hastily placed first a small table--the only one she was able to
carry--then a chair upon the bed, and with the one upon the other
was able to see the top of the tester. But alas! it was cone-shape.
Invention, however, was not out of Constance' line, and quickly she
placed a box upon the pinnacle and in it five cocoanuts. There
were yet at least a half-dozen more to hide, beside the poison and
instrument. She thought to place these in one of her great hats
and raise them to the tester also. As she was about to mount the
improvised lift, she heard approaching footsteps. Hardly had she
withdrawn the table and chair and placed the hat--well bent--beneath
the low stool whereon she had been sitting, and arranged the folds of
her heavy brocade like a valance about her, when the door was thrown
open.

"My God!" said she, under her breath; "'tis the King himself!"

His Majesty accompanied by a number of gentlemen in waiting, entered
the room. He appeared in high, good humour, and inclined to be
facetious. He advanced straight to her. She, hardly rising from the
stool, made a deep curtesy. It was well done, without disarranging the
full folds of her stiff brocade, that inclined to stand whether she
so honoured the King or not. He laid his hand familiarly upon her
shoulder, bearing somewhat upon it, until she turned quite red, either
from his intent or her own guilt.

"We are looking for secrets. Hast thou any, my little beauty?"

"Your Majesty doth honour me greatly; first by thy presence and
secondly by thy thought that I might have a secret--as if woman could
keep even the shade of one from her King!"

"But sometimes there is more happiness in the shade than in the
substance." His keen eyes did not leave her face. But hers were turned
with an apprehensive stare upon the King's gentlemen, who were looking
and prying impudently here and there about the rooms and closets. Her
gowns were even pressed here and there among their paddings. Tables
and cabinets were opened; the bed was examined. They lifted the heavy
valance and one got upon his knees and prodded beneath with his sword.
As he withdrew with a very red face, some one shook the curtains with
such vigour the tester miscarried and down rolled, one by one, the
cocoanuts. The King fairly yelled with laughter, holding on to his
sides, his gentlemen joining him with mirth restrained somewhat by the
seriousness of the case.

"Indeed, the young Duchess hath turned all head