his new quarters
to obtain his arms and order his horse saddled, he came suddenly
upon a girlish figure gazing sadly from a window upon the drear
November world--her heart as sad as the day.

At the sound of his footstep she turned, and as her eyes met the
gray ones of the man she stood poised as though of half a mind to
fly. For a moment neither spoke.

"Can your highness forgive?" he asked.

For answer the girl buried her face in her hands and dropped upon
the cushioned window seat before her. The American came close and
knelt at her side.

"Don't," he begged as he saw her shoulders rise to the sudden
sobbing that racked her slender frame. "Don't!"

He thought that she wept from mortification that she had given her
kisses to another than the king.

"None knows," he continued, "what has passed between us. None but
you and I need ever know. I tried to make you understand that I was
not Leopold; but you would not believe. It is not my fault that I
loved you. It is not my fault that I shall always love you. Tell me
that you forgive me my part in the chain of strange circumstances
that deceived you into an acknowledgment of a love that you intended
for another. Forgive me, Emma!"

Down the corridor behind them a tall figure approached on silent,
noiseless feet. At sight of the two at the window seat it halted. It
was the king.

The girl looked up suddenly into the eyes of the American bending so
close above her.

"I can never forgive you," she cried, "for not being the king, for I
am betrothed to him--and I love you!"

Before she could prevent him, Barney Custer had taken her in his
arms, and though at first she made a pretense of attempting to
escape, at last she lay quite still. Her arms found their way about
the man's neck, and her lips returned the kisses that his were
showering upon her upturned mouth.

Presently her glance wandered above the shoulder of the American,
and of a sudden her eyes filled with terror, and, with a little gasp
of consternation, she struggled to free herself.

"Let me go!" she whispered. "Let me go--the king!"

Barney sprang to his feet and, turning, faced Leopold. The king had
gone quite white.

"Failing to rob me of my crown," he cried in a trembling voice, "you
now seek to rob me of my betrothed! Go to your father at once, and
as for you--you shall learn what it means for you thus to meddle in
the affairs of kings."

Barney saw the terrible position in which his lov