d for an ideal, Count," he said, with a happy
little laugh. "Here is mine. Here is what I have fought for!"
and crossing the room he went straight to Ailsa, with both hands
outstretched to her and his face fairly beaming.

But it needed not the little shocked breath he heard upon all sides
to dash that bright look from his face and to bring him to a sudden
halt. For at his coming, Ailsa had dropped the deep curtsey which
is the due of royalty, and was moving away from him backward, which
is royalty's due also.

"Ailsa!" he said, moving toward her with a sharp and sudden step.
"Ailsa, don't be absurd. It is too silly to think that forms should
stand with you, too. Take my hand--take it!"

"Your Majesty----"

"Take it, I tell you!" he repeated almost roughly. "Good God! do you
think that this can make any difference? Take my hand! Do you hear?"

She obeyed him this time, but as her fingers rested upon his he saw
that they were quite ringless--that the sign of their engagement
had been removed--and caught her to him with a passionate sort of
fierceness that was a reproach in itself.

"Could you think so meanly of me? Could you?" he cried. "Where is
the ring?"

"In my pocket. I took it off when--I heard."

"Put it on again. Or, no! Give it to me and let me do that
myself--here, before them all. Kings must have queens, must they
not? You were always mine: you are always going to be. Even the day
of our wedding is not to be changed."

"Oh, hush!" she made answer. "One's duty to one's country must always
stand first with--kings."

"Must it? Kings after all are only men--and a man's first duty is
to the one woman of his heart."

"Not with kings. There is a different rule, a different law. Oh, let
me go--please! I know, I fully realize, it would be different with
you--if it were possible. But--it is the penalty one must pay for
kingship, dear. Royalty must mate with royalty, not with a woman of
the people. It is the law of all kingdoms, the immutable law."

It was. He had forgotten that; and it came upon him now with a shock
of bitter recollection. For a moment he stood silent, the colour
draining out of his face, the light fading slowly from his eyes;
then, of a sudden, he looked over the glittering room and across
its breadth at Irma.

"It would not be possible then?" he asked.

"Not as a royal consort, sir. The people's choice in that respect
would lie with the hereditary princess of Danubia. I have already