eat created consternation or mirth."

"What a whimsical little princess you must have been, weeping and
pouting and going to sleep," he laughed. "And how sedate and wise you
have become."

"Thank you. How very nice you are. I knave felt all along that some one
would discern my effort to be dignified and sedate. They say I am wise
and good and gracious, but that is to be expected. They said that of
sovereigns as far back as the deluge, I've heard. Would you really like
to see me in that old chair?" she asked.

"Ah, you are still a woman," he said, smiling at her pretty vanity.
"Nothing could impress me more pleasantly."

She stepped carelessly and impulsively upon the royal platform,
leaned against the arm of the throne, and with the charming blush of
consciousness turned to him with the quickness of a guilty conscience,
eager to hear his praise but fearful lest he secretly condemned her
conceit. His eyes were burning with the admiration that knows no
defining, and his breath came quick and sharp through parted lips. He
involuntarily placed a foot upon the bottom step as if to spring to her
side.

"You must not come up here!" she cried, shrinking back, her hands
extended in fluttering remonstrance. "I cannot permit that, at all!"

"I beg your pardon," he cried, "That is all the humble plebeian can say.
That I may be more completely under this fairy spell, pray cast about
yourself the robe of rank and take up the sceptre. Perhaps I may fall
upon my face."

"And hurt your head all over again," she said, laughing nervously. She
hesitated for a moment, a perplexed frown crossing her brow. Then she
jerked a rich robe from the back of the throne and placed it about her
shoulders as only a woman can. Taking up the scepter she stood before
the great chair, and, with a smile on her lips, held it above his head,
saying softly:

"Graustark welcomes the American prince."

He sank to his knee before the real princess, kissed the hem of her robe
and arose with face pallid. The chasm was now endless in its immensity.
The princess gingerly seated herself on the throne, placed her elbow on
the broad arm, her white chin in her hand, and tranquilly surveyed the
voiceless American prince.

"You have not said, 'Thank you,'" she said, finally, her eyes wavering
beneath his steady gaze.

"I am only thinking how easy it would be to cross the gulf that lies
between us. With two movements of my body I can place it before you,
with