ome day if his plans are carried out.
I saw Count Marlanx yesterday. He was in Graustark. I knew him by the
portrait that hangs in the Duke of Perse's house--the portrait that
Ingomede always frowns at when I mention it to her. So, they did not go
to France."

She was becoming excited. Her eyes flashed; she spoke rapidly. On the
morning of the 23d she had gone for her gallop in the famous Ganlook
road, attended by two faithful grooms from the Royal stables.

"I was in for a longer ride than usual," she said, with sudden
constraint. She looked away from her eager listener. "I was nervous and
had not slept the night before. A girl never does, I suppose."

He looked askance. "Yes?" he queried.

She was blushing, he was sure of it. "I mean a girl is always nervous
and distrait after--after she has promised, don't you see."

"No, I don't see."

"I had promised Count Vos Engo the night before that I--Oh, but it
really has nothing to do with the story. I--"

Truxton was actually glaring at her. "You mean that you had promised to
marry Count Vos Engo!" he stammered.

"We will not discuss--"

"But did you promise to be his wife? Is he the man you love?" he
insisted. She stared at him in surprise and no little resentment.

"I beg of you, Mr. King--" she began, but he interrupted her.

"Forgive me. I'm a fool. Don't mind me." He sank back against the wall,
the picture of dejection. "It doesn't matter, anyway. I've got to die in
a day or two, so what's the odds?"

"How very strangely you talk. Are you sure--I mean, do you think it is
fever? One suffers so--"

He sighed deeply. "Well, that's over! Whew! It was a dream, by Jove!"

"I don't understand."

"Please go on."

She waited a moment and then, looking down, said very gently: "I'm so
sorry for you." He laughed, for he thought she pitied him because he had
awakened from the dream.

Then she resumed her story, not to be interrupted again. He seemed to
have lost all interest.

She had gone six or eight miles down the Ganlook road when she came up
with five troopers of the Royal Guard. It was a lonely spot at the
junction of the King's Highway and the road to the mines. One of the
troopers came forward and respectfully requested her to turn off into
the mine road until a detachment passed, in charge of a gang of
desperadoes taken at the Inn of the Hawk and Raven the night before.
Unsuspecting, she rode off into the forest lane for several hundred
yards.

It