d,
_cherie_."

She held up her lips to his, childishly, lovingly. "I will be good," she
said. "I will be good. I will never say such things again."

He kissed the trembling lips again, lightly, caressingly. "Oh, don't be
too good!" he said. "I couldn't live up to it. You shall say what you
like--do what you like. And--you shall be my queen!"

She caught back another sob. Her clinging arms tightened. "And you will
be--what you have always been," she said--"my king--my king--my king!"

In the silence that followed the passionate words, Charles Rex very
gently loosened the clinging arms, and set her free.

PART IV

CHAPTER I

THE WINNING POST

"I never thought it would be like this," said Toby.

She spoke aloud, though she was alone. She stood at an immense window on
the first floor of a busy Paris hotel and stared down into the teeming
courtyard below. Her fair face wore a whimsical expression that was half
of amusement and half of discontent. She looked absurdly young, almost
childish; but her blue eyes were unmistakably wistful.

Below her seethed a crowd of vehicles of every description and the babel
that came up to her was as the roar of a great torrent. It seemed to
sweep away all coherent thought, for she smiled as she gazed downwards
and her look held interest in the busy scene even though the hint of
melancholy lingered. There was certainly plenty to occupy her, and it was
not in her nature to be bored.

But yet at the opening of a door in the room behind her, she turned very
swiftly, and in a moment her face was alight with ardent welcome.

"Ah! Here you are!" she said.

He came forward in his quick, springy fashion, his odd eyes laughing
their gay, unstable greeting into hers. He took the hands she held out to
him, and bending, lightly kissed them.

"Have you been bored? _Mais non!_ I have not been so long gone. Why are
you not still resting, _cherie_, as I told you?"

She looked at him, and still--though her eyes laughed their gladness--the
wistfulness remained. "I am--quite rested, _monseigneur_. And the
tiredness--quite gone. And now you are going to take me to see the sights
of Paris?"

"Those of them you don't know?" suggested Saltash.

She nodded. "I don't know very many. I never went very far. I was
afraid."

He twisted his hand through her arm, and his fingers closed upon her
wrist. "You are not afraid--with me?" he questioned.

Her eyes answered him before her voic