Now very
likely, in another moment, she will summon her attendants, and have
me ejected, as well she might, for my almost inconceivable
impertinence, which almost broke my own heart in two, to utter it at
all. And if so it seems, even to myself, what must it seem to her? Aye
indeed! for every word, I deserve ten thousand deaths, and I could
forgive her, no matter what she did. Aye! and if, in a very little
while, she does not speak, I shall be throwing myself at her feet and
begging to be forgiven, unable any longer to endure.

And then at last, all at once, her tension relaxed, and she sank back
suddenly into her old soft sweetness, with a deep sigh. And her eyes
seemed, as it were, to come back to me, and find me for the first
time, and there stole over her lips a little smile. And as I saw it,
my heart almost broke with delight, for I said to myself: She has
changed her mind about me; after all, and now my plan is beginning to
succeed. Alas! little did I fathom the unfathomable intelligence of
that extraordinary Queen! And presently she said, with exactly the
same gentleness in her low voice that made my heart tremble exactly as
before, every time it spoke: Thou art, beyond all doubt, the very
first man in all the world, not only for effrontery and impertinence,
but also, for this, that thou hast succeeded in imposing upon me,
which no man ever yet did before. For in my simplicity I had thought
thee quite another, making in thy solitary instance a mistake, unusual
with me, and making me ashamed: since as a rule, men's hearts are no
secret for my own, and I read them at a glance.

And she looked at me with a smile, and inscrutable clear eyes, whose
expression was a puzzle to my soul. And I said: Then, since thou
readest hearts so easily, why couldst thou not read mine also, as it
is very plain thou didst not? And she said: Why very plain? And I
said: Why didst thou send no answer to my message, and why didst thou
summon me at sunset, and yet go away, leaving me nothing but the scorn
of thy servants at thy gate?

And she looked at me in blank amazement, and she said: What dost thou
mean? I never got any message, and if any summons came to thee, it was
not sent by me. For I have not heard anything of thee at all, since I
left thee at midnight in my boat.

And as she spoke, there came a mist before my eyes, and all the blood
in my body rushed suddenly into my heart, as if to burst it, and then
as suddenly left it,