ring she would not take it.

The Princess Yetive came straight to his couch and laid her hand in
his. He drew it to his lips and then released it lingeringly. She stood
before him, looking down with an anxiety in her eyes that would have
repaid him had death been there to claim his next breath.

"Are you better?" she asked, with her pretty accent. "I have been so
troubled about you."

"I thought you had forgotten me," he said, with childish petulance.

"Forgotten you!" she cried, quick to resent the imputation. "Let me tell
you, then, what I have been doing while forgetting. I have sent to the
Regengetz for your luggage and your friend's. You will find it much more
comfortable here. You are to make this house your home as long as you
are in Edelweiss. That is how I have been forgetting."

"Forgive me!" he cried, his eyes gleaming. "I have been so lonely that I
imagined all sorts of things. But, your Highness, you must not expect us
to remain here after I am able to leave. That would be imposing--"

"I will not allow you to say it!" she objected, decisively. "You are the
guest of honor in Graustark. Have you not preserved its ruler? Was it
an imposition to risk your life to save one in whom you had but passing
interest, even though she were a poor princess? No, my American, this
castle is yours, in all rejoicing, for had you not come within its doors
to-day would have found it in mournful terror. Besides, Mr. Anguish has
said he will stay a year if we insist."

"That's like Harry," laughed Lorry. "But I am afraid you are glorifying
two rattlebrained chaps who should be in a home for imbeciles instead of
in the castle their audacity might have blighted. Our rashness was only
surpassed by our phenomenal good luck. By chance it turned out well;
there were ten thousand chances of ignominious failure. Had we failed
would we have been guests of honor? No! We would have been stoned from
Graustark. You don't know how thin the thread was that held your fate.
It makes me shudder to think of the crime our act might have been.
Ah, had I but known you were the Princess, no chances should have been
taken," he said, fervently.

"And a romance spoiled," she laughed.

"So you are a princess,--a real princess," he went on, as if he had
not heard her. "I knew it. Something told me you were not an ordinary
woman."

"Oh, but I am a very ordinary woman," she remonstrated. "You do not know
how easy it is to be a princess and a mere