Page:The Black Cat v01no05 (1896-02).pdf/53

Rh "But that's just like men; they never do urderstand. Now there was one that the Queen knew. She told me just a little about him one day when things seemed very make-believey to her. She put it in a kind of story, you know, but I liked her so much I knew who it was about.

"Do you know, he thought just what you did, because she wouldn't marry him instead of going off for what he called a—a 'career'? And he'd known her ever since she was a little girl, too, and ought to have known better, oughtn't he?"

"Yes," said the Great Man huskily, "I suppose he ought. But you see the Queen didn't tell him about—about the money she was paying back. And she was a great deal younger than he, and beautiful, with a voice that people said would make her famous, and he thought that she really cared more to be a stage queen than anything else.

"Tell me, dear, has she still the ring that he gave her when she was a little girl?"

"The teenty little forget-me-not ring that she wears on a chain and often kis— But—how did you know?" stammered the child, twisting around and staring up into his face. "I never told you the rest, and your eyes are so strange—"

But the Great Man had risen and was striding rapidly up and down the car. "And Alice really cared for me—she cares for me still," he murmured. "While I, who ought to have stood by her have only hindered her. And now she needs help, and I with all my money haven't the right to help her. It's too late—I can never make up for the time I've lost—"

"I hope you don't mind," said the small girl who stood as if petrified just where he had left her; "but you spoke so loud I couldn't help hearing the last. And if you mean the train to Washita, it isn't too late. If you could get it here in fifteen minutes—and I s'pose that's easy, for a king—we could give the performance, even if the curtain did ring up late."

"Train to Washita," murmured the Great Man—"Why, yes; of course! How stupid of me," as he pressed the electric button. "Let's see, how many are there of you?"

"Twenty-two now," said the child, "but I don't quite—"

"And you haven't had the best of fare in the hotels?"