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"I wish you could," she mused with infinite weariness. He stooped suddenly and kissed the drooping lips with a resentful sense of the monstrous injustice of a scheme of things wherein such lips could droop. "No, no, no!" she cried. "You must not! I've got to be Queen of Galavia I've got to be his wife." Then, in a quick, half-frightened tone: "Yet when you are with me I can't help it.
Monsieur Jusseret rose and began drawing on his gloves. "Of course if Your Majesty sees fit, a morganatic marriage with the Countess Astaride would be entirely advisable but for the Queen of Galavia, Europe will insist on a stronger alliance; on a union with more royal blood." Louis came to his feet in astonishment. "You dare suggest that?" he exclaimed.
The fastidiously manicured fingers were as tapering and white as her own. "Madame," he observed gravely, "you flatter me. My hand has done nothing. But I do not attribute its failure to its lack of brawn." "Some day," murmured Delgado, from his inert posture in the deep cushions of a divan, "when the time is ripe, I shall strike a decisive blow for the Throne of Galavia."
"There is a small, and, in itself, an unimportant Kingdom with Mediterranean sea-front, called Galavia," said Blanco. Benton's start was slight, and his features if they gave a telltale wince at the word became instantly casual again in expression. But his interest was no longer forced by courtesy. It hung from that moment fixed on the narrative.
"Yes." "Now, do you see the thread of broken masonry zig-zagging upward from the Palace? That is a walled drive which runs part of the way up to the rock. In other days the Kings of Galavia went thus from their castle to the point whence they could see the peninsula spread out below like a map on the page of a school-book." "Yes? What else?" "This.
"Over there in America, you admitted to me that you loved me. That was when you were not yet Queen of Galavia." He brought himself up with a sudden halt. She looked up as frankly as a child. "I didn't admit it," she said. "We only admit things against our will, don't we? I told you gladly." "And now !" He held his breath as he looked into her eyes.
For a time he sat in the dingy parlor of the place and listened to the jarring talk of the commercial travelers. Already Galavia and the months which had been, seemed receding into an improbable dream, but the misery of their bequeathing was poignantly real. He rose impatiently and made his way to the livery-stable, where he hired a saddle horse. His idea was merely to be alone.
For a moment Benton was silent. When he spoke it was in quick, clear-clipped interrogation. "You know Puntal and Galavia?" "As I know Spain." "Manuel, suppose the quaking of a throne does interest me, you will go there with me even though I may lead you where its fall may crush us both?" The Spaniard grinned with a dazzling show of white teeth. His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug.
"True." The Countess sat for a time in deep thought. "There is one man in Puntal," said Jusseret with sudden thought, "who might possibly be of assistance to you. He is not legally a citizen of Galavia. He even has a certain official connection with another government. He is a man I cannot myself approach."
Benton's voice broke out in an explosive "Thank God!" Von Ritz stood a moment silent, then, dropping to one knee, he took the fingers which fell listlessly over the arm of Cara's steamer-chair and raised them to his lips. "Your Majesty is Queen of Galavia." The American came to his feet, his hands clenched, but with quick self-mastery he stood back, breathing heavily.
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