"Your sweetheart?" piteously.
"She is the sister of the man I serve so poorly," he whispered. Quinnox
allowed them to walk a few paces down the flagging, away from the
curious gaze of the persons below.
"Oh, Baldos!" she cried, her heart suddenly melting. "Is she Prince
Dantan's sister?" Her hand clasped his convulsively, as he nodded
assent. "Now I _do_ love you."
"Thank God!" he whispered joyously. "I knew it, but I was afraid you
never would speak the words. I am happy--I am wild with joy."
"But they may shoot you," she shuddered. "You have condemned
yourself. Oh, I cannot talk to you as I want to--out here before all
these people. Don't move, Colonel Quinnox--they can't see through
you. Please stand still."
"They will not shoot me, Beverly, dear. I am not a spy," said Baldos,
looking down into the eyes of the slender boyish figure who stood beside
the princess. "It is better that I should die, however," he went on
bitterly. "Life will not be worth living without you. You would not give
yourself to the lowly, humble hunter, so I--"
"I will marry you, Paul. I love you. Can't anything be done to--"
"It is bound to come out all right in the end," he cried, throwing up
his head to drink in the new joy of living. "They will find that I have
done nothing to injure Graustark. Wait, dearest, until the day gives up
its news.
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