d recovery. "That is a mere hazy recollection of their
afterthought. Of all despotisms, save me from a military one, and
soldiers who slay Kings are the worst of despots. If there were no
Kings, there would be few soldiers, Joan. Put that valuable truism away
among the other wise saws that govern your life. You will appreciate its
truth, and the even greater truth of its converse, when you are a Queen.
But soldiers are stupid creatures, obviously so, since killing is no
argument, or the word philosopher would mean a man armed with a
bludgeon. If they do away with a tyrant and elect his successor, they
are apt to acquire the habit. Soldiers are meant to obey, not to rule,
and these Kosnovian Kingmakers were not patriots but cutthroats."

Joan buried her face in her hands. The thought came unbidden that in
some inexplicable way she shared with the infamous Seventh Regiment a
large measure of responsibility for Alec's dangerous kingship.

"Mademoiselle is ill. Why trouble her with your silly chatter?" demanded
Pauline angrily.

"Eh, what the deuce? My name isn't Balaam," retorted Felix.

"Nor am I a donkey, monsieur. If it wasn't for you, miladi would now be
happy in her little apartment in the Place de la Sorbonne. I keep my
ears open, me!"

"I said nothing about your ears, Madame Pauline," tittered Felix.

The Frenchwoman's homely features reddened, and a vitriolic reply was
only half averted by the lurching of the carriage through a gateway.
Joan looked out, and her eyes were moist.

"I possess two good friends in Delgratz, and I hope they will not
quarrel on my account," she said, with a piteous smile that silenced the
woman. Poluski's mouth twisted.

"We are not quarreling, my belle," he cried. "Pauline thinks I brought
you here, whereas your presence is clearly an act of Providence. Being a
modest person, I naturally protested."

If Joan was not utterly bewildered by the whirligig of events, and more
than ever unnerved now at the near prospect of meeting Prince and
Princess Delgrado in the perhaps unwelcome guise of their son's
affianced wife, she would certainly have discovered that Felix was
saying the first thing that came uppermost in his mind. The outcome must
have been a quick mental review of the day's incidents in order to hit
upon the special item he was trying to conceal, though it is probable
that no girl of Joan's candid nature would ever guess the suspicion
rapidly maturing to a settled belief