Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 89: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A CROWN I knew, although Bunch did not say so, that Laline was the real danger in her eyes as well as mine. King Peter sent a note after luncheon to ask if he might call in the afternoon. I had not seen him as Elizabeth Cleve- land since we had had that ugly scene. I felt frightfully nervous, but I was quite determined to control myself. Hadn’t he ¢4old Betty Fane that I might be made of wood? Well, I’d be wooden enough to suit his description. I put on a white lace frock and a large hat with a floating veil. Just before the king was due to arrive, the taxi driver from Nice turned up, his head a mass of bandages. I paid him his fare and gave him a handsome present and bundled him off as soon as possible. I thought the butler looked at him rather suspiciously. I was terrified lest through some freak of Fate the king should arrive and question the man in his unconventional way. This flustered me so that I was shaking with nervousness when the king did arrive. It was another danger that that taxi driver knew where I lived, and could, of course, easily find out who I was. I had already learned that, although virtue and charity and even genius might, money could never be hidden under a bushel. I saw at once that King Peter was in a mood I had never encountered before. He looked solemn and his voice was stiff. His manner I could only describe as being em- barrassed. If I could disguise myself so that he didn’t know me by putting on a wig and speaking another language, he cer- tainly could do it without any adjuncts at all. It was impossible to believe that this was the mad, merry boy, the sad, ardent lover of last night. It came to me with a pang of sheer agony that he had played the lover to so many women that he was quite perfect in the part. We conversed as usual, in French. After one or two very perfunctory conversations in English, he had evidently come to the conclusion that French was more suitable te our stilted and formal intercourse. “I am sorry to say that I shall have to leave for Florania on Sunday,” he began. FOR SALE. 719 “There are matters that need my attention, and also the spring maneuvers will shortly commence. [I shall not be able to return to England until the end of April.” I expressed suitable regret. We were in the garden, sitting in chairs by one of the ponds that was surrounded by a broad band of scarlet salvias, almost painful in their violent red under the deep blue sky. Bunch had come out for a few moments and gone away again, saying she would return with the tea. The king talked of the weather and his luck at the tables, and then, very hurriedly, said in a voice almost hostile with awkward- ness: ‘“‘T have heard from my men of business. You have been much too generous to me. These settlements are far in excess of any- thing I could have expected.” ‘* Please,” I interposed, ‘‘ I would so much rather we didn’t talk about it.” “TI know,” he said. ‘‘ But I can’t help it. My position is—difficult.” “As difficult as mine,” I put in calmly. It was hard to keep calm—a gigantic effort. His voice of last night rang in my ears— “T am selling myself.” He got up and walked up and down, stood by the edge of the pool, lit a cigar- ette, and came back to me. “Do you repent of your bargain?” he asked. “I behaved abominably ise day before yesterday. I asx your forgiveness. It was unpardonable. If you want to call it off, there is still time. It can be done. I—TI realize how little you gain, how much you give. I could never live a life that would please you. We should be two figureheads—that’s all, forced into intimacy despite ourselves, because it would be ex- pected of us, because it would be our duty. No one realizes it more than I do.” “You mean,” I said slowly, “ that you would always claim the right to live your own life?” “Tt would have to.” And?” “Ah!” He shrugged his shoulders. I laughed. “That would be another story.” He looked at me with immense gravity. “TI do not want you to marry me under GOMmiGsdookszco