ht not suit for daylight."

Cora was still wearing her handsome yellow gown that she had worn at
the Tip-Top ball. It did look strange in the bright, early morning
sunshine.

"Would you?" asked Helka of Cora. "I have a good bathroom, and there
is plenty of water." She smiled and showed that wonderful set of
teeth. Cora thought she had never before seen such human pearls.

"It is very kind of you," and Cora sighed. "If I must stay I suppose I
may as well be practical about it."

"Oh, yes," Lena ventured. "They all like you, and it will be so much
better not to give any trouble."

"You see, Lena knows," said the queen. "Yes, Lena, get out something
pretty, and Miss----"

"Cora," supplied the prisoner.

"Cora? What an odd name! But it suits you. There is so much coral in
your cheeks. Yes, Miss Cora must wear my English robe--the one with
the silver crown."

To dress in the robes of a gypsy queen! If only this were a play, and
not so tragically real!

But the thought was not comforting. It meant imprisonment. Cora had
determined to be brave, but it was hard. Yet she must hope that
something unexpected would happen to rescue her.

"Lena is my maid," explained Helka. "I tell her more than any of the
others. And she fetches my letters secretly. Have you not one for me
today, Lena?"

The girl slipped her hand in her blouse and produced a paper. The
queen grasped it eagerly. "Oh, yes," she said, "I knew he would write.
Good David!" and she tore open the envelope. Cora watched her face and
guessed that the missive was from the lover. Lena went out to bring
the breakfast things.

"If only I could go out and meet him!" said the queen, finishing the
letter. "I would run away and marry him. He has been so good to wait
so long. Just think! He has followed me from England!"

"And you never meet him?"

"Not since they suspect. It was then they bought the two fierce dogs.
I would never dare pass them. Sometimes they ask me to take a ride in
the big wagon, but I never could ride in that. You see, I am not all a
gypsy. My father was a sort of Polish nobleman and my mother was part
English. She became interested in the great question of the poor, and
so left society for this--the free life. My father was also a
reformer, and they were married twice--to make sure. It is my father's
money that keeps me like this, and, of course, the tribe does not want
to lose me."

"And this man David?"