rtsmouth half embraced him.

"For the people's good, Sire," she urged, "for my sweetest kiss."

"You are mad," said Charles, yet three-fourths convinced; "my people--"

"Will be richer for my kiss," the Duchess interrupted, wooingly, "and
their King, by divine right and heritage, will rule untrammelled by
country clowns, court knaves and foolish lords, who now make up a silly
Parliament. With such a King, England will be better with no Parliament
to hinder. Think, Sire, think!"

"I have thought of this before," said Charles, who had often found
Parliament troublesome and, therefore, useless. "The taxes will be less
and contention saved."

[Illustration: BETWEEN TWO FIRES]
"Why hesitate then?" she asked. "This hour's as good for a good deed as
any."

"For England's sake?" reflected Charles, inquiringly, as he took the
second parchment from her hands. "Heaven direct my judgment for my
people's good. I sign."

The treaties which Louis XIV. of France had sent the artful beauty to
procure lay signed upon her desk.

Nell almost pulled the portieres from their hangings in her excitement.

"I must see those papers," she thought. "There's no good brewing."

Portsmouth threw her arms about the King and kissed him passionately.

"Now, indeed, has England a great King," she said, adding to herself:
"And that King Louis's slave!"

Charles smiled and took his leave. As he passed through the portal, he
wiped his lips, good-humouredly muttering: "Portsmouth's kisses and
Nell's do not mix well."

Portsmouth listened for a moment to his departing footsteps, then
dropped into the chair by the table and hastily folded and addressed the
papers.

Her mission was ended!

CHAPTER XIV

_He loves me! He loves me!_

Nell, half draped in the arras, had seen the kiss in reality bestowed by
Portsmouth but as she thought bestowed by the King. As his Majesty
departed through the door at the opposite end of the room, the colour
came and went in her cheeks. She could scarce breathe.

Portsmouth sat unconscious of all but her own grand achievement. She had
accomplished what shrewd statesmen had failed to bring about; and this
would be appreciated, she well knew, by Louis.

"'Sdeath!" muttered Nell to herself, hotly, as, with quite a knightly
bearing, she approached the Duchess. "He kisses her before my very eyes!
He kisses her! I'll kill the minx!" She half unsheathed her blade.
"Pshaw! No! No! I am