“A letter from the king?” she cried, curious.  “Should it not be brought to me on a golden salver?”

“It is probable that I am bringing it to you at the end—­of a bayonet,” solemnly.  “If the duke learns its contents the inevitable result will be war.”

A silence fell upon them and grew.  This was the bitterest moment but one in the chancellor’s life.

“I believe,” she said finally, “that it will not be necessary to read his majesty’s letter.  He declines the honor of my hand:  is that not it?”

The chancellor signified that it was.

“Ah!” with a note of pride in her voice and a flash in her eyes.  “And I?”

“You will tell the duke that you have changed your mind,” gravely.

“Do princesses change their minds like this?”

“They have often done so.”

“In spite of publicity?”

“Yes, your Highness.”

“And if I refuse to change my mind?”

“I am resigned to any and all events.”

“War.”  Her face was serious.  “And what has the king to suggest?”

“He proposes to accept the humiliation of being rejected by you.”

“Why, this is a gallant king!  Pouff!  There goes a crown of thistledown.”  She smiled at the chancellor, then she laughed.  There was nothing but youth in the laughter, youth and gladness.  “Oh, I knew that you were a good fairy.  Listen to me.  I declare to you that I am happier at this moment than I have been in days.  To marry a man I have never seen, to become the wife of a man who is nothing to me, whose looks, character, and habits are unknown; why, I have lived in a kind of horror.  You did not find me soon enough; there are yet some popular ideas in my head which are alien to the minds of princesses.  I am free!” And she uttered the words as with the breath of spring.

The chancellor’s shoulders drooped a trifle more, and his hand closed down over the letter.  Otherwise there was no notable change in his appearance.  He was always guarding the muscles of his face.  Inscrutability is the first lesson of the diplomat; and he had learned it thirty years before.

“There will be no war,” resumed her highness.  “I know my father; our wills may clash, but in this instance mine shall be the stronger.”

“But this is not the end.”

“You mean that there will be other kings?” She had not thought of this, and some of the brightness vanished from her face.

“Yes, there will be other kings.  I am sorry.  What young girl has not her dream of romance?  But princesses must not have romances.  Yours, my child, must be a political marriage.  It is a harsh decree.”

“Have not princesses married commoners?”

“Never wisely.  Your highness will not make a mistake like that.”

“My highness will or will not marry, as she pleases.  Am I a chattel, that I am to be offered across this frontier or that?”

The chancellor moved uneasily.  “If your highness loved out of your class, which I know you do not, I should be worried.”