o knowingly to
one's death.'

'You are so young,' he said. 'Death seems nothing to you. The young and
the generous are brave like that.'

'Oh,' she exclaimed, 'let my youth alone!'

She would have liked to say, 'Oh, confound my youth!' but she did not
give way to any such unseemly impulse. She felt very happy again, her
high spirits all rallying round her.

'Let your youth alone!' the Dictator said, with a half-melancholy smile.
'So long as time lets it alone--and even time will do that for some
years yet.'

Then he stopped and felt a little as if he had been preaching a sermon
to the girl.

'Come,' she broke in upon his moralisings, 'if I am so dreadfully young,
at least I'll have the benefit of my immaturity. If I am to be treated
as a child, I must have a child's freedom from conventionality.' She
dragged forward a heavy armchair lined with the soft, mellowed, dull red
leather which one sees made into cushions and sofa-pillows in the shops
of Nuremberg's more artistic upholsterers, and then at its side on the
carpet she planted a footstool of the same material and colour. 'There,'
she said, 'you sit in that chair.'

'And you, what are you going to do?'

'Sit first, and I will show you.'

He obeyed her and sat in the great chair. 'Well, now?' he asked.

'I shall sit here at your feet.' She flung herself down and sat on the
footstool.

'Here is my throne,' she said composedly; 'bid kings come bow to it.'

'Kings come bowing to a banished Republican?'

'You are my King,' she answered, 'and so I sit at your feet and am proud
and happy. Now talk to me and tell me some more.'

But the talk was not destined to go any farther that night. Rivers and
one or two others came lounging in. Helena did not stir from her lowly
position. The Dictator remained as he was just long enough to show that
he did not regard himself as having been disturbed. Helena flung a saucy
little glance of defiance at the principal intruder.

'I know you were sent for me,' she said. 'Papa wants me?'

'Yes,' the intruder replied; 'if I had not been sent I should never have
ventured to follow you into this room.'

'Of course not--this is my special sanctuary. Lady Seagraves has
dedicated it to me, and now I dedicate it to Mr. Ericson. I have just
been telling him that, for all he is a Republican, he is _my_ King.'

The Dictator had risen by this time.

'You are sent for?' he said.

'Yes--I am sorry.'

'So am I--but we must not k