y.
Others--"

"May I have a month?"

"During which the King may die! Alas, madame, it is now you who do us
too little honor!"

"A week?" begged the Countess desperately.

The leader glanced along the line. One head after another nodded slowly.

"A week it is, madame. Comrade Five!"

The one who had brought her came forward with the bandage.

"At the end of one week, madame, a fiacre will, as to-night, be waiting
in the Street of the Wise Virgins."

"And these papers?"

"On the day the Republic of Livonia is established, madame, they will be
returned to you."

He bowed, and returned to his chair. Save for the movements of the man
who placed the bandage over her eyes; there was absolute silence in the
room.

CHAPTER XX. THE DELEGATION

Prince Ferdinand William Otto was supremely happy. Three quite
delightful things had happened. First, Nikky had returned. He said he
felt perfectly well, but the Crown Prince thought he looked as though
he had been ill, and glanced frequently at Nikky's cigarette during the
riding-hour. Second, Hedwig did not come to the riding-lesson, and he
had Nikky to himself. Third, he, Prince Ferdinand William Otto, was on
the eve of a birthday.

This last, however, was not unmixed happiness. For the one day the
sentence of exile was to be removed so that he might lunch with the
King, and he was to have strawberry jam with his tea, some that Miss
Braithwaite's sister had sent from England. But to offset all this, he
was to receive a delegation of citizens.

He had been well drilled for it. As a matter of fact, on the morning of
Nikky's return, they took a few minutes to go over the ceremony, Nikky
being the delegation. The way they did it was simple.

Nikky went out into the corridor, and became the Chamberlain. He stepped
inside, bowed, and announced: "The delegation from the city, Highness,"
standing very stiff, and a trifle bowlegged, as the Chamberlain was.
Then he bowed again, and waddled out--the Chamberlain was fat--and
became the delegation.

This time he tried to look like a number of people, and was not so
successful. But he looked nervous, as delegations always do when they
visit a Royal Highness. He bowed inside the door, and then came forward
and bowed again.

"I am, of course, standing in a row," said Nikky, sotto voce. "Now, what
comes next?"

"I am to shake hands with every one."

So they shook hands nine times, because there were to be nine members