me!" exclaimed Charlotte, "but I'm not going on doing it." "Why not? A good thing done twice is better." The simplicity of his approval left her without words. "In that country where you and I are going to," went on the Prince, imperturbably, "the women can fight just as well as the men. They are trained to wrestle; and before they allow to marry they must have wrestled off on to his back a man as old as themselves." "But the men?" cried Charlotte, astonished. "How can they stand being beaten by women?"