ut it is decreed that you shall be a Queen, so I fold my arms
and bow my head like the meekest of mortals."

"I shall quit the train at the next stopping place."

"But why? If Alec and you are to wed, it is only fit and proper that
his parents should grace the ceremony."

"You harp on marriage when there may be no marriage. If Alec was not a
King, it might be different; but the world will scoff when it hears that
his chosen bride came to him from lodgings in the Place de la Sorbonne.
What will Princess Delgrado think, now that she has seen me here,
rushing off to Delgratz the instant I was summoned? Felix, I must return
to Paris. Happily, I have some two thousand francs due within a week,
and I can then refund the cost of our tickets, and perhaps the railway
people will allow something for the incompleted journey."

"Calm yourself, _ma petite!_ You count like the proprietress of my
favorite cafe! And to what purpose? It would be a pity to act in that
foolish way. There is no compulsion on you to marry Alec, and the
Byzantine Saint Peter still hangs in the cathedral. Let any one so much
as hint that you are throwing yourself at Alec's head, and I shall have
the hinter dynamited. No, no, my Joan, we may yield to higher powers;
but we do not abandon our pilgrimage because it is shared by an old
scamp of a father whose sole anxiety is to fleece his son. Come, now,
finish your dinner in peace, and let me explain to you why it is that
Alexis III. and not Michael V. reigns in Delgratz. You don't glean many
facts about monarchs from newspapers. If I brought you to a certain
wineshop in the Rue Taitbout any evening after dinner you would hear
more truth about royalty in half an hour than you will read in half a
year."

Joan, conscious of a telltale pallor, was leaning forward with an elbow
on the table and shielding her face with widespread fingers propped
against cheek and forehead. In the noise and flurry of the train it was
easy to tune the voice to such a note that it must be inaudible to those
at the adjacent tables; but Poluski seemed to be careless whether or not
he was overheard, and the girl fancied that Princess Delgrado had caught
the words "Alexis," "Michael," "Delgratz." Certainly the Princess turned
again and looked at her, while she did not fail to glance swiftly at the
misshapen figure visible only in profile.

"Not so loud, Felix," murmured Joan. "Come to my compartment when you
have smoked a cigarette. By