ay." A shudder ran through her figure and he tenderly whispered in her
ear:

"The danger is past. He can do no more, your Highness. Were I positive
that he is the man--and I believe he is--I would hunt him down this
night."

Her eyes closed happily under his gaze, her hand dropped timidly from
his arm and a sweet sense of security filled her soul.

"I am not afraid," she murmured.

"Because I am here?" he asked, bending nearer.

"Because God can bless with the same hand that punishes," she answered,
enigmatically, lifting her lashes again and looking into his eyes with
a love at last unmasked. "He gives me a man to love and denies me
happiness. He makes of me a woman, but He does not unmake me a princess.
Through you, He thwarts a villain; through you, He crushes the innocent.
More than ever, I thank you for coming into my life. You and you alone,
guided by the God who loves and despises me, saved me from Gabriel."

"I only ask--" he began, eagerly, but she interrupted.

"You should not ask anything, for I have said I cannot pay. I owe to you
all I have, but cannot pay the debt."

"I shall not again forget," he murmured.

"To-morrow, if you like, I will take you over the castle and let you
see the squalor in which I exist,--my throne room, my chapel, my banquet
hall, my ball room, my conservatory, my sepulchre. You may say it is
wealth, but I shall call it poverty," she said, after they had watched
the black monastery cut a square corner from the moon's circle.

"To-morrow, if you will be so kind."

"Perhaps I may be poorer after I have saved Graustark," she said.

"I would to God I could save you from that!" he said.

"I would to God you could," she said. Her manner changed suddenly. She
laughed gaily, turning a light face to his. "I hear your friend's laugh
out there in the darkness. It is delightfully infectious."

XIV. THE EPISODE OF THE THRONE ROOM

"This is the throne room. Allode!"

The Princess Yetive paused before two massive doors. It was the next
afternoon, and she had already shown him the palace of a queen--the
hovel of a pauper!

Through the afternoon not one word other than those which might have
passed between good friends escaped the lips of either. He was all
interest, she all graciousness. Allode, the sturdy guard, swung open
the doors, drew the curtain, and stood aside for them to pass. Into
the quiet hall she led him, a princess in a gown of gray, a courtier in
tweeds. I