"It would have been up to the King, to-morrow, but for this miserable
wife business," said I.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "Lotzen does not hold all the cards--you've got a
few trumps, too. It will be a pretty game."

"For the spectators," I supplemented.

"For you, too; when you get into the swing of it."

"I wish I had your happy way of viewing things," I said.

He laughed. "Oh, it's easy to view some other fellow's affairs happily.
That is why a friend's advice is usually serviceable."

I took a pipe and began to fill it. "It's that advice I want," I said.

He was silent for a space. I smoked and waited.

"I suppose you had no opportunity to talk with the Princess after the
supper, last night?" he said.

I smiled. "I drove with her to the Palace."

"Alone?" he exclaimed.

"Yes--she ordered me in with her and sent the Countess with Moore."

He sat up sharply. "Gad! Major, she's a treasure!" he exclaimed. "That
tells me what I want to know: she has measured the Spencer woman's story."

"Both story and certificate," said I. "She says the one is a lie and the
other a forgery."

He raised his hand emphatically. "My dear fellow," he said, sternly, "if
you didn't get down on your knees, last night, and thank the good God for
that brave girl up yonder in the Palace, you deserve to lose her--and I
shall go over to Lotzen's side, myself."

"Well," said I, "I didn't. I was too busy thinking about and praising
her."

"That's the same thing," he said. "I'll stay with you."

I got up and bowed.

"Thank you, Your Excellency," I said.

Then we both smiled.

"It's queer," said Courtney, "how, even in the most embarrassing
difficulties, a woman's love makes a man's heart light."

I nodded. I was thinking of the drive to the Palace.

Courtney's laugh aroused me. "Come out of the brougham," he called.

"That is where I was," I admitted.

"The next thing," said he, "is to see that marriage certificate."

"If there be one," I questioned.

"There is one--of that you may be sure."

"She offered to show it to you, to-day," said I. "Call her bluff."

"I'm going to accept her offer, when I leave here. And, what's more, I
shall see the certificate," he said. "This plot has been too well laid
for the essentials to have been overlooked. I'll bet a twenty you were
in New York City on the twenty-first of last December."

"Yes," said I, "I was. So it's up to proving the certificate a forgery."