"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?"
"Pooh, that is nonsense!" said Fritz; "men do not mind being beaten by women unless it is that they despise them. In that country the woman that has thrown most men is the one that they are most anxious to marry."
"I have never thrown any one yet," said Charlotte reflectively.
"You!" Peaceful of look he eyed her wonderingly. "You have thrown something much stronger than a man," he said—"you, a princess, that has gone to prison!—and for that silly notion of yours that you could shock me. Ha!"