t if you were I, Rosamund, you'd be a man; and men are different.'

'So it seems.'

'What a noise that churn makes! Rosamund, I've felt all my life long
that I was destined to be great. Why else did my mother wash the
King's stocking; or the Appanage of Royalty promise me the cap?'

'You've been dreaming, you silly boy!'

'But can a dream that I've been dreaming all my life fail to come
true? I don't say that to sit on a throne and rule a kingdom would be
the happiest lot in the world; but, just as an experience, it would be
good fun; and if one is predestined to it, you know----Besides----'

'Well, your majesty--besides what?'

'Well, for instance, how would you like to be a queen?'

Rosamund stopped churning, wiped her hands on her apron, and tossed up
her pretty chin with a saucy air.

'A queen, indeed! I beg to inform you, Master Raymond, that I am a
queen already, and I have reigned longer and more despotically than
ever you will, I fancy. Pray, has the Queen of England any subjects
more devoted to her than my Osmund and Dorimund and Phillimund and
Sigismund and Armand, and twenty others, are to me? Honeymead is my
kingdom, and I do really reign, because my power is in myself; and
fifty giants to march before me, and a hundred dwarfs to carry my
train, wouldn't make me a bit more of a queen than I am now. So--thank
you for nothing, Master Raymond!'

Raymond sat erect, with a great deal more animation in his look than
he had yet shown.

'Listen to me, Rosamund,' he cried. 'It is true you are Queen of
Honeymead. But what is Honeymead compared with London? And why should
not you be as much a queen in London as you are here? You would be
none the worse for a crown, and dwarfs and giants, though you might
not need them: because no man could look at you and not be your
faithful subject ever afterwards. And--Rosamund----'

He hesitated, and his cheeks were quite red. Rosamund glanced up at
him and thought, 'How handsome he is!'

'Rosamund, I ask you this: if I become king will you sit beside me on
the throne, and rule over Great Britain, France, and Ireland?'

Rosamund looked very grave.

'Do you mean to ask me to be your wife, Raymond?' she asked.

'I would have asked you long before, dearest Rosamund, but I waited
hoping to be able to offer you a kingdom along with my love.'

'Well, it is a very kind offer,' said she, with a little smile and a
sigh, 'and I thank you. But I must say no.'

'Rosamund!'