so that we might
marry each other?"

"Really, I have a good mind to say yes. What you propose in jest, sinful
as it is, may be more to your liking than what I have to suggest."

"You have a plan, Rozina?"

"Yes. Before our loving couple can gain their end they must first reach
Toroczko. There, high up in the mountains, lies the dove-cote where they
hope to do their billing and cooing. But the surrounding woods are at
present full of birds of prey, and--"

"Do you dare to think of such a thing?" interrupted the prince, with a
start. The old _roue_ had a dread of ghosts by night; he was full of all
sorts of superstitions; he disliked to have a beautiful woman allude to
certain unpleasant themes in his presence.

"I am only letting my fancy play a little," replied the marchioness,
"but perhaps what I have in mind may come to pass. If not, then will be
the time for action."

She fetched from her bookcase a military map of Transylvania. It gave in
minute detail the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, towns, and villages
of the country.

"Here in this valley," she resumed, pointing with her finger, "lies
Toroczko, and these positions that I have marked are held by the
Wallachian insurgents. Have you heard about their doings?"

"Yes, frightful accounts."

"Well, then, what if our runaway couple should stumble upon the scene of
some of these horrid deeds? Possibly your wife is even now lying in the
bed of one of these mountain streams."

"Horrible!"

"Horrible only if it were really so and we had no proof of it. But I
have guarded against that. The war office receives detailed reports of
all that is going on in Transylvania, and a transcript of those reports
is furnished me."

She produced a roll of manuscript and read a line or two, laughing as
she did so. She might have been reading Sanskrit, for all the prince
could understand of it. Then she nestled softly at her listener's side
and began to stroke his chin with one velvet finger.

"If you wish to make me very happy--to make us both very happy," she
murmured, "bring me from the war office the key to this mysterious
manuscript. Then we will sit down and decipher it together; and if it
contains the name I am so anxious to hear, you shall see how a lioness
can kiss her tamer's feet."

The prince listened in silence. What effect her words were producing in
his bosom, she could only conjecture. She threw herself back on her sofa
with a smile on her face.

"W