articulate Nikky.

"More than anybody else?"

He shook her a trifle, in his arms. "How can you?" he demanded huskily.
"More than anything in the world. More than life, or anything life can
bring. More, God help me, than my country."

But his own words brought him up short. He released her, very gently,
and drew back a step.

"You heard that?" he demanded. "And I mean it. It's incredible, Hedwig,
but it is true."

"I want you to mean it," Hedwig replied, moving close to him, so that
her soft draperies brushed him; the very scent of the faint perfume she
used was in the air he breathed. "I want you to, because Nikky, you are
going to take me away, aren't you?"

Then, because she dared not give him time to think, she made her
plea,--rapid, girlish, rather incoherent, but understandable enough.
They would go away together and be married. She had it all planned
and some of it arranged. And then they would hide somewhere, and--"And
always be together," she finished, tremulous with anxiety.

And Nikky? His pulses still beating at her nearness, his eyes on her
upturned, despairing young face, turned to him for hope and comfort,
what could he do? He took her in his arms again and soothed her, while
she cried her heart out against his tunic. He said he would do anything
to keep her from unhappiness, and that he would die before he let her go
to Karl's arms. But if he had stopped thinking before, he was thinking
hard enough then.

"To-night?" said Hedwig, raising a tear-stained face. "It is early. If
we wait something will happen. I know it. They are so powerful, they can
do anything."

After all, Nikky is poor stuff to try to make a hero of. He was so
human, and so loving. And he was very, very young, which may perhaps
be his excuse. As well confess his weakness and his temptation. He was
tempted. Almost he felt he could not let her go, could not loosen his
hold of her. Almost--not quite.

He put her away from him at last, after he had kissed her eyelids and
her forehead, which was by way of renunciation. And then he folded
his arms, which were treacherous and might betray him. After that, not
daring to look at her, but with his eyes fixed on the irregular sky-line
of the city roofs, he told her many things, of his promise to the King,
of the danger, imminent now and very real, of his word of honor not to
make love to her, which he had broken.

Hedwig listened, growing cold and still, and drawing away a little. She