Page:The Prisoner of Zenda.djvu/174

156 place; you'll be the only one of the House then, You must reign, and not weep for me."

For a moment she drew herself up like a very queen.

"Yes, I will" she said. "I will reign. I will do my part. Though all my life will be empty and my heart dead, yet I'll do it!"

She paused, and sinking against me again, wailed softly:

"Come soon! come soon!"

Carried away, I cried loudly:

"As God lives, I—yes, I myself—will see you once more before I die!"

"What do you mean?" she exclaimed with wondering eyes; but I had no answer for her, and she gazed at me with her wondering eyes. I dared not ask her to forget; she would have found it an insult. I could not tell her then who and what I was. She was weeping, and I had but to dry her tears.

"Shall a man not come back to the loveliest lady in all the wide world? " said I. "A thousand Michaels should not keep me from you!"