. Struboff, you want
to play. Play on."

Struboff nodded again and played on. His notes, now plaintive, now
triumphant, were the accompaniment to our meal, filling the pauses,
enriching, as it seemed, the talk. But Coralie was deep in _foie gras_,
and paid no heed to them. Wetter engaged in some vehement discussion
with Varvilliers, who met him with good-humoured pertinacity. I had
dropped out of the talk, and sat listening dreamily to Struboff's music.
Suddenly Coralie laid down her knife and turned to me.

"Wouldn't it be nice if I were going to be married to you?" she asked.

"Charming," said I. "But what of our dear M. Struboff? And what of my
Cousin Elsa?"

"We wouldn't trouble about them." She was looking at me with a shrewd
gaze. "No," she said, "you wouldn't like it. Shall we try another
arrangement?" She leaned toward me and laid her pretty hand on my arm.
"Wetter and I--I am not very well placed, but let it pass--Wetter and I,
Varvilliers and the Princess, you and the Countess."

I made no sign of appreciating this rather penetrating suggestion.

"You're more capricious than fortune, more arbitrary than fate, madame,"
said I. "Moreover, you have again forgotten to provide for M. Struboff."

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"No," she said meditatively. "I don't like that after all. It might do
for M. de Varvilliers, but the Countess is too old, and Wetter there
would cut my throat. We can't sacrifice everything to give Varvilliers a
Princess." She appeared to reflect for a few seconds. "I don't know how
to arrange it."

"Positively I should be at a loss myself if I were called upon to govern
the world at short notice."

"I think I must let it alone. I don't see how to make it better."

"Thank you. For my own part I have the good luck to be in love with my
cousin."

Coralie lifted her eyes to mine. "Oh, no!" she drawled quietly. Then she
added with a laugh, "Do you remember when you fought Wetter?"

"Heavens! yes; fools that we were! Not a word of it! Nobody knows."

"Well, at that time you were in love with me."

"Madame, I will have the honour of mentioning a much more remarkable
thing to you."

"If you please, sire," she said, taking a bunch of grapes and beginning
to eat them.

"You were all but in love with me."

"That's not remarkable. You're too humble. I was; ah, yes, I was. I was
very afraid for you. _Mon ami_, don't you wish that, instead of being
King here, you were the S