Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/389

Rh arm which rested against my shoulder grow rigid and taut. Sapt's face was full of eagerness and he gnawed his moustache savagely. We gathered closer to one another. At last we could bear the suspense no longer. With one look at the Queen and another at me, Sapt stepped on to the gravel. He would go and learn the answer: thus the unendurable strain that had stretched us like tortured men on a rack would be relieved. The Queen did not answer his glance, nor even seem to see that he had moved. Her eyes were still all for Mr. Rassendyll, her thoughts buried in his; for her happiness was in his hands and lay poised on the issue of that decision whose momentousness held him for a moment motionless on the path. Often I seem to see him as he stood there, tall, straight, and stately, the King a man's fancy paints when he reads of great monarchs who flourished long ago in the springtime of the world.

Sapt's step crunched on the gravel. Rudolf heard it and turned his head. He saw Sapt, and he saw me also behind Sapt. He smiled composedly and brightly, but he did not move from where he was. He held out both hands towards the Constable and caught him in their double grasp, still smiling down in his face. I was no nearer to reading his decision, though I saw that he had reached