Her hand touched his cheek, and he kissed
its palm again and again, his wet lips stinging her blood to the tips of
her toes.
"Go away, please," she implored faintly. "Don't you see that you must
not stay here--now?"
"A rose, my princess,--one rose to kiss all through the long night," he
whispered. She could feel his eyes burning into her heart. With
trembling, hurried fingers she tore loose a rose. He could not seize it
with his hands because of the position he held, and she laughed
tantalizingly. Then she kissed it first and pressed it against his
mouth. His lips and teeth closed over the stem and the rose was his.
"There are thorns," she whispered, ever so softly.
"They are the riches of the poor," he murmured with difficulty, but she
understood.
"Now, go," she said, drawing resolutely away. An instant later his head
disappeared below the rail. Peering over the side she saw his figure
spring easily to the ground, and then came the rapid, steady tramp as he
went away on his dreary patrol.
"I couldn't help it," she was whispering to herself between joy and
shame.
Glancing instinctively out toward the solitary lamp she saw two men
standing in its light. One of them was General Marlanx; the other she
knew to be the spy that watched Baldos. Her heart sank like lead when
she saw that the two were peering intently toward the balcony where she
stood, and where Baldos had clung but a moment before.
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