For if the Princess knows as much, the young woman will not have her troubles to seek in the Palace of Plassenburg." I hung my head and said naught, save that Helene declared she loved me not, but that I thought she was mistaken.
"Ah, then," cried the Prince, like one exceedingly relieved, "it is but some boy and girl affair.

That is better.

She may change her mind, as you will certainly change yours--and that several times--among the ladies of the court.

I was in hopes--" And the Prince stopped in his turn, not from bashfulness, but rather like a man who desires more carefully to choose his words.
"I was in hopes," he went on, speaking slowly, "that if the Princess loved your boy's face and liked my conversation (which I may say without pride that I think she does) you and I together might have kept her at home.

So over-much wandering is not good for the state.