They would be only for the moment, as it were. But the
American would be dead--the Crown sure--the Princess still unmarried.
Truly, it was a chance which would never come again; and not to seize
it was to mock Fortune to her very face.
It takes far longer to write this than to think it. It all went
through my mind in the brief space Lotzen gave me for reply.
"I am waiting, monsieur," he said.
The Gypsy laughed softly.
"You tell him so much he already knows," said she.
Lotzen looked at her--in surprise, I doubt not.
"Mademoiselle is impatient," he remarked.
She shrugged her pretty shoulders.
Then he bowed again to me.
"You see, monsieur," he said, "you tire the Lady; I must ask you to
make haste."
If anyone think it easy to stand, stolidly, in one position for a
considerable period, and have impertinent things said to him the while,
let him try it. He will be very apt to change his notion. But, I
stuck to it; and my soldier training helped me--and the mask relieved
my face.
"You are stubborn, monsieur, as well as bad mannered. I shall have to
spur you, I see," he went on. "I ask you, once again, monsieur, to
remove your mask. If you do not, I shall give you a bit of steel in
the left leg.
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