l for the Grand Duchess to faint, it was equally
natural that she should not faint twice. She began to believe, after
all, that Providence smiled upon Virginia and her adventure; and she
wondered whether the Princess's white satin embroidered with seed
pearls, or the silver spangled blue tulle would be more becoming to
wear to the ball.

Next day the Rhaetian newspapers devoted columns to the attack upon
the Emperor by an anarchist from a certain province (once Italian),
who had disguised himself as an official in the employ of the
Burgomaster. There were long paragraphs in praise of the lady who,
with marvelous courage and presence of mind, had sprung between the
Emperor and the assassin, receiving on the arm with which she had
shielded _Unser Leo_ a glancing blow from the weapon aimed at the
Imperial breast. But, thanks to a few earnestly imploring words
written by "Lady Mowbray" to Baron von Lyndal, commands impressed upon
the landlord of the hotel, and the fact that Rhaetian editors are not
as modern as Americans in their methods, the lady was not named. She
was a foreigner and a stranger to the capital of Rhaetia; she was,
according to the papers, "as yet unknown."

CHAPTER VIII

THE EMPEROR'S BALL

Not a window of the fourteenth century, yellow marble palace on the
hill, with its famous Garden of the Nine Fountains, that was not
ablaze with light, glittering against a far-away background of violet
mountains crowned by snow.

Outside the tall, bronze gates where marble lions crouched, the crowd
who might not pass beyond stared, chattered, pointed and exclaimed,
without jealousy of their betters. _Unser Leo_ was giving a ball, and
it was enough for their happiness to watch the slow moving line of
splendid state coaches, gorgeous automobiles, and neat broughams with
well-known crests upon their doors; to strive good-naturedly for a
peep at the faces and dresses, the jewels and picturesque uniforms; to
comment upon all freely but never impudently, asking one another what
would be for supper, and with whom the Emperor would dance.

"There she is--there's the beautiful young foreign lady who saved
him!" cried a girl in the throng. "I was there and saw her, I tell
you. Isn't she an angel?"

Instantly a hearty cheer went up, growing in volume, and the
green-coated policemen had to keep back the crowd that would have
stopped the horses and pressed close for a long look into a plain,
dark-blue brougham.