In truth, she liked any one who spoke to her on equal footing; it was a taste of the old days when she herself could have chosen a vintner and married him, with none to say her nay.

Now she was only a pretty bird in a gilded cage.

She could fly, but whenever she did so she blundered painfully against the bright wires.

If there was any envy between these two, it existed in the heart of the princess only.

To be free like this, to come and go at will, to love where the heart spoke! She surrendered to another vagrant impulse.
"Gretchen, I do not think I shall marry the king of Jugendheit." Gretchen grew red with pride.