ose you've made pretty speeches to a girl
before now? That's all she wants."

Fritz, himself a lover, understood better my distress. He laid his hand
on my shoulder, but said nothing.

"I think, though," pursued that cold-blooded old Sapt, "that you'd
better make your offer tonight."

"Good heavens!"

"Or, any rate, go near it: and I shall send a 'semi-official' to the
papers."

"I'll do nothing of the sort--no more will you!" said I. "I utterly
refuse to take part in making a fool of the princess."

Sapt looked at me with his small keen eyes. A slow cunning smile passed
over his face.

"All right, lad, all right," said he. "We mustn't press you too hard.
Soothe her down a bit, if you can, you know. Now for Michael!"

"Oh, damn Michael!" said I. "He'll do tomorrow. Here, Fritz, come for a
stroll in the garden."

Sapt at once yielded. His rough manner covered a wonderful tact--and
as I came to recognize more and more, a remarkable knowledge of human
nature. Why did he urge me so little about the princess? Because he
knew that her beauty and my ardour would carry me further than all his
arguments--and that the less I thought about the thing, the more likely
was I to do it. He must have seen the unhappiness he might bring on the
princess; but that went for nothing with him. Can I say, confidently,
that he was wrong? If the King were restored, the princess must turn to
him, either knowing or not knowing the change. And if the King were not
restored to us? It was a subject that we had never yet spoken of. But I
had an idea that, in such a case, Sapt meant to seat me on the throne of
Ruritania for the term of my life. He would have set Satan himself there
sooner than that pupil of his, Black Michael.

The ball was a sumptuous affair. I opened it by dancing a quadrille
with Flavia: then I waltzed with her. Curious eyes and eager whispers
attended us. We went in to supper; and, half way through, I, half mad by
then, for her glance had answered mine, and her quick breathing met my
stammered sentences--I rose in my place before all the brilliant crowd,
and taking the Red Rose that I wore, flung the ribbon with its jewelled
badge round her neck. In a tumult of applause I sat down: I saw Sapt
smiling over his wine, and Fritz frowning. The rest of the meal passed
in silence; neither Flavia nor I could speak. Fritz touched me on the
shoulder, and I rose, gave her my arm, and walked down the hall into a
little room, whe