An experiment!--Why should I, Ysolinde of Plassenburg, experiment with you, the son of the Red Axe of the Wolfsberg ?" "Nay, that I know not," I answered; "but yet I am indeed no more than your arrow-butts, your target of practice, your whipping-boy, to be slung at and arrow-drilled and bullet-pitted at your pleasure!" "I dare say," she said, bitterly; "and all the time you go scathless--no more heart-stricken than if summer flies lighted on thee.

Away with such a man; he is the ghost of a man--a simulacrum--no true lover!" "At your will, Princess.

I shall indeed go away.

I will to-morrow seek the spears.

But, after all, you will not send me forth in anger ?" I said, with a strong conviction that I knew the answer.
"And why not ?" said she.
"Because," I replied, looking at her, "I am, after all, the one man who believes thoroughly in your heart's deep inward goodness.