and such a woman!" I interrupted. "As God hears me, I would give
ten years of my life to hold her again in my arms, to kiss her lips, to
hear her say that she loved me. But, pardon me, what were you going to
say?"

"Your dream Princess was but a woman--ah, well; this is Tuesday;
Thursday at noon she will wed the Prince. It is written."

"The devil!" I let slip. I was at the start again.

"Sir, you do him injustice."

"Who?--the Prince?" savagely.

"No; the--the devil!" She had fully recovered, and I had no weapon
left.

"Gretchen, did you really ever love me?"

There was no answer.

"No; I do not believe you did. If you had loved me, what to you would
have been a King, a Prince, a principality? If you broke that promise
who would be wronged? Not the King, not the Prince."

"No, I should not have wronged them, but," said the Princess rising, "I
should have wronged my people whom I have sworn to protect; I should
have wronged my own sense of honor; I should have broken those ties
which I have sworn to hold dear and precious as my life; I should have
forsaken a sacred duty for something I was not sure of--a man's love!"

"Gretchen!"

"Am I cruel? Look!" Phyllis stood at the other end of the
conservatory. "Does not there recur to you some other woman you have
loved? You start. Come; was not your love for Gretchen pique? Who is
she who thus mirrors my own likeness? Whoever she is, she loves you!
Let us return; I shall be missed." It was not the woman but the
Princess who spoke.

"You are breaking two hearts!" I cried, my voice full of
disappointment, passion and anger.

"Two? Perhaps; but yours will not be counted."

"You are--"

"Pray, do not lose your temper," icily; and she swept toward the
entrance.

I had lost.

As the Princess drew near to Phyllis the brown eyes of the one met the
blue-green eyes of the other. There was almost an exclamation on
Phyllis's lips; there was almost a question on Gretchen's; both paled.
Phyllis understood, but Gretchen did not, why the impulse to speak
came. Then the brown eyes of Phyllis turned their penetrating gaze to
my own eyes, which I was compelled to shift. I bowed, and the Princess
and I passed on.

By the grand staircase we ran into the Prince. His face wore a
dissatisfied air.

"I was looking for Your Highness," he said to Gretchen. "Your carriage
is at the curb. Permit me to assist you. Ah, yes," in English, "it is
Herr Winthro