ent or two, and then, with a sigh, lifting
her eyes suddenly to mine, said quietly, "Yes, sometimes;
sometimes--but very seldom," while for an instant across her face there
flashed the summer lightning of a new hope, a single transient glance
of wistful, timid entreaty; of wonder and delight that dared not even
yet acknowledge itself.

Then it was my turn to sit silent, and the pause was so awkward that in
a minute, to break it, I exclaimed--

"Let's drop personalities, old chap--I mean my dear Miss An. Tell me
something about your people, and let us begin properly at the top: have
you got a king, for instance?"

To this the girl, pulling herself out of the pleasant slough of her
listlessness, and falling into my vein, answered--

"Both yes and no, sir traveller from afar--no chiefly, and yet perhaps
yes. If it were no then it were so, and if yes then Hath were our
king."

"A mild king I should judge by your uncertainty. In the place where I
came from kings press their individualities somewhat more clearly on
their subjects' minds. Is Hath here in the city? Does he come to your
feasts today?"

An nodded. Hath was on the river, he had been to see the sunrise; even
now she thought the laughter and singing down behind the bend might be
the king's barge coming up citywards. "He will not be late," said my
companion, "because the marriage-feast is set for tomorrow in the
palace."

I became interested. Kings, palaces, marriage-feasts--why, here was
something substantial to go upon; after all these gauzy folk might turn
out good fellows, jolly comrades to sojourn amongst--and
marriage-feasts reminded me again I was hungry.

"Who is it," I asked, with more interest in my tone, "who gets
married?--is it your ambiguous king himself?"

Whereat An's purple eyes broadened with wonder: then as though she
would not be uncivil she checked herself, and answered with smothered
pity for my ignorance, "Not only Hath himself, but every one, stranger,
they are all married tomorrow; you would not have them married one at a
time, would you?"--this with inexpressible derision.

I said, with humility, something like that happened in the place I came
from, asking her how it chanced the convenience of so many came to one
climax at the same moment. "Surely, An, this is a marvel of
arrangement. Where I dwelt wooings would sometimes be long or sometimes
short, and all maids were not complacent by such universal agreement."

The