ands out as one into which all the fears, the hopes, the
agonies of one short lifetime had been crowded.

Sometimes the human heart, when tried beyond endurance, will reach a
point where but a trifling incident, an unkind word, is needed to
break down life's stronghold.

This point our heroine had reached.

Something passed out of her soul, an undefinable something of which
the zest for life is made, and as she felt the black waters of despair
closing over her she almost gasped for breath.

She turned away.

"You will never understand. I think it very kind of you to make such
plans for my enjoyment, but--to the Coronation of the English King I
_will not go_. Leave me here--I have some writing to do--no need to be
distressed on my account. My one regret is that my presence here, at
such a time, should be a source of so much painfulness to us both."

With cold courtesy the subject of the approaching Coronation was
dropped, until the next day, when the appalling, the stupefying news
of the postponement of the Coronation spread through the hushed
streets of the great metropolis.

The King was dying, was perhaps already dead. The King had undergone a
critical operation and his life still hung in the balance.

The King could not be crowned.

Already the black wings of Death seemed to be stretched over the
mighty city, with its millions and millions of inhabitants. The
multitude was waiting in hushed expectancy, in breathless suspense.

Hansie, walking through the streets with one of the men whose
sympathy on board had been of such unspeakable comfort to her, never
felt more unreal in her life. Her mind was in a maze, she groped about
for words with which to clothe her thoughts, but groped in vain, for
even the power of thought had been suspended for a time.

Her companion, glancing at her face, asked suddenly, curiously:

"Would you be glad if King Edward were to die?"

There was a long pause, while the girl strove to analyse her feelings.

At last she answered slowly, simply, truthfully:

"No; I would be sorry."

And in these words, good reader, when I think of them, I find a
certain solution to the problem of her behaviour on many occasions
when brought into close contact with her country's enemies.

There was never anything personal in the most bitter feelings of
resentment and hatred of her country's foes, and never at any time did
she belong to the ranks of those among her fellow-patriots who deemed