t. Even Miss Portman, who had no imagination,
saw this by his back. The set of the head on the shoulders was
singularly determined, and the walk revealed a consciousness of
importance accounted for, perhaps, by the gray and crimson uniform
which might be that of some official order. On the sleek, black head
was a large cocked hat, adorned with an eagle's feather, fastened in
place by a gaudy jewel, and this hat was pulled down very far over the
face.

"Perhaps he knows that they'll let him through," said Miss Portman.
"He seems to be a dignitary of some sort. We can't do better, if
you're determined to go on, than keep near him."

"He has the air of being ready to die," whispered Virginia, for they
were close to the man now.

"How can you tell? We haven't seen his face," replied the other, in
the same cautious tone.

"No. But look at the back of his neck, and his ears."

Miss Portman looked and gave a little shiver. She would never have
thought of observing it, if her attention had not been called by the
Princess. But it was true. The back of the man's neck and his ears
were of a ghastly, yellow white.

"Horrid!" she ejaculated. "He's probably dying of some contagious
disease. Do let's get away from him."

"No, no," said Virginia. "He's our only hope. They're going to let him
pass through. Listen."

Miss Portman listened, but as she understood only such words of
Rhaetian as she had picked up in the last few weeks, she could merely
surmise that he was ordering the crowd out of his way because he had a
special message from the Lord Chancellor to the Burgomaster.

The human wall opened; the man darted through, and Miss Portman was
dragged after him by the Princess. So close to him had they kept, that
they might easily be supposed to be under his escort; and in any
case, they passed before there was time to dispute their right of way.

"It must be the secretary of Herr Koffman, the new Burgomaster,"
Virginia heard one man say to another. "And those ladies are with
him."

On and on, through the crowd, passed the man in gray and crimson,
oblivious of the two women who were using him. There was something
about that disagreeable back of his which proclaimed him a man of but
one idea at a time. Close to the front line of spectators, however,
there came a check. People were vexed at the audacity of the girl and
the elderly woman, and would have pushed them back, but at the
critical second the blue and silver unifor