ned that his mission to the Queen
had been successful, and entreated Dick and Grosvenor to accompany him
to the palace forthwith; with which request they were of course
perfectly ready to comply. The palace was but a bare hundred yards from
the larger building, both in fact being built on the same plot of
ground, and a few minutes sufficed the trio to pass from the one
building to the other, to traverse the noble entrance hall of the
palace, and to make their way to the Queen's private suite of
apartments, outside the door of which two soldiers armed with spear and
target stood on guard. The next moment they were in the presence of the
Queen, who, surrounded by some half a dozen ladies, reclined listlessly
upon a couch of solid gold gorgeously upholstered in richly embroidered
silk.

As the trio entered and bowed low before her, the young Queen glanced
listlessly at her visitors for a moment, and then a look of interest
crept into her eyes, such as Malachi had not seen there for months,
causing his heart to leap within him as he wondered whether this young
doctor had indeed the power to perform a miracle and effect the cure of
the lovely young creature upon whom the hopes of the whole nation
depended.

For lovely the Queen most certainly was, indeed it is the only word
which adequately expresses the perfection of her charms. The Izreelite
women were, as the young Englishmen had already had opportunity to
observe, mostly of more than prepossessing appearance, tall, stately,
statuesque creatures of Juno-like proportions, with melting dark eyes,
and luxuriant tresses of dark, curly hair. But Queen Myra's beauty was
of a totally different type, for she was _petite_ yet exquisitely
formed, fair as the dawn of a summer's day, with golden-brown locks, and
eyes as blue as the sapphire sky overhead. So lovely indeed was she
that Grosvenor, surprised out of his manners, whistled softly, and
remarked to Dick, in quite audible tones:

"Phew! Dick, my boy, did you ever see such a beauty in all your born
days? No wonder that these old jossers the Elders are anxious to keep
the darling alive--eh, what?"

As he spoke the faintest suspicion of a smile seemed to flicker for a
moment in the eyes of the Queen, but Dick, who noticed it, thought it
must have been provoked by Malachi's genuflexions as he performed the
ceremony of introduction, pointing to Dick first as the physician, and
then to Grosvenor as the friend who had jou