was suffering too much to be just. All she could see was that, for a
matter of honor, and that debatable, she was to be sacrificed. This
danger that all talked of--she had heard that for a dozen years, and
nothing had come of it. Nothing, that is, but her own sacrifice.

She listened, even assented, as he pleaded against his own heart,
treacherous arms still folded. And if she saw his arms and not his eyes,
it was because she did not look up.

Halfway through his eager speech, however, she drew her light wrap about
her and turned away. Nikky could not believe that she was going like
that, without a word. But when she had disappeared through the window,
he knew, and followed her. He caught her in Hubert's room, and drew her
savagely into his arms.

But it was a passive, quiescent, and trembling Hedwig who submitted, and
then, freeing herself, went out through the door into the lights of the
corridor. Nikky flung himself, face down, on a shrouded couch and lay
there, his face buried in his arms.

Olga Loschek's last hope was gone.

CHAPTER XXXIII. THE DAY OF THE CARNIVAL

On the day of the Carnival, which was the last day before the beginning
of Lent, Prince Ferdinand William Otto wakened early. The Palace still
slept, and only the street-sweepers were about the streets. Prince
Ferdinand William Otto sat up in bed and yawned. This was a special day,
he knew, but at first he was too drowsy to remember.

Then he knew--the Carnival! A delightful day, with the Place full of
people in strange costumes--peasants, imps, jesters, who cut capers on
the grass in the Park, little girls in procession, wearing costumes of
fairies with gauze wings, students who paraded and blew noisy horns,
even horses decorated, and now and then a dog dressed as a dancer or a
soldier.

He would have enjoyed dressing Toto in something or other. He decided to
mention it to Nikky, and with a child's faith he felt that Nikky would,
so to speak, come up to the scratch.

He yawned again, and began to feel hungry. He decided to get up and take
his own bath. There was nothing like getting a good start for a gala
day. And, since with the Crown Prince to decide was to do, which is not
always a royal trait, he took his own bath, being very particular about
his ears, and not at all particular about the rest of him. Then, no
Oskar having yet appeared with fresh garments he ducked back into bed
again, quite bare as to his small body, and snuggled