Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/309

Rh a word. I rose abruptly and crossed the room to where they were.

"Have you need of my presence, madame, or have I your permission to be away for a time?" I asked.

"Where do you wish to go, Fritz?" the Queen asked with a little start, as though I had come suddenly across her thoughts.

"To the Königstrasse," said I.

To my surprise she rose and caught my hand.

"God bless you, Fritz!" she cried. "I don't think I could have endured it longer. But I wouldn't ask you to go. But go, my dear friend, go and bring me news of him. Oh, Fritz, I seem to dream that dream again!"

My wife looked up at me with a brave smile and a trembling lip.

"Shall you go into the house, Fritz?" she asked.

"Not unless I see need, sweetheart," said I.

She came and kissed me.

"Go if you are wanted," she said. And she tried to smile at the Queen, as though she risked me willingly.

"I could have been such a wife, Fritz," whispered the Queen. "Yes, I could."

I had nothing to say; at the moment I might not have been able to say it if I had. There is something in the helpless courage of