ll bring my heart to you as
it is to-day, my king!'

Rallywood looked into the beautiful tear-dimmed eyes. He was too wise to
say that he had spoilt her life, that had it been possible to set the
wrong right by any sacrifice he would have done so. Of this he said
nothing. He only kissed her.

'Next to living to be with you, darling, I am in love with dying for
you, Valerie!'

The silence grew again between them, the best and saddest silence upon
earth--the silence of all's said.

'And yet, John, I have one thing left to live for. I will live to see
your name stand where it should. For men like you are only understood
and honoured--afterwards,' she said presently.

Another man might have disclaimed all praise. Rallywood, who believed he
deserved none, kept silence. He knew that to deny would be to wound. And
he was fain to say to her a thing which was hard to say and hard to
hear. But he was looking out into the troubled future, and his anxiety
for her grew bitter upon him. So he nerved himself to the greatest
sacrifice of all. And Valerie's next words gave him the opening he
desired.

'Your sword----' she began.

'Is broken.'

'No, no! Anthony brought another to Count Sagan, not yours. Yours was
not the sword of a traitor! That also I will keep.'

'Unziar--I thank him. And Valerie, listen! When they condemned me there
was one vote in my favour. You can guess whose.'

'Anthony's?'

'Yes, Valerie, and he loves you, and I will not blame--I wish--I would
ask----'

Valerie's glance met his. She understood.

'No,' she said; 'I will thank him, and like him dearly and pray for him,
but not that--no, not ever that!'

A quiet knock on the door.

'And now it is good-bye.'

CHAPTER XXXI.

DUKE GUSTAVE.

Whatever may be said to the contrary, the fact remains that a little
independent success acts on a morally weak man as a glass of wine upon a
physically weak one. For a time it exalts and quickens him.

Duke Gustave of Maasau was in a condition of mental exhilaration, and
experiencing to the full the false sensation of strength thus created
when Sagan was announced. Selpdorf, who had been listening for some
minutes to his master's self-gratulations on the newly ratified British
contract rose as if to take his departure.

'Wait, Selpdorf!' the Duke said.

'My lord has asked for a private interview, your Highness,' Selpdorf
reminded him.

'Yes, but I have no private affairs to discuss with my co