Romance Island

f their bodies, had a grateful task in the beautiful room whose spirit was always uppermost, and Evening moved softly in its ivory depths, pr

fully, "that this one would 'ave don

ook his head

Amory. The robes which the prince had provided for the evening were rath

ere's a cut-a sort of way with the seams, so to speak, sir, that the

'cut' I don't say you can be equaled. But I do say that in the sty

eyes, "but a well-dressed man was a

uld have said that if the garments followed Deuteronomy fashions they had at all events been cut by the scissors of a court

tely fine cloth whose shades were of curious depth a

ed his lo

egged, "you make me fe

ening bulk of Mount Khalak. Since the prince's announcement that afternoon St. George had done little besides continuing that walk. Now i

now anything about it, would you say that the prince

ng his pince-nez exactly as if he had been waiting at the

it is, having this afternoon watched a certain motor wear its way past me, I should say

, "he may have played upon her devotion to her father to some ridiculous e

broke off

!" he

ed. He had seen that look

"and if her father is alive and in a hole, he's going to

assented

plenty of blue and green dragons. But he had not, until now, been thoroughly certain that St. George's spirit of adventure had another name; and though theoretically his sympathies leaped to the look in his friend's eyes, yet he found himsel

said, "and now let's tod

a dignity which amounted to melancholy. The setting of a palace and the proximity of a prince had raised his office to

steriously touching tiles and tapestries to festal colours, Amory's

nd floppy, after a modish Canaanitish model. I'll wager that when the first-born of Canaan was in the flood-tide of glory, this very gown was worn by one

as once more laid upon him, as it had been laid in the hour of his coming. Once more, as in the hour when he had first looked down upon the valley brimming with a light "better than any light that ever shone" he was at one with the imponderable things which, always before, had just elud

bout it ran a splendid colonnade, in the niches of whose cornices were beautiful grotesques-but Yaque seemed to be a land whose very grotesques had all the dignity of the ultimate instead of crying for the indulgence due a phase. The roof was inlaid

of yearning, in noon instead of dusk. As he stood looking down the vast chamber, all springing columns and light lines lifting through the honey-coloured air, it smote St. George that these people, instead of being far away, were all near, surprisingly, unbelievably near to him,-in a way, nearer to his own elusive personality than he was himself. They were all obviously of his own class; he could perfectly imagine his mother, with her old lace and Roman mosaics, moving at home among them, and the bishop, with his wise, kindly smile. Yet he was irresistibly reminded of a cer

George found himself thinking in a strange excite

the light flash on Amory's glasses as they turned inquisi

thousand years or so, and we'll dine together, and th

emony to follow. They were, in fact, his guests for the evening, but St. George and Amory were uncertain whether, considering his office, this was a high honour or a kind of exalted durance. However, as the man was charming the doubt was not important. He had an atte

ndly and fugitive. Balator himself not only refrained from stoning the barbarians with commonplaces, but he did not so much as mention America to them or treat them otherwise than

om Trebizond or Saturn or Fez whom I meet I'm going to greet

he jargon of a ship's clock to a landsman. Somewhere an orchestra thrilled into haunting sound, poignant wi

old moon," said Amory

said St. George restlessly

hing men; and others were feverishly restless and continually took papers from their graceful sleeves. By developments these were revealed to be the High Council of Yaque, conservative and radical, even in di

her ear, a gesture by which the side-combs were perpetually displaced. If the island people had been painted purple, St. George felt sure that she would have acted quite the same. Personality meant nothing to her-not, as with them, because it had been merged in something greater, but because, with her, it was overborne by self. And there sat Mr. Frothingham (who did not attend the play during court because he believed that a man of affairs should not unduly stimulate the imagination), his head thrown back so that his long hair rested on his amazing collar, his hands laid trimly along his knees. In that crystal air, instinct with its deli

relieved gold, and the officers of the court, at their head Cassyrus, the premier, who had manifestly been compounded of Heaven to be a drum-major, and had so undeviating a look that he seemed always to have been caught, red-handed, at his post. Last came Prince Tabnit, dressed in pure white save for a collar of precious stones from

of words of cheer. That no message from his Majesty, the King, has come to us is known to you all, with mourning. But the gods-to whom 'here' is the same as 'there'-will permit the possible, and they have permitted to us the presence of the daughter of our sovereign, by the g

th of assent was in the room, more

any. Therefore, in accordance with the custom of our predecessors for two thousand years," lightly pursued the prince, "we have named this day as the day of our betrothal. Moreover, t

Of course they were to be considered. Why should he fear that, because Olivia was in Yaque, the mere mention of a betrothal referred to Olivia? He was bold enough to smile at his fears

ullness of life; and the wonder was not their beauty more than a kind of dryad delicacy of that beauty, which was yet not frailty but a look of angelic strength. But they were not remote-they were gloriously human, almost, one would say, divinely human, all gentle movement and warmth and tender breath. They were not remote, save as one's own soul would be remote by its very excess of intimacy with life, Little mai

rled round St. George, and then closed in about him and grew dark. For this was the woman advancing to her betrothal; from th

re sandaled and a veil of indescribable thinness was wound about her abundant hair and fell across her face, but the gold of her hair escaped the veil and rippled along her gown. Carven chains and n

land and the rescue of the island princess, and a possible home-going on his yacht to a home about which he had even dared to dream, too. But it had not once occurred to him to forecast such a contingency as this, or, later, so to explain to himself Prince Tabnit's change of purpose in permitting her recognition as Princess of Yaque-indeed, if what Jarvo and Akko had told him in New York were accurate, i

ard him, murmu

aid, "is she th

nd," answered St.

rincess," said Am

le figure in rose and silver-very tiny, ve

d him, as one would say, "

ely no great harm could come to them so long as the sea and the mystery of the island no longer lay between them. Did she know of his presence? Although he and Amory were seated so near the throne, they were at one side, and her clear, pure profile was turned toward them. And Olivia did not lift her eyes throughout the prime minister's long address, of which St. George and Amory, so lapped we

earer. And through it all he said to himself that all would be well if only she understood, if only she had the supreme self-consciousness to play the game. After all he knew her so little. He was certain of her exquisite, playful fancy, but had she imagination? Would she see the value of the moment and watch herself moving through it? Or would she live it with that feminine, unhumourous se

t sympathy for St. George, but the sight was more than journa

spite of himself. "Why, St. George,

explained, with brutal directn

fever of importance still upon him, once more faced the audie

ill be solemnized, according to the immemorial tradition of the island last observed six hundred and eighty-four years ago by Queen Pentellaria, the marriage of Olivia of Yaque, to his Highness, Prince Tabnit, head of the House of the Litany, and

a vague commotion from the vicinity of Mrs. Medora Hastings. Then he saw the prince rise and turn to Olivia, and extend his hand to conduct her from the hall. The great banquet room beyond the colonna

ide of the great glittering throne, looking up at him with something like the faintest conceivable smile which, while one saw, b

please, your Highnes

t delicate roguery that had held him captive when he had breakfasted with her-several hundred years before, was it?-at the Boris. Ah, he need not have feared for her, he told himself exultantly. For this was Olivia-of America-standing in a company of the women who seemed like the women of whom men dream, and whose presence, save in gl

ee thousand years of Yaque's history a woman had raised her voice from that throne upon a like occasion. And such a tender, beguiling, cajoling

ry, his eyes shining

abnit he

de a charming gesture of dissent, and all the jewels in her hair a

our Highness. I wish to speak

alue, yet it fell from her l

, your Highness, that I will