What should she say to her serene highness?
What kind of a curtsy should she make?
These and a hundred other questions flitted through her head.

At least she would wear no humble, servile air.

For Gretchen was a bit of a socialist.

Did not Herr Goldberg, whom the police detested, did he not say that all men were equal?
And surely this sweeping statement included women! She attended secret meetings in the damp cellar of the Black Eagle, and, while she laughed at some of the articles in the propaganda, she received seriously enough that which proclaimed her the equal of any one.

So long as she obeyed nature's laws and Heaven's, was she not indeed the equal of queens and princesses, who, it was said, did not always obey these laws?
With a confidence born of right and innocence, she proceeded toward the east or side gates of the palace.