p the first overtures for an alliance with his family.
Malicious tongues have whispered that your Majesty's attentions are
otherwise engaged; and the young Adalbert has addressed me in a
friendly way begging that the rumor may be contradicted or confirmed."

"I'm not sure that negotiations had gone far enough to give him the
right to be inquisitive," returned Leopold, flushing.

The Chancellor spread out his old, veined hands in a gesture of
appeal. "I fear," he said, "that in my anxiety for your Majesty's
welfare and the good of Rhaetia, I may have exceeded my instructions.
My one excuse is, that I believed your mind to be definitely made up.
I still believe it to be so. I would listen to no one who should try
to persuade me of the contrary, and I will write Adalbert--"

"You must get yourself and me out of the scrape as best you can, since
you admit you got us into it," broke in the Emperor, with an uneasy
laugh. "If Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe is as charming as
she is said to be, her difficulty will be in choosing a husband, not
in getting one. For once, my dear Chancellor, gossip has told the
truth; and I wouldn't pay the Princess so poor a compliment as to ask
for her hand, when I've no heart left to give her in exchange for it.
There's some one else--"

"It is of that some one else I would venture to speak, your Majesty.
Gossip has named her. May I?"

"I'll save you the trouble. For I'm not ashamed that the common fate
has overtaken me--common, because every man loves once before he dies;
and yet uncommon, because no man ever loved a woman so worthy.
Chancellor, there's no woman in the world like Miss Helen Mowbray, the
lady to whom I owe my life."

"It's natural you should be grateful, your Majesty, but--"

"It's natural I should be in love."

"Natural that a young man inexperienced in affairs of the heart,
should mistake warm gratitude for love. Impossible that the mistake
should be allowed to continue."

Leopold's eyes grew dark. "In such a connection," he said, "it would
be better not to mention the word 'mistake.' I'm glad you are here;
for now you can learn from me my intentions toward that lady--"

"Intentions, did you say, your Majesty? I fear I grow hard of
hearing."

"At least you will never grow slow of understanding. I did speak of my
intentions toward Miss Mowbray."

"You would give the lady some magnificent estate, some splendid
acknowledgment--"

"Whether splendid or not