art! And I love her, God
bless my heart, too! For each kiss from her wondrous lips I shall credit
myself with one thousand gavvos. That is the price of a kiss."

"I'll give two thousand!" roared one of the nobles, and there was a
laugh in which the Prince joined.

"Nay! I'll not sell them now. In after years, when she has grown old
and her lips are parched and dry from the sippings I have had, I'll sell
them all at a bargain. Alas, she has not yet kissed me!"

Lorry's heart bounded with joy, though his hands were clenched in rage.

"She will kiss me to-morrow. To-morrow I shall taste what no other man
has touched, what all men have coveted. And I'll be generous, gentlemen.
She is so fair that your foul mouths would blight with but one caress
upon her tender lips, and yet you shall not, be deprived of bliss. I
shall kiss her thrice for each of you. Let me count: thrice eleven is
thirty-three. Aye, thirty-three of my kisses shall be wasted for the
sake of my friends, lucky dogs! Drink to my Princess!"

"Bravo!" cried the others, and the glasses were raised to lip.

A chair was overturned. The form of a man landed suddenly at the side
of the Prince and a rough hand dashed the glass from his fingers, the
contents flying over his immaculate English evening dress.

"Don't you dare to drink that toast!" cried a voice in his astonished
ear, a voice speaking in excited German. He whirled and saw a scowling
face beside his own, a pair of gray eyes that flashed fire.

"What do you mean?" he demanded, anger replacing amazement. The other
members of his party stood as if spell-bound.

"I mean that you speak of the Princess of Graustark. Do you understand
that, you miserable cur?"

"Oh!" screamed, the Prince, convulsed with rage, starting back and
instinctively reaching for the sword he did not carry. "You shall pay
for this! I will teach you to interfere--"

"I'll insult you more decidedly just to avoid misapprehension," snarled
Lorry, swinging his big fist squarely upon the mouth of the Prince. His
Royal Highness landed under a table ten feet away.

Instantly the cafe was in an uproar. The stupefied Axphainians regained
their senses and a general assault was made upon the hotheaded American.
He knocked another down, Harry Anguish coming to his assistance with
several savage blows, after which the Graustark spectators and the
waiters interfered. It was all over in an instant, yet a sensation that
would live in the gossi