is or her determination that
nothing should go amiss.

The man they feared was Dangloss. They did not fear God!

When they dispersed for the night, it was to meet again three days hence
for the final word from Marlanx, who, it seems, was not so far away that
communication with him was likely to be delayed. A sword hung over the
head of Truxton King, an innocent outsider, and there was a prospect
that it would fall in advance of the blow that was intended to startle
the world. Olga Platanova was the only one who did not look upon the
sprightly American as a spy in the employ of the government--a
dangerously clever spy at that.

Up in the distant hills slept the Iron Count, dreaming of the day when
he should rule over the new Graustark--for he would rule!--a smile on
his grizzled face in reflection of recent waking thoughts concerning the
punishment that should fall swiftly upon the assassins of the beloved
Prince Robin.

He would make short shrift of assassins!

CHAPTER VI

INGOMEDE THE BEAUTIFUL

A light, chilling drizzle had been falling all evening, pattering softly
upon the roof of leaves that covered the sidewalks along Castle Avenue,
glistening on the lamp-lit pavements and blowing ever so gently in the
faces of those who walked in the dripping shades. Far back from the
shimmering sidewalks, surrounded by the blackest of shadows, and
approached by hedge-bordered paths and driveways, stood the mansions
occupied by the nobility of this gay little kingdom. A score or more of
ancient palaces, in which the spirit, of modern aggression had wrought
interior changes but had left the exteriors untouched, formed this
aristocratic line of homes. Here were houses that had been built in the
fifteenth century,--great, square, solemn-looking structures, grown grey
and green with age.

There were lights in a thousand windows along this misty, royal
road--lights that reflected the pleasures of the rich and yet caused no
envy in time hearts of the loyal poor.

Almost in the centre of the imposing line stood the home of the Duke of
Perse, Minister of Finance, flanked on either side by structures as grim
and as gay as itself, yet far less significant in their generation. Here
dwelt the most important man in the principality, not excepting the
devoted prime minister himself. Not that Perse was so well beloved, but
that he held the destinies of the land in Midas-like fingers. More than
that, he was the father of the