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They had moved the body of the concierge, by his order. So he stood there, the boy in his arms, and the students, only an hour before in revolt against him, cheered mightily. They met the detachment of cavalry at the door, and thus, in state, rode back to the Palace where he was to rule, King Otto the Ninth. A very sad little King, for Nikky had answered his question honestly.
Singularly enough, the Princess Hedwig, who had been placed on a pony at the early age of two, and who had been wont to boast that she could ride any horse in her grandfather's stables, was taking riding-lessons. From twelve to one which was, also singularly, the time Prince Ferdinand William Otto and Nikky rode in the ring the Princess Hedwig rode also. Rode divinely. Rode saucily.
The Crown Prince had won nearly all of them and was quite pink with excitement. "It's my deal, it? When she goes to sleep like that, she nearly always wakens up much better. She's very sound asleep." Nikky played absently, and lost the game. The Crown Prince triumphantly scooped up the rest of the matches. "We've had rather a nice day," he observed, "even if we didn't go out.
And I couldn't live long enough to tell you, if there were." Not bad that, for inarticulate Nikky. "More than anybody else?" He shook her a trifle, in his arms. "How can you?" he demanded huskily. "More than anything in the world. More than life, or anything life can bring. More, God help me, than my country." But his own words brought him up short.
Nikky, letting his eyes rest on her, realized that all of her to him was wonderful, and forever beyond reach. So that night he started out to think things over. Probably never before in his life had he deliberately done such a thing. He had never, as a fact, thought much at all. It had been his comfortable habit to let the day take care of itself.
But Nikky was not smiling at the world these days. Perhaps, at the very first, he had been in love with the princess, not the woman. It had been rather like him to fix on the unattainable and worship it from afar. Because, for all the friendliness of their growing intimacy, Hedwig was still a star, whose light touched him, but whose warmth was not for him.
"But I know why they came," he said unguardedly. "Some early morning, my friend, you will hear of man lying dead in the street, That man will be I." "The thought has a moral," observed Nikky. "Do not trust yourself out-of-doors at night." But he saw that Peter Niburg kept his hand over breast-pocket. Never having dealt in mysteries, Nikky was slow recognizing one.
Between Nikky and Hedwig Prince Ferdinand William Otto laughed and chattered, and Hedwig talked a great deal about nothing, with bright spots of red burning in her face. Nikky was very silent. He rode with his eyes set ahead; and had to be spoken to twice before he heard. "You are not having a very good time, are you?" Prince Ferdinand William Otto inquired anxiously.
"She will take some tea without sugar," announced the Crown Prince. While he poured it, Hedwig was thinking. Was it possible that Nikky, of every one, should have been chosen to carry to Karl the marriage arrangements? What an irony! What a jest! It was true there was a change in him. He looked subdued, almost sad.
To place the little King Otto IX on the throne and keep him there in the face of opposition would require support from outside. Karnia would furnish this support. For a price. The price was the Princess Hedwig. Outside, Nikky Larisch rose, stretched, and fell to pacing the floor. It was one o'clock, and the palace slept.
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