rned quickly toward the trembling valet, who regarded him with
eyes which seemed to apologise for such unprecedented circumstances.

"There would have been time to shave me even yet," he said, "only that
you were fool enough to spill the shaving-water."

Then, as if relinquishing hope, he sighed again and fell listlessly to
regarding himself in the mirror. He was a handsome man, even with an
unshaven chin that showed over a dressing-gown with yellow flowers on a
purple ground. Also the pulses of the tobacco-seller's son of the Ardoz
_estanco_ must have been urged by a pretty equal-beating heart, to
enable him to take matters so calmly.

The Sergeant muttered to himself once or twice as if making mental note
of an important fact which he desired to remember.

"All dandies are not cowards," was what he was saying.

CHAPTER XLI

ROLLO USES A LITTLE PERSUASION

Five, six, seven, eight of the ten slow minutes passed away, and beyond
a glance at the clock and a more absorbing interest in the furze on his
chin, Senor Munoz had not moved. The seconds hand upon the clock on the
mantelshelf was crawling round its miniature dial for the ninth time
with vast apparent deliberation, when a noise was heard from the
direction of the Queen's apartments.

There was a rapid gabble of tongues, a scurry of footsteps, the hissing
rustle of stiff silken skirts along narrow passages, and a voice which
exclaimed more and more shrilly, "The murderers! The cowards! Surely
they will never dare! Have they forgotten that I am a Queen?"

And with these words Maria Cristina of Naples burst like a whirlwind
into the room. Her long black hair streamed down her back. Her little
daughter followed, a comb still in the hand with which she had been
struggling to take the place of the lost Dona Susana, who, as before
related, had gone to visit her relations.

After these two Concha followed, in appearance calm and placid as the
windless Mediterranean on a day of winter.

Upon his mistress's entrance the Duke threw himself upon one knee. The
rest of the company bowed with grace or awkwardness according to their
several abilities, but the Queen-Regent did not heed them. She flew
instantly to her husband and raised him in her arms.

"Fernando," she cried, "what is this I hear? Did they threaten to kill
you if I would not grant them an interview? Well, here I am. Let them
slay me instead. What have you to say to me, gentlemen and cowards? Wha