t she
kept her gaze averted, that he might not see the hard expression there
that was merciless for them both. He did see, though, the long lashes,
and the warm pink of her forearm, so tantalizing for shark or man.

"These imperial gardens, they are beautiful," she went on softly, "but,
helas, they are not the Schoenbrunn. Nor is Chapultepec more than a
feeble miniature of the Hofburg. Oh, the wretched farce! The wretched
farce, sire, in your pretension to--to honor me! A wooer from the
throne, indeed? A straw throne--no, no, I do not like it!"

Then she let him see her eyes. Half raised, half veiled; they held the
daring suggestion hidden in her words.

"And if," he cried, "and if we _were_ in the Schoenbrunn----"

"Yes, yes," and she clapped her hands with delight, "yes, where the
heroic figures on the crest of the hill are silhouetted against the sky,
where----"

"Never mind the heroic figures! But where I shall be really an emperor,
_the_ Emperor over Austria, over Hungary. Then, what then?
Jeanne--Jacqueline, tell me!"

She had brought him to it. Yet her face clouded pitifully, as that day
in the small boat, when she told Ney that a woman might only give. Such
a woman too, would be lost for the reason that she would _not_
hesitate. Here was the errand of the Sphinx, and achievement at her
hand. Dainty flower of France, yes! But in truth, what was she?

"And then?" she repeated, and the maddening promise in her voice
thrilled him. "Why, sire, I suppose that I could not help but listen to
you. Yet first," she hastened to add with subtle emphasis, "first, you
would have to give up your play kingdom here."

His blue eyes flashed. "I will!" he cried. "It shall be mine, the Roman
empire of Charles V. They are tired of my brother Franz. Already they
cry out for me. Our mother made an uncle abdicate for him, I will do as
much for myself. I will, Jeanne, I will!"

Eloin behind his screen moved uneasily.

"The devil go with her!" the eavesdropper muttered. "She'll have him
abdicating himself in another minute. She must be stopped, she must!"

He tiptoed back, and once out of hearing, he ran. He found Driscoll on a
bench, slowly passing his fingers through his hair, and staring fixedly
at the ground.

"Coom," said Eloin, "coom quick! He is alone. You find your chance. He
is that happy, he say yes to anything."

Driscoll got heavily to his feet. There was his mission. For the sake of
that, for the sake of comra