em. Not a word was uttered for many seconds. Then old
Caspar's tense muscles relaxed and his arms dropped limply from their
crossed position on his breast.

"My child, my child!" he cried, lifelessly. "You cannot do this thing!"

"But the people?" cried Gaspon, his eyes gleaming. "You cannot act
against the will of the people. Our laws, natural and otherwise.
proscribe the very act you have in mind. The American cannot go upon our
throne; no man, unless he be of royal blood, can share it with you. If
you marry him the laws of our land--you know them well--will prohibit us
from recognizing the marriage."

"Knowing that, my lords, I have come to ask you to revise our laws. My
throne will not be disgraced by the man I would have share it with
me." She spoke as calmly as if she were making the most trivial request
instead of asking her ministers to overthrow and undo the laws and
customs of ages and of dynasties.

"The law of nature cannot be changed," muttered Caspar, as if to
himself.

"In the event that the custom cannot be changed, I shall be compelled to
relinquish my right to occupy the throne and to depart from among
you. It would break my heart, my lords, to resort to this monstrous
sacrifice, but I love one man first, my crown and my people after him."

"You would not leave us--you would not throw aside as despised the
crown your ancestors wore for centuries?" cried Gaspon. "Is your Royal
Highness mad?"

The others were staring with open mouths and icy hearts.

"Yes, as much as it would grieve me, I would do all this," she answered,
firmly, not daring to look at her uncle. She knew his eyes were upon her
and that condemnation lurked in their depths. Her heart ached to turn to
him with a prayer for forgiveness, but there could be no faltering now.

"I ask you, my lords, to acknowledge the marriage of your ruler to
Grenfall Lorry. I am to be his wife; but I entreat you to grant me
happiness without making me endure the misery that will come to me if I
desert my father's throne and the people who have worshipped me and to
whom I am bound by a tie that cannot be broken. I do not plead so much
for the right to rule as I do for the one who may rule after I am gone.
I want my own to follow me on the throne of Graustark."

Then followed a long, animated discussion, growing brighter and more
hopeful as the speakers' willing hearts warmed to the proposition.
Lorry was a favorite but he could not be their prince. H