I gave him look for look.
"If judged upon the true facts I can," I answered.
He studied me a moment longer; then, motioned to a chair. As I made to
take it, Dehra caught my hand.
"Sit here, Armand," she commanded, touching the arm of her own chair.
I hesitated; and the King regarded her in stern surprise. Then I
smiled a negation and went on to the place Frederick had indicated.
Straightway, Dehra got up and, coming behind me and leaning on the
chair back, she put her arms about my neck.
I reached up and took her hand--then, arose and stood beside her.
"You see, Your Majesty," said she, with calm finality, "I know the true
facts."
For a space, Frederick's face remained absolutely expressionless; then,
it slowly softened.
"It seems to me there are a few facts which I, too, might, possibly, be
permitted to know," he said.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
"It was to tell Your Majesty those very facts that I sought an
audience, this evening," I said.
Just then a clock began to chime slowly the hour. The king waited
until the last stroke--the seventh--had sounded, then, he nodded.
"I am listening, Marshal," he said briskly.
It might be that, after one has asked twelve or thirteen fathers for a
daughter, in marriage, he has got sufficiently hardened to confront the
fourteenth with, at least, a show of indifference; but, as this was my
first father, I admit I was a trifle uneasy along the spine; and,
somehow, my voice seemed to get lost in my throat, and the words were
very reluctant in coming.
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